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Can anyone help me? I have this problem when i do a trick, my pitter patter sounds as if it is all planned out and tight. Could some help me lossen up my routine. I watched most of e's dvd's, but i don't see anything that fits my style. Im fine talking other times, but i have trouble incoorperating it.

Try this link...

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic11026.php

It has lots of advice and links to other threads

Thanks flash!

No worries...

Learning how to speak properly and actually COMMUNICATE with the audience is frequently more difficult than learning the dang tricks

My suggestion is, if you're still in school get as much debate and speech class as you can including theater/drama. The more you get used to working in front of groups doing anything, the more comfortable and confident you will become. The other thing, if you are no longer in school is to get involved with an improvisational theater group, the local theater and groups that Toast Masters and the Rotary Club... again, the focus is learning to be an effective speaker and these types of groups have low as well as no cost workshops that are tough to beat. Similarly there is the old standby -- the Dale Carnegie schools

The other thing you can do is study other performers... try to get footage of a dozen or so people doing the same bit of shtick and listen to the audience as you watch what they do with their face, body, etc. Of course you are are really brave, you'd study Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Milton Burrel and the UKs own Bennie Hill... all of whom were masters of mime as well as tongue.

Thanks Craig, im going to college in the fall, and i am taking a speaking class. Hopefully it helps with my performance.

polcha2426 wrote: I watched most of e's dvd's, but i don't see anything that fits my style.

I really did have to pick myself off the floor after reading this...

Advice to ANYONE: DO NOT try to learn performance skills from E's DVDs. To really appreciate the different styles of magic performance, try:

Comedy
Bill Malone
Simon Lovell
Paul Daniels

Serious with tongue in cheek
Max Maven
Derren Brown
Lennart Green

Pure Ham
Michael Ammar
David Copperfield
David Blaine
Eugene Burger (I think he's possibly from the two categories above too!)

'they just get on with it'
David Roth
Banachek
Jim Pace

There's a real mix of performance styles I've mentioned above. Some people would agree, and some would disagree.

However, the suggestion isn't to emulate them.

When I lecture to students about design and marketing, my one piece of advice which they all look at me blankly for is:

"Don't learn by emulating what you like. Learn from what you DISLIKE, and the mistakes you observe others have made. Do not emulate, but interpret. By discovering and learning what you DON'T like about other people's work, you are one step further down the road to becoming a designer, and a step further away from simply copying or adapting what you see and like. Now—you're not just 'another', you're a thinker, an innovator, a creator. And let this new found creativity flow from inside, picking up pieces of your personality on the way to create truly individual, fresh and inspiring work."

(that's an exerpt from my lecture notes)

Thanks siege, i'll have to check those out. Any clue where i might find some of their performances?