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I have been practicing certain card tricks for about 3 weeks now, and I could perform them pretty good without failures..

So yesterday I went to visit my parents.. and I started my perfomance..
But it went horribly wrong, my sleights didnt go good, I mixed up the order of the trick and all kinds of stuff went wrong.. I felt really bad..

I had been spending all this time for 3 weeks.. and I couldnt even perform at all??

later that night.. I had a party at a friends house.. and there were about 20 friends and familymembers..
after a few beers.. for me and for them..
I had the spontanious idea to perform for them..
I didnt just ask for attention.. but I got my deck.. and without talking I did a Ambitious card routine for the guy sitting next to me..
EVERYTHING WENT GOOD!
so he reacted ( WOW )
GUYS!!! check this out.. this is freaky!
so I did the invisible palm trick.. and they got hit hard..
than I did some other tricks and everything went great! I didnt mess up the sleights anymore.. and I got my confidence back..

Anyway, what I learned from this was, that when you perform, you should be totally relaxed.. (and you dont need beer for that at all)
but in this case it opened my eyes..
and now I know to take my time during a trick.. and keep my hands loosely..

Henk wrote:Anyway, what I learned from this was, that when you perform, you should be totally relaxed.. (and you dont need beer for that at all)
but in this case it opened my eyes..
and now I know to take my time during a trick.. and keep my hands loosely..

Yup. Knowing your material in your own mind is only one half of the performance. Experience is a cruel teacher, really; it gives you the exam first, then it gives you the lesson!

Yes, getting that first performance under your belt is the most important thing. It can very strange doing your first real performance, but after that you become used to the idea. I am glad things went well and keep up the good work. Being relaxed is the vital thing, this will help with all movements looking as natural as possible.

Tomo wrote:Experience is a cruel teacher, really; it gives you the exam first, then it gives you the lesson!

What a great line

I agree - that's a realy great line Tomo

I've found that sometime performing to family can be detrimental to your progress as you sometimes take it for granted that you'll be relaxed because of the close relationship. You then lose the edge.

With strangers it's different as even with nerves, you're far more focused and conscious of what you're doing and the need to do it well. You sort of will yourself to succeed.

Even with experience you should still find that you suffer from some nerves.

dat 8962 wrote

I've found that sometime performing to family can be detrimental to your progress as you sometimes take it for granted that you'll be relaxed because of the close relationship. You then lose the edge.

With strangers it's different as even with nerves, you're far more focused and conscious of what you're doing and the need to do it well. You sort of will yourself to succeed.

Even with experience you should still find that you suffer from some nerves

totaly agree, I have always found the patter to be the most difficult thing to practise for a show, and with family you know how to interact so you don't need to be so sharp. As for nerves I used to be a faily useful sidecar racing passenger in my old life. On the sighting lap and waiting on the grid before the race started all I concentrated on was not being sick in my helmet .
Mick doohan (motocycle world champion)used to sometimes cry before racing! but when the lights went green all was forgotten except the race.
I hate waiting for my shows to start, ten trips to the loo ect, but when I start the act I have reached a point of no return and it changes to pure adrenelin, in fact I have to make an effort to slow down or my half our show would last 30 seconds accompanied by a very high squeeky voice
But hey this performance buzz is what we do it for, if only it would occur during my practice sessions I sure would do a lot more practice (anyone know where you buy Buzz in a can)

dat 8962 wrote

I've found that sometime performing to family can be detrimental to your progress as you sometimes take it for granted that you'll be relaxed because of the close relationship. You then lose the edge.

With strangers it's different as even with nerves, you're far more focused and conscious of what you're doing and the need to do it well. You sort of will yourself to succeed.

Even with experience you should still find that you suffer from some nerves

totaly agree, I have always found the patter to be the most difficult thing to practise for a show, and with family you know how to interact so you don't need to be so sharp. As for nerves I used to be a faily useful sidecar racing passenger in my old life. On the sighting lap and waiting on the grid before the race started all I concentrated on was not being sick in my helmet .
Mick doohan (motocycle world champion)used to sometimes cry before racing! but when the lights went green all was forgotten except the race.
I hate waiting for my shows to start, ten trips to the loo ect, but when I start the act I have reached a point of no return and it changes to pure adrenelin, in fact I have to make an effort to slow down or my half our show would last 30 seconds accompanied by a very high squeeky voice
But hey this performance buzz is what we do it for, if only it would occur during my practice sessions I sure would do a lot more practice (anyone know where you buy Buzz in a can)

dat8962 wrote:Even with experience you should still find that you suffer from some nerves.

Yup. My stomach always turns over and I feel a rush of adrenaline just before I launch into the first effect, especially if it's a new one. The thing is, it used to be caused by general fear of performing, now it's pleasure at riding the fear that it might all go wrong. And when it does go well, I feel great.

Now you have that all important first time under your belt it will give you a burst of confidance and after about 3 or 4 performances you wont want to stop its like an addiction but a good one.

well...
after my little performance.. other ppl started arriving.. and they asked me to do it again..
but I said.. You cant just keep repeating magic.. its very rare..
so i didnt do the trick again..
and probably next time when we all get together they'll ask again.. but Ill show em a different trick than

That' the best way. Once is performance, twice is teaching

You'll find that learning the moves patter and routine and practicing them to the point where you can do it without thinking to yourself is only half the way to getting a trick down well.

Actually performing is just as important to hone an effect, maybe more so. When you've done a certain trick 10, 20, 30, 100 times you know how people will generally react to different phases, where the off beats are, what moves need more cover and misdirection, which ones sail past people no matter how you do them, how to deal with bits going wrong or differently to expected, etc. That's when you've got a killer effect that you can use whenever and guarantee results. I'd say that over a year of hard core practice I've got maybe two or three tricks to this level.

Fair enough I haven't yet performed 'properly' for money (and I won't be for a while yet, I got called in to support another magician at a table hopping gig recently and was so nervous that for the three days leading up to it I felt physically sick at the thought of having to do it, luckily it was cancelled at short notice) but I've done loads of stuff for people I didn't know at parties, in the pub and so forth. It's a long hard road but it'll be worth it in the end.

hope you get there!


another problem, which I had today, and a few other times is a certain spectator or more spectators.. who think they figured it out..

i hope someone can share some of their experiences with this..
this is what happened..

I was performing my brand new floating dollar bill trick..
after a lot of patter, I surprised them big time by letting it float all of a sudden.. and making it move all over the place..
I showed through movements.. (putting my hands above, under and around the bill) that there were nog strings
but than 1 spectator, pulled out and grabbed the bill..
as you can imagine, this screwed up the whole routine.. and I was pi**ed out of my mind.. how could he do that!!!?! aargh
I have had the same thing with card tricks..
I put a card on the table, which seems to be a certain card..
but in a sleight, it was swapped with another.. but the spectator is supposed to think its the one card.. and than they reach over saying: let me see that.. and it messes things up..

what I could do:
-I could tell the people not to touch anything.. but that makes it suspisious
- I could take a big distance.. but I want to be close up, to optimize the effect..
how the ** am I supossed to get these annoying spectators to keep their hands at home??

they never do that to proff magicians?? why do they have to touch my stuff!

another day in a dutchmans new magic life

Its probally because your making it look suspicious like your not confident enough, or your saying things like e.g ill put this card down on the table, and your making a big thing about putting the card on the table when all you have to do is put the card on the table and dont say nothing. Its hard to explain but it happens to all of us when were starting out but as you grow with confidance it will all come together. When people start out they usually feel guilty subconsiously about doing a certain sleight so they make it blatently obvious by saying something which you dont need to say anything about. ill try and explain it better. e.g say you pull of a d/L and show them and the card is 3 of diamonds what newcomers tend to do is say look at this card this card is the 3 of diamonds you can see that cant you its definatly the 3 of diamonds. which if you say that the spectators think thats not right he made a big deal about nothing why. What you should say is something like can you remember the top card please. That way it doesnt arouse any suspicion. Hope that helps and you can understand it, its just a bit hard to explain.

yeah I totally understand it!
and your right I make this big deal about the one card
I try it that way, I just thought they wouldn't remember the card if I don't emphazise it.. but I guess spectators arent stupid...
but how the floating dollar bill??
I dont want them to snatch it out of my hands..
I guess its natural that they do that..
they want to be cool, and proof to the rest that they figured that a string is attached..
you have any tricks for that?