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I have visibly pulled a card through a window, spit out there original card with there signature and alot of affects with mostly cards and sometimes coins, BUT after people have seen this, its become really hard to amaze people. How would I amaze people after they know I can do this, so they expect so much more? Matt

Just wait to show people those things. Build up what you're doing then just do all that crazy stuff.
Or just don't do all that crazy stuff, but that seems like the lesser option.

Don't be afraid to simply be entertaining. In other words, not every mystery has to be utterly stunning. At the same time, though, always be working on a new stunner!

I think some of the pop magic shows on TV leave a bit of the wrong impression. The simplest things can entertain your audience. It doesn't always have to be something that makes their head explode. Just because a card doesn't reappear in an impossible place, there are still a million great card tricks. There are endless effects you can perform with borrowed objects. Just a nice coin vanish and appearance can be stunning.

Folks want entertainment. It doesn't always have to be an explosion.

Good advice from Shufton. Another thing you need to bear in mind is that you shouldn't really be performing for the same few people over and over again. You should be out there with a different, fresh audience as regularly as possible.

Follow Henry Houdini's advice. (Yeah, like THAT's his real name!)

Seriously, any act should build to a climax, the climax being the most amazing thing you do. Then STOP! Always -- and I mean always -- leave 'em wanting more.

thanks, this stuff was really helpfull, Matt

Peter Marucci wrote:Follow Henry Houdini's advice. (Yeah, like THAT's his real name!)

Seriously, any act should build to a climax, the climax being the most amazing thing you do. Then STOP! Always -- and I mean always -- leave 'em wanting more.

I've actually more recently wanted to change that name. When I made it I was new to magic history and Houdini was the only person I really knew about. I'd rather it be "HenryGifford" now.
Not to say I'm a famous magician, but that'd be easier.

Hello Magic Matt,

If you're looking for some insightful comments on how to go about enhancing the amazement that your audience might feel then there are some useful pieces (they're not quite essays) at the beginning of Paul Harris' 'Art of Astonishment' series, in which a number of magicians discuss how to prolong spectators' feeling of astonishment.

There are also some fantastic tricks in these books, just in case you don't find the more theoretical bits useful.

From what you said it sounds like you've got no trouble showing people some really exciting effects, so you may want to think more about presentation. Maybe something like 'Magic and Showmanship' (Henning Nelms) could help you in this regard, too.

Best of luck,

Max.

Art of Astonishment is a great set of books. I second that recommendation.

Paul Harris is a brilliant creator but I don't get too excited about him as a performer. I am sure he knows it is not his main strength. That does make anything he says about presentation suspect although I do confess I have not read his musings on the subject.

I think the Henning Nelms book is over rated and I don't like most of the advice in it. I happen to know the author hardly ever performed magic for the public. I really am not overkeen on magic theory by armchair magicians who have never been in the trenches.

When I first started doing magic I DID perform for the same people over and over again. It was wonderful training because I had to be GOOD and it forced me to enlarge my repertoire. I think it is a very good thing indeed at the beginning to work to the same audiences time after time. You will know you are doing well if every time they see you they demand to see a trick because you impressed them in the past.

Matt's presentation is obviously the weak point here. If you present something well your audiences will ALWAYS be amazed and will demand time after time that you show them something new.

Fortunately the answer is simple. Matt should get a book called "Expert Card Technique" but he should ignore for now all the tricks which tend to be hellishly difficult anyway. Instead he should peruse the section on presentation and study it well.

The opening remarks seem to suit him quite well. Here they are:

"Unfortunately, there is no magic road to success unless it be hard work and bitter experience. But you are a magician and you love magic; and, lacking experience, you are floundering about in all directions and you are getting a little discouraged. You present magic, but not very well, and you don't know what is wrong. You tell yourself that what you need is a new trick, something very new and amazing and impossible; but when you get this trick you are just wehre you were before and you decide that what you need is another new trick, also vary amazing and impossible. And you don't know what is wrong.

It is to you that these words are addressed and not to those others who have already learned from experience that which we hope to say here"

And then they go on to say what they wanted to say. Read it, study it and all your problems will be solved.

It really is the best advice on presentation of close up magic I have ever read and I really don't understand why this section of the book is not mentioned more often.

mark lewis wrote:I think it is a very good thing indeed at the beginning to work to the same audiences time after time. You will know you are doing well if every time they see you they demand to see a trick because you impressed them in the past.

I gave the opposite advice, but I'll defer to you, obviously. But why do you say that? I would have thought that performing to the same people over and over would hamper learning, because you'd always have to have something new to show them, regardless of whether you'd spent enough time on the previous effect. You couldn't very well perform the same ACR or sandwich effect for them every day for a week, and preparing something new each time you performed... well, wouldn't that lead to the student moving on too quickly?

Surely the only way to become proficient at a certain effect is to perform it live many, many times - and you can't do that with the same person unless they're very patient and understanding, in which case they'd also not be expecting to be amazed.

I'd say that, at the beginning (which is what he said), Mark's advice is right. Realistically, a new magician is going to have a limited audience, consisting of family, friends and colleagues/fellow students.

I might be wrong, but I'd bet that 90% of magicians started off showing their tricks to one or more of those groups.

Your advice (Queen of Clubs) was right, in the sense that you'll never nail an effect unless you get to try it out with loads of people. It also gives you the chance to astonish lots of people with the same effect. However, it's not alway that easy to find new audiences (I shudder at the thought of randomly accosting people on the street who are minding their own business).

I'd say that it's part of a magician's development (warning: generalisations ahead). At first, you tend to show lots of new stuff to the same few people, but then you get more selective and realise that you need to perfect the tricks more before doing them. Your performance rate may drop, but you'll (I hope) improve as a performer. Then, if you want to take it further, you can start doing gigs, but a lot of very competent magicians have no intention of being even semi-pro. I'd hope that they will at least move beyond the 'trick of the week' stage, but even if they don't it's not the end of the world.

mark lewis wrote:...get a book called "Expert Card Technique"...peruse the section on presentation and study it well...It really is the best advice on presentation of close up magic I have ever read and I really don't understand why this section of the book is not mentioned more often.

I totally agree. The advice on misdirection and presentation is priceless.

In the beginning when you learn your craft it is good to work to the same people but that doesn't stop you working to new people of course.

However once you get up and going with people saying you are wonderful then by all means seek new audiences.

Listen to Louis - he and his sycophants own this site.