talkmagic.co.uk

umm

I agree. I dont get really nervous but more so excited that the addrenaline (cant spell) starts going.

I do get nervous but I'm not scared of audiences. More determined to get it right and perform well - thats what i get nervous about. I know my tricks / vent scripts well enough to go well, but there is always something ready to go wrong that you are not in control of. (eg - Sound man hasnt a clue is sometimes a true example of this)

I think the way to overcome this is to PRACTISE until your part cannot go wrong. Always meet and discuss with people such as sound people.

Be prepared for when your mic runs out of batteries. (hopefully it wouldnt but be prepared for it)

RELAX before you go on stage. Think only of how you are going to enter the stage and the first few words you will say. The rest should flow.

hmm, i always get nervous in front of my friends or people i show magic often. cause if they catch something, they might figure out a future trick i might learn. but doing it for strangers, (strangly) im not nervous at all.

agreed.
people you know are alot more difficult. I always worry "have i shown them this before" especially if its someone i often show magic too.

However people i dont know i often worry a little "am i being professional enough, are they enjoying this???"

But i dont worry alot about performing. Usually just a little about little things.

I find myself getting a little nervous to people i don't know but people i know i have no problem with. but when i do get nervous it sucks because i talk really fast so no one can understand me

kemo

Yeah I shake quite a bit, but that's usually only if it's a trick I've never done before. Strangely though it is true that when I'm most nervous I'm my best (dispite the shaking!). Once I see that it works though I relax and the next time.

I agree very much with doing a trick you know you can do very well or a self worker first. Once you've gotten a good reaction the next trick is always easier, but don't relax too much!

I don't get nervous anymore lol *touch wood*.

here is one that worked for me, before your gonna perform lean against a wall with your hands as if your going to do a push up, then attempt to move the wall push focusing on the stomach muscles,

somehow it releases a lot of strain and pressure which is obviously the reason for the nervousness

try it and tell me what you think

and please dont have a chewing gum in your mouth what happens if it drops out


Jags

Think about it like this: obviously you don't want to mess up a trick but if you do don't fret over it - you were nervous, you messed up - but at least you PERFORMED and have got one more experience of performing. In time you'll find you don't get as nervous.

Above all, just be absolutely confident in the material you are performing. If you're worried about people catching on to your sleights then try something virtually self-working and then phaze in the sleights, all the time you'll be getting experience in interacting with people.

agreed.

I always try and think that if i worry over a trick...then i dont think properly when performing it and i mess up.

So i stop myself from worrying over it before i ever perform it.

Easier to say than to do but...

Speaking (or performing) in front of a group is considered, by psychologists, as the MOST stressful thing a human can do.

The only advice that can be give is to know your material perfectly, so that you can do it in your sleep and so that you have the confidence that nothing can or will go wrong.

The late Sir Laurence Olivier, considered one of the greatest stage actors of all time, was frequently physically ill before going on stage -- even in a part that he had done hundreds of times before.

It's not what you want to hear but: There probably is no "sure cure" for stage fright or nervousness in front of groups.

Yes i'd agree. There probably is no cure but through experience you live with it and get on with it!

thanks everyone for the advice I am almost getting back to performing and I am going to be stressed alot. Howver, that means I just have to work hard. so thanks everyone for your kind advice I will try some of this and see how it goes.

In the samurai text Hagakure there is an intriguing proposal for subduing nerves before a performance or even a battle.

The suggestion is that you smash a small china object to release the tension, then lick your fingers and rub the back of your earlobes.

You may laugh, but try the earlobe trick now and you will realise that it is an odd feeling, which perhaps distracts you from your nerves.

Smashing the small object does also tend to release the pressure.

All you need is a supply of small china objects or an understanding host!

Yes, practice so you’re utterly confident about your ability to do the trick flawlessly, as everyone has said. Yes, public speaking (and thus, presumably, also performing) is the most common phobia, so nervousness is only to be expected. However, I think there’s something else that I don’t believe has been mentioned yet.

I recall hearing someone say that nerves with magicians are partly due to ‘guilt’ - it’s because you know you’re lying to people; so, in effect, it induces all the things that a polygraph picks up to detect lies: increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, shaking, etc. When I heard this, I immediately thought, ‘Ahh! What a complete load of rubbish.’ Never mind that it appeared to be so entirely speculative and unlikely an explanation as to be almost Freudian, the fact was that I never considered myself as ‘lying’ when I was doing a trick - and, if I’m getting away with the ‘deception’, I don’t feel guilty: I feel happy and content.

But... well... over time, I’ve come to believe there’s something in the Lying Theory. I’ll tell you the whys.

Though I’m not personally extrovert and gregarious - quite the opposite - my Real Life job requires me, not infrequently, to talk in front audiences or do things (most often live) on radio or TV. I am never remotely nervous about this. (For info, ‘introvert’, in its scientific sense rather than as most people use it, is not the same a ‘painfully shy’ - it’s not uncommon for an introvert to be much more comfortable giving a presentation to 200 people than most people are, but far less comfortable trying to make small talk with three people at a party). But I do often get nervous as hell when doing tricks. So, other than the ‘lying’ aspect, what’s the difference between the two performances - certainly not that I’ve practiced my Real Life stuff; mostly I’m in situations where I have to ad lib.

Is it fear of messing up? Well, maybe partly. But:
(1) After looking unflinchingly into the most hidden recesses of my soul, I really, truly still believe that even my deepest subconscious would prefer to do something stupid during the card trick I’m showing to a couple of vaguely-interested mates rather than do something stupid in front of four million viewers.
(2) The difficulty of the trick (i.e. the likelihood that’ll I’ll do something wrong) hardly seems to matter. I can start shaking during self-working things.

What’s equally interesting is the times when I’m not nervous. Take just a few days ago. I did a trick that was my version of (if you care) Gag Sandwich. This isn’t technically demanding at all - I need to catch a break on a returned card, do a pass, do a shuffle control, and do that sandwich revelation at the end. Not Lennart Green, but definitely not self-working: there are several places where I could do it wrong, or get caught. Also, I’d never performed it before - and, though I’d practiced, I hadn't done so all that much. Yet, I wasn't at all nervous when I did it. The only thing I can identify is that my version of this trick - unlike the original’s bing-bang presentation - goes on for ages, and I’ve given it a Cluedo/murder mystery plot, and it’s (vaguely) more spooky than funny, and there’s playing card trivia woven into the - ahem - narrative. Put another way: the vast bulk of my attention isn’t on doing the mechanics of the trick (the ‘lying’), it’s on telling the story.

What’s more, let me tell you what often gives me the shakes: the thought that the specs will already know the method of a trick I’m going to do. What’s fearsome about that? Disappointing, maybe, but fearsome? It’s not my ‘fault’ - they won’t really be catching me out, or laughing at my clumsy sleight; I won’t berate myself for my bad technique. It’s understandable only in terms of, ‘They’ll know - right off and whatever I do - exactly how I’m lying to them.’ It’s the hot guilt you have while replying, ‘No. I did not,’ when your mother’s asked you if it was you who shaved the cat - and she knows you shaved the cat, and you know she knows.


Extrapolating, could it be that lots of practice (and, even more so, lots of performances) with a particular trick doesn’t lead to less nervousness merely because one is more confident with one’s ability to do it? Could the oft cited, ‘Do it until you can do it with thinking,’ advice work against the shakes not exactly because it means you'll have it totally down pat? If you’re doing a trick ‘without thinking about it’, and have performed it so many times that it happens almost on auto-pilot, what’s happening is that it’s become so natural and instinctive that you’re hardly aware that you’re lying anymore. You’re probably consumed with connecting with the specs and creating an atmosphere, while your hands false shuffle on their own without telling you. You don’t ‘know’ you are lying. Your 'lying' is the real cause of your nerves, but practising and telling a particular lie over and over turns you into a polygraph-beating pathological liar.

That went on a bit, I'm afraid, but I think it’s an important angle that didn’t appear to have been mentioned yet in this thread. As for it helping, maybe it doesn’t at all, but maybe it suggests that it’s a good idea to really, really think about/work on/give your focus to your plots. Have them eclipse the method entirely. Which, from the spec’s point of view, is what we want anyway, right?