talkmagic.co.uk

I've got this annoying habit I need to break myself of, and despite my best efforts, I can't seem to do it.

It's common knowledge that we all have tells that betray our inner thoughts. NLP, scientists--they've all got their crazy ideas about universal tells, but I can't bring myself to buy into the hype.

I can lie like a dog--that's not something I pride myself in, but it's a truth and an ability that has come in handy more than once in my college and semi-professional careers. When I'm performing, however, I can't help but touch my face or look away every time I do something sneaky... ish. I can Bullsh*t explanations all day long, and I do have a certain affinity to offer a 100% bold-faced lie as an explanation only to misdirect from the real method. I'm wondering, though, how to stop from touching my face or looking away from the action every time I perform a sleight.

Cellini once told a fellow magician to never perform in a mirror because you'll condition yourself to close your eyes every time you perform a sleight in order to not see it: a lesson that was later passed down to me. I rarely perform for a mirror or video camera, but I still can't bust the habit.

Has anyone had similar experiences? It's bugging me to no end and, though I'm not sure of the effect it has on my audience, it's still enough to prompt me to share.

Ciao,
Rob

I had a blindfold card routine. It's just the way it sounds. I'm not sure if not seeing anything will help, but who knows, it might! The actual routine didn't involve many, if any, sleights, but I still practiced sleights blindfolded. Be prepared to have a few reversed cards in the deck if you do this, though...

Look up cognitive therapy or cognitive behaviour therapy. Basically, you just head the urge off at the pass and divert it into something else that doesn't matter, like a thought or a feeling of beating it.

RobLaughter wrote:I
Cellini once told a fellow magician to never perform in a mirror because you'll condition yourself to close your eyes every time you perform a sleight in order to not see it: a lesson that was later passed down to me. I rarely perform for a mirror or video camera, but I still can't bust the habit.

The mirror has nothing to do with it. It's just the same looking directly at your hands, the mirror adds nothing. So DO practice in front of a mirror.
Not sure how to break it. I used to blink when performing a slight, but it just sort of wore off, as I definitely needed to see what I was doing.

You may want to analyze why you do these tells. It may be because you feel uncomfortable with the sleights you are performing or that you're nervous about getting away with them on some level? Perhaps you felt like that when doing magic in your formative years and now they are ingrained in those gestures associated with your performance.

At least you know about them; that's the first step in getting rid of them.

I used to have this thing where I couldn't stand still when doing magic and it was undermining what I was doing. A magician friend pointed this out and told me that a solid stance made you look more professional and he was right.

Perhaps worrying about them is exacerbating the problem. You're probably being hyper critical of yourself anyway.

Good luck.

The way I break my habits is to practice in front of a mirror. That way when I see myself doing a tell, I go back to that part of the trick and do it again until I am able to force myself not to show the tell. Then I do that over and over until the tell is pretty much gone.

I'd suggest that a tell of this type might actually be pretty difficult to resolve.

In some senses, practising in front of the mirror for some time, before you've even noticed the tell's occurring will have exaccerbated the situation, as 'muscle-memory' will have kicked in, and you'll find the same twitches, nods, blinks and body-movements occurring at the same time, every time you run through the effect.

Doesn't help very much, I'm afraid - I suspect lots of careful practise is in order

Incidentally, I'm also seriously guilty of the whole closing my eyes, when performing a sleight thing; mainly noticable when I'm practising my classic pass

Have someone who knows your routines remotely electrocute your testicles every time you do it.

Something i found myself doing was, every time executed a pass.. I couldnt help but sniff!! I still do it now and again.. I dont know why but I cant not sniff when doing a pass

I tried to cure this by wearing a peg on my nose, but that only worked in practice!! I did try performing with a peg on my nose once, but there was too little focus on the magic when doing this. However, no one noticed me doing a pass

robstanley1 wrote:Incidentally, I'm also seriously guilty of the whole closing my eyes, when performing a sleight thing; mainly noticable when I'm practising my classic pass

I do this too!!

Doesnt this make practice REALLY difficult when you cant see what you are doing!!??!!

Yeah - but on the positive side, I never see anything flashing when I pass, so I'm sure I've got it down perfectly now

Yup!! According to me.. my sleights are perfect!! If I cant see anything.. my specs certainly wont!!

I truly believe that if you make a concious effort while practicing to overcome your tells, you will be able to rid yourself of them. If you put enough work into this (almost as much as the magic itself) you should find that you can stop the tells. I've done this and I've found it works marvelously.

A couple things on this, and maybe even a cure!

First of all, a mirror is essential. It is not the end-all-and-be-all, but it is a good start. Video can reveal things a mirror cannot, for the reasons Cellini mentions.

But more to the point!

When you practice your move, make your face, body and voice PART of the move. In other words, when you practice and rehearse, practice the exact thing you will say (or not say) when making the move. Practice where you will look when making the move. Always try to make a move during the offbeat. Always try to make the move with misdirection.

A move is not just your hands. It is also your body, your expression, your voice and your eyes. If you can not avoid your "tell", you need to practice the thing that will REPLACE your tell. You can't simply stop doing it - like any other deeply ingrained habit. It is far easier to replace it with something. If part of your slight involves your expression and glance, your posture and demeanor, your voice or lack of it, etc, you will get a handle on this fairly quickly. Practice this as PART of the move.

Part of this also has to do with the issue of guilt, which can be a tough one to conquer. But again, coordinated movements with your whole being will take you a long way on this too.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes-

Steve