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Beard's torn corner £10 note trick shines out as a gobbet of pure filth. Other than that I remember seeing Joel Givens do his ninja coin routine on Reel Magic and at that point I'd never heard of him. Having seen the routine I immediately turned to my magic buddy and said "I bet he doesn't perform in real life," to which my mate nodded and pursed his lips.

Shortly afterwards I found out that Joel is a pretty successful full time pro, and Joshua Jay can't speak highly enough of him. Apart from that most pros that I've met have been very good, often better than I expected and much more impressive in real life than on film.

I see that the impertinent young female from Yorkshire is banging her gums together again and not showing proper respect to her elders.

Madam. I do indeed belong to a special category where these matters are concerned and my opinion must therefore be the only one that is of any value whatsoever.

I have no idea what your opinion of my svengali routine is but I shall put it this way. If your opinion is negative then it is of no value whatsoever and if it is positive then you are only stating the obvious.

As for your hands shaking there is an old saying that if you lay an egg you should stand back and admire it. Tell your audience that you are a nervous wreck and your hands shake because you are in great fear and trembling. The daft thing is that as soon as you say this your hands will probably stop shaking and you will look a right twit for having said it in the first place.

I would suggest that your first trick should be Poker Player's Picnic in the Royal Road to Card Magic. The trick take place in the spectator's hands so nobody will be looking at yours. Therefore you can shake as much as you like. However the trick is so powerful and the reaction so strong that the audience will freak out so much that your confidence will return and you will be able to proceed normally.

Now you know why my opinions are in a special category.

i can't remember where i read this, but i worked for me...

before you start performing, go off somewhere and shake your arms as much as you can, wobble, flap and shake 'em til you can't stands no more...

a) you'll get a little buzz
b) your hands will be shake-less

to be fair though, less experienced magicians (such as myself) could do with shutting up and listening to criticism of those whove been there, done it and got the t-shirt. one of the best ways to learn what needs attention(as a large number of drumming students have found out thanks to my good self ).

queen of clubs: ill wager your hands shake as whether you like to knowledge it or not youre anxious, and in the back of your mind the doubts creep in.

dimabbq: i agree. alot of magicians (usually in that 90%) do criticise purely the technical aspect. seeing as to them the effect is the be all and end of magic without learning the art of performance. it shouldnt matter how the desired effect is created. or sometimes even the effect, it really is all about presentation. ive seen lots of tricks for sale with very powerful endings, but to me thats all alot of them can be. theres nothing in them for the style of performance i give, and id just end up doing the trick at someone than to them. better for the specs to really enjoy a good trick with great performance potential than some amazing ending when youve already bored them to death half way through

joel

Far and away the worst card magician I have ever seen live was Ricky Jay ... not

bronz wrote:Beard's torn corner £10 note trick shines out as a gobbet of pure filth.

I dunno...it worked didn't it?

A few years ago I was performing a close-up bizarre routine. It was the first (and last) time I had performed this routine in public and it was before an intimate gathering of 12 people. The finale of the routine was a stigmata effect where blood comes from my palms.

Unfortunately as I was preparing myself and waiting for the guests to enter the room, the vial of fake blood (actually red food colouring) opened and my palms were covered in red dye.

I was forced to drop the finale, and had to perform the rest of the routine consciously trying to keep my palms hidden. Not an easy job, and of course everyone noticed that my palms were bright red anyway.

Plus it took about a week to wash the blooming stuff off my hands.

I was so heartbroken afterwards that I promised myself "no silly mistakes ever again!" But of course, sometimes sh*t happens.

Indeed it does!

And Queen of Clubs, you're not alone - adrenaline gets the best of my hands too. It's a b*tch. That's why despite all the fancy sleight work I practice, when it comes to my favourite spec routines they're ones that I know aren't going to go to pot just because my hands aren't totally steady.


Worst performance I've seen - well, it's hard to say. I've seen young teenagers start out, over keen and unwilling to listen, and they've been cack. But it's not exactly fair to compare them to some seasoned card man, is it?


But the worst overall has definitely been my own. First gig, charity event - opened with holy moly which I fumbled because my hands were so sweaty and the polite response suggested I'd given it away. Tried to go into anniversary waltz but realised as I was getting them to select a card I was set up wrong for it, so instead of going into something else I panicked, apologised and put the cards away, pulling out some rope for a professor's nightmare trick which - you guessed it - I fluffed.

I chatted to the couple in question for a few minutes afterwards so they were pretty friendly and forgiving, and before they left I apologised for my total balls-up and showed them one last coin trick which they genuinely did enjoy, but still - terrible.

The silver lining was I performed perfectly for the rest of the night because I thought "it can't get any worse"! What had thrown me off to start with was that I'd arranged with the organiser that I would do the evening (it was a meal/barn dance thing) for free as it was my first "gig" and for charity. So I strutted in there, looking cool in my black jacket, my pocket stuffed with wonders to show people who would all of course assume I was a magician in at least some semi-professional if not professional capacity... only to hear the organisor announce over the PA,

"and we've got Tom to entertain us this evening, he's magician. Well, he's practicing to be a magician." (or words to that effect)

Thanks a ******* lot Hardly a confidence booster as a I walk to my first table...!

aside from my own shambolic attempt at an old Supreme Water-Lu trick recently, which I managed to tip all over the floor of my paying host's living room during her little darling's 4th birthday (shudder), I would have to say that I had the pleasure of David Roth performing some magic for me personally in Fantasma Magic in NY last year. Now, he did a fantastic cups and balls routine, as well as some great card & coin magic, but I was interested in purchasing NFW from the store, and asked him to show me it.

He fluffed it pretty badly (from my point of view, my wife was utterly dumbfounded). But lets face it, David Roth doing a dealer demonstration badly (from a magician's point of view who knew what to look for) is FAR removed from some of the iMagicians on youtube, bless their little cotton socks, who couldn't fool anyone if they tried. That boy doing the spinning card thing (shudders again).

I've never considered myself in that 90% even though I can make a mistake from time to time, I just don't let my audience know I messed up. I have some outs to cover my with and my confidence level is always high. Being able to look at what others are doing and construtively critique them can only help you to see that the way they are doing it is not the way you should be doing it. If it wasn't for that kind of critiquing from another, I would not have learned about being rigid in my thinking. Being rigid in ones thinking prevents creative thinking. Nothing is written in stone. There are many ways to do DLs., Elmsleys, pass, palm and etc. I respect and value anothers opinion and I hope that my opinion would be of value as well.
Cheers
Al