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Ok so i used to be a really shy person when i was younger. Most of my life i was quite shy and although i was good at making friends after the initial meeting i would still be nervous around new people, let alone talking to them.

I overcame this and am now perfectly comfortable talking to anyone i have never met before regardless of the situation.

Since i started magic a little over three months ago, i have worked incredibly hard at it so that i could get to a level worthy of performance.

I have performed to family and relatives, even ones i havent met before, and a couple of close friends. These performance went well and i was pleased with them, although i still had a tonne of stuff to touch up.

Anyway, tonight i was at work and had promised a mate there who works as the store security guard, that i would bring my cards in to show him some tricks and flourishes i had learned.

I thought this would be a great chance to kickstart myself into performing out of my home or in a crowded place, and sat down in our staff cafe to perform to him. Another one of my friends who works stacking shelves was also there so i said that i would show him too.

Now this is where it went pearshaped. I am usually fine around these two guys and am good mates with both of them, i mean i spend 4 hours 5 days a week talking to them. My flourishes went fine, although a little rough because i had sweaty hands from working. When i attempted to show them a couple of small tricks involving false shuffles they failed horribly and i blamed it on my hands being sticky. I then embarked upon performing a more ambitious card trick involving a monte and some complicated bits, which i can do really well at home or to my family. Yet although i pulled the trick off, my sleights were poor, i flashed cards a tonne of times and i got hung up on parts of it that i usually perform the best.

I couldnt believe, and i blamed it on the truth, that i was nervous because i hadnt performed that much. Which is true of course, i was nervous and im sure everyone is on their first 'real world' performance. But what really pi**ed me off was that i am fine around these guys yet i couldnt pull of a simple card trick. My hands were even visibly shaking and i dont have a clue how i lost my nerve so easily.

Now i know for a fact that the more i perform the easier it will become, but i was wondering if any of you could provide me with guidance or advice or even personal experiences that will help me to improve my confidence when performing.

Cheers for any help.

Hi Sk8r St3v3,

I am a bit older than you and have been playing with magic a lot longer, but feel exactly the same way you described.

Funnily enough, someone with many years experience in the business told me something at the weekend that's given me much hope and encouragement. It was simply this, and I'm paraphrasing:

Forget about performing to those people you know because they are the hardest audience to please. It is FAR easier to perform, and well, in front of and for strangers.

It helped me with some perspective anyway

Take heart that you're still very young and have lots of time to find your feet. That applies with anything in life at your age really. Take it from an old fart like me. Don't rush things.

All the best,
Wishmaster

Thanks for that!

I will definitely take that advice and remember it. I guess because we know people for so long, we try harder to make sure we do not faulter in our performance and therefore overload ourselves. Either way, i think that will help me to remember that no matter what happens, at least i am doing my best to perform.

Cheers!

there's very few things in life that go wrong which also end in your own (or others) death...

everyone messes up, everyone is wrong sometimes...don't worry about it...

in fact, mess up - laugh about it, safe in the knowledge that no one has died, and more importantly won't remember it in under a week's time...unless you're doing some kind of drunken dynamite juggling act...

I remember it took forever for the nerves to completely go away. And a lot of messing up on the way

It's just adrenaline kicking in, eventually you'll get used to performing for people who aren't your family/close friends and you'll start to get into your stride

Do you use much interaction in your performance?

If they are just 'watching you' perform then it can become stressful at times. I found the best way is to perform magic with a small audience (and not at them) and get them involved as much as possible. Turn the performance into a nice conversation that includes some magic. Then if the magic goes wrong, at least your having a nice conversation.

Under promise and over deliver.

Magic is like sex, never make an appointment for it unless you're getting paid. If your goal was to break out of your shell the next day by performing a couple of tricks then you need to tell yourself, "Tomorrow, when time allows, I will routine together X, Y and Z tricks for the performance. The order will be _____. My patter will be ______. " The next day you bring in your deck of cards and present your desire to perform for them as if it just occurred to you- completely impromptu.

By doing this you accomplish two things:
1.) You don't disappoint your specs by under delivery to the expectations that they may have created in anticipation.
2.) You have an automatic out should you not feel up to performing that day for any number of reasons. You simply cancel an appointment with them that they never knew they had.

Robb and Discombulator, both ideas are great and have inspired me to alter my performance accordingly.

I really like the idea of not setting yourself up for something that you may not fulfill, as i did the complete opposite and i guess thats partly the reason i didnt entertain my spectators.

Cheers!

I should try some self working card tricks that cannot possibly go wrong. Some of the greatest card tricks in existence use no sleight of hand whatsoever. Once you have your audiences gasping with great delight with the self workers you may feel more self confident and be brave enough to do the more difficult stuff without getting nervous.

You can't be nervous and do sleight of hand. Nobody can. Do the easy stuff until you acquire confidence.

Wishmaster wrote:Hi Sk8r St3v3,

Forget about performing to those people you know because they are the hardest audience to please. It is FAR easier to perform, and well, in front of and for strangers.

I found I came on a lot when I started performing to strangers. Mark Lewis I think has got it spot on. I'd reconmend Scarne on card tricks for self-workers.

Wishmaster took the words out of my mouth. Because you know them you were DESPERATE to succeed and so your focus was shifted from your performance and patter, to trying to not dissapoint them.

I cant stress enough that what you say while you are performing is so very important! If your sleights are not going so well you can take their attention away from that with the patter.

Ive had a few times where ive messed something up so ill just up the ante in the patter and gesticulate alot and set the move up again. they wont notice as they had no idea what your intentions were in the first place

I know it can be hard to have good banter while also trying to remember the moves of the trick but i would suggest learning the trick so well that you dont need to think about it, that leaves you free to enguage with the audience and make them smile, give them that little extra. If they are having fun they are much more likely to forget that you made a few things look a little messy!

As others have said on here, perform to people you dont know but always have it in mind that one day you will be good enough to perform for your mates and blow their socks off! From previouse experience, you will know that once you can do that, you will have progressed to a better level of performing.

Good luck and keep your chin up, dont let it get you down and remember that Tommy Cooper made his name by bumbling through his set. (you should check youtube for footage)

All the best,

Alec

There is some excellent advice on the thread...
Some personal notes,
First of all, when trying something out for the first time try not to do it when all the attention is on you in a more 'formal' setting.. by this I mean, the first time you're say going to try and do a top change do it in a setting where everyone is chatting and distracted every 20 seconds and the trick is wedged in the middle of a conversation. In fact, at the moment half of my performing is in this sort of setting thank god, because I didn't perform at all for about a month or so and am just getting back into the swing of things, anyhow... This means that there is none of that 'rabbit in the headlight's feeling' when all eyes are on you and you think 'how the f*ck am i supposed to pull this off without them noticing'. It also means if you mess up, nobody cares. Which is true in all settings, unless of course you care- if you don't care, they don't care.

Then as mark said, when it is in a less informal setting and people are paying attention, in a social context this could be when everyone stops what they're doing to come and see what you're up to, then you do the easy stuff 'cause you know that you can't mess it up with everyone watching. Also, this way gets you used to being in the spotlight so to speak and gets you out of the habit of monotony and turning from human being into tedious bore or conversly an overbearing, obnoxious t***.

The best way to be confident is to simply know everything inside out, back to front and upside down. Practice everything until you could do it whilst trying to fight off bruce lee and chuck norris at the same time, never mind under the intimidating gaze of someone who's opinion you value. Know what you're going to say so there are no blank spots, do 'imaginary' practice performances on imaginiary audiences (In private is prefereable) and know exactley what you're going to be doing, the enviroment in which you might be likley to perform. Then, finally, be eager to perform it. However, remember even with every second planned to be flexible, nobody is a robot.. unless they're a robot.. but anyway, the joy of performing is in the sponteneity and the moment, but preparation is essential for primarily for confidence.

This confidence will be felt by your audience, there won't be any arkwardness and they will open up with you and enjoy it with you- there is a vicious cycle in that if you are uncomfortable, you're audience too is very tense and uncomfortable which means you perpetuate the cycle e.t.c. If they are laughing along with you and interacting with you in a freindly atmposphere there is no tension to be nervous about. Which I suppose all is a long way of saying, enjoy it.

Many people I am sure forget to enjoy performing. Performing is pretty much the whole point of this all, so start early in practicing enjoying yourself. As Iain and other's said, don't worry, nobody really cares, You will fail, You will fall flat on your face and expose the method that's all part of it. Enjoy it because it's enevetiable.

Hey guys thought id share this with you seeing as you all contributed to helping me out.

It was my brothers birthday party yesterday and he had 6 of his friends (all 12 or 13) staying overnight = a nightmare for me as no peace whatsoever haha.

Anyway, he really wanted me to show them some magic because i am better than him, i was skeptical at first because of what happened the other day, but then i re-read all of your posts and decided that the only way i would improve was to overcome my nerves.

So i got out a simple transposition trick called Witness that i got from theory11 a while ago, rehearsed it a bit and went downstairs to where they were all watching tv. I did some flourishes to grab their attention and then i did witness, and several DL variations. Long story short - they loved it, i loved it and all because of your advice - so thanks a hell of a lot all of you!

Im really glad it went well as its given me new motivation to start performing as much as i can and i hope i will end up being able to move on to some more advanced stuff.

Cheers!

Well done Keep it up.. And don't let failure get you down, always remember that failure is much more useful and helpful than sucess.
Not that it's bad that you did well, obviously the opposite- well done

Excellent advice so far, and I won't repeat it because there is no point. Except for Mark Lewis's point. Start really simple. Get a svengali deck, possibly an ID. The problem is performing not sleight of hand. The big thing is to perform in front of people, and it doesn't matter what. The spectator doesn't know from difficult moves to gimmicks to anything so why kill yourself by making life hard on yourself? Start small and easy. Tom (Eshly) should do the same.

I once heard George Schindler, (although you may not have heard of him he is a mover and shaker in the magic biz) once said, 'magic is hard to do, especially in front of people' truer words were never said.

I was listening to an interview with Woody Allen and he said he gets so nervous in front of the camera that he always throws up.

You just have to learn to keep going. Use the advice from others on this post. Its all good.