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Mick Jagger said during an interview that after all these years of performing on stage. He still gets the shakes. The man has been in the business for decades and he still get's nervous.

Do what you fear to do and get a record of successful experiences behind you. Problem solved.

Another thing. Preparation and rehearsal are very important. If you are utterly prepared so you know your stuff inside out you will reduce all nervousness.

Incidentally if you want to be nervous about something try stage hypnotism for the first time. With a magic trick you have a good chance of making the trick work if you practice enough. Hypnotism for the first time is a very scary proposition since you have no idea what is going to happen. Even now after many years I have no idea what is going to happen during a show.

The key is preparation as I discussed. You have to practice and rehearse the words until you are sick of them. You will lessen your nervousness if you do that. In any case you cannot show the slightest nervousness as a stage hypnotist because if you do the subjects will not go under.

Act brave and you will become brave. That is the key.

Dear all,

Born of much performing experience over the last 30 years, my I offer the following...

1) Adrenaline nerves are good for you. They get, and keep, you edgy. If you have no nerves of this nature, you are possibly too complacent. I've seen some "cocky" performer fail badly because they take the audience for granted. But, if you shake/sweat too much, you need to take relaxation lessons. A balance is desirable. I'm always slightly nervy when I start, but after 5 seconds - I'm okay!

2) I truly think, though, that tremble-nerves are born of the performer being anxious/uncertain about what he/she is doing. If you eliminate the uncertainties, you often eliminate the nerves. E.g., If you worry about a sleight you don't perform that well, you'll be nervy as it approaches during your performance. Answer: practice the sleight until it's perfect. Or, you might be uncertain of your patter, character, approach, dress etc., etc. Answer: work on these aspects harder. In the end, though, you can't beat the experience of "real world" performance. Get out and do it and learn by your mistakes. After a gig/performance, go home and analyse what went well and what didn't go well.

3) Some nerves are born of personal upsets before a gig. I worked on the day both my parents died. (The show must go on.) But, with experience - one overcomes!

There is MUCH more to say on the subject, but the above might help.

Yours,
Paul Gordon

Thanks for all the advice guys!

It has given me a hell of a lot more confidence.

Also, keep in mind that I think some performers get excited before a show and might misinterpret their excitement for nerves.

I suppose I should exert myself to post part of what I wrote on this subject in my most wondrous "Wit and Wisdom" book. It is only part of what I wrote but I have no energy to cut and paste the rest of the pontification. And it refers more to stage performance rather than close up but it may be useful nevertheless. Here you all are:
..........................................................................................................

If you have a tendency to shake then you had better be very careful in your choice of an
opening trick. Under no circumstances should it be a difficult flourish or something using
technical skill. Save it until later in the show when you have sufficiently calmed down.
If you think that you are not going to calm down, then avoid sleight of hand. Shaky hands and
sleight of hand do not go together very well. You will drop things.
You could become a Svengali pitchman. Your hands will never shake again. When you are
doing 30 demonstrations a day for years on end you lose all fear.
Actually, the best cure for nervousness is preparation. If you are thoroughly prepared and
rehearsed, this will have a tendency to calm you down. If you have gone over well in the past
you will expect to do likewise in the present. Do the thing you fear to do and get a record of
successful experiences behind you.
Avoid booze. That is the way to rack and ruin. There have been many wonderful performers
whose careers took a nose-dive because of this.
An insurance salesman once told me that if he had an important meeting and he was nervous,
he said it didn’t matter as long as it didn’t show. He said his heart could be pounding inside,
but he would always act brave and nobody would know.
Feeling follows action. If you act happy, you will tend to become happy. If you act
enthusiastically, you will tend to become enthusiastic. And in this context, if you act bravely,
you will become brave.
Deep breathing helps before going on stage. It calms you down.
One good thing is to try auto suggestion. Go and look in a mirror and say to yourself, “I am
very, very good at what I do. I have done many successful shows in the past (only say this if
you have!) and I will be successful now.” In other words, give yourself a pep talk. Prepare a
list on paper of the good things about your work and look at it just before you go on.

I always get terrible nerves before I perform, I've been sick because of it more than once but when I actually get out there and start performing, I go into a sort of auto pilot and I'm fine. Perhaps you just need to practice a little more. When you practice, practice as if you were performing, speak the patter out loud when you're doing it. I find it really useful to practice to a poster, sounds silly but it gives me a person to perform and makes things feel more realistic.

Aye, I always get the shakes, but the problem is all my tricks require sleight of hand! I found if I go slowly, it helps a bit, and interacting/holding my breath before I do a sleight, it comes out okay, though most recently I did a simple sleight that I think ultimately ruined the trick.

Hence I recently picked up Scarne on Card Tricks...

Thankyou very much for posting that Mark, as well as your comments too Lady and twotoned, they are all helpful and giving me more things to try out.

Hey just thought id send you a message as I could SO relate to that nervous performing. Ive been practising magic for 3-4years now and I know and can do a lot of sleights but 99% of the time im just doing tricks for myself lol which is stupid. im extremely social around people and get on with everyone but as soon as it comes to performing magic that I can do comfortably when im alone its totally different when there are people around. its crazy. I-not only get sweaty hands- but i blush AND my heart starts beating crazy fast etc its seriously crazy. Even if i perform to my gf.

This really put me off even trying for a long time but a couple of things have really "spoken" to me recently so i thought id like to share them with you:
1. I met this other magician the other day and he was a beginner but very comfortable in performing. He told me that basically more than half of the trick is the TALK. So basically what you SAY during the trick.
Now this sounds so so simple but he said that he started not only practising the trick but also speaking while he was doing the trick so that eventually he would know exactly what he would say and when etc. So what you say would become a part of your routine too. This is something I never really practised a lot as i wasnt really excited about talking to myself while im practising however it has helped a lot to just repeat what I say during the trick especially becuase before -while performing a trick- i was like "umm well you know. You put it back in the deck and then umm.." and it just made me look like an idiot.

2. Another quick tip that really REALLY has made the biggest impact in my performance is this. I always, ALWAYS need to start with a confidence booster trick! In other words a trick that is super simple or self-working,maybe even sleight-free. Now I always underestimated the impact it gave me. But basically I could be super nervous and scared the first trick that I do but it wouldnt really matter because the trick just magically takes away most of the nervousness etc. So basically the first trick can set the course for the rest of the performance and make it stress-free. For example im working on a routine that is tailor made for me by me and the first thing that i wanna do is super simple and self working yet effective. So is the second one with a little bit of comedy twist in it (to relax me). Now from there i move to tricks that are more technical and use sleights. I dont know if this is anything helpful to you and you might struggle with different things and you might find different things/tips helpful to you but these two tips have really helped me LOADS! Okay man. Keep it up!
Jan

I don't have much performance experience. But one thing that I've heard for any sort of performance is to forget an obligation to the audience. Especially in cases where they haven't paid to see the the show.

You're giving something to them. It's not a debt that they're entitled to, it's a gift from you to them.

It may not be a nice way to look at things but the thought always calms nerves before I do a trick for someone.

froggymchop wrote:I don't have much performance experience. But one thing that I've heard for any sort of performance is to forget an obligation to the audience. Especially in cases where they haven't paid to see the the show.

You're giving something to them. It's not a debt that they're entitled to, it's a gift from you to them.

It may not be a nice way to look at things but the thought always calms nerves before I do a trick for someone.

I understand what you are saying, but I couldn't disagree more. You are offering a service, you are offering to entertain. The audience is allowing you to entertain them. Your audience comes first. If it calms you down great, but if you are forgetting about your audience in the process then what is the point of you even being there?

Paid or not, you should be giving every ounce when you perform. If not, then step aside and let somebody else perform.

To Janitso. forget about the sleights, if you can do your sleights 99 percent of the time that is wonderful. However the audience wants you to perform magic. Kind of like the guy who can do 100 passes in 30 seconds invisibly. So what? Can he actually do a decent card trick? Probably not. I am glad however that you figured it out. Magic is communication. You have learned the difference between practicing and rehearsing. Practicing is not enough. You must rehearse, clothing, patter the whole show. As you know know, once you get that rapor going with the audience it is like the fog lifts and you can enjoy it just as much as the audience. Congrats, well done.

Paul Gordon wrote:1) Adrenaline nerves are good for you. They get, and keep, you edgy. If you have no nerves of this nature, you are possibly too complacent. I've seen some "cocky" performer fail badly because they take the audience for granted.

Something I keep forgetting. Thanks for the reminder

And don't forget the adrenaline high when things go well

bmat wrote:I understand what you are saying, but I couldn't disagree more. You are offering a service, you are offering to entertain. The audience is allowing you to entertain them. Your audience comes first. If it calms you down great, but if you are forgetting about your audience in the process then what is the point of you even being there?

Paid or not, you should be giving every ounce when you perform. If not, then step aside and let somebody else perform.

I didn't say forget about the audience, but forget about an obligation to them. It removes pressure. The drive is still there to put on the best show you can.

There are some great tips for performing in this thread.

I must admit, I'm exactly like the OP when performing... shaking like a leaf. One thing I've found that helps is knowing your patter as well as you know your sleights. I always used to be the type of person who thought 'I'll be alright- I'll make it up as I go along...'
Not a good idea! Especially as not preparing the patter gives you an extra thing to worry about!

So my two tips are;
Keep on performing and learn your patter inside out.