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i was thinking about this today, ive recently got back into performing magic again and i have to say ive noticed that i shake alot while doing the tricks, even ones i know, well its not so much shakes, mainly twitches and nervous movments i somtimes do, but its been about a week since ive got back into it, and ive only shown my family and my girlfriend so its not so bad, just probably need more mirror time and practice so i can begin to feel comftable again, a good thing to remeber is while your perfroming the tricks is to just try and think your perfroming to yourself in a mirror , and forget about the audience , itl probably take awhile to get used to, but im sure after prcaticing , i can trick myself into beliving there is noone there.

Maybe crossing your eyes so you can't focus can help...

On a side note, I recently had a chance to see a couple of performances by a semi-pro magician who has been doing it for 9 years and boy does he suffer from the shakes!

The difference is that he was still able to go through the whole performance without a hitch. Still the shaking was a distraction... 9 years on and it's still a problem... Sigh.

speaking as a disab myself and aflicted with whats called a benine (spelling, non leathal) tremor which has got worse with age i have found beater blockers realy usefull.

aparently for part time shakers regular exposure to adrenalin rushes, roller coasters, pregnacy scares etc builds up a tolerance and so lessens the shakes.
its still worth mentioniong to the doc though as this benigne tremor thingy is a lot more common than was first thought and is genetic.

magicdiscoman wrote:aparently for part time shakers regular exposure to adrenalin rushes, roller coasters, pregnacy scares etc builds up a tolerance and so lessens the shakes.

Would my suffering from several stress related illnesses be the reason why I don't get shaky hands when performing?
Even brand new tricks that I've just mastered and don't know how it'll be received?

Thank you magicdiscoman... I thought I was weird cos my hands don't shake lol

I wonder if hypnosis would help some shake sufferers - for some people it's obviously controlled by the mind, as it only happens with performance. Though I suspect it's not likely to be much good for people with more biological causes for shakes.

I've seen a couple of things on telly recently with Paul McKenna treating people for phobias and stuff. Has anyone tried this sort of treatment?

Maybe the great Mark Lewis could treat us all by web-forum based suggestion techniques if we asked him nicely

Steverino wrote:I wonder if hypnosis would help some shake sufferers - for some people it's obviously controlled by the mind, as it only happens with performance. Though I suspect it's not likely to be much good for people with more biological causes for shakes.

I've seen a couple of things on telly recently with Paul McKenna treating people for phobias and stuff. Has anyone tried this sort of treatment?

Maybe the great Mark Lewis could treat us all by web-forum based suggestion techniques if we asked him nicely

I'm actually considering digging out my old NLP book and use those techniques to see if they help.

You still having the shakes problem Steverino?

Fraid so. It's getting a bit better overall I think, but it's still really bad sometimes.

hi. havent been on for a while but I have been reading. I have to say it is so refreshing to hear that I am not the only one with shakey hands. I know I am not as talented as all of you are, And I do not have it as hard as you do. Anywho, I shake constantly on stage! Even after the show I shake for a good 5 min.
I have to juggle a bit and this is hard to do with the shakes. The worst part about it is people watch you to see if you will mess up and give away the trick, and instead see my shakey hands. When I notice them looking at me it makes me shake worse. I havent found anything that helps me with this problem, I am comfortable with most my tricks and still I shake.
I have been doing stage magic for 6 years now and it is a problem every show.

Mandy, I'm sorry to hear you're also having problems. If it's been going on for 6 years, it's obviously not something that's going to get better on its own. I have been told by a doctor that beta blockers can be helpful in dealing with shakes . If it really bothers you, it may be an idea to talk to your doctor about whether they are a good option.

(Not sure if they are called the same thing in the states, but this is what they are: http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/27000279/ )

I'm guessing that non-drug treatments like hypnosis might be of benefit, but haven't yet heard any reports of anyone using them for this kind of shaking.

I'm still hoping that mine will go away on its own

one trick, which i still use, is a 2 brass disk trick.

They start out with 1 balck one and 1 white one, you put them in each hand and say look they've changed places! (blatantly turning over your hands)

Do this again and it looks like you're really bad and the shaky hands add to that fact!

After you have done that twice you put the disks together and 1 side goes green, another goes red, another goes blue and the last goes yellow!

Leaving no hint of the black or white, making it look like the shaky hands was part of the act, fully examinable when the effect was done and it gives you time to get over the shaky hands problem!

Cant remember the name of it so try davenports and give my bad explanation, hopefully they'll know what I'm on about!

Good luck

P.S. I still use this trick as an opener when I need a confidence boost!

Sounds like the colour changing poker chips or something similar?

Thanks, I'll bear that one in mind

Hypnosis will indeed help the problem. I would suggest it. I don't like the idea of taking drugs for it.

Keep away from sleight of hand. And do tricks which keep the attention on the spectator rather than yourself. There are tricks which will do this for you such as Poker Players Picnic and Out of This World.

Do tricks which are over quickly say in a matter of seconds. And don't do more than 5 minutes at first until you gain more confidence.

I think possibly some of you need to work in a magic shop or pitch magic somewhere. When you are doing dozens of demos all day you are too busy to be scared.