Tips For Magicians

Your Words Are Just as Important as Your Tricks

Here's one of the best tips for magicians starting out: What you say during your tricks and routines is just as important as the magic tricks themselves.

Of course you are not going to have a magic show without tricks but assuming you have mastered the tricks you want to perform, the next step that takes your act from a collection of tricks and raises it to an entertaining and mystifyng show is the words you say.

By now many of you will stop reading this because all you want is the secret to another magic trick but these tips for magicians are the ones that will make you stand out from others.

The first thing you have to do is script out your tricks. What are you going to say as you perform? Some magicians have acts that are purely set to music. If that's you then ignore this but there are few magicians who have the skill level and stage presence to be able to do an entire act without speaking. The audience will have a hard timing warming to you and getting to know you if you don't speak. Of course it can be done but you need strong acting and theatrical skills to be able to carry it off. So assuming you will probably be speaking to your audience, what can you say?

See how I use some Funny Names and even more Funny Names2 .

First thing is to start small. By that I mean choose your best three magic tricks and use those to make a show. Each of those tricks will need a script, then you will need a way to link those three tricks together using words, then you'll need an introduction for the show and an ending.

None of these have to be very long, but they do need to be done.

Why do I need to write scripts for my magic tricks?

The simple answer for that is if you don't you will have a trick that goes something like this: 'I will now put the cards back in the box ...aah ...and I'll wait a moment ... then ..umm..I'll open the box...' Now come on, you tell me, is that entertaining? You and I both know the answer is no.

Once you have mastered the moves - and that's why Julian's Magician School teaches you EASY tricks so you don't have to spend all your time remembering the moves - if you have a script that you stick to, it serves as a prompt for your actions during the trick. Go and look at The Trick That Makes Sense and you'll see how I marry my words and actions together, how one supports the other. Notice that the script isn't tricky or long, but these are same words I say EVERYTIME I do this trick. After a while you start to feel a rhythm to your words and movements. When this happens you know you are on the right path. Tips for magicians like these are some of the real secrets of magic.

Why do I need to get rid of umms and errs?

Because it makes you look like you don't really know what you are doing, you'll also lose your control over your audience because they get bored by umms and errs. I used to umm and err once but when I realised I was doing it and how bad it made me look, I consciously set out to eliminate all these pauses from my shows. That's all they are, pauses while you try and think of the next move. So the easiest way to get rid of them is to just practise your tricks so you know them by heart. Once you don't have to worry about the mechanics of the trick you can put all that effort into thinking about what you are saying, how you are standing, whether you are smiling. A great magician named Eugene Burger said that 'thinking kills magic.' The audience can see you thinking which breaks the smooth flow of your show.

Isn't this going to be hard to do?

Yes, but nothing comes without effort. If you want to be able to be confident and stand there entertaining people it's not going to happen by sitting back and relaxing. It's going to take some work BUT YOU CAN EASILY DO IT.

Once you have written a script for each of your three tricks then you have to link those three tricks together somehow so they flow smoothly. Let's have a look at how to use segues , another one of the secret tips for magicians.

Tips for magicians.

Plenty more tips for magicians back at Julian's Magician School