As a professional magician there are lots of things that I consider important when performing – and unfortunately not all magicians (even some semi-professional, and even full time professional magicians) rate these as highly as I do.
The Magic Tricks I Perform
Of course the most obvious thing to focus on is the tricks themselves. A lot of hard work and practice goes into performing the sleight-of-hand (and other techniques) to make the impossible possible. Behind the scenes (or more correctly under the cards I’m holding) my fingers are doing somersaults whilst from above it looks like nothing is happening. All whilst making conversation, telling jokes, interacting with wedding guests, avoiding the waiting staff and keeping the audience’s attention whilst a million and one other things are trying to distract their attention.
The Patter and Presentation of the Performance
Then there’s what I’m saying. It’s no point having a great trick with polished sleight-of-hand if it isn’t entertaining or engaging. It’s not to say that I’m working from a written script, but I do definitely have some very strict bullet-points that I work to, but also allows me to go off on tangents, ad-lib, make conversation, and generally be fun and engaging.
You’d be surprised how many magicians seem to skip this part. If I see another magician start by muttering “Let’s try this…” or filling the empty spaces with umms and ahhs then I’ll scream – especially those that do it on television.
The Props I Use When Performing Close-Up Magic
Next there’s the props themselves, and again this is so often overlooked by professional magicians. I start every booking by opening a fresh brand new deck of cards. They are nice and neat, they fan nicely and look nice and clean in photographs. After an hour or two of use cards get a little bent, dog-eared and generally a little grimy from the sticky stuff people get on their fingers from eating canapes before they shuffle the deck.
They may be fine for using at home for a game of Bridge, Snap, or Shithead; but after a few hours of hard work they get worn, loose their stiffness and look a bit grubby around the edges.
And through-out an event people are taking out cards, writing on them, and keeping them as souvenirs; so by the end of the evening I’m not using a full deck anyway. And trying to make full decks from old decks not only takes a lot longer than you’d imagine – they are still grubby!
It’s not just cards, but I use some quite posh (and expensive) covers for the Sharpie pens I use – much better than the grey plastic of a plain Sharpie in photographs, and just feels much better quality when people use them to write, though it’s just a cheap regular Sharpie pen in a posh cover.
I also have things printed that I don’t really need to. This can be from cards for people to write what they are thinking of on, through to the notepad that I write my predictions on. Again, none of this is necessary, but I feel this is better (though considerably more expensive) than the notepads I used to pick up from Asda!
How I Present Myself
It’s easy to just look at how the magic is presented, but just as important is how I present myself. As a general rule of thumb I try to be one-notch smarter than the majority of the guests. For example, at an informal family party I’ll wear a suit with a light-blue shirt, but without a tie, and for a wedding I’ll be wearing a black-suit, white shirt and formal tie – tied in a full-Windsor knot. (The waistcoat option can be decided by the weather!)
For formal evening events I have a proper dinner-jacket – and I tie the bow-tie myself.
Shirts are always ironed, suits are always cleaned, and shoes are always polished.
There’s the occasional exception to these self-imposed dress-code rules, but they are rare and normally pre-agreed (like the time I wore an Hawaiian shirt which I bought especially for that event).
I realise that people will be looking at my hands quite a bit as I handle props so I try to keep my nail short, filed, and even give a bit of a buff so they look nice and neat. I’m not wanting people to notice my nails, but I don’t want dirty bitten nails because that’s something people will notice.
Oh, and I recently heard of a magician who was a little warm (well, the phrase the client used was “sweaty”…) and unfortunately wearing suits, shirts and ties in the hot summer sunshine, or even a function room in winter with the heating cranked up; body temperature rises. Personally I keep a handkerchief in my pocket to dab my brow, and use a good quality aftershave to hopefully cover any potential smells from slightly damp underarms! 😉
As well as showering and cleaning my teeth before leaving the house (again, this should go without saying) I have those little mini flossing things to make sure I don’t have anything stuck between my teeth, and also have some breath freshener spray.
At a typical event there’s already enough things going on that could distract from the magic I’m performing – and personal hygiene should definitely not be one of them!
