Turn Your Magic Tricks Into a Polished Show

Do you have a handful of tricks, a desire to perform, and no idea what to do next?  Or like so many of us, can you only perform one disjointed trick after another?  If you answered yes to either one of these questions , you’ll find this post to be particularly useful.

Wisdom from the Masters

Michael Skinner, one of the greatest magicians of the last century, was a first generation Vernon student and a truly gentle soul. He was kind enough to have dinner with me once a week when I lived in Las Vegas.  Mike was a true gentleman. No matter who you were, or where you came from, he was gracious, giving and kind.

If you ever saw him perform – you knew in an instant you were in the presence of a true master. Mike mostly taught by example. Observing your mentors in the field can often teach you more about magic than you can imagine. But I heard Michael give a particular piece of advice to many students over the years – including myself – in order to turn a collection of tricks into a top quality close-up show that can be tailored to any audience or occasion.

I still use the advice I’m about to share with you – and I coach my private online students to do that same.  The advice is simple, and golden:

Bundle Your Tricks in Groups of Three

Michael was famous for having the largest close-up repertoire in the world – literally hundreds of tricks. He found that by collecting his effects in sets of three, he could ensure each performance would always have a clear beginning, middle and end – and consistently build to a satisfying climax in performance.

“So Aaron, does that mean I can only do three tricks at a time?”

Of course not! You can do one set of three tricks followed by another, and another, and another. Don’t get me wrong – it’s always nice to leave the audience wanting more. But when you have a good crowd warmed up, relaxed and ready to go along for a ride, it’s one of a magician’s great joys to be able to deliver the full meal deal: a robust experience that takes the audience as far out of their daily lives as possible.

Grouping your tricks in sets of three helps you in three important ways:

1. You’ll always know what effect comes next.
2. Each effect will build on the last
3. You’ll always have a great closer ready when your spidey senses tell you it’s time to wrap up.

Prepping this way in advance gives you real and deep confidence.

That confidence allows your audience to feel safe and secure because you know how do your job. Then they, in turn, can relax, give themselves fully over to the show.

When your audience can relax with you, because you know what you’re doing, creating a magical experience becomes MUCH easier.

Once you’ve got that down, take it to the next level…

Play Magic Jazz.

Let’s assume you have ten tricks you feel are ready to meet the world – but you’re not sure how to put them together. Great! Follow Michael’s advice and put those tricks into groups of three.

But don’t stop there.

Use your list of tricks to make as many three tricks combinations as you can.

Make sure each group builds to a climax and that each trick transitions nicely into the next. As you go through this process, you may add a few new tricks and/or some variations on tricks you already do to fill out any holes in the sets you’re building.

At this point, each set is merely an idea. The more ideas you have, the more likely you’ll end up with some you really like.

You won’t know which sets play well until you start performing them in front of real people.

When you’re putting these sets together remember: your ambitious card routine may appear first in one set, in the middle of another, and as a closer in a third set. You may end up with 7 three trick sets, and include that ambitious card in many of them.

Once you start performing, you may discover that your ambitious card routine always fits happily in the middle, or that with one or two modifications, it can work great as an opener or a closer too. Much of the time, it will depend on the mix of tricks in a set – and how each effect balances the others to create an effective combination.

You get to know your material intimately and consider it deeply.  Then, as you begin testing the sets in performance, you see what a trick can do for you – as well as its limitations. You’ll also see why some of your tricks fit well together – and why others don’t. The insights you’ll gain from this exercise  will make your magic stronger on every level.

Once you have a bunch of sets, and several tricks that appear in different positions in those sets, things start to get really exciting. You become empowered to choose – in real time – exactly the right amount of show to give to your audience without them ever sensing the slightest calculation on your part.

It’s just like improved jazz music… but with magic, Magic Jazz!

Here’s a scenario to show you how this approach works in the field.

Let’s assume you’re ambitious card is the closer of Set A but the opener of Set B. You’re performing Set A, and as you get into the ambitious card closer, you notice the crowd is warmed up and really with you. You can just feel it in your bones that this situation calls for a bit more magic.

Thanks to your preparation, you can finish your ambitious card and then move into Set B – exactly as if you had just finished the opener of Set B. You’ve got another middle and closer lined up and ready to go.

You can feel secure knowing it all fits together perfectly – like a polished, prepared and perfectly paced show.

Once you have enough three trick sets, and enough tricks that appear in different positions in those sets, you can begin performing epic sets of Magic Jazz. You’ll always know you have an underlying structure to ensure your performance doesn’t devolve into a disconnected display of random tricks.

Now it’s your turn.

Do you perform? If so, how do you group your tricks? Do you find there’s an average attention span your audiences have for your magic? Do you think that’s hard-wired into your venue and gig? Or is it the way you approach your magic that makes the difference.

There are so many different facets of this issue – I’d love to read your perspective!

Misdirection, Pokemon-Go and Augmented Reality

3 Strategic Attention Management Tools Every Magician Should Know

Thanks to the outbreak of Pokemon-Go, the real secrets to astonishing all your audiences are easier to find than ever before.

What do great magicians, master marketers and Pokemon-Go all have in common?

Unbeatable use of Augmented Reality to gain, keep and predict the pattern of their audience’s attention.

(If you haven’t seen this quick video by my buddy, the fantastically funny magician Mark Correia, get ready to laugh!)

Great magicians have always used the strategies Pokemon-Go is using. And they are the same strategies used in every successful sales campaign as well. So, I’m going to spill the beans and let you in on some real magic secrets you can share with anyone… and ones that could start – or save – your career.

Strategy #1: ATTENTION – Once you have it, do not let it go

I was walking around a normally quiet town last night, but all of a sudden something was very different. There were many, many people out walking around… all of them staring intently at their phones without looking up

Their faces kind of reminded me of stunned audience members in the middle of, or just after witnessing an unforgettable, mind-blowing magic routine.

That’s when it hit me: In magic – and Pokemon Go – the secret is to keep your audience’s attention on the action, moment to moment, to create seamless continuity between the world and the magical experience.

And from the moment you decide to download the app, Pokemon-Go does not let your attention wander:

If you have ever witnessed even one display of memorable close-up magic, it’s because you met a magician who knew how to augment your reality, just like Pokemon-Go, without using an electronic device.

Sometimes magicians call this misdirection – but you cannot successfully misdirect someone unless you have first captured and held their attention.

Whether you’re a magician, marketer, or just a human being who wants to communicate well, you can only do it by crafting your message to ensure the audience’s attention is held at every moment.

That’s how Pokemon-Go sucks us into the world of the game, and how magicians make you feel like you never looked away. They never let your attention drift. The moment they do, the illusion is broken.

Strategy #2: Insist on Participation at All Times

Magicians have known at least one Pokemon-Go strategy for centuries. If your audience is participating, they are paying attention.

Great magicians ask their audience to participate at every possible moment. Both by actively doing something – or at the very least by mentally experiencing – the magic tricks. We all know that a trick which takes place in the hand’s of the audience is ten times more powerful than one that does not.

Pokemon-Go is taking the participation requirement to the next level by engaging not only your mind, your eyes and your hands… but also something entirely new.

Your feet.

If you’ve seen or played the game, you know you have to keep moving to keep the party alive.

This level of participation is Strategy #1 on STEROIDS. That’s why it’s working so well. And that’s also why people are falling of cliffs, getting mugged and getting rundown ‘playing in traffic’.Whether you’re a magician, marketer or communicator, don’t wait for the end, or even the middle, to have your audience do something active. To grab their attention, keep it and get your message across, your audience should be doing something active at all times!

Here are a few actions magicians ask their audiences to take that work in every kind of situation:

• Answer a question, even if they only say the answers to themselves
• Write something down
• Picture something vivid in their minds; something powerful and relevant

In all these cases, you’re not just saying information. You’re actively engaging your audience as you perform, speak or sell.

Strategy #3: Anticipate Behaviour to Re-Engage Your Audience

“Will there be blood?” – Alan Moore

After the incident in the park last night, we downloaded the Pokemon-Go app on principle. We spent ten more minutes in the park after downloading because the clever marketers of the game compelled us to…

If you’ve played even once you know why. Strategies #1 and #2 were in effect.

From the very beginning the game does not let you do anything but take action after action after action. It’s several minutes of onboarding before you play a blessed thing!

After we were onboarded, we drove toward our destination. I drove, while my passenger attempted to look for Pokemon to take out via ‘drive-by’ like a character in a 90’s gang movie.

We pulled in, a little disappointed that no creatures were sitting by our pool. I went into the house, did a quick sweep for signs of infestation, closed the app and went back to life.

Hours passed…

I awoke in bed late that night with a strange feeling. I already knew it…

Something was there in the room with me. In my bed. I swear I could hear it breathing….

Like Harold Ramis from the original Ghostbusters, I took out my detector (opened the app), and there they were… Three of them sitting right on my bed.

So I did what any man would do. I defended my home. And this time, the monsters were not as cute as the ones in the park. One had the word ‘rat’ in his name – and I had to hit him 5 times before he went down!

I’m a magician and I have been for 20 years. The moment I woke up, I knew that the masters of illusion at Pokemon-Go would have anticipated my closing of the app after my first successful experience.

And I knew they would do what any magician, marketer or person whose life depends on
communication would do. Knowing my attention would drift, they would have a powerful plan for getting it back.

To communicate in any field, your task is the same. Figure out where you are losing the audience (this will come with just a little experience), then surprise them, re-engage them, and see Strategy #1 and #2.

Pokemon-Go, Magicians and Marketers all create a kind of magic. No matter what you do, you will lose the audience at times. That’s no problem. In fact, it’s part of the game that creates the magic.

Plan to lose the audience. After a short while, you’ll know they’re attention is gone before they do. Then…

SURPRISE THEM.

And they’ll be hooked like never before.

I’d like to write more about this, but, I think I just heard something moving around in my fridge…

…GOT ‘EM! 😉

“Yes, I rather think there will be blood. Lots of blood. Blood in extraordinary quantities.” – Alan Moore