Recently, in my day job, I've been speaking to a lot of stand-up comedians, people who've been making a living out of entertaining audiences for years. In their trade, there is also a lot of talk about theory, the use of timing, tension and presentation to achieve certain "effects", maximise impact and so on. One of the things I've come to realise is that we can talk about the theories, but there is always an indefinable factor which can't be learned and is very personal to you. What I mean by this is that even if someone learned all of Daniel Garcia's tricks, all of his patter, had plastic surgery to look exactly like him, spoke in the same way and wore the same clothes, you still wouldn't necessarily affect an audience in the same way as him. You can set some broad principles for the way you present yourself, like "Don't mix cards and mentalism", or "Flourishes diminish the magic", but they are only a guide for you personally, and not necessarily always true for every occasion or every audience, or every performer. If someone was genuinely psychic, why is it inconceivable that they would have learned some card tricks? If someone could do real magic with cards, isn't it logical that their fascination with the pasteboards would have encouraged them to learn some flourishes?
The essence of what I'm saying is that all of these principles flow from the character you set for yourself. Like any good character in film, TV or theatre, they should be well-rounded and multi-dimensional. You should know them intimately, and be able to respond as them in any given situation. It is for this reason that keeping that character fairly similar to your own is useful, but it is not "yourself", as the real "yourself" is unlikely to be interesting enough. I believe that once you define your character, and perform within the parameters of that well-designed persona, your performances will become engaging and you will achieve whatever effect on the audience that you wish to.