Talk about Street Magic

[icannotmakeapassword]

I live in Singapore. Somewhere in Asia.

I have been doing magic for 4 years now. I have never attempted street magic before. Maybe it was due to my courage. I was afraid.

Today, i tried it.

And I sucked.

I did everything. Wear the right attire, talked confidently. When I asked the dude if I could show him something, he ran away.

That put me down. A lot.

For 4 years I've been mustering up my courage to perform for people in the real world. And on my 1st attempt? I couldn't even get to introducing myself.

Any help? I'm frickin depressed.

 

[SleightoHand6661]

Hey Man, all I can say is I've been doing magic for 3 years (still a year behind) and I still mess up. The thing I always say to myself is "A magician never turned good over night." Just keep at it!!

 

[SleightedMind]

Only 1 approach?
Try and set yourself a simple objective: approach 10 groups of people. It doesn't matter if the performance is great or if you get rejected, just try 10 approach.
Then, next time you go out, try 20. Then 30. But by that time you'll be confident and have no problem approaching and giving your best magic.

A quick tip that helped me is to prepare a line to introduce yourself. Work on YOUR line, don't copy one from the internet. It will help tremendously by showing your audience you're not a begger/freak and hopefully intrigue them so that they want to watch your performance.

Read this post twice, remember the key concepts and go out, now. Delaying will only get you excuses: my first street magic was 2 months in, I knew about 3 tricks and was shy as hell. Guess what, I used my line half a dozen times this day, and amazed a LOT of people. One last tip, if you see that a group is enjoying your magic, just bombard them with tricks. It might lessen their experience a bit, but you'll get a lot of confidence from it.

 

[Aaron.Williams]

I like to perform for people a lot when I go out so believe me when I say that EVERY MAGICIAN GETS TURNED DOWN. Yes, everyone. Even professionals so don't get discouraged if you get turned down on your first attempt. There are some factors that play into whether or not you get rejected.

Where were you?

If you aren't in a very social and open place, then that person most likely will reject you. Pick a location like a mall or something

How many people?

People don't like to be greeted by a stranger asking to "show them something" when they're alone. Instead, pick a group of people who look like they're having a good time. And look for that key age group: 14- low 20s. People in this age group will be more open to the idea of a magician.

Introduction:

This is the most important part. Depending on how you introduce yourself, people will either be creeped out or open to the experience. In real life, the "David Blaine Approach" DOES NOT work. It only works for David because he has a camera crew. This is how I introduce myself:

"Hey there, I'm Aaron. I'm a magician. Would you like to see something?"

That's it, short and sweet. And it works. Make sure you tell them that you're a magician and DO NOT say the words "magic trick". People don't like being tricked, they like being entertained. Plus, there's no real point for it. They already know you're a magician because you told them. There's no need to comfirm it by asking them to see a "magic trick".

HINT:

Another thing I like to do if I don't really want to go up to the group and ask them if they want to see something is to have a friend who draws a crowd. I normally do a little levitation or something and my friend freaks out and gets people's attention. Now you have a nice little crowd and you haven't even really done anything so all of your tricks are fresh and there are no people who are trying to make requests for the new audience members who didn't see a trick you did earlier.
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If you follow these guidelines, I guarantee that you'll get an audience. The rest is up to you. Make sure you put your strong foot forward and make sure your first trick is going to make them want to see more.

I hope I was helpful.

-Aaron

 

[chriswiehl]

when you do magic to people on the street or w/e
lots of them wont want to see magic
especially if you are by yourself
approach groups of 3 or more people and in that group there might be one person who wants to see the magic
so instead of approaching 3 individuals and having 1 say yes, approach a group of 3 and get it done in the same amount of time.
also, if you only approach 1 person, they might be worried cause they dont know who you are or if you are going to hurt them or something. so go in a group and then the group might feel more confident about their safety.
dont give up either. you'll get denied probably more than accepted.

 

[William Draven]

Street magic is a numbers game. The more "no's" you get is just one more no closer to a yes. You just got to keep at it. Not everyone wants to be entertained. People have places to go, things to do. You're interrupting their busy life, and they need to make the decision if the next five minutes of their time is worth wasting on your show. Assuming everything else about your attire, approach, and selection of magic is perfect, you could have just approached one of those no's. Don't let it get to you.

Also, I don't know what the culture is like where you live, but here in the states street performers are there to make money based upon tips. If you stay and watch the show then it's culturally expected of you to tip some money. Usually a dollar is all it takes. More if you can afford it. Sometimes the reason why people get the heck away from a street performer is because they don't want to feel obligated to tip you afterwards.

 

[danielmontagne]

maybe you" failed" but you did it ! don't worry you can't be good everyday , especially when you begin something

 

[BlueSpade1000]

I know exactly how you feel......

I was preforming on Saturday and I approached these two cute looking girls. I walked up to them and asked, "hey can I show you something?

They did exactly what those sassy girls do on TV shows. They looked at me rolled their eyes and sucked their teeth at me as they walked away. I never felt so angry, depressed ,and embarrassed. I stopped preforming for months.

I then saw the David Blane special bloopers. I watched as the famous David Blane got rejected. Then I realized that everybody who preforms gets rejected.

When you preform you have to say to yourself , "If they does not want to see magic that's their loss".

 

[BRoop13]

aaron is completely right with that hint. I have never gone out with the objective in my mind to do street magic but i have done street magic. This usually happens when i go out to the mall for some reason and some1 i know is with some1 i dont know they will about 90% of the time say hey can you show my friend some magic. There's people everywhere including right next to you when performing and they will be watching weather u know it or not. start with people your comfortable with and move up it will help alot trust me on this one

 

[icannotmakeapassword]

I like to perform for people a lot when I go out so believe me when I say that EVERY MAGICIAN GETS TURNED DOWN. Yes, everyone. Even professionals so don't get discouraged if you get turned down on your first attempt. There are some factors that play into whether or not you get rejected.

Where were you?

If you aren't in a very social and open place, then that person most likely will reject you. Pick a location like a mall or something

How many people?

People don't like to be greeted by a stranger asking to "show them something" when they're alone. Instead, pick a group of people who look like they're having a good time. And look for that key age group: 14- low 20s. People in this age group will be more open to the idea of a magician.

Introduction:

This is the most important part. Depending on how you introduce yourself, people will either be creeped out or open to the experience. In real life, the "David Blaine Approach" DOES NOT work. It only works for David because he has a camera crew. This is how I introduce myself:

"Hey there, I'm Aaron. I'm a magician. Would you like to see something?"

That's it, short and sweet. And it works. Make sure you tell them that you're a magician and DO NOT say the words "magic trick". People don't like being tricked, they like being entertained. Plus, there's no real point for it. They already know you're a magician because you told them. There's no need to comfirm it by asking them to see a "magic trick".

HINT:

Another thing I like to do if I don't really want to go up to the group and ask them if they want to see something is to have a friend who draws a crowd. I normally do a little levitation or something and my friend freaks out and gets people's attention. Now you have a nice little crowd and you haven't even really done anything so all of your tricks are fresh and there are no people who are trying to make requests for the new audience members who didn't see a trick you did earlier.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you follow these guidelines, I guarantee that you'll get an audience. The rest is up to you. Make sure you put your strong foot forward and make sure your first trick is going to make them want to see more.

I hope I was helpful.

-Aaron

Yes. That helped a lot. Probably you were right. I could have approached more people.

Street magic is a numbers game. The more "no's" you get is just one more no closer to a yes. You just got to keep at it. Not everyone wants to be entertained. People have places to go, things to do. You're interrupting their busy life, and they need to make the decision if the next five minutes of their time is worth wasting on your show. Assuming everything else about your attire, approach, and selection of magic is perfect, you could have just approached one of those no's. Don't let it get to you.

That helped too. Thanks