Fear of getting caught

[bugboy]

Hey guys,

I can't seem to get over my fear of getting caught while performing. Although I'm still new to magic (coming up on almost a year for me,) that hesitation never seems to go away. Because of this, I only perform my magic for close friends and family. Even though when I do perform I never get caught on any sleights, I continue to hesitate to perform openly for others.

Is this fear simply a novice's problem? Will it eventually go away with time and performance experience?

A.L

 

[AndyW]

My advice:
1) Practice your routine until it becomes second nature and you can do it in your sleep. This does not mean to be a performing robot in your presentation when you do perform though.

2) Push your limits and perform for other people besides close friends/family. You need to bring yourself out of your comfort zone, and believe me the more you perform for other people the less nervous and scared you'll be. Notice how I didn't say it takes time. If you perform for the same people for 5 years, nothings going to change.

 

[Randy]

I would suggest scripting your routines. From beginning to end (IE: From when you approach a group and what you say them BEFORE you perform, to what you say and do during the routines, and AFTER). This may seem like a lot of work, but if you put some thought into it (shouldn't take more than more than an hour or two to come up with a decent idea on what you want to present your magic like without falling into the trap of explaining your actions. Hell, a quick google search on an interesting subject or quote could be turned into something that deals with what you are doing or even a good transition into it.) This SHOULD hopefully prevent people from trying to catch you out as well as teach you think outside the box a bit and seem more interesting.

Also, I suggest you rehearse what you plan to do awhile before you perform it.

 

[TeeDee]

I'd like to suggest a different tack, if I may. Namely, try not caring about whether you get caught or not.

Allow me to amplify.

In my opinion, the skill of magic performance should, initially, be developed separately from the skill of magic execution. So, first, find some self-working tricks and go out and perform them. Keep doing this until you can always get good reactions with those tricks and you begin to feel like a confident performer. You'll build your own style and manner of presentation, and you'll have come across, and dealt with, most of the unforseen issues that arise when dealing with real audiences.

Then, start to introduce some simpler sleights into your performances. By this point, you'll have some level of instinctive sense about how people are likely to react to you, you'll have learned to psychologically misdirect away from method and your whole demeanour will appear more natural and confident. Therefore, you'll find that controlling an audience and making them look where you want them to look will feel a lot easier.

After you're happy that you can always get away with simpler sleights, then you can introduce more difficult ones. At this point, the marriage of execution and performance will be much easier. And, it won't be such a frightening prospect on the occasions, which you will encounter, when you get caught. You'll be confident enough in your own performance persona to laugh off any failure without crumbling, or to improvise and make it look like it was all part of the act.

Being able to perfectly execute the mechanics of a trick with an entertaining presentation is not enough. You need to be happy and relaxed in your own character to be a fully-rounded performer. To my mind, once you've achieved that, then you're at the point where you can "make the easy look difficult and the difficult look beautiful" (to quote someone...I can't remember who). Of course, none of this precludes you from practicing harder stuff in private, or even from performing that material for your family and friends. As long as you're conscious of the fact that, parallel to that, there's a different set of skills to work on, you'll ultimately improve all of your magic.

 

[Craig Browning]

First of all, in the 40+ years I've been on stage I've only used about 4 self-working effects, usually for radio gigs. The exception is found in my PSYCHIC HOT-LINE routine in which we tossed in a couple of self-working bits for my partner to do with the audience. Regardless, self-working effects are, on so many levels, superfluous and rarely practical for anything more than a bar bet setting.

Secondly, if slight-of-hand were such a non-requisite it wouldn't be amongst the first chapters found in the Mark Wilson & Tarbell Courses of Magic let alone the famed Bill Tarr "Now You See It;Now You Don't" series; the Wilson & Tarbell texts arranged with a rating system that allow the student to start with the simpler moves & techniques and progress according to his/her ability, over time. Then again, I've never seen a single child's Magic Kit that was full of self-working tricks, most required rudimentary slights and basic magic theory so that you could execute the Snapper, Ball & Vase, Cups & Balls, Pea & Shell, Multiplying Bunnies, Linking Rings, Professor's Nightmare and a plethora of other such "stock" effects such kits included and have included for over 100 years (just check out the Copperfield collection if you don't believe me).

You are correct in the fact that showmanship and presentation are paramount, it can make a shoddy performer shine brightly but at the same time, it can keep that same shoddy performer from stepping up to the plate and actually learning how to do the work. I've coached far too many poor-little-rich-kids over the years who's mommy & daddy dropped a half-million bucks on a John Gaughan-Bill Smith Magic kit and yet, Jr hadn't a clue when it came to how to actually work on his collection of neat toys let alone anything about the nuance when it came to operation or how to adjust things so as to enhance deception and improve performance. Owning the prop doesn't mean you can perform it and the philosophy you are encouraging here, encourages that type of lethargy -- the lack of self-application and the constant quest for the easiest way out.

Magic never was based on "easy" when it comes to how to execute an effect, but rather it was based on discipline and doing what it takes to "get there".

When my mentor was taking over the Thurston-Rock show in the early 50's there was one particular effect he wanted to learn above all the other wondrous stuff in that stock-pile of famous effects; the Orange Bowls.

Chances are few that are younger than I have ever seen this uncanny effect in which two simple music-stand type tables sat on stage left & right about ten feet from one another. When first seen there is a laced doillie covering the table top with a glass bowl on top and within this a cloth napkin. The mage lifts the bowl and in a slow, very deliberate manner, dusts it clean with the napkin. He then lifts the lace table cover to show an acrylic top. . . everything completely clean! The bowl is sat back on the table with table cover & napkin dropped within. . . these same actions are replicated with the 2nd bowl and all is seen as fare. . . until the see through cloth is removed from each bowl and the bowl is found to be over-flowing with REAL oranges, every one of which are tossed out to the audience. . . nearly 3 full pounds of fresh oranges.

I emphasize "real oranges" in that the Abbott Magic company make a cheap knock-off to the effect that was mechanical and used foam oranges with just a couple of real "convincer" fruits.

This was the very last bit Will Rock would teach my teacher because it was the thing he wanted most to know. . . because it was the secret he needed to EARN by proving himself with all the other material first.

The Orange Bowls are "simple" when it comes to the mechanics and yet, one of the most difficult effects out there when it comes to pulling it off and making it impossible. One must literally become that actor playing a part in order to sell this masterful demonstration in pure slight-of-hand. Granted, you could buy the Abbott "self-working" version and not have to invest yourself into doing what's required for delivering quality -- an actual expression of personal pride as the result of practice and accomplishment. But then theres the rub, isn't it? The short cut sells you short and causes your magic to be just as limp as you are because of seeking out the easier, softer way which is rarely what we think it is. . .

. . . then again, learning of the Fool's Journey and how it ties to the Tarot, might open one's eyes a bit further when it comes to this challenge.​

 

[TeeDee]

Craig, if that was a response to me, then I think you might have slightly misunderstood what I said.

First of all, in the 40+ years I've been on stage I've only used about 4 self-working effects, usually for radio gigs.

I didn't say that self-working effects should become mainstays of his act, just that they're a useful way to get used to performing and building up confidence in front of an audience, without the fear of anything technical going wrong.

Secondly, if slight-of-hand were such a non-requisite it wouldn't be amongst the first chapters found in the Mark Wilson & Tarbell Courses of Magic let alone the famed Bill Tarr "Now You See It;Now You Don't" series; the Wilson & Tarbell texts arranged with a rating system that allow the student to start with the simpler moves & techniques and progress according to his/her ability, over time.

Where did I say sleight-of-hand is a non-requisite? I would never dream of suggesting such a thing.

Owning the prop doesn't mean you can perform it and the philosophy you are encouraging here, encourages that type of lethargy -- the lack of self-application and the constant quest for the easiest way out.

What philosophy do you think I'm encouraging here?

Apologies if you weren't replying to my post Craig, but it seemed as though you were, so I thought I'd respond.

 

[bugboy]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

 

[Craig Browning]

TeeDee. . . when I see anyone suggesting self-working tricks as a primer I have the sudden need to slap them.

I might have misunderstood your implication but my natural impulse was to put the neophyte back on a more appropriate road, as I understood your post. I get very bent with the short-cut route to learning magic, which is what I (admittedly) assumed you were encouraging.

 

[TeeDee]

TeeDee. . . when I see anyone suggesting self-working tricks as a primer I have the sudden need to slap them.

I might have misunderstood your implication but my natural impulse was to put the neophyte back on a more appropriate road, as I understood your post. I get very bent with the short-cut route to learning magic, which is what I (admittedly) assumed you were encouraging.

In an ideal world, I'd suggest trying stand-up comedy as a route to learning performance skills, audience interaction, and general character development, but that's not always practical for everyone. So, in lieu of that, I think that performance can be practiced in isolation by using self-working tricks. I see it as a technique that can be used in a similar way to running through scales or finger-exercises on a piano. In the same way that a pianist wouldn't expect to make a living getting up on stage and playing scales, a magician wouldn't expect to make a career from just self-working effects. But, in the same way that you might practice a disembodied sleight before incorporating it into a trick, I think it's useful to practice performance disembodied from any concerns about difficult sleight-of-hand.

 

[RickEverhart]

One's fear of getting caught will go away when you learn that building your rapport with your audience can vastly improve your entertainment value. Once they see that you are not trying to "fool" them, that you are just having "fun" and entertain them, they really don't care if you accidentally make a mistake. Move on to the next effect in your set. You don't have a set? You should.

Everyone flubs up an effect every now and again. Make sure you have outs or funny lines for when something does go wrong so there isn't a dead silent awkward moment.

The best way to get rid of nerves and your worry that you will mess up is to do strolling gigs where you are performing your effects over and over and over and over and over again until you know the material inside and outside. Your confidence level will increase 10X after you have the patter down to a "T", you know how they are going to react, where the laughing moments are, where the misdirection happens, etc.

As far as self workers, they are okay to possibly start out with, but then move on to your effects that incorporate your double lifts and tilts and such.