When I need to do a sleight, I try to get the spectators to look at me. Most of the time, this doesn't work. I talk to them, look them in the eyes and relax the deck but for some reason they keep burning my hands. Am I doing something wrong or are these spectators just a bit rude. Gimme tips
Getting spectators to look at me
- Thread starter thegeocicero
- Start date
It could be that the initial contact with the spectator is you wanting to show them a trick first, rather than introducing yourself and establishing a friendly rapport with them before you begin your effect. It is important to not immediately present it as a potential puzzle for them to solve or make it a challenge. In that case they will constantly burn your hands and never look up, which wouldn't be ideal.
I could point you to read the entirety of Juan Tamariz's Five Points in Magic. It's a masterclass on using the five senses as a part of your magic, with eye sight being one of the first and biggest concerns to address. I will however present you with a very useful piece of information I've learned from it that has not only improved the overall effects I do, but also helps us make a connection with the people we are performing for. I'm going to paraphrase here using some of my own terms, but this is the essential idea:
Imagine there is a fine thread that is attached from your spectator's eyes to yours. Every time you look a certain direction, your spectator should also look in the same direction. This is really easy to do after you have established a rapport with them and have shown yourself to be friendly and not a threat. If you look up at them, they should be looking at you. If you look down to the cards, they should be looking at the cards. If you are looking off to the side (for example some misdirection), they should be looking there. If at any time you and the spectator are looking in a different direction, this thread is severed and can impact the routine in a negative way, or can alter how they perceive the effect altogether once it is finished.
Be careful where you are looking during your effect. You don't want to have piercing eye contact the majority of the time, and you also don't want your head to be tilted down looking at your hands the majority of the time either. Make sure there is a fine balance and it's orchestrated in the routine to where they are only seeing what you want them to see, and they will remember the effect in that way.
On top of all of that, if the routine involves a sleight that you aren't comfortable with yet, and you come across a spectator that puts up a wall immediately and just wants to burn you, I would suggest working out a different method to accomplishing the same effect as a backup. Eliminate as many sleights as possible, and make sure the ones you keep you can perform in your sleep.
Hopefully these tips were helpful in some way!
I could point you to read the entirety of Juan Tamariz's Five Points in Magic. It's a masterclass on using the five senses as a part of your magic, with eye sight being one of the first and biggest concerns to address. I will however present you with a very useful piece of information I've learned from it that has not only improved the overall effects I do, but also helps us make a connection with the people we are performing for. I'm going to paraphrase here using some of my own terms, but this is the essential idea:
Imagine there is a fine thread that is attached from your spectator's eyes to yours. Every time you look a certain direction, your spectator should also look in the same direction. This is really easy to do after you have established a rapport with them and have shown yourself to be friendly and not a threat. If you look up at them, they should be looking at you. If you look down to the cards, they should be looking at the cards. If you are looking off to the side (for example some misdirection), they should be looking there. If at any time you and the spectator are looking in a different direction, this thread is severed and can impact the routine in a negative way, or can alter how they perceive the effect altogether once it is finished.
Be careful where you are looking during your effect. You don't want to have piercing eye contact the majority of the time, and you also don't want your head to be tilted down looking at your hands the majority of the time either. Make sure there is a fine balance and it's orchestrated in the routine to where they are only seeing what you want them to see, and they will remember the effect in that way.
On top of all of that, if the routine involves a sleight that you aren't comfortable with yet, and you come across a spectator that puts up a wall immediately and just wants to burn you, I would suggest working out a different method to accomplishing the same effect as a backup. Eliminate as many sleights as possible, and make sure the ones you keep you can perform in your sleep.
Hopefully these tips were helpful in some way!
If you are saying that one or two audience members are burning you, maybe you are completely fine yourself.
But if every audience or most of them, burn you, most probably you:-
1) have made yourself look like a sleight-of-hand artist rather than a performer and magician. For good or for bad, first impressions about a person usually stick.
2) become tensed right when you are going to perform the sleight.
3) make it too obvious that you absolutely WANT them to look up at you and not at your hands.
If it is the first case, you have to change your intro style or your performance style. Remember, you are not 'selling-out' if you tweak your style. Remain unique in your performance, but there are some things that don't work for everyone. So my advice will be, tweak yourself.
If you get tensed up, there is nothing other than to advise you to practice., So I won't say anything more on that front. Just practice and don't show your effects too soon.
In fact, if it is the third case, then too you have to practice more on misdirection rather than the sleights themselves.
Finding the answer to any problem requires you to figure out the exact problem first.
So I guess you should get a trustworthy person as your guinea pig before performing for the real people out there. Your magic guinea pig does not need to know the secrets but you need to take their criticism positively. Better have them catching you out than someone else.
Many, like me, use their sisters
Some have their parents, some friends. Just choose someone to practice on.
Automatically your performance will improve and the audience will become susceptible to your misdirection.