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Magic dvds with good tips?

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francism

Jan 4, 2014
31
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I have been doing magic for about two years now and do street magic for people but i do tend to get really nervous in front of those crowds. That being said i was wondering does anyone know of any good dvds that strictly just give tips about doing street magic as far as walking up to random strangers, actual performance, and how to leave the crowd feeling good about your performance and everything?
thanks in advanced.
 
Definitely check out the Bold Projects by Justin Miller. The first two volumes are out now the third is coming this month! They are all about how to be a better performer and how to control your spectators and be a BOLDER magician. This DVD definitely drove my confidence up as I feel If I could get away with this I could get away with anything. Thats what the DVD is made for hence the name BOLD project, they WILL make you a better performer Justin is one of the best performers I know of.
 
The Bold Projects are not a bad little set. You don't necessarily need any books for this though. You are going through what everybody goes through in the beginning of their magic careers. Still to this day, I think the best way to get over the nervousness and fright, is to just do it. For the first couple of.. Actually I think more like 3 or 4 years, I would only perform for friends and family. People that I knew. There was no way that I was going to walk up to that big group of people sitting at the bus stop at that time. Now, I love it. I love going up to a complete stranger and showing them something that they have never seen before. How did I get over it? I performed. I performed. I performed. I performed.. And I performed. I just kept doing it and getting gigs and doing it more. That really is the best way to get over stage fright. People will tell you that you can get dvds and books for it, but I don't really think that is something that you have to pay for. Rejection and failure is going to happen. It happens to all of us. Oh yes, it happens to me still. In a non douche bag way, I want to say that it doesn't happen to me as much anymore. I'm not trying to gloat and boast my ego here, but I've been doing it for almost 10 years now. But I can still say that there are times that I mess up. But don't let that hinder your confidence. Take all the failures as lessons and learn from them. Hell, take all the positive outcomes and learn from those as well. But please, just don't get discouraged. I'm sure that happens to people. They get rejected a few times and then decide that they "Just can't do it". That's bull dookie. You CAN do it. Just keep going up to people and doing magic for them. You will get more and more comfortable the more you do it. Trust me.

Feel free to PM me if you ever need any help with anything. I will help to my best abilities.

Take care and don't give up.

Blake
 
Nate Thompson said:
Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7zwIlsyTk. Skip to 3:40 if you just want to see the part about confidence, it's very short, but it helps. I would recommend you watch all of them, starting with the first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jRO-nJHmdE.
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This is the first time I have heard someone calling "busking", "street magic". There is a HUGE difference.

If you are looking to perform a show on the street and have people gather 'round to make the end result THEM filling your hat with $$$, then are PLENTY of resources for that.

But why is everyone on such a street magic kick? Why aren't you looking to put together a show instead of going up to a random group of people to show them a couple of tricks? I get it if you want to film reactions for a DVD project or even a demo reel, but even for a demo reel, you still want to make sure you have a proper crowd.

I understand that doing "street magic" can help boost confidence in your performance, as you are engaging with random people. But the same could be done in a restaurant or bar/club, where you will leave with $$.
 
Mike.Hankins said:
This is the first time I have heard someone calling "busking", "street magic". There is a HUGE difference.

If you are looking to perform a show on the street and have people gather 'round to make the end result THEM filling your hat with $$$, then are PLENTY of resources for that.

But why is everyone on such a street magic kick? Why aren't you looking to put together a show instead of going up to a random group of people to show them a couple of tricks? I get it if you want to film reactions for a DVD project or even a demo reel, but even for a demo reel, you still want to make sure you have a proper crowd.

I understand that doing "street magic" can help boost confidence in your performance, as you are engaging with random people. But the same could be done in a restaurant or bar/club, where you will leave with $$.
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Though I agree that magic can create money flow, I don't agree with the "do magic just for money" attitude. A lot of us are on the "street magic kick" so you say, for the simple fact that we do magic for the experience with and reactions of the spectators. That's why I will go up to a random stranger and show them a routine. Do I accept tips sometimes when somebody gives them to me? Sure, but I do not expect any nor do I even give the impression that I want any. Money isn't a big deal to me. It is purely evil and turns people evil. But that is a different conversation for a completely different time and place. Why do I have to be doing a demo reel or some DVD project to do street magic? Trying to make money with magic turns it into a job and then the fun goes down. You start to feel like you have to perform these effects so you can eat later that night. I'm not saying that doing magic for a career and making a living off of it is a bad thing. I plan to do this along with my photography, but I will not let money get above the art. If I can make some money from it, cool. That's just a plus. But those reactions and experiences with a group of people is what I'm looking to get when I do an effect.
 
I hate to break it to you, but you're going to have a helluva time trying to approach people on the street. Not only will this most likely dampen your self confidence with magic but if anything it will probably sour it a lot as well.

There are much easier and better routes to take. Try approaching a Senior Center or Children's Hospital and doing magic for them. You'll get much better results and it won't feel like you're banging your head on a wall just to get people to see your magic.
 
Randy said:
I hate to break it to you, but you're going to have a helluva time trying to approach people on the street. Not only will this most likely dampen your self confidence with magic but if anything it will probably sour it a lot as well.

There are much easier and better routes to take. Try approaching a Senior Center or Children's Hospital and doing magic for them. You'll get much better results and it won't feel like you're banging your head on a wall just to get people to see your magic.
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How do you approach people? Because I have good luck in getting people to participate in an effect on the street. There's nothing to break to me, I know what works for me and I do this all the time. Elderlys are ehh, okay to perform for, but no. They're not a better spectator than a random stranger off the streets.

Also, doing street magic has done nothing but better my performance and my overall character as a person in a whole.
 
Thank you everyone for the help a lot of good advice.

one last thing has anyone watched the videos from the links Nate posted? If so in the third installment the guy talks about the layout of a whole show like a puller, a body, and the ending. well for me personally i don't do anything big like a straight jacket or chain escape or anything big. My big tricks are mostly things like Breakthrough by Johannes Mengel, Regeneration by Blake Vogt, or a card to phone routine. Does anyone know any tricks along these lines that would be good enough for the final trick of a whole show?

Thank you in advance,

Francis.
 
For confidence, getting in front of spectators with your magic repeatedly will help you build it. If you can't deal with strangers on the street right now, find another way to start breaching your comfort zone as far as who you're performing for, and do it often. Repeated exposure to the stress of dealing with crowds will desensitize you with time. Also, framing it properly in your mind is important. Remember, the body does the same things physiologically when it's under stress or mounting up courage. When you experience your bodily anxiety response (breath quickening, adrenaline pumping, etc.), remind yourself that your body is gearing up for courage. By mind-framing the bodily response as courage instead of stress, you can use it to your advantage instead of letting it paralyze you.

As for closers, you're going to want to use something called a "reputation maker." This doesn't have to be a big illusion or trick, but it should definitely be among your best. Classic magic is also good to use here. Routines I use now that I think are strong enough to close with include my handling of "Serial Biller" by Rich Ferguson (destroyed and restored dollar with serial number verification at multiple points throughout), "A Single Needle" by Wayne Houchin, and my own cups and balls routine (affectionately deemed "Redbeard The Pink's Circus of Crap"). None of these are particularly large scale, but they play well from small to medium-large audiences at least, and they involve spectator participation in unique ways.
 
Cool thank you Redbeard.

what about you know like when your hands shake from i guess being nervous is that something that you just tend to get use to or it goes away over time? or do you work with that as well?
 
francism said:
Cool thank you Redbeard.

what about you know like when your hands shake from i guess being nervous is that something that you just tend to get use to or it goes away over time? or do you work with that as well?
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Yes, this is again something that you just get over with performing. I know that there were hundreds of times that I would ask someone if they wanted to see a trick, and when I started. EARTHQUAKE!!! Alright, maybe not that bad, but I was pretty shaky. My hands and my voice. Especially when I would be performing for a couple of people, and more people came up and started to watch. It was probably because I didn't have much crowd control back then. That's another really good thing to practice. Being able to control your crowd to basically move and act how you want. Maybe not act, but you can control them the more you perform for people. Maybe you're absolutely surrounded but the sleights that you need to perform can be seen from the side. You pick up ways to maneuver yourself and by what you say, makes the crowd move. Thus, positioning yourself in a better spot so that you can cleanly execute your trick. That kind of got of page :b

But yes, the shaky hands are a common thing when you first start. Just remember what I said, don't get discouraged. We've all been there, man. It gets better. Trust me.

Blake
 
My hands still shake when I'm doing something in front of an audience the first few times. That's why I tend to work with test audiences first, and even then I sometimes start shaking again when going from test audiences to public. That's one of those bodily anxiety responses I was talking about, and it lessens and becomes easier to manage with time, but I don't know that it ever actually goes away entirely. Maybe it will when I've been doing this for another 20+ years, but it hasn't yet.

There's a really intense Japanese movie called 13 assassins where these 12 samurai and one random sling fighter decide to kill off this Japanese noble for reasons. During one scene, when the head samurai assassin is steeling his resolve, he talks about his hands shaking in anticipation of the mission and refers to them as a "warrior's battle shakes." Instead of looking at the hands shaking as a stress response, he's conditioned himself to see the shaking hands as a positive representing excitement in the face of battle. Properly framing that stress response can be the key to getting it under control in the moments before you're actually performing so you're shaking minimally or not at all while you actually work. Chances are, though, you're going to be experiencing "battle shakes" on some level throughout your career because they're a normal, human response to situations involving risk. It's just a matter of facing and managing them until they stop when you're actually in battle.
 
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