Performing Last Night

[Mattxdfa]

Last night I had the chance to do some close up card magic for some new and old faces at my house. While this was by far my WORST performance I think a lot of positive came out of it. It was nice to be able to do some stuff on my own terms and prepared rather than being put on the spot. Figured I would share some high and low points!

Some highlights were: "Jump" by Mathieu Bich (I actually hated this trick when I first learned it because I thought the method behind it was too simple but after performing it a few times for friends it is becoming one of my favorites and a real go to if I only have time for 1 or 2 tricks! It is super easy to learn and cheap on T11 so I suggest everyone to check it out!) I was able to do this for 2 different couples at different times and the reactions were awesome!
I also got a great reaction from doing "David Blaine's Two Card Monte" I know that's not the real name but its all I know it by.

I had a few fumbles as well. I have come to learn that my patter for a lot of the newer stuff I have learned is absolute trash! I had the luxury of it being a very relaxed setting so there was down time between tricks with talking about different things magic related but it is something I need to spend more time on.
I was bummed because I completely messed up "Do As I Do" from Royal Road. I use that trick to have a reason for bring out a second deck of cards so I can use M-Case. While doing the ball routine that is taught on the tutorial I flashed sooooo many things it was amazing no one saw! (It was BAD!)

I never really seemed to lose the shaking hands this time which might be caused by messing things up so I was still on edge. But all things said everyone really seemed to enjoy it which is great and I know where I need to spend more of my time on!

 

[DominusDolorum]

Exactly why performing is the best way to learn! Sounded like you at least had fun when you weren't sweating over the few fumbles but it happens. That really sucks though about the "Do as I Do" trick because it really packs a wallop. Clever though to use that trick to ring in the M-Case.

How were your tricks strung together by the way? Just curious about their cohesion, or if they were simply trick after trick. Which isn't always bad thing, but it's nice to have a simple routine scripted out for the moments you're asked to do something.

My hands still shake with every performance! I don't hide it, because I've had a small tremor since I was young so I've learned to embrace it and it eventually it goes away once I'm more comfortable.

Thanks sharing btw!

 

[Mattxdfa]

Yea I had a great time doing them and everyone watching seemed to get a kick out of it, even when things didn't work out right. I was so bummed about "Do as I Do" because it is so simple and I had really built it up before flipping over the cards and when they weren't the same it was soul crushing.

Last night things weren't strung together in any special order for the most part. I wasn't planning on doing as many tricks as I did, planned on doing 2-4 and that was it and I ended up doing 8-10 while talking so there were down points which was why I didn't string anything together. I have a "routine" of tricks that I have set and I should have just run through it all but with a 2 minute break where I am talking about why I got into magic or how one of them saw a trick they loved on TV, I was shuffling and setting up for another effect without anyone really paying any attention.
I think next time I am just going to stick to the routine I have in my notes and I think that'll help with my hands as well as patter because certain things flow better!

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Thanks for sharing Matt!

Can I ask how you recovered from the Do as I Do flub?

P.S. the David Blaine 2 Card Monte is called "Be honest, What is it?" by Eddie Fetcher

 

[Mattxdfa]

Thanks for sharing Matt!

Can I ask how you recovered from the Do as I Do flub?

P.S. the David Blaine 2 Card Monte is called "Be honest, What is it?" by Eddie Fetcher

No recovery from the flub! haha just an "oh crap..." I honestly don't even know where I went wrong with it!
I just moved right along into using M-Case for that prediction effect which might have been a bad move because I was flustered and like I said in my original post, I flashed about everything you could flash and I don't know how no one saw it!

And thanks for the actual name of the trick, I need to write that down!

 

[Al e Cat Dabra]

Sooner or later, despite our best efforts, regardless of our experience level, or how much we practice, we will flub up - because we can never practice not being human - well, on this current plane of existence, anyway. Although as time goes on, mistakes become fewer and further between, and as the saying goes, experience truly is "the best teacher." Thanks for sharing this with us, as it may also help us to be that much more careful in doing Do as I Do in the future (as well as other effects).

I do have one suggestion, however, that has worked quite well for me. If you fail to reveal or discover the correct card, ask them, "Hmm, just out of curiosity what was your card?" as you look through the deck acting as if you are baffled that you missed, When you see the card, casually cut it to the top, look up at them and say, "I think I know what happened" (or whatever line works naturally for you), and as you are addressing them, p * * m the card, reach into your pocket, produce it, and say, "I always keep that one in my pocket." This may not sound like it will work well, or that it would be convincing, but it gets by pretty much every time, and I have often gotten as good, and sometimes even better reactions in that situation than if the trick had worked in the first instance.

 

[ParkinT]

Sooner or later, despite our best efforts, regardless of our experience level, or how much we practice, we will flub up - because we can never practice not being human - well, on this current plane of existence, anyway.

So well stated!

And, you offered an excellent "out" (among several). As you said, this also comes from experience and the ability to think more about the presentation and less about each-and-every mechanical step involved in the routine as practiced.

 

[RickEverhart]

First of all I love the fact that you were able to step back and actually evaluate yourself and be honest with us. This is a crucial part of growing professionally. The more you perform the more you'll find new ways to mess up an effect or the patter. This is imperative for "honing" the effect to get it where you want. For some magicians this takes well over 50 times or more of performing the effect live, not just messing around in the bedroom. It is also why many magicians get upset at youngsters who think they have come up with an effect and try to release it to the magic world and it hasn't even been street tested very long at all in real world scenarios.

The shaking hands does go away eventually I promise It is adrenaline and nerves. The more you perform that exact same effect over and over for different audiences the shaking diminishes substantially. Keep up the good work.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Funny story about nerves -
I've been performing various types of shows for over 15 years. My wife has been performing most of her life, off and on. We both still get nervous before every show, but our 'nerves schedule' is reversed to each other. She gets nervous for a few days leading up to a gig, unless we've got a few in a row, and then calms down a few hours before the gig starts. I am calm up to about a few hours before the gig, then I get nerves until a few moments before I step on stage. Over the years we've developed a routine to deal with each other's nerves and not make things worse.

Many people, even top level performers, get nervous before a gig. Harry Andersen, who has been performing longer than I've been alive I think, still gets cotton mouth at the beginning of every performance. There's nothing to be ashamed of there, you just have to learn to channel that nervous energy into the performance. It's also a good reason to have a super simple opener - nothing I do for the first quarter of my show requires complicated sleight of hand (or any sleight of hand, many times). I do something that's as close to self-working as possible - once I feel the reaction to that from the crowd, my nerves dissipate and I'm good to go.

 

[Mattxdfa]

Sooner or later, despite our best efforts, regardless of our experience level, or how much we practice, we will flub up - because we can never practice not being human - well, on this current plane of existence, anyway. Although as time goes on, mistakes become fewer and further between, and as the saying goes, experience truly is "the best teacher." Thanks for sharing this with us, as it may also help us to be that much more careful in doing Do as I Do in the future (as well as other effects).

I do have one suggestion, however, that has worked quite well for me. If you fail to reveal or discover the correct card, ask them, "Hmm, just out of curiosity what was your card?" as you look through the deck acting as if you are baffled that you missed, When you see the card, casually cut it to the top, look up at them and say, "I think I know what happened" (or whatever line works naturally for you), and as you are addressing them, p * * m the card, reach into your pocket, produce it, and say, "I always keep that one in my pocket." This may not sound like it will work well, or that it would be convincing, but it gets by pretty much every time, and I have often gotten as good, and sometimes even better reactions in that situation than if the trick had worked in the first instance.

I've never thought about trying to have an out for tricks. I focused on the effects themselves and figured if I couldn't perform it well I shouldn't be showing anyone yet. Like you said though, we are all human and you can even mess up these simple self working tricks. I think staying calming and producing a card from your pocket or something like that would be wise for me to think about working on! So thank you!

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

David Copperfield dedicates full days of rehearsal to what to do when something goes wrong. I think once a month, maybe once a week?

It's professional to plan for problems, that way you can make it look like there never was a problem.

 

[Mattxdfa]

It is something I want to spend some time on for sure! When I have good experiences or even learning experiences like this one was, it makes me want to get more and more into it. Looking to have outs for everything seems like common sense and I don't know why it never crossed my mind before this!

 

[RealityOne]

@Al e Cat Dabra and @ChristopherT gave really good advice. I would add the saying... don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong. Try to practice under performance conditions. But also recognize that when you are starting out, all performances are practice. We all have a lot of "oh, yeah that time..." stories.

Get out there. Perform. Fail. Learn. Repeat.

 

[kennethcmerrill]

Thanks for sharing man!

Re: nerves. I talked to an older gentleman at the local SAM a couple months ago and he said that he used to take vicodin before every show because he was so anxious! Haha

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

@Al e Cat Dabra and @ChristopherT gave really good advice. I would add the saying... don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong. Try to practice under performance conditions. But also recognize that when you are starting out, all performances are practice. We all have a lot of "oh, yeah that time..." stories.

Get out there. Perform. Fail. Learn. Repeat.

At a really good workshop with Professor BC, he said that if one is not sick of their material, they haven't rehearsed enough.

 

[Mattxdfa]

At a really good workshop with Professor BC, he said that if one is not sick of their material, they haven't rehearsed enough.

I saw you post this a few months ago and it is something that stuck with me. I'm not great at a lot of the sleights I do and I just get sick of them but need to continue to work on them because that is the only way to make it better!

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

When I create a show, or make significant changes to an existing show, I do full dress rehearsal twice daily for a month leading up to the first performance of it. That means I've gone through the entire show 60+ times before it is even put on stage. That's aside from the time spent perfecting individual routines. This is something I learned from my circus days.