Presentation

[Donald C.]

I have been told my sleight of hand is really good. Let me clear this up I have been doing magic for about 3 years. Last summer I took a break. I have been taking magic very seriously now for about 1 year. I perform a lot of street magic in malls to teenagers not older people. I need help with my presentation I have never really worked on presentation because i am very straight forward when performing and have always got great reactions with being straight forward. So now I believe my sleight of hand is good but am willing to take a break from practicing my sleight of hand and working on my presentation beacuse although I am very bad with my presentation I do think it is neccesary. So can anyone give me a few presentation tips?
Thank You,
Donald

 

[praetoritevong]

Hey man,

For you personally, the main thing would be to slow down, and take your time. Think of the effect as something you wanna build up. As I mentioned in the other thread, really look at making the effect magical, because your sleight of hand is at a great level to be able to get those sorts of reactions.

The other thing I would suggest is reading and understanding different types of audiences accordingly. I had a recent thread about my performance experience where I go into explaining this a bit more. Basically, as a magician your performance should revolve around the needs of spectator; everything is done for them, a practice which goes back to magic's theatrical roots. It is the same in theatre and in film - it's never about you as the actor, and the way to make yourself look better is to focus less on you, but rather on others. When you pay attention to the audience, you can do so many things, you can make friends with an audience, win them over and hence amplify the reactions to your magic, you can make them sympathetic, just in case, Heaven forbid, you screw up, you can negate hecklers... Audience relationships are so important; this interaction does a lot for you as a magician and should be based on reading what sort of audience they are, hence being able to predict their actions and reactions, and hence allowing you to make the best possible choices for any audience to maximise your magic.

 

[FOO:L]

dude, saying that you've got really good sleights on these forums is like running into a deathtrap at full speed.
but anyway, on presentation tips. Try to watch many many different artists at one shot from youtube then analyse their performances and see what you can take away from each performance. The way they stand, the way they pull off each move ect. Then take a routine of yours and put those bits in and see if they work with your personality.
I personally like watching danny garcias performances because the way he brings magic across to people matches my style, therefore, for me, theres alot of "advice" in his performances.

 

[Donald C.]

dude, saying that you've got really good sleights on these forums is like running into a deathtrap at full speed.
but anyway, on presentation tips. Try to watch many many different artists at one shot from youtube then analyse their performances and see what you can take away from each performance. The way they stand, the way they pull off each move ect. Then take a routine of yours and put those bits in and see if they work with your personality.
I personally like watching danny garcias performances because the way he brings magic across to people matches my style, therefore, for me, theres alot of "advice" in his performances.

Hey sorry I definately was not being cocky or anything like that I was just saying people have said, sorry if that came out wrong.

 

[Chr!s]

Who has said you have great sleight of hand skills?

If it's a spectator, then you're skills aint all that... sleight of hand should be invisible, not a visible skill.

For presentational advice, I would suggest reading Eugene Burger.

CL

 

[Donald C.]

When I have asked for advice and I post a video on here people would say your sleight of hand is there but not the presentation, or something like that.

 

[FadedTemp]

Here are my tips (though some may be repeated already).

- Connect on a personal level with your spectators. If they're strangers, ask their names and chat a bit before moving into the performance.

- Build suspence, take your time and joke around with the audience.

- Explain what is happening and don't leave silent moments during the actually execution of the effect.

- Let them enjoy the end result... don't interrupt the moment with starting a new trick or by saying things like "wasn't that awesome" haha

- Be friendly to people and don't bash hecklers. If for some reason you decide to, do it in a nice way which doesn't make the audience uneasy.

- Break tension with jokes or amusing comments. Make them feel that you are no better than they are, simply another person with a unique talent.



Presentation is important as some tricks can be hard to follow without proper presentation while other tricks are only presentation because the effect is self working. It will also make sleights a bit easy as you can break the tension to interact with the audience (thus giving you a chance to do something with all the misdirection in the world.)

 

[Mr.MadMan]

All i really got to say is:

A trick is not a trick without a presentation.
The trick can be done silently but its the body language that speaks. Presentation is somewhat 80-90% of the trick. I know a lot of secrets(i havent seen most DVDs but i know how they go) and if i get a change to see a DVD what effect i already know and have done i still watch it, to see what the artist does in his presentation and what tips he has on the presentation. But do not copy someones presentation that dosent connect you with the trick that much. If you have putten the time into a presentation its like you created the trick and it gives you confidense.

Mikk

 

[Squ!rrel]

I have been told my sleight of hand is really good. Let me clear this up I have been doing magic for about 3 years. Last summer I took a break. I have been taking magic very seriously now for about 1 year. I perform a lot of street magic in malls to teenagers not older people. I need help with my presentation I have never really worked on presentation because i am very straight forward when performing and have always got great reactions with being straight forward. So now I believe my sleight of hand is good but am willing to take a break from practicing my sleight of hand and working on my presentation beacuse although I am very bad with my presentation I do think it is neccesary. So can anyone give me a few presentation tips?
Thank You,
Donald

I would recommend watching performances by other magicians. You can learn a lot by watching Wayne Houchin's performances. He paces his effects very well and builds up suspense.

Daniel Garcia is also a good magician to watch, he goes a bit faster than Wayne Houchin but still paces his effects well.

You need to slow down and let every stage of the effect sink in. In some of your performances you start finding a spectators card before they even realise it's been lost in the deck.

Don't stop practicing sleight of hand. When people say your sleight of hand is good, they mean there are no major problems with it. It certainly isn't flawless and is fairly average when compared to many other people in this forum.

If you stop practicing sleight of hand while working on presentation then your sleight of hand will become sloppy. This is from personal experience, when I took a break from magic to work on flourishing my sleight of hand was very sloppy when I came back to magic.