theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

School Magic: How and Who to approach?

I Personally Follow this at school,

Do Only Impromptu and examinable effects (The Biggest Hecklers Are at your School)

do Them for People In Your Class Or At Lunch.

Go for small Groups so if you mess up it won't be the end of the world.

Make sure that trick can be repeated. (I'm not condoning repeating your effects but you never know what situation you might be in)

Hope this helps, just my opinions.


Z-Magic
 
Hey man!!!! I'm in high school and I perform all the time!!! Over the years I've made a reputation and now people come up to me and ask me to do a trick, I hardly ever approach anyone anymore.

I perform anything. It doesn't really matter what you perform. I do effects such as: Prophet, Stigmata, some ACR, Angle Zero, ect.

I first performed for my friends and some of their friends, and what happens is that they tell their friends and I perform for them, and then they will tell their friends and it just continues to spread.... It's awesome!!


After awhile it becomes very easy, the only hard part about it is that sometimes at the end of the week, you're tired and you don't feel like doing anything and people will ask you to do a trick alot, and of course you can't say no, it's just bad manners. But it's worth it!!1


Good luck man!!! Just message me if you have any other questions!!! :)
 
I really don't think denying to do a trick is bad manners.. I been in the situation were you just wanna have fun in a party... and they start saying hey do a trick! if I don't want to I just say politely I would really like to show you a trick but I don't have want I need or something just give an excuse...your too drunk (if you drink) or don't have a deck or pretty much just say not right now maybe later (politely) they should understand.
 
To be honest, I very rarely approach people at school, I just sit there flourishing or show one of my friends a trick until people come and see what you're doing. Works for me.

EDIT: There again, I don't go out with the purpose of showing somebody magic at school. It just happens and this suits me fine.
 
Just sit there and start flourishing or playing around with a Hummer Card. Pretty soon someone will come up to and say "WOAH!!!! That's awesome" and then its all smooth sailing from there.
 
Generally I perform for kids in my grade that I don't know very well because they have heard of me but have yet to see anything or don't see it very often so it makes it more special for them. Also I like to perform for teachers because some teachers are EXTREME hecklers. Like my geography teacher, but also if you know the tachers well enough and show them something. They can give you honest input like work on your patter or do it slower or more clearly, which has happened to me MULTIPLE times, but it did help!
 
A good think to have is an "escape" effect. Like an effect to use when you just plain don't want to or don't think it's practical to do magic. An impromptu vanishing deck works well for this.
 
I performed for school people all the time, first I start doing tricks in front of people I know in an open area. Then as you get them to react peoples curiosity kicks in and you start to gather a crowd.
Soon you will have friends you never even knew you had, and some enemy's ie hecklers but usually mob mentality keeps them quiet.
The trick though to getting a giant mob is to keep the ones you have already drawn in.

hope this helps,

break a leg,
Nexus
 
I haven't been in school in nearly a decade but I was performing professionally when I was so here's my tips.

1) approach and perform for anyone that will stand still long enough to see you.
Reason: You never know who is watching you and what connections they have. Your 5 minute little cards across rutine could land you a $500 dollar christmas party gig because Britany's daddy is a CEO executive.

2) Do effects that require little to no setup, or tear down with as little time as possible between resets.

3) Don't worry too much about hecklers. If you learn to control your audience you'll learn to control the hecklers.

4) Cards, coins, mentalism is the best things to do. They pack small and play big. Learn to do the following effects and ALWAYS keep them with you.
1_ Cards Across
2_ Triumph
3_ Ambitious
4_ Copper, Silver, Brass, Freaky, or Hopping Halvs
5_ Hundy 500
6_ Loops
7_ Hot Rods

5) Someone else mentioned using props that can be examined by your spectators and for a high school I would say this is important.

Hope this helps
 
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