The first step in routining your show is to choose a number of effects that you perform very well, that you are comfortable performing and that fit your performance personality.
Make a list of the effects. Next to each effect, note the time it takes to perform the effect. If you are not sure how long it takes, perform it on a family member and have a stopwatch going.
One of the most important parts of a successful act is pacing. In order to hold an audience's interest, your act should be textured. That means that there should be some variety in the effects you perform. This does not mean that you have to perform all different kinds of magic! You should mix quick effects with longer ones, nice little effects with mindblowers, audience participation ones with self-performed ones. If you are a comedy magician, mix small jokes with big ones. If you do birthday parties, mix "watch me" type tricks with audience participation.
Another thing is to use your most spectacular effects to open and close your show. You want to grab the audience's attention right away, so choose your opening effect with that in mind. You want them to think "Wow! This is going to be great!". Also, you want to end your show with a bang, leaving the audience feeling like they really saw something great. Many performers save their best for last, and it is quite effective.
Another thing to do is to select your effects so that they build on each other. A good idea is to use a twist effect (one where the audience thinks they know how it's done, but there is a surprise ending) and get an audience member to shout out how they think it's done. When the spectator joins you on stage, you automatically have a volunteer for your next effect.
A final tip for routining your show, and a often overlooked one is to select your effects to fit into a specific time frame. That's why it is important to know exactly how long it really takes you to perform each effect. Magic acts are often too much of a good thing. The audience really doesn't appreciate sitting through a 10 minute performance that takes 30 minutes to perform. More is not better! Choose effects that fit into 10, 20, and 30 minute time frames so that you have a show for a number of different occasions. Then stick to the schedule. You will appear more professional.
Proper routining is often skipped by magicians because it is not exciting. Yet a solid routine is one of the most important parts of your act. The successful magicians spend as much time, if not more, perfecting their routining than practicing their magic skills. It's well worth the effort.
But it's not just the tricks that link together, it's you who must make them link together. You have to find a reason as to why these tricks should be linked together. If not, they'll just be, a series of tricks. A good routine should be upwards of 10 minutes, but below 25 minutes. We can't tell YOU what tricks to perform, you must find the tricks that are right for you and can get the best reactions possible.
After you put together a routine you must script which is a different feat all in itself.
Mitchell
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