When I think about making a trick better, broad-stroke changes make a big difference to the routine. These bigger ideas are often much easier to conceptualise and imagine their impact. For example, you could make a ‘person vanish’ better by performing it on a raised platform.
These methods of making tricks better often feel obvious in hindsight — no-brainers!
However, when it comes to improving a trick, you need to perform it. You could rehearse it, but nothing will beat performing it in front of an audience. One of magic's biggest flaws is that it is difficult to practice in front of an audience without an enhanced risk of failure.
You need to find ways around this fear or find an environment in which you’re comfortable with failure.
Aim to get a trick off its feet and in front of an audience as soon as possible because you can only make a trick so good before you perform it live. Once the trick is in front of an audience, you can improve it and keep improving it. These improvements are to be made incrementally, with feedback from each performance.
