Advice for Performing Stage Magic On TV

Though this article is based on stage illusions, I'm going to share a ton of helpful advice for all magicians. I'm lucky enough to have worked on all kinds of stage illusions: levitations, sawing-in-half, car appearances and more. I've shot these in the studio and on location.

Here is my specific advice for studio performances:

Assume every mic is live.

Let's start with some general advice. From the moment you leave the hotel room to the moment you get back into bed, assume you're being recorded. I wish I were exaggerating, but I'm not. Even if you do not have a microphone on, someone near you will. Microphones do not get turned on and off; they're always live and recorded from the moment you enter the building, and they're almost always broadcast to the camera crew.

Certain places like the gallery have broadcast "open comms" that are sent out to everyone on the gallery channel—notably the studio crew and camera team. I've watched magicians step into the gallery without a microphone on to complain about the camera crew and winced, knowing full well that every camera operator is listening to the rant.

I was also there when the talent removed their mic, left the studio, and got in a car to go to the train station, and we still heard them complaining. That's right. They'd left the building, removed their mic, and were down the road, and we could all hear them moaning about the crew. How? A runner was with them to make sure they caught their train, and the runner was sitting on their radio button.

Be nice.

This advice came full circle for me when I was young and given a new contract to sign. All my mentors advised me not to sign it. Not long afterwards, I was sat in the wings at the Old Vic theatre in London. Suddenly, the comms in my ear came to life as the microphone on the magician I was working for was turned on in their dressing room. I listened to the magician, my boss, and a colleague discuss their plans to replace me for about twenty seconds before removing the comms.

Not fun.

A good note is that you do not need to wear a microphone. Sound engineers will want you to wear one because it's easier for them to put one on you at the start of the day and forget about it. But if you think wearing a microphone will be troublesome for your stage illusion—perhaps it'll record the sounds of you contorting within a box—ask not to wear one. The host will hand you a handheld mic when you need it, or they'll stop and mic you after your performance.

If you're bringing an audience member on stage, they'll need to be mic'd, and for this reason, production often pre-selects them (there are other reasons too). My advice is to go with it but try to make sure they're not visibly wearing a mic before they get on stage so it doesn't look odd on TV.

Just because you're there, it doesn't mean you'll air.

As an assistant producer on a late-night talk show, I saw multiple magicians and talent acts get cut. What's crazy about late-night talk shows is the turnaround time and wild west nature of production. You shoot the show at six, and by ten, it's on the air.

If you are not lovely to the production team, you will get cut, or they will edit you to look bad. They have about an hour to edit the show, and they have another show to make the next day. Please don't be rude to them.

A couple of times on late-night, the producers could not have been specific about the magic performance needing to be less than three minutes. Both acts performed tricks that I immediately knew would last more than three minutes. One of them was a marketed routine you and I would both know takes six minutes minimum if I told you what it was.

Going over your allocated time isn't always an issue if the producers can easily cut down the performance. With only a few hours to edit the show between the 5 pm record time and the 10 pm air time to edit the show, the easy decision was to cut the performances.

The producers knew they'd get in trouble with their bosses for allowing the magicians to perform tricks that went over their time. On both occasions, the magicians left the stage, and the producers gave them hugs and told them great job then, as soon as the magicians were out of earshot, they turned to their assistant producers and told them to "cut them from the show".

Both magicians are famous names that we all know.

Make your performance uneditable.

This brings me to my next point. Editors can not make you say or do things you did not do. They can only remove and rejig you in the edit, and rejig they will do.

Here's the secret, and listen up because it's a good one. I watched experienced TV pros like Pete Firman execute it wonderfully.

If you want every part of your performance to make the air exactly how you did it on the day… stick to your time limit. If you're told to give a three-minute performance, give a three-minute performance. Pete Firman did this down to the second, and the result was a performance we simply could not edit. Meanwhile, I would visit edit suites where non-magician editors would spend days hacking down longer performances with little magic expertise to know what to keep.

I've watched editors chop away carelessly at a four-minute performance to get it down to three minutes. And I've seen editors' pain over the fact that they have no choice but to leave a three-minute performance exactly as it is.

There are other tricks you can employ to limit the editor's ability to rejig. Infamously, some comics like Ricky Gervais purposely drink beer to make their act impossible to edit. The audience would notice the level of the liquid leaping up and down, leaving the editor with no choice but to leave the comic's set exactly as it is.

There are magic alternatives to this. On one TV show that I worked on, the executive producer planned all along to cut the middle of three tricks a magician intended to perform. He didn't like the trick but didn't want to argue with the performer about it, so he'd let the magician do it, knowing full well he'd drop it in the edit. The issue was the magician was smart and took off their jacket during this middle trick. The executive producer had to keep it in for continuity; otherwise, it would look odd if their jacket suddenly disappeared.

Note that if the studio director makes you put away the props from one of the tricks in your act before and after it within the routine, it's because they want to be able to cut it from your act or reorder the tricks in the edit.

There are no curtains.

The first stage manager I worked with was brilliant, young, and talented. He realised something I didn't: TV studios rarely have curtains. So he built these huge standing curtains that could wheel on and off the studio stage.

Of course, Penn and Teller and Got Talent mostly shoot in real theatres now, which is good for stage illusions. TV studios differ greatly and cause several challenges for magicians performing illusions.

There are no curtains. So, if your illusion involves a heavy setup that exposes the method, request curtains. Perhaps you need to load someone into an illusion, and it would be too dangerous to do this and wheel the illusion out from backstage. Maybe it's a black art illusion that's completely exposed when you set it up with the lights on, usually behind a curtain.

The stage is not raked. In theatres, stages are often raked forward. This means they're at an angle, and the back of the stage is higher than the front. Doing this helps the entire audience to see everything. Studio stages are not raked because the cameras are up high. This causes two dilemmas for stage performers. Believe it or not, some stage illusions are built for raked stages, with the front legs of the illusion longer than the back, so they stand upright on raked stages. If you normally need to perform the trick at the back of a raked stage for better sight lines, you won't be seen by the front of the studio audience.

The audience is 180. Very rarely is a studio built for stage magic angles. The right and left sides of the audience will see how your illusion is done, and you might need to live with that. I've seen magicians request sections of the audience leave the studio for their performance, and to be honest, it kills the vibe a lot more than just letting forty people see the method. The audience is the millions at home.

There's no such thing as a blackout. There are many lights in the studio, and they are designed for television and not theatre. You'll discover quickly that you can either light things for the live audience or the cameras. Good luck choosing.

There's a video wall. Almost every studio show is backlit by these huge televisions that move and flicker now, and it's a nightmare for many stage illusions. Shows like Penn and Teller and others will often put custom artwork behind you. Be ready for this and ask ahead of time if you feel it will impact the power/method of your illusion.

Your rehearsal is not a rehearsal.

We record every rehearsal, every moment of every rehearsal. And we will absolutely use it in the live show. If you mess up a line or one of the cameras doesn't quite catch something in the final performance, we will 100% pluck a shot from rehearsal footage and add that to the final edit every time.

You'll notice that magicians who are new to TV will try to use the rehearsal to only block the performance for later. They inform the director of the best angles to use for the actual show but opt not to perform their routine fully in rehearsal.

Experienced magicians know there is no later. They perform everything in the rehearsal in a much less stressful environment to ensure we have everything captured properly at least once. One magician I worked with got us to shoot important sections of his routine multiple times in rehearsal to guarantee we had those moments for the edit.

I'd say maybe 30% of final edits include clips from the rehearsal performance.

Say hello to the vision mixer.

The studio director has about one thousand things on their mind, and making you look good is low on their list. The majority of the time, they're just calculating how much break time their staff needs. At any given point, they're responsible for upwards of sixty people and hundreds of thousands of pounds. Their job is to make sure the thing gets recorded without going into overtime and that they get enough angles to tee up the edit - especially if the show is "as-live" (meaning it's not broadcast live).

My advice is to say hello to the vision mixer. They're responsible for the live edit of the show. They're sat on the studio director's right side, and they're pressing the buttons to cut between cameras. If the show were live, their live edit would be the one the audience at home sees. It's also the one that's pumped onto the screens in the studio.

If the show is shot "as-live," their edit is the version presented to the final editor. When we get into that edit, we basically decide to stick with the live edit or make adjustments. This is why it's not the end of the world if the live edit catches a method.

My advice is to say hello to the vision mixer. The buck stops with them, and unlike the director, they only have one job, and it's a job they care for dearly. If you share with them the best angles for each part of your routine and explain why — they'll look out for you. Whilst you likely won't ever speak to the final editor, you have a chance to speak to the live one. It's not normal to speak with them, so pick a quiet time. I can bet you they'll be in the gallery every time the crew breaks.

Find a natural reason to visit the gallery and be nice. That's where all the important people live, including people from the channel who very well could give you your own TV show because you were nice to them for five seconds… it's happened.

OK… quick fire round:

Your method will be exposed and recorded.

I've said this before, but with a camera behind you and above you that's recording at all times, I can tell you with absolute certainty that your method will be exposed and recorded.

That camera they put up in the ceiling to record one magician's table card routine from above is still recorded when you perform. That camera at the back of the stage, looking out at the audience, is filming, too.

The way to combat having your trick exposed to the world by the production team is simple, don't be a dick and hope for the best. And give them a hint about what not to include because often they'll put a show in that exposes your trick by accident.

They will want to change your props.

Be ready for someone to paint your illusion or add some tape to it. It's usually in your best interest to do so. They want your illusion to look like it's custom-built for the show and belongs there. If the set has gold lines, they might want to add gold tape lines to your illusion. It's usually all temporary, but here's a heads-up.

If your illusion is poorly made, they'll want to fix it for you.

Understand the value you get.

It won't be the TV money you might expect. It always amazed me when even the biggest TV stars were paid £250 for a full day shooting for primetime television. Your payment is the video you will use to get you gigs for the rest of your life.

Smart magicians use the magic budget to enhance their props. I've seen productions happily shell out $10k to improve or buy a new stage illusion that the magician gets to keep as part of their agreement. The show wants a good show, and they have more budget for props than talent booking. It's a smart move.

Don't do your own makeup.

Bizarrely, many stage performers request to do their own makeup because they're used to doing it themselves. Studio lights and studio cameras are very different to stage lights, and you really should not do your own makeup.

Have fun and enjoy yourself.

This piece of advice is the most important. You'll do great.