How To Perform Magic For Friends

The majority of magicians around the world (let’s say 99.9%) are not professionals, yet many hobbyists are just as good, and some even better than the pros. However, these hobbyist magicians will almost always exclusively perform for friends, colleagues, and family.

This presents a different landscape for the magician. It certainly complicates the classic magic rule of ‘never repeat a trick’. You only have so many colleagues, friends and family members to show your new card trick to, and it would be difficult to pick them off individually for one-on-one performances. Someone will inevitably end up seeing the same trick twice.

Even then, you’ll soon run out of tricks. What are you supposed to do? Keep learning an endless supply of magic tricks. That’s very well and good if learning tricks is your hobby. However, does your family want to see all your tricks?

If your passion were dancing or drawing, you wouldn’t require someone to witness you doing it every time. However, magic demands an audience; without an audience, no one is fooled, and if no one is fooled, is it magic?

I’ve been around a lot of magicians in social scenarios; some of them were famous names. Many have strict rules about how and when they perform magic tricks in social settings.

Have you ever thought about how and when you should show your mates tricks?

Give it some thought today.

The Storyteller

I have an overflowing passion for storytelling. I love collecting, telling, and retelling stories. It’s a passion I have always had. My close friends would probably say it’s less of a passion for storytelling and more of a passion for exaggerating; I never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I came back from LA last year with a funny new story, and Preston Nyman was the first to hear it. He laughed, to my delight, and exclaimed, “That really is a good story — I can’t wait to hear how much you exaggerate it in three months.”

I wouldn’t say I’ve exaggerated it much in the past few months, as I’ve retold it maybe once a week to a new friend. It’s undoubtedly been adjusted, and the timing is different. Specific details are placed in new moments in the story, and I’ve reworded specific information.

You see, I love telling stories and feeling them improve each time I share them—some of my best stories I’ve likely retold one hundred times. I reckon I’m getting quite good at it. People have said, “You’re a good storyteller”. Then the same people, having spent long enough with me to hear me retell a story to another friend, have said, “I can always tell how much you’ve changed and exaggerated a story by how long ago it took place” — thank you, Rayna.

I became what is referred to as a ‘Digital Nomad’ a few years ago. I pick a new city and live in it for a minimum of one month before moving elsewhere. I return to my favourite cities and new ones throughout the year.

I was just in Morocco for a month; now I’m in London, and by the time you read this, I’ll be on the small island of Madeira. I love it. I’m telling you this for a reason but let me quickly explain how it happened.

Magic is a niche — I write this a lot. This meant that when I was giving television magic my full attention, I could work on shows most of the year. To do this, though, I had to work abroad. I would work on shows that were shot in LA, China, Hong Kong, Belgium, etc. It reached a point where I had not worked in London (the city I was living in) for over four years.

So, when good old ‘panny d’ happened, two things occurred. First, I missed the feeling of being in a new city. Second, I realised how overpriced London was when the theatre, restaurants, and bars were closed. So, I packed my bags and gave digital nomad-ing a go — greatly inspired by the tweets of Pieter Levels (someone myself and The Daily Magician look up to).

Being a digital nomad is far easier than you’d expect. I belong to a few memberships. These memberships do background checks and make sure you fit the vibe they’re going for. Once you’re in, you have access to their co-living mansions with pools, saunas, and beautiful views from across the globe.

Being a part of these communities is brilliant. It removes a lot of the stress of finding places to stay, and it means that I see the same people throughout the year. Four of the people I lived with in Morocco were friends I had already lived with at different points in the previous year. Living this way also costs less than I used to spend in London.

Anyway — what I have found ever so fascinating about my new lifestyle is that it has truly ignited my love of storytelling. Why? Because I am constantly around new people with whom I can share and collect new stories. I can see how a story needs adjusting when telling it to an American or a French person.

I also wonder if Americans are the worst storytellers in the world. Each of their stories is far too long, has too much background and involves the words “, and then X happened, and then X happened, and then X happened” far too often.

There is a high chance that your love of performing magic is being kept at a reduced level, like a fire with a limited supply of oxygen. My first piece of advice for you is advice I wouldn’t have known a few years back: seek out an audience and find a social setting in which there is a steady flow of new spectators.

Think of this endeavour as the equivalent of joining a magic performing club. Join an actual club (but for something other than magic), volunteer somewhere, or spend time somewhere where there is a natural footfall of people to show your magic.

The magic should be a bonus. Don’t be some creep who goes to the library solely to pester people into watching magic tricks. Consider another passion of yours or even a passion of your friends. Nurture that passion, support your friends, and you’ll find yourself where your passion for magic can flourish.

If you really do want it to be magic focused. I met a young magician once who started a college magic club with one hour of magicians-only time and then an hour open for anyone at the college to attend and enjoy the magic.

Repeat the Trick

Now, more than ever, ‘never repeat a trick’ is terrible advice.

To be successful in magic, you will likely need to repeat tricks every night on stage. Do you plan on stopping people from paying to see your show more than once? You’ll also need to perform online, perhaps on social media or for TV interviews. How are you going to stop people from rewatching the video?

Yes, it’s true that some brilliantly fooling tricks can only be performed once in real life to each spectator. But, if you want to be a great casual performer, this shouldn’t be the only magic you perform.

Remove the notion that you can´t repeat a trick from your head.

Drag and drop that mantra into the recycling bin.

A few things will happen when you embrace the idea that people may see the same trick twice.

All of them involve improving a trick.

It’ll either become more fooling, entertaining, or exciting.

I’m not suggesting you go and show your mate the same trick a thousand times; however, get used to showing the same trick to someone else in front of them.

It’s going to sound strange, but if you can wrap your head around the idea that you might perform the same trick twice to the same audience — well, you’re actually going to enjoy doing it. Tricks that can only be performed once tend to get a bit boring after a while, as there’s nothing new or exciting to keep the performer on their toes. However, a trick you can repeat can be a fun challenge with new opportunities and outcomes.

When I think about my favourite tricks by David Blaine, Copperfield, Penn & Teller or Justin Willman — they are all repeatable. Perhaps I’m saying this because I know they’re repeatable — maybe that’s why I like them.

However, this idea that you should never repeat a trick is nonsense — I’d pay to see all of my favourite tricks repeated, and I’d enjoy them just as much.

Even Willman’s ‘Hug/Anal’ trick (which countless magicians have since ripped off), I know how that trick ends, and I want to see it again and again. This is because I am suddenly in on the trick, which is almost more exciting.

There are obviously some tricks that shouldn’t be repeated. However, if you’re a casual performer showing tricks to mates or friends, I believe most of the magic you pursue should be repeatable.

In On the Trick

I don’t particularly enjoy performing magic tricks, and my love of magic is similar to that of a film writer or director. It’s not particularly unusual that Spielberg does not act in his films, but it is odd that someone who enjoys magic and works in this world does not like to perform tricks. It’s unusual to the magicians I meet at conventions and even more unusual to laypeople I meet in everyday life — “Wait! You write magic tricks but don’t perform them? How does that work?”

A long time ago, I sat opposite Justin Flom in a Las Vegas diner. I must have been eighteen or nineteen years old. He told me he used to be reluctant to perform magic in the real world. He referred to a time when he was almost exclusively a stage magician and when social media was not a thing.

People would see him out and about and ask to see a trick, and he’d say something like, “Come to my show, and you’ll see some magic”. This was because he didn’t want to perform close-ups on the spot. However, eventually, a magician friend changed the way he thought about it all. His friend informed him that for most people, magic is not something they will ever see up close, especially not good magic. So, if someone wants to see a trick, and you say no, you’re genuinely disappointing them. They’re asking because they’re genuinely excited.

I get it — it’s annoying when laypeople ask to see a trick after discovering your hobby. However, maybe they’re asking because they’re intrigued. It seems normal to you, but it’s rare to them.

So, here’s my final note on performing for friends, colleagues and family.

Let everyone in on the trick. What do I mean by this?

Well, it covers a range of things that essentially mean the audience wants the trick to take place. It might mean that you’re including one of your friends as a stooge or a secret accomplice. Perhaps it just means they’ve seen the trick before, but you’ve got them excited to see how your other friends will react. Maybe, it simply means you wanted them to ask to see a trick before performing.

Heck — you might ask for feedback on the performance so that it doesn’t feel like a ´you vs them´ audience/performer situation.

Performing with any of these casual motives will mean that at least one person will be ‘in on the trick’ — they want it to happen in any capacity.

I think that’s the secret.

There’s no crowd better than a home crowd.

You might not be David Blaine selling out huge shows; however, you can put out an energy that attracts a home crowd.

Friends, new and old, are excited to see you perform.