Improve Your Magic

Improving magic is difficult. Take a trick you know or have recently seen and try to answer the question: how can you make it better? This exercise, which many great magicians practice, is invaluable to their growth as magicians.

Many times, improving magic has nothing to do with methods. It may sound redundant, but the best (and fastest) way to enhance any effect is to focus on the effect itself.

Sure – good, reliable methods are essential.

But the magic industry constantly churns out new methods, many of which have been perfected to such a degree over the years that it’s now quite difficult to improve them. We might buy all of the different method variations, but we often forget their true purpose: methods are merely tools to achieve an effect.

What’s deeply satisfying—and accessible to everyone—is working on the effect. Improving the effect doesn’t necessarily mean making it more fooling; it’s about making it more unique, more personal, and more “you.”

One of the easiest ways to achieve this is through “little touches”: minor adjustments or subtleties that don’t change the method but drastically enhance your magic. You can easily apply these recommendations to every effect you already perform to get stronger, more enduring reactions.

Make it memorable. The best magic is remembered and talked about with friends. It's the type of magic that gets professionals more bookings and hobbyists more requests to share magic at social gatherings.

To achieve this, ensure your magic is easy to remember.

A good starting point is clarity: laypeople should be able to describe your effect in no more than one sentence. This simplicity makes the effect easier to recall and share. A practical exercise is to define that one sentence and design your actions and presentation around it.

Ask your spectators to describe the trick back to you afterward. If they can't recall it to you, then you have some work to do.

Another way to make magic memorable is to leave visible traces of the magic that just occurred. On the extreme end, picture David Blaine passing a needle through his arm, then leaving behind a bandage as evidence. That is a visual, physical trace that something has happened. But that's probably not for everyone, right?

Here's something for everyone: Torn and Restored. I'm sure most of you already have a version of the card trick in which you tear a card only to restore it magically.

To leave a stronger impression, ensure the final card bears traces of its prior destruction. If you switch the card mid-routine, make sure the final card carries some traces of the previous destruction.

Pre-tear the card slightly so the restoration feels more authentic, resulting in an impossible object that tells its own story.

Impossible objects like this—a visibly torn yet impossibly restored card—are not simply objects used throughout the routine, like a regular and innocent-looking playing card. Impossible objects carry the traces of the magic.

Make it relatable. A great routine is the Triumph effect with a presentation based on the butterfly effect. The final revelation is that all but one of the mixed face-up and face-down cards have righted themself in the correct direction. Before the magical ending, by taking a random card, gently holding it by the opposite corners, and moving it as if it’s a butterfly – everyone smiles. No matter their age or whether they’ve been distracted moments before, the image of a butterfly resonates with everyone. It brings the audience to the performer's side.

Adding touches that make magic relatable is a challenge worth embracing. Look at the magic you perform and your audience, and ask yourself what simple, visual moment could unite you both. This isn’t just about “making magic about them,” like incorporating a signed card. It’s about establishing mutual recognition between you and your audience, creating a shared space for magic to unfold.

In his latest theatre show, the British mind reader Derren Brown performed a psychometry routine using personal objects carried by the audience. This not only elicits emotional responses from the owners but also connects with everyone watching as they imagine their treasured objects being part of the experience.

To experiment with making magic relatable, consider routines like Out of This World, in which a spectator correctly splits the red cards from the black ones. Could the cards represent something meaningful beyond their colors? Could they be replaced with objects that have personal significance? This approach opens new doors for connection and relatability.

Some magicians liken the deck to an elevator when performing the ambitious card, where the card magically returns to the top of the pack. But why not take it a step further and pretend the trick is actually happening inside an elevator? Invite your audience to imagine themselves in that space. They’re more likely to connect with the physical sensation of being in an elevator than simply observing the deck.

Make it real. The final—and vast—recommendation for little touches is about making your magic feel more "real." If you genuinely had magical powers, how would you use them? This perspective encourages approaches like revealing thoughts instead of just cards or using borrowed objects to ground your magic in reality. But it doesn’t stop there.

Making magic real often lies in the subtle, deliberate actions you take within the routines you already perform. Here’s a simple yet powerful exercise: choose a trick you already do, but leave the props behind. Walk into a room where you don’t typically perform and act out the routine without any physical tools.

Mimic the motions as though you were performing, but without actually executing the method. Go through the trick a few times, and then ask yourself: are there actions you’d do differently to make the magic feel stronger? Without the constraints of props or methods, you can explore the pure essence of the effect.

Write down your thoughts and revisit them a few days later. This time, consider how the constraints of your performance setting and method fit into your ideas. Look for compromises—minor adjustments that can enhance your routine without altering the method itself. Those little touches will make your magic more real.