Make Your Magic Fit Any Room

Every time we practice an effect, we inevitably picture the context in which we’re performing it. Are we sitting or standing? Are we talking to ten people or a hundred? Are they people we know, or complete strangers?

This happens both when we try to make the material we perform feel more “our own” and when we decide not to add anything beyond what’s explained in the video or book where we learned the effect.

That’s because—though we sometimes forget—those effects are themselves created (and taught to us) with a specific performance context in mind. This can be a double‑edged sword.

Imagine: you’ve brought along your favorite effect to perform at a party, and when you arrive you realise the situation is nothing like what you expected.

There were supposed to be just ten people, but now there are three times as many. Everyone is expecting you to show them something. You have your effect, you know it can work perfectly—but you now need to perform it for a much larger audience than usual. What do you do?

The opposite can also be true: have you ever wondered what it takes to make a performance feel more “intimate”? In any setting, you might find yourself needing to impress one specific person—maybe someone who could land you a big gig, or the guest of honor at the party you’ve been invited to.

In situations like these, it’s easy to go into autopilot and perform the routine as you always do, as if nothing’s changed. But that’s a big mistake.

With a larger audience, you risk missing the chance to entertain a greater number of people. Some won’t be able to see, many won’t feel engaged, side conversations will start, attention will scatter. In the second case, you risk missing the opportunity to make the performance truly special—to convey that what’s happening is special for that specific person.

This is about skills you can learn both to adapt familiar material to different contexts and to be ready to improvise more deliberately—making the right choices and achieving whatever your performance goal is.

We’ll share some of the strategies used by top performers and some shortcuts you can apply right away—without having to invest money in new, elaborate routines. The four levels we’ll work on are: space management; the type of audience engagement; the choice of material and props; and the presentations.

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