I first talked about how to succeed as a magician in the post “How To Succeed as a Magician”, but I didn’t go into much detail. This is another of those things I learned while busking, though not at the very beginning. The first few weeks I was busking, I wasn’t that good. But after a few months, I got really good at it. So what did I do? Here are some things:

I practiced my magic tricks all the time. Even if you’re just starting out, you should be practicing every day. If you’re working on learning new magic tricks, then you need to practice it until you master it. Not only does this help your performance, but it also helps you with your showmanship skills and makes your audience more engaged and interested in seeing you perform.

When I’m talking about practicing your magic tricks, I’m talking about practicing them in a way that’s going to make them look amazing on stage. You want to practice them so they look smooth and effortless. You want to practice them so they’re fun and exciting for the audience. And finally, you want to practice them so they’re going to make people want to come back again next week and see what else you’ve got up

There are magicians who claim that in order to be successful as a magician, you must have a “hook”, or something to make you stand out from all the other magicians. I take issue with that idea.

There are some very successful magicians out there who do not have a hook, so it is clearly possible to succeed without one.

Why, then, do they say this? I think it’s because they don’t know how to go about making themselves stand out without a hook. They’re looking for an easy way out.

My goal is to show you how to succeed as a magician, even if you don’t have a hook, by focusing on what makes you unique! You will stand out by being yourself!

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I have a number of excellent card tricks, but they are all variations on the same theme. You select a card and I make it reappear somewhere else. It’s a bit like a shell game in that respect: the same trick performed again and again with minor variations.”

“Oh, I see. So you think all your tricks are too similar?”

“Yes. With so many tricks that follow the same format, it would be hard to keep my audience’s attention if I performed them all together.”

“That makes sense to me, but what about this other trick where you make an origami swan appear from under your hat?”

“Ah yes,” said the magician. “I think you mean this one.” He took off his hat and produced two identical origami swans from beneath it. A murmur of appreciation went around the bar. “I must warn you though,” he said as he passed one of the swans to his customer, “that’s just sleight of hand: I can only make one swan at a time.”

The customer carefully inspected the swan in his hand. “It

I’ve been a professional magician for about 20 years now. In that time, I’ve done over 4000 shows, performed on TV, at the Edinburgh Fringe, at the Magic Castle in LA and even for the Queen.

I get asked a lot how to succeed in magic. For some reason people assume I’ll know – maybe because I’ve done it. So here’s my advice.

1. Perseverance beats talent

2. Put yourself in front of audiences as often as you can

3. Have something to say

4. Be willing to change your act to make it better

Magic is a lot like writing.

When you watch a magician, there are two possible reactions. You might say: “Wow, that’s amazing. I wish I could do that.” And you might say: “Wow, that’s amazing! I wonder how he did that?”

The first response is what a magician wants to hear. The second is how he knows to change his act.

The better a magician is, the more he wants to hear the second response. If no one asks the question, it means they didn’t care enough to ask. They weren’t engaged in what was happening on stage.

The best magicians are the ones who answer the second question before it’s even asked. Even before you suspect there’s something to wonder about, they’re making you feel smart for wondering about it.

The other day I went to see a busker in Covent Garden. If you’ve never been there, buskers are performers who do street magic tricks for donations.

Now, Covent Garden is packed full of buskers and it’s really hard to stand out from the crowd, so when this guy caught my attention I was very impressed. His name is Rob James and he’s an amazing magician.

First thing – he did small tricks to catch peoples attention and then he started with the big ones. He did a card trick where he got someone in the audience to take a playing card (a Queen), then he took another deck of cards and told the person to put their card anywhere in the pack and put it back in his hand. Then he pulled out a lighter and burnt the whole deck apart from one card: The Queen!

And then another trick where he asked someone to take a pack of cards, shuffle them as much as they wanted then cut the pack into two separate piles. He asked them to choose any card from either pile then put that card onto the other pile, then shuffle them both together again.. And after all that shuffling and cutting he managed to pull out that one card from his pocket!

Amazing!!

Busking is the art of performing on the street for tips. It’s a way for magicians to earn money, but more importantly a way to practice and hone their skills. Here are some tips and tricks.

Useful props:

– Scrying bowl – it’s easy to hide the “method” and people can see they’re guessing correctly, which makes them feel smart.

– Tarot cards – like scrying but even more mysterious.

– Animal props – you can get away with a lot if you have a cute animal with you (this works even better when you wear something cute yourself).

– Stuffed dove or rabbit – no need to keep track of it, though it has to be convincing enough that people believe it’s real.

– Escapology apparatus – if you can escape from handcuffs and leg irons in less than 2 minutes, people will gather around and give you money for the novelty of it.

– Rope – cut off small pieces as prizes for children who help you out during your act.

Don’t use:

– Fire**