Later tonight, I'm doing the first show for a larger audience in about three decades. Sure I've been doing magic for family and friends. Tonight, I'm MC at the variety show at our church, which will be a fundraiser for my two daughters' mission trips. I'm doing a little magic as part of it. I've been practicing for weeks and ran through my effects tonight for my wife and 11yo.

I'm a journalist my day. My wife is an attorney who did her undergrad in drama. She gave me some great tips. The best: slow down. This was advice in another topic on this forum. I was doing the effects well. My daughter said it looked like magic. But I was talking too fast. My wife said, let the magic speak for itself. Don't concentrate so much on patter. Just let the magic happen. Don't be so concerned with what to say, because then you're sounding like you're talking to fill space. Then that becomes the show. You want people concentrating on the magic.

You know, I speak professionally. I'm a consultant who travels all over the country teaching other people about how I do my job. But when I pick up magic, I tend to get a little goofy. So tonight, I'm going to try to remember to relax, slow down and let the magic work.

Wish me luck.

Good luck ! Let us know how it went.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

Best wishes for a great show!

Bob

PS --- I always shake while I'm being brave. LOL

Good luck. Sounds like you've had some great advice there. I look forward to hearing how it went.

Go make magic!

I love that, and have a sneaky feeling I will be using it before long. At first I thought it must be from 'The Wizard of Oz', but seems like I was wrong. Is it a Bob Sanders quote? If I do use it, I'd like to attribute it correctly!

Good luck brother! I'm in the works of planning a show for our church. The great thing about magic is you can present an effect however you like, and it's usually pretty easy to put a message to an effect. Sorry to thread jack, I have the same problem in everyday life, everyone is like "Sheesh, could ya' slow down?!" I talk very fast, but when I begin to perform it takes everything in me to slow down so I don't lose everyone. It's not as bad when I'm working close up everyone thinks I'm a car salesman by day (which I used to be, before the economy went south) so they just kinda go with it. I plan to make myself more marketable for stage shows for bigger audiences. I believe it's something many magicians can work on, I've seen several magi on stage, that if they weren't visual tricks nobody would have a clue in the world what was going on because they talk so fast.

Okay, you/ve already been cursed. Let me see if this will alleviate some of it....BREAK A LEG! or BREAK A THREAD!

Cheers!

Love the encouragement and support. I realize since joining this forum how I missed the camaraderie that other magicians provide. I will post how it went later. @Stanyon, thanks for removing the "curse." LOL

It's just adrenalin. Pumps you up and makes you talk and move faster. Fight or flight response and it's normal. One of the things I have recommended to students and others for years is to rehearse ..... much slower.... than you plan to perform. Slow WAAAAAAY down. Judge for yourself...25%, 50%, whatever you think you need and experience will tell. This allows you to take advantage of the performance high and be in control as you normally ratchet up the speed. Having practiced slower you will know and understand the difference and be able to adjust. This really does work.

Good luck and all best,

After all this great advice and encouragement, I'm happy to report, I took it slow and it just killed.

No broken legs, threads ... Even the couple of mishaps -- and I forget this -- no one noticed. They don't know how the trick works, and at least tonight the 2 fumbles, no one saw: even my wife who had been watching this 100 times and knew all the ways I could screw up, said she didn't catch it. Even if they did, they remembered the effects that really blew them away, both kids and adults. And I really didn't do anything fancy.

The opening relaxed me a lot -- a color-changing cane I had kept in good working order since I was 16. I'm 52. I had given up on it as a novelty of a bygone age. The only reason I did it was because my 11 yo daughter said, "Oh, please, Daddy, do the cane trick." So I opened with it not sure what would happen. There were gasps. Audible gasps. Then I changed it to a pocket square for my tux, and made it a fashion statement. Everyone laughed. That was the biggest surprise for me, and it set the tone and the rest was cool. Lots of kudos afterwards and hopefully it will lead to more performances. Of course, these were people at my church, so they know me and love me already. But many people seemed really genuinely impressed and I got a lot of, "I didn't know you could do that. Awesome."

Thanks for everyone who asked me to tell them how it went. It gave me confidence knowing I could tell someone afterwards and they would care.

@P.Synenberg, you're up next, buddy. Tell us how it goes.

@Brad, now I am on a post-performance adrenaline high.

Con-grats !

Congratulations!

Slow is better, huh? Who knew?

Great show...great cause...great story.

David

Congratulations!

Pounding this into my head should alleviate most of _my_ stress!!
Glad it went well!

Ed

Congrats! I have a show next week that I do not feel ready for...probably just a bit of nerves. I was very well-received last year at this event, and have a whole new show for them...but I want to make it better than year, which is why--I think--I am nervous.

I am opening with the torn paer to mouth streamer effect, followed by a comedy routine using the Magic Coloring Book, calling a couple of kids on stage to help. There will be some antics with expandable wands, etc.

My close for the show will be a D'Lite routine set to music (no patter at all), followed up with the Bag-O-Lites and a finale with red throw coils.

I will post the results later!

@worldofwondermagic I'm betting it's nerves.

I also did mouth coils and coloring book. The coloring book went over better than I ever imagines. Some of the adults said it was their favorite. I had four kids come up on stage. I handed one a black pen and the other three the primary colors, red, yellow and blue. I waved my hand over their heads and said I was giving them all magic powers for 60 seconds. Showed it blank. Girl with pen was my "artist." She waved the pen like a wand and "drew" the pictures. Then the kids with the colored markers, which for the older people in the room I said used to be called "magic markers." They waved them and colored the pictures. I think the key was I had the kids stand to the side. I would reveal the pages to them first, then pivoted to show the adults. They saw the kids' surprised reactions first, which I think made the magic better for adults. I really played up this simple effect and the reaction was just crazy.

My 11yo came up with the idea. She's now my "script writer."

Good luck with your show. Let us know how it went.

Ron

Here's my big secret from years of getting up on stage before audiences of all types, from 2 to 6,000. (In my day job I give a lot of speeches at conferences.)

EVERYONE gets nerves. ALWAYS. You NEVER out grow it. As Brad says, its a human fight or flight reaction.

So don't try to fight it. That way lies disaster. instead, embrace it and use it. Its just energy, its up to you to decide what the energy means.

Tell yourself its excitement and channel it into being an exciting performer.

Do that and, in addition to giving great performances, you will actually start to ENJOY it. Its really a great rush, when you don't let fear turn it into flight.

@Cyberqat I know this from giving a lot of talks at conferences myself. But there, I can use that energy to great benefit, moving from topic to topic. But I'm remembering magic is done better slowly to give people time to digest what they're seeing.

And to switch the subject for a bit (or maybe this should be a new thread), do you ever work a little magic in your business presentations?