Hi, my name is James Stanley and I live in Somerset in the UK. I am not a real magician, but I recently invented a magic trick, and I don't know any real magicians so I had to perform the trick myself.

The trick is presented as an Ancient Egyptian faith-healing donation box, and the trick is that the audience member places a coin in one of the 5 slots corresponding to the bodily senses that they want healed, and then I make a show of listening to the box, looking at the box, sniffing the box, etc., and I can use my magical connection to the Gods to work out what sense has been affected.

There are some pictures here: https://img.incoherency.co.uk/group/53.html

Last night I went to a kind-of party at a friend's house and he let me perform the trick. The audience (8 people) entirely consisted of people I've known for years, and although I'm pretty introverted generally, I am normally pretty confident among this group. I felt *very* nervous going up to start my performance.

Anyway, I started going through my patter about faith-healing in Ancient Egypt and I felt like the most ridiculous person in the world. I didn't know it would feel like this. I've seen magicians performing, and they make it all look so natural. It does not feel natural! Everything I had planned about the way I would pronounce important words, the way I would gesture, etc. all went straight out the window. I'm pretty sure I forgot half the story so it probably didn't even make sense. My wife said she could tell how nervous I was, but she thinks the others wouldn't have been able to tell. I think they would have been able to tell. Regardless, it would turn out that nervousness was the least of my problems!

As soon as I put the box down on the table, it started telling me there were coins inside empty slots. "Touch" and "Smell" were basically permanently activated. Disaster! And it was all downhill from there. I made an incredibly un-subtle excuse for stepping out of the room and trying to reboot it to see if things would improve, which they didn't, and upon my return I said "I'm going to level with you - I don't think the trick is going to work". But I ploughed on. I let the volunteer choose a coin and I turned away while she put it in the box. Thankfully she picked "Sound", so I was able to declare that I had successfully "heard" the Gods interacting with the box and it looked like the trick worked.

I did have a few more stages of the routine planned, with increasingly elaborate ways for people to put multiple coins inside the box, but I thought I'd quit while I was ahead, so I said something like "alright, thanks, that's enough because it's not going to work" and ended the routine.

I think I struggled to separate my own conception of what was going on from their conception of what was going on. I know how the routine is meant to go, but they don't. I know the box is giving false readings, but they don't. A better performer could have totally rescued the routine so that nobody would have known anything went wrong.

I also love talking about how stuff is made, so I ended up getting baited into revealing to them how it works, which I now regret.

Overall I am glad I had a go at doing it. I was surprised how intense it felt, even before it started going wrong, and even though they're my friends and there weren't all that many of them. I now have massive respect for magicians that can walk into big crowds of total strangers and perform amazing magic without a hint of nervousness.

Looking back, there are many things I learnt:

- Obviously I should spend more time checking that the electronics work before I try to do the performance. I think the issue is that the battery had run down a lot more than when I had been practising with it, which threw off the sensor readings. Not sure, need to investigate.

- At the end when I successfully identified that she had donated to "Sound" I should have triumphantly declared the routine a success and ended there, even though I originally planned more, because they don't know what I was planning.

- Even if she had picked "Touch" or "Smell", which I wouldn't have been able to distinguish since they were permanently activated, it would have been possible for a good performer to rescue the trick, because I could just say I'd narrowed it down to those two, and maybe she'd even give it away before I had to commit to one.

- At the end when they speculate about how it works, I should just leave them to wonder, and not bother correcting them when they make confidently incorrect statements about how it works that could not possibly work.

- If I need to step out of the room to fiddle with something, I should say I'm going to convene with the Gods. I shouldn't just say "hmmm, I don't think this is going to work, I need to be excused from the room for a moment".

- When I come back in after failing to fix the device, I shouldn't tell them I think it's not going to work, I should just confidently carry on. If it works it looks great, and if it doesn't work then I should apologise after, not before!

- Performing magic is way harder than it looks, even with a "self-working" trick.

- A self-working trick can also be a self-failing trick.

Thanks for reading.

@jstanley,

Thank you for sharing. The fact that you put yourself out there, even if it was for friends, is fantastic.

It also sounds like you learned some fantastic lessons.

Performing is going to get easier for you, as you get more comfortable and confident.


Good Luck,

Dave

Cheers Dave!

I second what Dave said. You put yourself out there. I congratulate you because it is a baptism by fire.

Magic is an act. You are playing a character. Rehearsal is important for a number of reasons, one of which you can discover things that can go wrong. Remember a cardinal rule: no one in the audience knows what you're doing until you do it.To me, the most important lesson is the distinction you made between your conception of what is going on versus the audience's conception of what is going on. Understanding the effect in the eyes of the audience sharpens the focus on selling it. Rehearsal is all about learning to do the effect in your sleep so that your conception of what is happening becomes second nature. That enables you to focus on selling the effect. And that will help with nervousness.

Stay with it!