Pitfalls of showing

magic to your friends

A

M e r c h a n t o f
G u i d e

M a g i c

CONTENTS
They know you are not magic......4
Prop grabbers..................................7
Do another one!..............................10
Being the centre of attention............13
How not to spill the beans................16
Quick tips.........................................20

Whats next.................................22
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The Authors
Ben Williams is a full time close up
magician and a member of The
Magic Circle.
He is head of sales at The Merchant
of Magic and a magic creator. His
magic tricks and books are sold
worldwide.

Dominic Reyes is an international

sleight of hand magician and a
member of The Magic Circle. He is
the founder of The Merchant of
Magic and a magic creator.

THEY KNOW YOU DONT

HAVE
MAGICAL POWERS

Your family and friends know you dont have magical powers. You are
just a normal person to them and now suddenly you are showing them
something amazing that they cant explain.
At first this will evoke certain responses within your friends. Immediately it will make them feel like you have
just out smarted them, this can be fun to play with but it is very easy to let your ego go over the top which
will leave you open to a big fall should they figure something out or pressure you till you crack next time you
perform something. It will be hard for your friends to take you seriously, although they will most likely be
excited about seeing magic each time the see you.
So how do you deal with this?
Try not to present your magic as a challenge. Take the approach of, I learnt something cool this week, would
you like to see? Try to focus on how interesting the magic is, and get them in the frame of mind that it is
amazing and their attention will shift to a just let it happen attitude rather than a you watch his hands and
well figure this out together approach. Let them know it is a bit of fun and it isnt to be taken too seriously.
You will have a certain amount of I know something you dont know about your performance, otherwise it
wouldnt be deemed as magic. It is how you deal with this that will determine how much your friends relax,
watch and enjoy the magic tricks as opposed to being on edge, not really watching and not treating it as fun
because they are just trying to figure out what you are doing.

Choose tricks that dont have a challenge or bet theme.

Make something else the source of the magic. Have the magic come from
another source, such as a special coin, a box, a wand or candle.
Dont change your personality while performing. They know you are not a
mystic from the far east, or a southern states hustler. Be yourself.
Dont hog the limelight. Make sure you pick the right times to show your
magic. Your family and friends are not a paying audience that have chosen
to watch you. Show them your stuff, then they are happy to see it.
Be honest. Dont compliment a friend on their ring or their watch, then go
into a trick. They may have enjoyed the compliment, then found it was just a
lead in to a trick and feel a little cheated.

HOW TO DEAL WITH

PROP GRABBERS

Friends at first have a tendency to grab at everything, theyll want to shuffle

the cards at all the wrong times, or theyll want to examine the coin really
closely if you have just bitten a chunk out of it. Theyll grab your sleeves if
you vanish something and they will test you with other objects, hey
Magicman, can you vanish this coin or this cigarette now?? Hey, magic
man, can you vanish this coin or this bottle now??
This is inevitable, its the curious nature of us
as human beings.
What you need to do is decide how you want to
play this. If you only want to perform a few
effects that are examinable at the beginning and
end then you can be fairly free to let them
examine things that is ok. The problem is that the
more you show these effects the more they will
zone in on times when you cannot let them see
everything. If your approach to letting them
touch your props is open then a question at the
wrong time, can I look at the coins now? can
really make you feel uncomfortable and highlight
weaknesses in your effect, this is not how you
want to feel when performing.
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You need to keep control. The more you let spectators look at your props,
the more control you are handing over to them. If you own your
performance and take control, simple actions like placing people where you
want them at the beginning, structuring your patter so you are engaging,
knowing your tricks back to front, will help to subconsciously suggest where
the limits are to your spectators. This will immediately make some people
just relax and watch It may only be the real tough cookies that still challenge
you and in this case you will have won over pretty much the whole crowd
and more often than not they will help you deal with the tough spectator by
telling him/her to just leave you alone.

Not letting them examine everything can

strengthen a performance rather than be seen as
a weakness in the effect.

DO ANOTHER ONE
OR
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO

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These questions are something that you will have to deal. Every person who
begins showing magic will be asked to, do another one! This can be
particularly problematic as some gimmicks make you look like you can do
amazing magic with anything, however the gimmick may only be tailored to
one trick.

The best advice we can give in this situation is to

practice your magic tricks well so you are comfortable
with them and be sure to let your friends know you
are only showing them one or possibly a couple of
magic tricks. There is no harm in saying at the
beginning, I have a couple of new magical things to
show you, do you want to see them? Theres only two
but I am sure you are going to love them!! This
directly says that you have two tricks to show and that
is all, yet it hasnt weakened your performance at all,
in fact it only helps to give you the control you need in
that situation. Explain that your magic takes a LONG
TIME to master, and you will only show them, magic
when its totally ready.

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If a new trick isnt

ready to show just tell
your friends you are
working on something
that will blow their
minds and it will be
worth the wait!

With new tricks it is important

to practice them properly and
give them the time they deserve,
we all have tricks that we dont
feel comfortable with because
somebody maybe figured the
method out one time or maybe
there is a move that hasnt been
practiced enough and it resulted
in a flash mid performance. The
discomfort here can easily be
attributed to the trick, but
usually (if you are honest with
yourself) it comes from a lack of
practice, and isnt necessarily a
fault with the effect. Keep your
magic fresh for your friends but
dont compromise on the
integrity of your performance

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Being the centre

of attention

13

This is something that will happen naturally when beginning to show magic. Maybe you are someone
who is naturally outgoing and an extrovert at heart so this will be second nature. If thats the case
GREAT, go forth and attract as much attention as you can with your magic!!
But then maybe you are not, maybe you are fascinated by magic yet shy in public, or just a regular
person with only a little shyness but also no desire to be the centre of attention in a normal setting,
how do you deal with this spotlight when its on you?

It can be overwhelming when you are surrounded by people and everyone wants to see what is going on. Its
important to remember that the reason they are watching you in the first place is that they are interested in
what you are doing. This is a positive thing and should be seen as that, use it to your advantage. They are
here to listen to you and to be entertained by you. If there are too many people around you and you are
worried about angles, ask them to back up a bit and maybe let some of the people at the back of the group
know you will go over and show it to them close up in a minute, a simple phrase like:

Everyone, thank you for being interested, but this looks much better close up, I tell
you what, if you tell me where you are sitting Ill come over and show you all in a
minute
A lot of people will feel pleased about that, they will feel like seeing it up close will give them more chance of
figuring it out or just a better viewing of the trick when it may actually help you out by moving them from a
bad angle.

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There is a lot of pressure in this situation but the pay

off can be huge and intensely gratifying, a huge
round of applause, screams and shouts, expletives
being blurted out or just stunned silence can feel
amazing when it is directed at you so when you feel
the pressure turn it into excitement for the reaction
you will get, as long as you keep control you will
have a blast, just remember this!
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How Not To Spill

The Beans

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When you first show magic to your friends the immediate response will be
that they want you to share the secret, you share other information with
your friends all the time, why would this be any different?

But DONT!!
A lot of your friends will be unaware that you have practiced hard behind closed
doors to produce this result, as one day you were just standard old Joe Bloggs
and now suddenly you are Mr Man of Mystery! The change to them is
instantaneous and they are unaware of all effort you have put into learning these
amazing magic tricks.
Ben Williams will paint a picture of his experiences for you...

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I began learning magic on a cold dark winters morning, the frost on the window-pane slowly melting
in the sharp sunrise... That is enough picture painting, Ill just get down to the nitty gritty! Showing
my friends and over the first year or two I had many friends want to learn how I was doing these
things and I refused to tell them. One day though my close friend was bugging me to teach him some
tricks, he was studying at College and performed juggling in his spare time, he was genuinely
interested in learning so I thought it would be a great idea if we both did magic together. I began
teaching him the basics and I supplied him with some props like cards and some rope and let him
watch some of my DVDs on the subject to help him get up to speed. However even with his want to
learn he very quickly found that he didnt have the time to practice as his commitments in life were
very different from mine at the time, he had lots of college work to do, a part time job to hold down
and a pretty rocking social life. All of these other things going on in his life meant that the magic took
a back seat, it quickly dawned on me that his interest and desire to learn was really just a frustration of
not knowing how it all worked. I believed that his commitment to learning juggling was a sure fire
sign that he would be committed to learning magic, this was not the case. If you think about it, he had
learned juggling off of his own back, he had the desire enough to go and seek out information about
the subject and spend time learning it himself. Although he wanted to learn magic and assured me he
would practice he was looking at me to provide a quick solution, this is not the case with magic, there
are no short cuts. If my friend had really wanted to learn, he would have trawled the internet and
found out information on the subject himself. It wasnt just that though, everyone goes through life on
their own path and his path was set in motion with his college courses, his job, commitments with rent,
being young and care free, all of these things contributed to filling up what time he had in his life,
there was simply no room to dedicate the time it takes to studying and practicing magic. Magic was
the weakest link in his life so it took a back seat...

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One of the problems with this situation is that I had spilled the beans and opened his eyes to our
world, he now finds it hard to be fooled which is a shame as he really enjoys the feeling. It is easy to
ruin the magic for someone like this, (just ask my wife!!) so just think twice or maybe three times
about letting someone in on the secrets, you wouldnt want to potentially ruin magic for the rest of
their lives would you?If someone wants to learn something I always say if they go off and learn
something, study it and practice it and come back and PERFORM it on me only then I will show them
something to help them progress, and I wont show them too much, it is a steep learning curve and it is
better if they take that journey themselves rather than being pulled up by you.

Remember, in the long run it is better for you and it is

better for them if you simply refuse to teach your
friends the secrets you know. Hold these secrets close.
Without them what you do is just a toy or game.

19

QUICK TIPS

20

Dont force your magic on your friends.

Never reveal even one secret.
Dont show unpracticed material.
Dont play the magic down.
Never repeat a trick to the same person
Dont say you got it from a magic shop.
Accept constructive feedback

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What next?

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Performing for your family and friends can be very rewarding. Magic is a
great hobby and can become a life long obsession. Showing a trick, leads
people to want more, and spurs you on to keep learning. However, to
develop further, you will need to take the next step and perform for the
public. The dynamics are quite different.

There are many places you can get experience of public

performance. Charity events, residential homes, local
school events are all great places to approach to see if they
would like you to entertain them for free. You help your
community and get valuable experience in the process.

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Here are a few articles related to this subject

that may help you:
Studying Close-Up Magic - Avoid the Traps
Magic Tricks for Magicians Vs Magic for the Public
Magic Needs Misdirection
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Copyright 2012
The Merchant of Magic Ltd
All Rights Reserved.
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