8 Key Steps to Practice and Rehearsal for Magicians

Imagine you have just been booked for the biggest magic show of your career. You practice each and every magic trick that you will do. You mastered each trick down cold. The big night comes. You show up early backstage. Your tricks are set up. You are ready to go.

The curtain opens and you calm the last remaining butterflies in your stomach. You take one final deep breath and step out on stage to begin your show. The audience collectively gasps as you begin to open your show. You begin to swell with pride until you realize you are not wearing any clothes!

Is this a dream? No! If all you do is practice your magic tricks, then every time you perform you might as well perform naked. You are just THAT exposed to failure. This article will show you eight key steps to the practice and rehearsal of your magic show. Proper preparation will help you create a better magic show. More importantly, it will make performing more enjoyable for you and your audience.

Practice

The purpose of practice is to master a magical effect. This is the first and most fundamental step in preparing to perform magic. After successfully practicing a magic trick, you are ready to perform a magic TRICK in public. Note that you are not ready to perform a magic SHOW in public.

The need for both practice and rehearsal applies to all forms of magic performances. Whether you do kids shows or street magic, you need both practice and rehearsal. Even “impromptu” shows need practice and rehearsal.

1. Learn the mechanics of the routine

The first step of practice is master the mechanics of the magic trick. You awkwardly work your way through each step of the trick making your fingers do things they were not designed to do. Over time as you repeat the effect your muscles begin to adjust the various sleights required for the magic trick. You will work out variations of the sleights and moves so that it fits how you like to perform.

Once the mechanics of the magic trick are mastered, you should be able to do the effect almost automatically. Bill Palmer told me that learning magic tricks is like learning a new piece of music. First you master the technical aspects of playing the piece. Practice the music until you can play it smoothly. But you don’t stop there. Keep practicing until you can play the piece beautifully.

The same concept applies to magic. Lean to do the magic trick. Practice until you can perform the magic trick smoothly. Keep practicing until you can perform the magic trick beautifully.

2. Make the effect your own

Most magic tricks come with a suggested script called patter. It’s called patter because most of the time the script amounts to aimless chattering. After you have mastered the technical aspects of the magic trick, you should create a presentation to complement your performing personality or style.

Examine the patter to see if there are important or key points from a dramatic or theatrical standpoint. These points include applause cues, verbal misdirection, creating tension, and so on. Make sure you are aware of these points and include them as you create your own script.

You know what has to happen technically as you learned the mechanics of the magic trick. Ask yourself if there are opportunities to increase the entertainment value or dramatic effect of the magic trick. Sometimes the suggested script is really good. Whit Hayden’s Comedy Linking Rings routine is a wonderfully crafted performance script. You can tell from the material that this routine was honed by many years of experience. Even with this routine there are opportunities to make it your own.

Make each magic trick your own by creating your own performance script. Keep the original dramatic structure from the trick’s patter unless there is a good theatrical reason from varying from it. Each magic trick you do should express the originality of your performing personality and style.

3. Prepare for the expected

There should never be something unexpected in a well practiced magic trick. The last step of practicing is becoming a detective. Your goal is to discover every possible way that the magic trick can go wrong. Even consider when an audience member intentionally tries to mess you up.

As you come across a potential problem, consider how you would handle it in your performance. Is there an out or alternative you can use if the problem happens? Things will go wrong as you perform you magic trick. You need to have a set of outs prepared to deal with every potential situation. This is a very important part of practicing. This step in practicing is what separates the amateur from the professional magician.

As problems occur in your performance, the audience will enjoy watching a quick witted performer dealing with an unexpected problem effectively and entertainingly. What the audience doesn’t know is that you are always ready for the expected.

Rehearsing

Rehearsal is the method of preparing a magic show for public performance. Rehearsal follows the practice of magic tricks. The goal is integrate a set of practiced magic tricks into a theatrically structured show. One of the best books on this subject is Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms (published by Dover Publications).

As you rehearse your show you will run through your show from the beginning to the end without stopping. If a mistake or problem occurs, deal with it just like you were in front of the audience. Tape the performance and review it for areas to improve.

Don’t overlook this step. The taping and review of your rehearsals is critical to your success in improving your show. Having others review the tape is also very helpful. I know it is not pleasant to have others critically review your magic show. Take it from me other people will catch important things you might overlook. The discomfort is worth it as your show will really improve.

The following steps in rehearsing are factors to consider for your magic show that don’t come up when you’re just practicing magic tricks. Practice and rehearsal complement each other to help you create a strong and entertaining magic show.

4. Set the stage for the rest of your show.

Your opening can make or break the rest of your magic show. This is the first opportunity for the audience to get to meet you. How you choose to open your show sets the pace and tone for the rest of the show.

Your opening introduces the audience to your performing personality and style. If you open with a hilarious and fast paced opening, you will lose your audience if you next effect is slow, serious, and dramatic. Consistency in your performing style means meeting the audience’s expectations you set during your opening.

The final purpose of your opening is to establish rapport with the audience. You need to develop a two way conversation with the audience. By that I mean that a great magic show is a give and take between the audience and the performer. This conversation is a tangible third party to the magic show. It is why live magic shows are so much more effective and entertaining than the same show viewed on tape or television. This audience/performer conversation occurs in live theater as well. It is an important aspect that is often overlooked by magicians.

Your magic show opening must answer the three questions every audience asks:

• Who are you?
• How are you going to entertain us?
• Why should we care?

5. Give them time to love you.

Your opening establishes rapport with your audience. As your magic show continues, your audience will want to show appreciation for what you are doing (hopefully!). A well designed show has applause cues built into it. This is one way the audience communicates back to you as the performer. Don’t underestimate the power and necessity of applause cues.

Laughter is another way for the audience to communicate with you. If you are entertaining using humor, then plan breaks for the audience to laugh. I call them laugh cues. Like applause cues, laugh cues gives the audience time to react to your performance. After your magic show is well rehearsed you should know when to expect laughs. Don’t step on the audience’s laughter.

People being entertained want to express it to the performer. Your well rehearsed show should entertain people. Give the audience the time and opportunity to let you know you are doing a good magic show.

6. Why your show is like a freight train

The answer is linkages. Magic tricks, like freight cars, must have a smooth connection to the one before and after it. One step in rehearsing is to make sure every magic trick flows logically and smoothly into the next. This is true whether you are doing a three trick set at a restaurant table or performing a two hour stage magic show.

You can spot an amateur magician by the choppiness of his show. Every trick is well practiced but none of the tricks flow into the next one.

7. Know where you are going before you get there

Besides creating a smooth flow between magic tricks, another key step in rehearsing is the overall design of the show. Your magic show is an organic whole. You need to consider the theatrical and dramatic impact of your whole show.

You can’t maintain high audience interests at all times. The show will build dramatic tension and provide release. The show should build to a high interest as you get to the end of the show. If you graph the audience’s level of interest it would look like stock chart. There will be peaks and valleys with an overall upward trend to the end. Henning Nelms has an extended and excellent discussion on the importance of dramatic structure to your show in his book mentioned above.

8. Send them home satisfied. . .almost.

Never leave audience fully satisfied. Leave them wanting just a little bit more. There is nothing sadder that a well designed magic show that just went on too long.

One of the things you will learn as you rehearse you show is where you have dead space. As you continue to rehearse you will tighten up your show. Continue to weed out slow or ineffective parts of the routines until the show is as tight and well designed as you can get it. At this point you will know exactly how long the show runs. Don’t be tempted to slow your show down just to stretch it out.

As you end your show, make sure you let the audience know you are coming to the end. Remember the audience doesn’t know your show. They don’t know your show is coming to an end unless you tell them.

Once you have finished your show let the audience know that you appreciated their time and participation. Remember that your magic show is a two way communication between you and the audience. They want to know you care about them. The key to a great magic show is that is not about you. It is about your audience.

You can even end the show by sharing warm fuzzies about how the true magic in life is a baby’s first breath or the sweet kiss of someone you love. This is a good way to end the show on a positive and high note. Your audience will be touched.

This article has set out eight key steps to practice and rehearsal for magicians. Try implementing these steps. You will be surprised with the improvement of your magic show. More importantly you will be pleased with the reactions you get from your audience. Treat your magic show like the fine art it can be. You will be glad you did. Don’t perform naked unless you’re at a nudist colony.

Magically yours,