Spectators

[MarkoViner]

Hello, I'm fairly new to magic (6 - 7 months). I have been performing street magic for about a month or two. Now in these days of experience, I have figured something funny about spectators. Large amount of spectators are very interested in things you have to say, they want to hear the story you can tell for the trick your performing and everyone is having fun. Tho I have found a small amount of spectators who don't like this kind of thing, they are more straight to the point kind of thingy... In other words let's say you are doing the triumph... You start introducing the trick like Dai Vernon said ( talking about the guy who take the deck and shuffled it face up and face down ) and I started talking they were like yeah yeah get on the point already. And when I showed the final effect their reactions were like... meh that's ok... But then I tried a different angle so I didn't do tell stories and I was straight to the point. And I got a better reaction, so is it just me or is this how sometimes spectators think?

[s13zeTheDay]

I think you are running into a common problem that I used to run into often, and that is your spectators don't view you as an actual magician, but rather a person doing tricks. For example, when I was relatively new to magic, many people would always ask to see and shuffle the cards, and would harass me throughout the trick. Now that I have been performing for a while, it has been established that I am a magician and even if I use trick decks/gaffes (which I rarely use anyway) people just politely watch and get into the magic as opposed to trying to catch me

The main point is that you need your spectators to believe 1) you are not challenging them in any way 2) you really can do magic
The second part is the harder one, especially when performing for someone who has not seen you perform before. Though I'm no expert at it, I would suggest doing some very simple, very short, very strong effects to start out with in order to get your audience both amazed by and interested in the magic you are doing; they will then usually just appreciate everything you do after that if done well.

In general for street magic you need to know audience management skills, which will only come with time. They let you get out of any possibly sticky situations, e.g. if a spectator calls out a double or if they are heckling you. Again, with more performance/practice, these will develop.

FOR NOW though, the best thing you can do is be confident in what you are doing. If you don't know if you can pull off a move or don't know if the trick looked good to you, there no way a spectator will believe in the magic. You have to sell it 100%, and only then will the spectator stop focusing on magic as a challenge or a game to spot what you did and start focusing on the amazing things you are actually doing.

On a side note, keep up the performance! actual spectator reactions are 1000000 times better for helping you than a practice at home

[MarkoViner]

Thanks , glad this isn't just happening to me

[Albert]

Oh yeah, this happened to me heaps of times when I started out as well. Si3ze gave good explanations to your problem and what he said is something to keep in mind throughout.

This time or period is one of the magician's vulnerable moments (other than finding boredom due to hitting a plateau). If you give up here, which is very easy due to disappointment/embarrassment, then it's all over for you. Just believe in yourself and you need to start making a reputation for yourself as a magician and not just a cheater. That will also come with time

[s13zeTheDay]

I think I hit a plateau (not THE plateu, because there will probably be more) towards the beginning of this year, and just started working through it in the past months.

[MarkoViner]

I figured it out... Actually it depends in the situation your in. You see my mom and dads friends have came to visit us. I did my whole routine and added the talk and they were amazed. I just think it depends on the situation

[la0o9]

well, according to my experience, if they ask you for the trick or if they have nothing to do before you come and ask, they'll be really interested in what you have to say, also it's easier to get reactions if you perform it to the person of the opposite sex( something about the Alpha dog rule, when you make someone of the same gender feel inferior to you- which happens a lot when you're starting out- they'll lash out at you trying to screw you up)