Subject Index Learning Magic Routining Plotting Patter Showing Off Magic is one of those professions that seems impossible to get into, until you actually try to do it. However, you'll soon find that there are lots of magicians out there who make their livings teaching magic... selling books and props, running magic stores and selling information through the mail. Some of them are real magicians who want to help others... for a price. Others are people who can't figure out how the heck to make a living actually performing magic. Although I do teach magic tricks on the "Learn Magic" page, I know that anyone can learn a few tricks at nearly every library. Just go to one of the two sections called "magic." It will be the section beside the books on card games and backgammon, etc, not the "magic" section near the Bibles and Korans! Of course, you can also buy props from any local magic shop, and from most novelty shops. Just get out the yellow pages and look up "Magic Vendors." But there is a difference between knowing a few tricks and being a magician. It is my intention to help beginning magic enthusiasts become magicians. Learn a few tricks from the library. Learn MAGIC from this web site! Learning Magic Okay, so I just said that you can learn magic from nearly any library, and you can buy magic props (equipment) from any local magic shop or nearly any novelty shop. Before you waste your money, start with the library. It's free (if you're too young or poor to pay taxes. If not, you've already paid for the service, many times over!) Besides learning how to do magic tricks, you'll need to learn how to do them in front of people. That may sound easy, but it's one of the hardest parts about learning magic! If you don't stand up in front of people and do your routine, then what's the point of doing it? To see if you can fool and entertain yourself? So this is what I suggest, to begin with. Get a book that says something like "101 Magic Tricks that Require No Skill!" Learn two or three of those tricks, and after you've practiced them in front of a mirror about a hundred times, do them in front of several of your friends and relatives who are least likely to laugh. Don't entertain all of them at once. You need to have a few chances in front of different people, before you'll actually be able to do your "no-skill" magic without totally messing up and ruining everything! This requires intestinal fortitude! (Kids, that big, stupid phrase just means that it takes guts.) Routining A "routine" is technically a combination of several magic tricks that all go together somehow. For instance, a white rope turns black, then it turns into a green handkerchief, and finally into a green parrot. That's a routine. In that case, there are three tricks that are related somehow and which flow naturally from one to the next. It's okay to do a magic trick by itself, but it's often more entertaining when you put several tricks together into a routine. Plotting "Plotting" is the organization of the show. When you plot a show, you're deciding which tricks and routines go in which order, where the music goes, what music goes there, etc. You'll need to plot your show, no matter what kind of show you do, unless, maybe you're doing table magic in restaurants. If that's the case, I recommend doing the routines that you think would be most appreciated at each table. Do a variety of routines, preferably not all card tricks or coin tricks, for instance. Also, in restaurants, you don't need as many routines. You can do the same tricks at one end of the restaurant that you just did at the other. For parlor shows, forty minutes of magic is pretty common. Start the show with one of your best routines, and end it strong also. If you have some weaker routines, or "time-fillers," put one of them between two strong routines. If you have two "fillers" together, I guarantee you'll lose the audience. You probably won't know the "fillers" from the "strong" routines until you've performed a few times, unfortunately. So keep that in mind as you go. Patter "Patter" is what you say while you're doing a magic trick or routine. If you do a silent routine to live music, you won't have to say much. Aside from that, you really have to take your patter seriously. A magician doesn't just get up and do magic tricks. A good magician is an entertainer. Entertaining with the magic is just as important as the magic itself. I guess there must be about four basic types of patter. If there are, they would be comedy, un-comedy, storytelling and poetry. Then, you could break those down into sub-categories, like teaching; safety messages, gospel (religious), etc. Whatever you come up with, don't venture into the fifth category (or the other sub-category?) which would be "naughty" patter. The reason not to cuss or tell dirty (or off-color) jokes is a simple matter of economics, if not morality. Dirty-minded people with filthy mouths don't have a problem with clean patter, if it's entertaining. However, clean-minded people with Listerine mouths do have a problem with cussing and dirty jokes. So, do the math. If your show is clean and fun, everyone is a potential client! If your show is not clean, only about ninety percent of the people are potential clients! Okay, it's a lower percentage than that. Here's why: nobody wants you telling dirty jokes or cussing in front of their impressionable children. Not only can't you do any children's shows with potty patter, or family shows, but you also can't do shows for most religious people (which could be anybody you don't know!) Just forget the off-color patter! We'll talk more about patter later. For now, just think alot about what you're going to say when you turn the handkerchief into the parrot. Try not to say "Oh, [expletive]!" One more thing, before I shut up about patter: don't do scary patter for little kids. You will never be invited back to the preschool (or wherever)! Not only that, you'll give children's magicians a bad name, and I'll be mad at you for that! Showing Off Okay, so you know some magic, you've got some cool routines, you know what to say, and now you want to show off. Do you have any money? That will make all the difference in what you decide to do next. There are four kinds of magic shows, or so I'm told. There is hand magic (also known as table magic), apparatus magic, stage illusion, and mental magic. (I've also noticed that some magicians put escape into a fifth category of its own. Why not.) If you have little or no money, you'll need to pursue hand magic or mental magic, for the time being. If you're pretty loaded, you might go for apparatus magic (if you're interested in that sort of thing). If you're just downright filthy rich, you can get into stage illusion and make up to tens of millions of dollars a year! Wow! But if you can afford to do that, I would suggest retiring as an alternative (if you're interested in that sort of thing). Here's the difference between the four: Hand magic is mostly sleight of hand. It requires the most magic skill, and is the most important kind of magic for a beginner (or professional!) to learn. After you get through with the book about "no-skill" tricks, I recommend (highly) learning sleight of hand with coins, cards, and anything else you can borrow from just any old bloke, if you have no coins of your own. Bear in mind, that hand magic is generally close-up magic. Mental magic is the psychic stuff, where you read people's minds, etc. Again, if you call yourself a psychic and make people believe you have real powers from within, I'll also get mad at you for being a charletan! So be good! Anyway, it will depend on if you have money or not, whether or not you spend it on your mentalism show. Also, I'm not sure that I would recommend mentalism if you want to do shows for small children. They like flashy magic that's very visual and/or funny. Colorful stuff... like apparatus magic, for instance. Apparatus magic is basically the mid-point between table magic and stage illusion. Generally speaking, an apparatus show is a parlor show. Meaning that it works in someone's living room, or on a small stage. Apparatus magic really is staged illusion, though, meaning that the magician is basically standing in front of an audience, and not sitting with them around a table, or entertaining just one or two people (as in with hand magic). An apparatus show can work well for a small group of twenty people, or up to two or three hundred people, if all the props you use are large and visible across the room. Finally, there's the stage illusion show. Magicians usually simply call stage illusion "illusion," although all magic is technically illusion (unless it's the magic that only God can do). The difference between stage illusion and apparatus magic is basically the scale of the magic. While a parlor magician may make a dove vanish, a stage magician will probably make a beautiful woman vanish, or an elephant. If you're ever in Las Vegas, watch Siegfried and Roy, or Lance Burton. Then, watch a magician on the small children's stage in front of that cool buffet in the Excalibur. That's the difference between stage illusion and apparatus magic. The other difference is the price for building one of the shows. An apparatus show could be built for a few hundred dollars. A stage show would usually require a few thousand dollars (or even a few million if you really want to show off!) There is much more advice on learning magic to come! Check back periodically to see the updates, and contact me at my e-mail address, kingsmagician@hotmail.com! Home Biography | Characters | Animals | Learn Magic Learn the Biz | References | Newsletter | Links © 2000 The King's Magician P.O. Box 56664 Phoenix, Arizona 85079 Design by Cubone.

Ah, the old rabbit-from-hat trick. The wand- a handy device for many a magician. Oh, boy. A card trick. You're so good, Uncle Louie.