Do you believe in magic? Even if you are a skeptic, you can follow these tips to make other people believe that you are a real wizard. To perform tricks successfully you need skill, but thanks to practice you can still present a good show!
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Giving a Show
Step 1. Be confident
People are much more likely to believe in self-confident people, especially when it comes to magic. Even if your makeup isn't great, with the right attitude the audience won't notice.
The best wizards are charismatic. They use simple distraction techniques and sleight of hand to deceive the audience. If you make viewers smile and charm them, they will pay less attention to your hands
Step 2. Start with the basics
Learn the simple tricks first and move on to the advanced ones when you are more experienced. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- How to do a simple but effective sleight of hand.
- The trick of the glass and the hat is simple and will make your friends laugh a lot.
- The disappearance of a coin is one of the simplest magic tricks and one of the first you should learn.
Step 3. Involve the audience
If you pay attention to viewers, they will be hooked on you and start worrying about what they should say or do, instead of thinking about your words or actions. A classic distraction. Here are some ideas to start with:
- Reading the audience's mind is a trick that will always force viewers to think.
- Playing light as a feather is a fun way to get a friend involved, lifting him up as if he really weighs very little.
- How to cold read will help convince the public that you have psychic powers.
Step 4. Use props
Don't be afraid to use tools, better if scary, to create tension in the audience. Look for spectacular objects, which can help distract viewers, to shift their attention to something other than what you are doing. Try the following ideas:
- A wizard's toolbox.
- A spoon to fold.
- "Magic" paperclips.
- A magic wand from Harry Potter.
Step 5. Use your body
A good magician is always fully involved in his shows. Don't be afraid to take risks! When you are really good, you will be able to perform truly amazing physical feats:
- Getting rid of a straitjacket will keep the audience in suspense.
- Levitating will confuse and amaze the audience.
Step 6. Remember that people attend magic shows to be amazed
Don't be afraid to add explosions to your tricks or use fog machines. Some of the most impactful special effects include:
- Smoke coming out of the fingers.
- Lighting a fire in your hand, a great special effect that will scare the audience.
- Light a candle without touching the wick, to look like a real magician.
Part 2 of 4: Performing a Simple Card Trick
Step 1. Set up the trick by arranging cards in your hand
You will need a moment away from the audience to do this. Take a deck of French cards, put the ace of diamonds as the first card and the ace of hearts as the fifth. Keep 8 or 9 cards in your hand.
- Place the ace of diamonds perfectly behind the second card, so that it cannot be seen. If the alignment is not accurate to the millimeter, the trick will not be successful.
- Turn over the ace of hearts, then arrange the cards to the right and left of it so that they cover the two half-circles of the heart and the As of the card. The ace of hearts should now look like the ace of diamonds.
Step 2. Tell viewers that you are about to read their minds
You won't really do this, of course, but saying it will serve to distract attention from the actual makeup.
You can tell the audience something else if you prefer. Prepare your makeup as you see fit. If you want to say that you will turn the cards into a rabbit, go ahead. At the end of the show, the audience will understand the reason for your staging
Step 3. Ask an audience volunteer to examine your hand
Ask him to confirm what the cards are. If you have prepared the trick correctly, he will have no doubts about the ace of diamonds. Ask the person to sit down again.
Step 4. Have everyone "memorize a card"
You will continue the pretense of mind reading, just to prepare a different trick. Ask viewers to think long and hard so you can perceive their ideas.
To make the trick more difficult, ask viewers to memorize more cards from the deck. Will you be able to predict them all (a more remarkable feat) - or their effort to remember the cards will help you summon the rabbits, however you like
Step 5. Start getting confused about the cards you are holding
Examine them "thinking about their numbers" and argue that something is wrong. As you say those sentences, move the cards without attracting attention, so that the ace of hearts is recognizable. Make sure you don't make too obvious movements or the audience will understand the trick.
- Ask spectators if they remember all the cards you had in your hand. They should list them one by one. When they get to the ace, you should say, "Exactly… I thought so too." Then he shows the audience the new hand with the ace of hearts, without the ace of diamonds. Wow - has a card changed?
- Make sure that the real ace of diamonds always remains hidden under the second card in your hand. You shouldn't reveal it yet.
Step 6. Convince the audience that someone has "stolen" the ace of diamonds
Who tried to ruin your makeup? Who has a thing for the ace of diamonds? Accuse someone (in a friendly way, of course) of being a thief and ask for your card back. When everyone denies that you stole the robbery, say it doesn't matter who did it, because you'll still be able to get the ace back - thanks to magic.
Be confident and fun in this part of the makeup. If you can make it spectacular and distract the audience's attention from the cards, the "magic" will be more successful. Remember that viewers are there to have fun, not to see a real wizard in action
Step 7. Magically recover the ace of diamonds
You can do it however you like. You can sing to the cards, ask the audience to perform a ritual, or just hit the deck a couple of times, calling for the ace to appear on top. Convince the audience that you are in control of the cards and can control them as you please.
After completing the setup, uncover the ace of diamonds. You could turn the card over to the most skeptical spectator. Ta-da! Too bad you no longer have the strength to turn the cards into rabbits. Maybe next time
Part 3 of 4: Performing a Trick with a Coin
Step 1. Take a coin, explaining to the audience that you will absorb it from the skin
Your doctor has suggested that you do this, because he says you have a lack of iron. Viewers Don't Believe You? Let them watch.
This trick works best if you're sitting at a table alone. Viewers should be facing you, because if they were sitting on your sides, they could see your movements
Step 2. Keep your non-dominant hand under your chin and the other ready to rub the coin
Rest your elbow on the table and close your hand under your chin, into a fist, but not tight.
The position of the arms is essential for the success of the trick. You will understand why very soon
Step 3. Start by rubbing the coin on your elbow and dropping it "by accident"
Scrub, scrub, scrub and finally… oops! You used too much force and the coin fell on the table. No problem: you will immediately resume scrubbing.
Try to do this as credibly as possible. If you're not a good enough actor, viewers will know you're going to do the trick. You will have to convince them that this is a sincere mistake
Step 4. Pass the coin to the other hand
To do this, you have two options:
- Take the coin with both hands, giving the impression that you have placed it in the dominant one. In reality, you will make an unseen pass to the hand under the chin.
- Grab the coin with your dominant hand, but drop it on one side of the table into the other, which waits below. You will then have to lift your arm to resume the position you had at the beginning of the trick.
Step 5. Continue "scrubbing"
Resume the trick, moving the hand where the coin is no longer located against the elbow. Scrub, scrub, scrub… Can you feel it fade away! A few more passes are enough. That's it … Ta-da! The coin entered the arm. You already feel healthier. Where did the coin go? You have already given the viewers the answer; if they demand a more satisfactory explanation, you will not give it to them. Quite right?
Can you get the coin back? Mmh. Perhaps. You're tired after scrubbing so much, though. Magic is really exhausting; the public cannot understand
Step 6. Show the missing coin
At the right time, you can complete the second part of the trick (or decide to leave it unsolved, as you like). He confesses to the public that, in fact, the coin did not enter the skin. Without being seen, pass it into the fingers of the non-dominant hand. Then, approach a spectator and take the coin from their hair, shirt collar, or behind their ear. Does he also have magical powers?
When the viewer asks you how you did it, don't reveal it! Otherwise you could no longer propose that trick to people who know it. A good magician never reveals his secrets
Part 4 of 4: Performing a Math Trick
Step 1. Ask the audience to choose a number between 1 and 10, excluding extremes
Because? Because you have mathematical powers; not only will you be able to figure out through magic which number has been chosen, but also the age of a volunteer.
You can argue that this isn't real magic, but what trick is it? If you make the show fun, you can amaze your friends with your ability to manipulate numbers
Step 2. Ask a volunteer to multiply the number by 2
If the chosen number were 9, the result would now be 18. Pretend to pick the numbers at random. You can say, "Ok, now why don't we add… no, wait, multiply by 2".
Step 3. Ask the person to add 5 to the number
9 became 18 and 18 + 5 = 23. 23 is the number you will have to work on.
Step 4. Ask to multiply the number by 50
At this point you may need a calculator. In our example, 23 x 50 = 1150.
This stage is very suitable for convincing the audience that you are choosing random numbers. The result will become huge and hard to remember, even for you. Pretend to follow instinct
Step 5. Ask to add 1765 or 1764 to the number
Because? These are the first two numbers that came to your mind "by magic". The volunteer will have to choose the first if he has already completed the age at the time of the make-up or the second if not.
In our example, let's assume that the person has already completed the age of 1150 + 1765 = 2915
Step 6. Ask to subtract the four-digit year of birth number from the result
Now is the time to make the calculation more personal. If the number were 2915 and the volunteer was born in 1988, the operation to be done would be 2915 - 1988.
How much is 2915 - 1988? 927
Step 7. Ask the volunteer to tell you the final result
Thanks to this information, you will be able to find out the number he thought of and his age. The first digit is the number chosen, the others the age.
- Therefore, in our example, the volunteer is 27 years old and he chose the number 9.
- How did you guess? You are a math wizard!
