9 THINGS I LEARNED FROM
9 INCREDIBLE MAGICIANS
MagicMastery.cc
DANI DAORTIZ:
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
I was lucky enough to attend a Dani DaOritz master
class. Someone asked Dani about which false
shuffles he liked. Without hesitation Dani took the
deck and chucked it carelessly on the table.
"That's the best false shuffle".
Dani was getting at something that he's said time
and time again, that I've really tried to internalise.
Your attitude is a powerful deceptive technique.
Your attitude towards what you're doing informs
the audience how to feel about it.
If you throw the deck casually on the table, you are showing the audience you don't care about the
cards.
Because if you cared, you would treat them more carefully. If they were in a special order, you
wouldn't just chuck them on the table. Would you...?
GREGORY WILSON:
KEEP THE AUDIENCE CLOSE TOGETHER
Greg walked on stage to do his lecture. The theatre
was typical of a magic convention, people scattered
around different seats, some people sat far away,
some close.
"Lesson one, always have your audience sit close-
together!"
Greg actually moved everyone so they filled up
from the front and left no gaps.
And you know what, when he started his lecture,
the magic felt stronger, the atmosphere was better
(Tiny Steven showing Greg how it's done)
and the jokes were a lot funnier!
JASON LADANYE:
DEDICATED PRACTICE
Jason Ladanye told me, if you want to build muscle,
you hit the gym on a schedule, get a personal
trainer, track exactly what you're eating etc.
Magic should be treated with the same discipline.
Schedule your practice sessions, set goals, work on
sleights you find difficult.
There is room for casual practice. That's fine! But if
that is all you do you're limiting your potential.
BEN EARL:
ELIMINATE TENSION
4am at the second ever Session Convention.
I'm sat in the bar and somehow I found myself in a one
on one chat with one of my hero's in magic, Ben Earl.
I asked him for one piece of advice regarding card magic.
He said, "Eliminate Tension."
Sleights that cause you tension in your hands, arms or
whole body communicate that tension to the audience.
They sense something is off. It makes what you're doing
feel less fair.natural.
Watch Ben work, he's never tense. He has a light touch when handling cards. It changes how natural
his magic feels.
OLLIE MEALING:
STICK TO YOUR VISION
At one point me and Ollie lived together.
As well as drinking copious amounts of
coffee, we'd often brainstorm routines
and effects.
Ollie would come up with some ludicrously
strong effect that he had no method for.
I'd pitch him a bunch of viable methods,
all with some form of compromise on the
initial, somewhat unrealistic idea.
Ollie would reject them all.
He never wanted to compromise on the initial effect at all.
Not even a little bit.
A few days or weeks would go by and to my astonishment he'd have somehow come up with a
viable method that fit his initial vision.
I learned that you should never give up too easily on what you want the effect to be!
KEN DYNE:
READ LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!
I'm lucky to have been friends with Ken for 18+ years`!
His given me more useful advice than possibly anyone
else I've ever met.
But the one thing that I really got early on from our
friendship, was him encouraging me to read lots of
magic (and non-magic) books.
And I'm so glad I did! The best stuff really is in magic
books.
DARWIN ORTIZ:
THE MUST BELIEVE TEST
I'll keep re-reading Strong Magic until I can recite it from
memory.
The Must Believe Test is simple. It's a question:
'What is the one false premise the audience must believe in
order to view this effect as a miracle?'
Ask yourself this for every trick in your repertoire. When you
know the answer, you know what aspects to highlight and
dramatise. It's that simple.
DERREN BROWN:
TREAT THE MAGIC MOMENT SERIOUSLY
I'm glad I read Absolute Magic when I was young,
because it really affected how I treat magic moments.
The biggest takeaway for me was to treat the magic
moment seriously.
There are exceptions, but in general the formula I've
followed is to be light hearted and mess around during
the presentation of an effect, but when the magic
moment happens, treat it seriously.
After all, it is something impossible!
Side note: Making a joke during the magic reveal is the fastest way to kill the drama and impact
you've worked so hard to build.
JAMES BROWN:
EMBRACE THE MISTAKES!
James Brown is relentlessly bold with his magic.
He takes every misdirection opportunity he can
to create a strong effect.
And because he's so bold and prepared to take
massive risks, sometimes people catch him out.
But he doesn't care.
He's there to have fun.
And when someone catches him out, his attitude
shows he doesn't mind at all, which tells the
audience it's not a big deal that he's 'messed up'.
He's there to have fun.
Hearing James talk about taking risks in magic and being okay with things going wrong really
helped me relax and alleviate the fear I had of messing up a trick
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS, YOU'LL REALLY LOVE THE
CONTENT OVER AT MAGICMASTERY.CC
Magic Mastery is a membership site
I've built to teach, not only strong
magic effects, sleights and techniques,
but also the performance techniques
and magic theory!
But not magic theory in a 'wishy-
washy' way, magic theory in a way
where you can actually apply what
you've learned and see noticeable
improvements to your magic.
To find out more, visit
MagicMastery.cc
AND IF A FRIEND SENT YOU THIS...
You can sign up to the mailing list at magicmastery.cc/free and get more delightful
freebies like this!
MAGIC ADVICE FROM THE BEST MAGICIANS
IN THE WORLD...
Over on 'the gram', I'm soon going to start
posting short clips from interviews I've
done with some of the greatest magicians
in our industry.
These are super short, little gems of
wisdom.
Follow @MagicMastery and keep your
eyes peeled.
ABOUT THE CHAP THAT MADE THIS...
My name is Steven Bridges.
I've been studying magic for 19 years.
My performances on YouTube have been
viewed over 26,000,000 times and I've
gained a subscriber base of nearly 200,000.
I've been trusted by huge movie studios to
work with celebrities such as Donald Glover
and Brad Pitt on films as a magic consultant.
I've done thousands of street performances as well as working in high end venues such as
The Playboy Club in London as the resident magician.
I also have a nice beard - but maybe that's less relevant?
