How to Prepare for a Magic Show - Part 1

I sense the need for a short series of articles dealing with "How to Prepare for a Magic Show." Beginners especially will hopefully benefit from the tips presented.

The young magician just starting out will no doubt feel the compulsion to string some tricks together and present them to an audience. He/she will need to know how to prepare for a Magic Show.

First of all, let's look at the tricks you have in your repertoire.

1. Do you have enough tricks?
2. Do you have variety?
3. Will they suit your audience?

1. It's a good question. How many tricks should you have in a Magic Show? There's no hard and fast rule for this.It depends on a number of factors, eg: the length you prefer for your show, whether you speak or have music playing, the pace of your performance, etc.

As a general rule, you can work on three minutes for each trick. This is an ideal time frame if you have 'patter' (ie: speech) to accompany the tricks. Much longer than three minutes may test the patience of your audience.

In the case of 'non-patter' you will finish the trick sooner than three minutes. (Don't try to stretch the trick too thinly, or again the audience may become bored and their minds wander.)

Having patter allows you much more freedom. You can joke, misdirect and otherwise pad a trick. This is harder to do without patter, so you'd need to cram more substance into your act, and so fill out the spaces.

For your first show, aim for 15-20 minutes duration. This way, 6 or 7 tricks at three minutes each