Break one of the four rules that follow and you'll waste the hours of practice that you've put in to perfect the tricks that you perform. Oh yes, hours of practice are required to make magic tricks look convincing. That's the fourth rule of magic, but we'll come to that in a moment.
1) A Magician Never Reveals How A Trick Is Done
If you do a trick well, people will ask you how you did it. It's guaranteed. But a magician never tells, because the moment someone knows how a trick is done, the mystery vanishes.
So resist the temptation to spill the beans. If necessary, perform another trick to take the pressure off, because the moment people know your secret, the time you took to learn the trick is effectively wasted.
There is of course one exception to the rule.
If you know someone who is genuinely interested in performing magic, and you can trust them not to spread the secret, give them all the encouragement that they need.
After all, new generations of magicians need to learn otherwise the secret of magic would die out.
2) Find The Right Audience
Your magic will have the greatest effect when you find the right audience. If people aren't in the right frame of mind your efforts will be lost on them. So don't just accost people at random and start showing them card tricks.
The best situation is when people ask you to show them some magic.
And once you find the right audience, don't hit them with trick after trick after trick. If you do that, they'll lose interest and the magical effect will be lost.
It's a fundamental rule of showbusiness - Always leave your audience wanting more. That's what creates part of the mystery that surrounds magicians. It's just a case of learning when to stop, as some people have more of an appetite for magic than others.
3) Quality Is Far More Important Than Quantity
Who cares whether you can do 100 or 200 tricks! Most people aren't ever likely to see you performing more than handful of different tricks.
So focus on a few of your favorite tricks and learn them to perfection.
Think about it. Would you rather see an amazing trick performed perfectly or a string of average tricks?
Just remember - A trick that isn't perfect isn't magic.
4) Practice, Practice, Practice
You've just learnt a new trick and you're keen to see what type of reaction it creates.
But if you really want to amaze people with your magic, don't even think about showing anyone until you can perform it perfectly every time.
And that means hours and hours of practice!
In fact some of the more complex, and therefore more spectacular tricks, might take weeks or even months of practice to get right.
And once a trick is perfect, practice some more.
Let's face it, if you perform a trick before you're ready, people will see through it and you'll compromise all the hours that you've already spent learning how to do it.
So remain patient and keep practicing. And when you finally pull the wraps off your latest trick it will be worthy of the name, magic.
