How Do You Become a Magician?

You’ve heard, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s WRONG! If you do what you love…you’ll work at it nonstop, 24/7.

I feel like true professional magicians have the mindset of almost never shutting their brain off. They’re always thinking about a new bit, new trick, or improving something they’re already doing. So in that regard, they’re very similar. However, if you ask a group of professional magicians, “How did you become a magician?” the most common ground you’ll find is…they all did it differently. There is no perfect format or diagram you should follow that will guarantee any level of success. There are a lot of paths to success.

BUT!!! If I was forced to start back at the beginning…and still wanted to become a magician, this is what I would do.

What type of magic do you want to perform?

Think about all the different types of magic there are…close-up magic, parlor magic, stage magic, comedy magic, virtual magic, mentalism, escapes, etc. What do you want to perform? Get that in your head.

Ok, you have the type of magic you want to perform? Now…

THROW IT OUT!!!

It would be amazing to decide just that easily what you want to do. So many magicians in the earliest days of their career make declarations, such as: they’re “going to be a close-up, card magician”…which leads them to only study card tricks. Sometimes, they like to throw in, “That’s what I’m best at.”

Well…what if they’re wrong?

What if they’re an incredible stage performer, and have a talent for commanding an audience of 1,000 people…but they never know, because they’re always in a room with 15 people?

If you learn one thing from this article…learn EVERYTHING! Very seriously, inhale everything about magic. By doing that, you’re casting a much wider net. It’s possible that years into your career, you may read one sentence or see one trick that makes you completely change course. That’s what happened to me. One trick completely changed the way I viewed magic…and it didn’t cause me to change course until nearly a decade after I saw it. But it planted the seed.

Who are your clients?

The range of clients in my 20+ year career has floored me. I’ve performed at 4 person dinner parties, and been seen onstage at convention centers with 20,000 people. What type of clients are you performing for? Are you a corporate magician, strolling magician, wedding magician, birthday party magician, virtual magician, comedy club magician, retirement community magician? Maybe you want to do ticketed shows on big stages at performing arts centers. Decide who your clientele is.

Ok, you have the type of client you want to perform for? Now…

THROW IT OUT!!!

I know that seemed repetitive, but it really is in the same ballpark with types of magic. Again, cast a wide net. Learn about different types of clients and what the expectation is for entertainment at their events. Book an event for a different type of client to see if you like it. (Just remember to respect their event. They didn’t book you as a “test case” so don’t just book them as a “test case.”)

For example, what if your big goal is to be a corporate magician? Then, after having literally no interest in performing magic at weddings, you do it one time and absolutely love it. You literally may be an incredible wedding magician and would’ve never known it if you didn’t try.

In my own personal experience, I never really even set out to be a magician. I liked magic and thought it would be cool to do shows. I started performing at kids birthday parties when I was 16, because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. Never even crossed my mind to explore other options…simply because I didn’t really know they were out there. Then one day, I got booked as the magician for a Christmas party with about 20 adults. I want to make this clear. I walked out of that house an hour later and never did another kids party again.

Maybe there actually is a secret to becoming a magician.

Ready for it? Perform all the time! There’s no better learning technique you can do for yourself than performing. I told a fellow magician the other day: I can script something and rehearse it to perfection…but I will never be 100% sure of what will happen until it gets in front of an audience.

Best place to do get the reps in? In my opinion…restaurants!

I did strolling magic in restaurants for 14 years. On average, I did two hours a night, two nights a week, every week for 14 years. That comes very close to 3,000 hours I spent as a weekly strolling magician in fine dining restaurants…all the way down to fast food chains. That could be anywhere from 10-30 small groups of people per night. Not to mention all the shows I did when I wasn’t in a restaurant. I didn’t try out hundreds of tricks…I tried out thousands. When I say that I have four hours of material…it is the most carefully selected, picked apart, audience tested material that you will find anywhere…whittled down from likely more than 15 hours.

That’s why when I do strolling magic for corporate events, or strolling magic for weddings, I can have the rave reviews that I’m blessed to have. They see me for one or two hours. I saw the 3,000 hours of strolling magic in front of audiences, and the thousands of practice hours behind the scenes.

Start performing!

“The journey can change by itself,” said virtual magic shows.

Who could’ve predicted that after a nearly 20 year career, I would suddenly have to learn an entirely different type of magic for an entirely different type of audience to be performed in an entirely different setting? Sometimes, you can be almost forced to go in a different direction. Just know, you have to be willing to adapt.

I knew right out of the gate that I didn’t want to do virtual magic shows. Guess why? I had already done a virtual magic show for a client…more than 10 years earlier. True story. This was for a board room full of people that had me on a big screen with Skype. In 2020, I knew I didn’t want to migrate to Zoom, have a gallery full of people that I had to control, and do a Zoom magic show.

BUT!!! In the end, doing virtual magic shows ended up being one of most fun creative times in my life. I hired consultants, writers, producers, and created a fully interactive virtual magic show that I was beyond proud of. But it would’ve never happened if I hadn’t been willing to adapt.

Final encouragement…

You’re going to be bad. There’s no way around it. Accept it and get out there. But if you are listening to your audience, and listening to big time professionals who are willing to help guide you, improvement can be very quick.

Desi Arnaz was asked about his involvement in the creation of one of the most popular TV shows of all time, I Love Lucy. He simply pointed to the audience and said, “Those people out there…they tell you what’s good and what isn’t.” Listen to “those people,” learn everything you can, and start performing