Beginning Magic: Your First Show

Many beginners know how to perform simple magic tricks, but few think about putting them together into an entertaining set or show. Here’s advice on taking those tricks and organizing them into a set. We’ll even use some tricks explained here on the site. For purposes here, we’ll aim for about ten minutes worth of material with three for four tricks.

Professional magicians generally think of their shows as consisting of three parts: the opener, middle material and closer. The opener is a fast and flashy effect that catches spectators’ attention. In the middle, you can perform more involved tricks that require additional setup and take longer to reach their conclusions. Your closer should be your strongest effect so you can leave the best possible impression in your spectators’ minds. The closer is the last thing that your audience will remember about your set.

I feel strongly that it’s best to vary effects and use different props. It’s fine to perform an entire set with playing cards, but do keep the effects varied. For most performers, it’s not a good idea to have spectators continually pick cards for ten minutes just so you can find them.

Opening
As mentioned earlier, the opener should be fast and visual. One effect that can work for this is the Color Changing Handkerchief. Here, you appear to make a handkerchief of one color change colors by simply pushing it through your hand. A fast and flashy card effect that can work as an opener is “Fast Find.” And there’s that rubberband effect that we call “The Jumping Rubberband.”

Middle Ground
For middle material, a good effect is a Svengali Deck, a gimmicked card deck that allows you to quickly find a selected card and perform other impressive effects. Other card tricks that can work well as middle material are “Aces From Your Pocket,” “Incredible Spelling” and “The Reversed Card” You might also try some mentalism with “The Killer Prediction.”

The Closer
You’ll want to end with some strong material. For this, you may consider learning and performing “Cups & Balls. While professional magicians perform stunning, advanced versions of this magic classic, beginning magicians can purchase simple, pre-packaged versions that result in a mystifying sequence. Another strong closer could be “Professor’s Nightmare,” the classic rope trick.

Of course, what I’ve offered here are simply suggestions, based on established approaches to putting together a set and tricks that have been explained or mentioned on the site. The key is to select effects that will work best for your personality and combine them in a manner that is entertaining to spectators. And the next step? Practice, and get out there and perform.