Should You Choose Tricks That You Like?

I'm willing to bet that many tricks that magicians perform are those that fooled or impressed them. There's nothing wrong with learning and performing a trick that once entertained you, however, keep in mind that a trick may not play in your hands the way it did for someone else, which in my experience is a common occurrence. I know that I have numerous tricks that I have purchased or learned that didn’t get the reactions that I envisioned.

One problem with learning a trick that you have enjoyed is that it's tempting to copy the performer's presentation. Also, I think that far too many magicians become intrigued with a method or gimmicked prop and want to perform the trick. But just because a trick has a cool method that fooled you doesn’t mean that it will be entertaining when you perform it for others.

Should a magician learn and perform a trick that he or she doesn't like? I think the answer is yes if it's the best trick for your act, venue and audience. Speaking from personal experience, there are a couple of routines that in my act I didn't want to initially perform, but I thought could fill a gap. Some have become standards that I enjoy performing, even though they didn't make an impression on me when I saw them.

I don't want to discourage magicians from learning and performing tricks that you've seen others perform, it's natural, but speaking from personal experience, many of my reliable routines came from reading about them and having something click in my head. I think by reading about a trick without the presentation, as you can see on video, allows you to better picture how you may present the trick

Remember that entertaining with magic is not about performing the tricks that you like, it's all about creating an experience for your spectators through magic that they will like.