Magic Practice

All magic tricks should be practiced before you show it to someone. What are the best ways to practice magic tricks? I’m glad you asked!

Alone

Make sure no one is around when you practice your magic tricks, or at least no one is watching. You don’t want people to figure out how the trick works, before you’ve even performed it.

If you can’t find seclusion to practice your magic, sometimes you can just find a place where no one is watching, such as on a bus, subway or train. I’ve spent many a bus rides sitting with a deck of cards or a coin in my hands just practicing slights.

Repitition

Repetition is the most important part to being able to do something smoothly. You want to practice it so many times that you don’t even have to think about it. You want it to become muscle memory.

Just the slights

You don’t have to practice the whole routine at first. If there is a difficult part to the magic trick, you can practice just that part. These hidden parts that the audience doesn’t see are called slights.

Whole Routine

After you’ve got the slight committed to muscle memory, you’ll want to practice the whole routine. This includes your script, or all the things you’ll say as you’re performing the magic trick. Magicians sometimes refer to this as patter.

You’ll also want to make sure to include all your props in your practice, and how you’ll retrieve them during the performance.

Smoke and… Mirrors!

Performing in front of a mirror is an essential part of practicing a magic trick. This way you’ll be able to see you how the audience sees you.

Video

Many professional magicians will also record them self on video performing magic, so that they can see how their performance looked without having to focus on the mirror the entire time. Just set up a video camera pointing towards you as you practice, positioned in the same location and height that your audience will be. Height can be important, because some magic tricks can be angle dependent.

Often

The most important part of practicing the frequency. Practice well, and practice often!