We’ve all seen magicians and illusionists do magic tricks. And there is enough magic about that we have all seen bad magic as well as good magic. But here’s an important question: What is the difference? What makes good magic good and bad magic bad?

After ten years of performing close-up and street magic, I have come to realize that there are five elements that create a powerful performance of magic.

#5 A strong effect. And in this context, by effect, I mean what is supposed to happen that is considered magical. It could be a vanish, or a transformation or an act of mind reading. But it has to be a decent idea. Decent effects in magic are usually things that are obviously magical – easily communicable. The more direct, the better.

#4 The moves. Obviously, no trick requiring sleight-of-hand is going to work if the performer cannot adequately execute the moves required. That much is obvious. Mastering sleight-of-hand moves essentially comes down to careful practise and muscle learning.

#3 Elements of impossibility. These are the little things that stick in the audience’s mind when they recall the trick. The deck that the magician never touched, or the *** that could not have happened. Some would claim that this is part of the effect, but I disagree because a lot of the time you can perform the same effect without these elements and it won’t be as strong. Equally, some elements of impossibility are presentational and as such are not part of the effect itself.

#2 Audience involvement. And what I mean by this is slightly different to, but could include, audience participation. But what I mean by audience involvement could be a physical involvement – participation – or it could mean emotional involvement. Now, whether or not you have audience participation, an emotional involvement from audience members is essential if you are going to get reactions to your magic. And since David Blaine’s shows, all magic and all magicians are judged by the audience reactions they get.

#1 Good presentation. Any veteran magician will tell you this. And there’s a good reason for that: because it’s true. Even when you have all your moves down and you have chosen a reasonably strong effect idea, and you have elements of impossibility in place, the thing – the skill of the magician – that puts the whole lot together and makes it into a powerful magic performance is the presentation. It is this that communicates what is supposed to happen. It is this that communicates the whole scenario to the audience. It is this that essentially affects what the audience experiences.

As one such sufferer wrote “More often that not, amazement is followed by some annoying question or statement.”

1. “Do it again!” or “Do it for my friend!” – The request for repeat performance
2. “Do another!” - The requestion for more
3. “How did you do it? Tell me! Pleeeaaaase!” – The request for explanation
4. “That’s obvious. You did it by….[insert explanation here]” - The declaration of explanation.

The solutions:

What To Say To “Do It Again!”

In this case, you can just do another trick that is similar but not the same. Then again, there are some tricks that you can repeat several times to the same audience.

What To Say To “Do another!”

“I can’t. My spidey powers are worn out!” But if you perform tricks in sequence with a opener, a middle sequence and a finisher, very few will ask. There are ways to let people know the performance is over without saying so as such.

What To Say To “How do you do it?”

This question, in my experience is usually asked with a surprised tone. The asker gets higher pitched towards the end of the question. It is not asked in a matter of fact way, so why does it require a matter of fact answer?

The smart alec answer is “Very well.” But if you don’t want to be flippant there are other ways to handle this question.

I usually just laugh off questions like “How do you do that?” or take it as rhetorical and come out with, “Yea, it’s amazing isn’t it?”

What To Say To “That’s obvious. You did it by…”

Do you really have to say anything to this? Or just do the Spok thing and mysteriously say, “Did I?”

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The bottom line is to take all of these questions with a light heart. Don’t take them as personal attacks. They’ll only annoy you if you let them. And the only reason they annoy most people is because they don’t know what to say.

The Alternative Solution: So You Don’t Have To Memorize All These Answers To Questions

Better than learning the answers to all these questions, wouldn’t it be better if you could just prevent the people asking in the first place. Remember that in any performance situation, you are in charge. It’s your performance and if you can project that leadership, even if there are spectators who ask you questions like the ones above, they’ll accept whatever answers you give them. But more often than not, they won’t ask.

I have come to believe that any response you get to your performance, be it hysterical reactions or annoying questions, are a result OF your performance and as such they are all your fault. This may sound like I’m harshly planting blame with you and you may be defensively thinking, “But I didn’t do anything?!” But if you look at it from another point of view, it’s a good thing that it is your fault because it means that you have the full power to do something about it.

Darwin Ortiz points out in his book “Strong Magic” the difference between demonstrating magic and presenting a puzzle. Which means it all comes down to presentation. If you show people a puzzle, they want to solve it and if they can’t, they think it is their right to be given the solution.

In professional situations and even unprofessional situations with strangers, this sort of behaviour is uncommon. It only happens a lot when you perform to people who already know you and know what you’re like underneath the magician persona.