Many people are saying that they have done magic for 6 months to a year and that they are ready to do magic a a resteraunt. I think this is to little time to prepare technically and mentally. I have been doing magic for 3 years and would love to do resteraunt magic but I am going to wait until I am at least 17-18 giving me a total of 6 years under my belt befor I start. What do you guys think the minimum requirment should be.

I don't feel their should be a minimum, just that people should be more honest with themselves. Magic isn't the easiest business to get into and you messing up in a restaurant could potentially damage every other magician in your area.

How good should you be? I mean how much experience?

It depends on the Individual, but I would say for you to be mentally ready, wait until 16. No matter how good you are...

I would also say wait until about 1 year (maybe 2) AT LEAST of being confident performing magic to strangers...

I don't think it comes down to how "good" you are. It is more about how entertaining you are. I am a magician who has been working in the same restaurant for about a year now. I've worked othere...and I'm not saying that a year is a long time. But for a franchise such as the one I'm in, it is a pretty long time. Anyway, with that said...there is a whole lot more to entertaining as a magician and just performing great tricks to someone in a restaurant. When I go from table to table performing, I quickly build rapport (sp) with the people of that table. I'm actually scoping the table out as I approach. I'm not really, really old, but I'm a little older than some of the posters here. I have a family. I have three kids ranging form 2 and a half to 7 yrs of age. So if I'm approaching a table with kids or even a baby, I immediately start talking about their kids and my kids, etc. People love to answer questions about their kids such as:
How old is she/he? Is she small for her age?

Just different things like that. If you are younger and have younger brothers or sisters, you could apply the same type of approach.
Another thing I commonly do is ask if they are from around here. And any time you can make a joke out of something (non-insulting of course), then do so. The more you can make them laugh, the more entertaining you will be. You pretty much have to be a comedian and a magician. That's very important. And you have to be very outgoing. If that doesn't come natural for you, some good practice would be to approach total strangers in public areas (not restrooms) and start talking to them and show them a few tricks. You could call it "Blaining" or whatever, but don't try to be like him. Be yourself and find your own style and personality.

Back to your question. It can't be about how much experience because until you have done a restaurant or other paid venues, you have no experience...only practice. keep practicing. When you are completely comfortable with your routine, and communicating with total strangers effectively, then you might be ready. Don't enen consider you are until then.

Good luck.

So I just have to act the same way I act in class.

NO really that is how I act in class. But it seems that I need to do the tricks and be very spontanius(spl?) at the same time.