i love magic, its awesome, but im afraid of the spot-light, any chance there is to perform i make an excuse, because i think im gunna mess up i geuss, any tips they would be helpfull

You need more confidence in yourself. If you screw up, ya screw up-no big deal. I used to shake and was scared when I performed. Now I'm loose and i don't care what anybody thinks. Just relaxe and you will be fine.

Heya...

The only to get over those nerves is to do it, do it, do it. Just do the magic. The nervous will leave, I promise.

And don't sweat messing up. Remember, people want to be entertained...so if you mess up, just making it entertaining, and then move to another trick. Honestly, you would be amazed how it's no big deal. People in their basic humanity, want to see others succeed.

Good luck!

every now and then i do the thing where i start shaking and get all nervous. if i mess up i try to make a joke out of it. but even if you do mess up thres no big deal about. nobody is perfect.

When I was in college I started playing guitar, mostly Metallica. I met a guy who loved to play Metallica and we would jam together at our homes. He found some local bars with good Open Mic nights and said "lets go jam". I remember what happened the second we started playing. I was shaking, afraid I would screw up and forget the words and all that. After about 1 minute all was fine.

Same with magic. When I first started performing for friends and family I would get nervous and my hands would shake a little. No good when trying to handle or manipulate cards. It quickly passed and doesn't happen any more. Also, a lot of the time I am performing I have been drinking. Have a few beers with dinner or at a BBQ or because I am performing in a bar. I just blame the beer for any screw ups.

ya i remember the first time i performed magic, i was shaking mad, i did my first effect when i finished i thought to myself "hey i did good" and countuined to think that and hes right after about a minute or so you will warm up to your audince and be more...yourself i guess. Ready Nobodys perfect. so just think my name is nobody. lol

Terry

When I didn’t knew anything about penguin and never thought of becoming serious about magic I used to do the tricks to everyone but never did I felt nerves because I didn’t care if a mess the trick up or not. I was always relaxed having just a great time but then when I started to buy from penguin and started practicing I was just into getting that person fool badly but I realized that the only one who looked like a fool was I so now I am just going to have fun without worrying so much.

Well, here's an idea to kinda get rid of part of your stress....

There must be one trick that you've been performing for ever now....a trick that you know so well you could do it your eyes closed...a trick you could never screw up ("even totally drunk"...that's just to picture the idea).
I'm pretty sure every magicians owns one.

Now you take this trick and you put it as the first trick in your performance. Start your performance with this trick...even if you're totally stressed you'll never mess this trick up. The fact that everything went just fine with that first trick we'll give you self-confidence for the remaining of your performance. You'll feel more relieved...

I think the most difficult part of a performance is the first trick you perform...it is the key for the rest of the performance. If you screw up the first trick, you won't feel confident, get even more stressed out and end by maybe ruin the entire performance.

So give it a try and this might help you... I hope

Then I want to add something about what the other guys say:"I didn’t care if a mess the trick up or not"...
Well I totally disagree with that... I'm sorry guys but you should care if you mess a trick up. This means simply that you were not ready to perform this trick. I think once you decide to offer a performance to some people it should be flawless. That's the least they deserve. If you mess up a trick that kills the magic...

So haydini, here's another trick: just be sure you're totally prepared before trying to perform. Make sure you totally master the tricks you want to show...otherwise don't show them.

I'm pretty sure a lot of person might not agree with that, but it is my point of view...

It's not that bad if you mess up... There are plenty of fish in the sea.

A lot of people dont realise if you muck up! If your scared maby if you get into something that involves talking to lots of people, if you want to do stage but your nevous do a bit of street magic to your nabours and people!! Thats what i do but not to get my confidnce up more to show my tricks more!!

I have been a full time magician for 4 years now and part time 2 years before that. I get nervous before every show! Always afraid I will blow an effect. Even before my restaurant gigs I get a little nervous, not quite to the shakey part but where my stomach is upset.

I have talked to other performers about this and all the really good ones say the same thing. THEY get nervous before a show too. Feel the fear but go do it! When the show is over and the applause is there you know you did everything right.

Peter

Best advice that anyone can ever give you, honestly....






PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.




Most nervousness comes from a lack of confidence in what your doing. Practice moves until you do them without even trying...where you don't even think about it. Practice performing/patter until it just flows from you. Get out there even when your not doing magic and smile at people when they walk by. When your out, be the initiator of conversations instead of waiting for others to come to you. It's all hard work and practice, but eventually you start to become a people person of sorts...which helps out a lot. So basically:

Practice moves=no more fear of what your doing technically
Practice patter=you know what and how to say things
Practice communication skills/people skills=no more fear of people and impromtu situations


Take that advice (which most people dont because its either too hard or not what they want to hear)...but if you take that advice and do those three things...you won't have a problem with nervousness holding you back anymore, and you will be a great magician, not just someone who can move their hands around in a tricky way.


That's the #1 best advice you can ever, EVER get. Garunteed.

B_Magic is absolutely correct. He said that in a different thread one time, so I decided to try it out. After practicing my performance and sleights, I did the tricks at least 5 times better than when I used to perform. Now whenever I perform I feel so comfortable performing, that I rarely ever mess up. I still get a little nervous performing around strangers, but I just to need to practice my people skills some more.

I did the same thing two nights ago at my friend's kegger. I tried to keep my drinking to a minimum so that I would be sober enough to show people some stuff, and overall it was a very good time. I ended up getting a little carried away though with some kegstands and got too drunk to perform anymore.

What's good about performing with drunk people is that even if you do mess up, most of the time people don't know you did, and if you exposed something by accident, they probably didn't even see it!

Don't worry man alot of times when i am preforming for more than 3 people my hands start to shake don't let that bother you just concentrate , it's just your nerves running, your excited.Have fun man and go preform