Since I am about to sing the praises for two idioms that contradict each other, it makes sense for me to talk about them separately first. So let’s do that.
 

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

This was written by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl[...]

Putting on big events often involves juggling a lot of moving pieces; timing everything, coordinating guests and staff, ensuring food arrives promptly, and of course, the evening's entertainment.

When it comes to considering the kind of entertainment you want at your event, there are all[...]

I am a huge fan of questions. I was always the kid who would endlessly ask “why?” until someone snapped. This curiosity of mine continued into university where I studied Philosophy and Psychology, two of my favourite subjects to read about to this day. For whatever reason, I have always loved[...]

Since this website is about furthering the world of magic, I have had to prevent myself from getting carried away and talking about all of the varied benefits of travelling. There are many advantages, but we're going to focus instead on those that relate to my favourite art form.

I cannot[...]

For anyone who reads everything I write every day, you may have noticed I didn’t write anything for yesterday. This, of course, flies in the face of my commitment to writing one post a day. (So even though this post may say it was posted on 12/7/2020, it is an out and out internet lie.[...]

So you're interested in hiring a magician for your wedding? Well, I am of course very biased in favour of this decision for a whole host of reasons I'm sure I don't have to specify! What does matter is whether or not having a magician at your wedding is a good fit for you on your special[...]

Whoever you are, and whatever you do, learning a skill of any kind is one of the best ways to improve yourself as a human being. Taking the time to break something down to its component parts and learn how to do it well, can be arduous, complicated and frustrating. On the other side of all that[...]

I know I briefly touched on what the hell I am doing with my life to have thought that posting regular articles about my thoughts and tips as a magician was not only warranted but somehow actually provide value. So I thought I would go into a bit more depth as to what it is I'm trying to achieve[...]

Oh yeah, we’re on a real “self-cleaning” spurt at the moment. Yesterday was all about grooming those overgrown visibly hairy areas of yours, and today we are going to look at the areas that you need to be cleaning and looking after. Some of these are boring but very necessary, so be sure to find[...]

We all know hygiene is essential. It’s part of our everyday life. It’s also an area that I did not give enough attention for far too long, always doing the bare minimum. After gaining a bit of experience working with people in our industry, though, I’ve managed to pick up a couple of tips around[...]

Hopefully, my ramblings over the last few days will have helped you with your heckling woes. I thought I would finish off with some more thoughts on managing hecklers in regards to another recent topic I touched on, characterisation.

The character or persona that you have chosen as your[...]

So, picking right up where I left off yesterday and on with some possible ways of handling our least favourite audience members.

1) Attack them

I would only recommend even considering this if you are up to scratch with your improvisation skills. I am not suggesting[...]

When it comes to hecklers, there are two main kinds, active and passive hecklers. Active hecklers are the ones who first come to mind, the loud abusive and often belligerent drunk who feels the need to interject his pearls of wisdom into your performance. The second type is the less invasive,[...]

I cannot stand hecklers. They are usually drunken idiots who interrupt the performance, always at a crucial moment, or ruin the flow of the effect I’m performing, resulting in a joke or magical moment not landing the way it should. If I could get prevent hecklers entirely, I[...]

Every magician, or at least every great magician, has a persona, or a character that they adopt when they walk out in front of their audience. This is, in fact, true of all performers, bar those who never take the time to create a persona and those who make their on, and off stage, persona’s one[...]

 I may still be ending my posts a little abruptly, so apologies for that. I certainly didn’t leave the impression that I would be doing another post on this topic so soon, to be honest, when I finished the post yesterday, I hadn’t[...]

Picking right up where I left off yesterday, I was now playing the role of the Gambler at the cabaret. There was already a costume, and with the assistance and guidance from both the Director and Choreographer doing the script, I was able to become “The[...]

Yesterday I talked about how the basics of how to create your character for when you are performing. Today I thought I would talk about my personal experiences with characterisation. After all, I do love talking about myself. Hopefully,[...]

This was terrifying for me. Aside from the fact that I am close up magician by trade! My mentors pushed me into it though, saying it would be a parlour or grand cabaret show rather than stage magic per se; it would make for proper[...]

Talk to yourself, listen to yourself and see what you have to say. After all, sometimes you need an expert’s opinion, and no-one knows you better than you do.

Plenty[...]

This is quite possibly one of the most terrifying things that we can do as human beings.

I’m always reminded of Jerry Seinfeld’s bit where he talks about how people[...]

Repetition, more repetition and even more repetition.

I realise you may well see the similarity to what I wrote yesterday. That is mildly intentional,[...]

Practice, more practice and even more practice.

I doubt that was really the answer you were looking for, though. As you are no doubt aware, magic[...]