A tip that I have used is to video myself really putting a coin in my hand and then trying to duplicate this using the sleight so that it looks the same, as I would do it naturally. Combine this with the biscuit exercise and you will have a very natural approach to your sleight of hand.

This way you are not fighting both your spectators and your subconscious self and can project a more relaxed persona. People pick up on a nervous character and will react accordingly.

NEW TRICKS AND ROUTINES

I find it very helpful, when learning or contemplating a new routine, to see if it fulfills my performing criteria.

I find it especially useful - when I have come from a magic convention and have seen all the latest moves on the market - to keep reminding myself what I want out of my performance and what I want the audience to receive.

I tend to try and watch a magic performance not from the magician’s perspective but as a spectator to see the effect before I try work out the method. This way I do not get bogged down in some ridiculous plot, which involves some crazy method to achieve some simple effect.

In other words keeping it as simple as possible without losing the magic effect. If the effect warrants sleight of hand so be it but I also will take the route of gaffed cards as easily if it plays big with the audience. I do not mean pulling out a Svengali deck that you can buy at every casino but double face cards and shortened cards where their purpose is to clean up the handling of an effect.

HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN PERFORMING CHARACTER.

Here I have found one's performing character is determined mainly through experience. Most performers do not set out to portray a character but simply try and perform magic tricks for their friends.

Performing as a magician means you must get into magic mode no matter how small a thought it might be ... but it is essential.

You cannot attain the magic if you have rushed from home after a hectic fight with the wife and rushed the kids to school and then put on a breezy face and perform, it is essential to stop for a moment and get into character. I was fortunate to perform with Tommy Wonder and I observed a master in the art of centering himself and his magic, it was quite an experience!

The more you practice this the more it becomes second nature. Over time this feeling will envelop your performance.

I have found breath work to be particularly useful in focusing your energy inward and entering onto the stage with a bigger experience or feeling.

I even do this in the beginning of a restaurant gig and also at business meetings when entering the office. All actors do this on stage all the time.

Experience does help create your character but there are some short cuts, which can be incorporated at a very early stage.

The more you can get the public to believe in your magic the more impact you will have as a performer and entertainer. This is where studying other magicians especially the top ones to see how they have put their own style into their magic.

It is essential to not try too hard in becoming Mr. Mysterious or Mr. Lance Burton when you are performing your first coin vanish but to make the people believe in you and your magic

Audiences are more sophisticated and no longer believe in real miracles, this is good and bad. It is good because you can make a big impact when you score a direct hit on their senses and are able to shake their preprogrammed perceptions - by presenting stunning magic that knocks their socks off!

It is also sad because the natural childlike essence has left us and we are no longer able to suspend disbelief for a short moment of magical entertainment. (Recommended reading: Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz)

A short trip to some remote country towns will allow one to see the impact that magic has on belief systems, for people with a closed mindset as opposed to those with more open minds. (Here I am reminded of the saying: "You should always keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out").

You are either a real magician with powers like the Sangoma or from the devil himself!!

It is also useful to study theater skills. Even dancing and singing classes aren’t too ridiculous to think about. These other skills, when applied to your magic, will enhance the magical experience. There are some subtle skills one has to learn. How many times have you been at a corporate function when the MD gets up to say a speech and doesn’t know how to speak into a mike? Or project his personality? It is the same for magicians.

Breath, bodywork and musicality are skills to encompass in one's learning to achieve the ultimate effect, the holy grail of magic ... leaving the audience with a small belief in real magic!!

Learn to become a better magician rather than a performer who shows off a couple of tricks, no matter how good the tricks are they aren’t magic on their own.

I have seen that performing magic is more than just showing tricks. It is an experience!!

On many occasions it has brought light into someone’s life when they weren’t expecting it, a moment when you and that person share something deeper.

I get tremendous pleasure performing one slight of hand move normally with money and then walk away as if it was a completely normal experience for me. The look of surprise - then joy - as he tries to figure out what just happened is worth all the hard hours spent on back-palming old one Rand coins!!

I need to prepare myself mentally in terms of routines or experience I want to create.

I believe when someone asks you to show a trick I do not do it straight away and sometimes just ignore the request because it is simply that, a trick and If I cant get the performance level higher than that I will not do it.

I love creating moments and there are many people who will remember just one trick I performed for them because I have refused to repeat it, thus with time the effect gets bigger in their mind. Next time someone tells you about the guy they saw on TV making an airplane disappear, you will see what I mean.

The mind will forget the magical details required to perform the illusion and rather will have a lasting memory of the effect itself…the very essence of performing magic! That’s why performing your magic as the layman sees it, for me, is the correct criteria.

It is all about perceptions and psychology.

TIPPING IS NOT A CITY IN CHINA!!

My thoughts on this subject have changed with the type of performances I do now. I use to advocate pushing for tips. But this was in the family market where you were part of the machinery simply to make the clients happy while their burger was been prepared.

Nowadays if I am at such a function and someone gives me a tip I will accept it. I do not feel it is out of place at such a venue. I not only perform magic but also do a lot of balloon animals at such functions and so I often would make more on tips than my fee from my balloon giveaways!!

Another venue where I have received tips is in bars where I have been the "magic barman" - but here I would share the tips with the other bar staff.