Magicians: Stop Being A Clone And Start Being Unique
A few weeks ago we wrote a blog aimed mainly at magicians. It was a list of 11 points that
magicians should follow in order to be more successful. If you haven’t seen this blog yet CLICK HERE.
The feedback for this blog was great, not just from magicians but muggles as well! However, there was one point in this blog that several magicians didn’t understand. In case you haven’t read the blog yet this is what we put in this specific point...
“Stop trying to be (insert name of famous magician here) and start being you. I’ve met magicians that are competent performers but they are a cardboard copy of another magician. It’s obvious these magicians have watched a DVD or downloaded and copied the performance word for word. Create your own character, your own presentations and your own lines. Don’t be the best Jay Sankey be the first YOU.”
In this blog we are going to expand on this point and talk about why it’s vitally important for a magician to be unique if they want to be successful.
It’s tempting when you start learning magic to start emulating the magician you look up to and you are learning from. After all they get great reactions from their audiences and they are super successful and famous. So it follows that if you do exactly the same as they do you will achieve the same results. Unfortunately it doesn’t really work like that.
The best way to become famous isn’t by being a clone of a successful magician but to be
unique and different. Take David Blaine for example, when we started appearing on TV nobody was doing magic like him. His style was unique and different. Anyone copying him just got labelled as a David Blaine clone.
Using an example from England look no further than Derren Brown. Derren really changed the face of mentalism. Before him everyone was performing mentalism like Max Maven. Mentalist’s were portraying themselves as having real psychic powers. Derren turned things on it’s head and starting to talk about NLP, psychology and misdirection. Soon an entire generation of mentalists we’re doing exactly the same thing.
YOU DON’T WANT TO BE THE PERSON FOLLOWING THE TREND. YOU WANT TO BE THE PERSON SETTING IT!
Let’s use Slightly Unusual as an example. Daniel Chard and Nemed Phoenix are both amazing card magicians. However, they couldn’t be more different when you watch them. Even if they performed the same trick it would appear totally different to the spectator. They have worked really hard on developing their own style and character.
Watch these two videos of Nemed and Daniel in action and you will see exactly what we are saying.
Nemed 👇
Daniel 👇
So how do you develop your own style? Well for a start STOP copying other magicians that you look up to. It could be magicians that have published routines on DVD’s, It could be famous TV magicians or even YouTube and social media magicians. Who ever it is you need to stop copying their lines and characteristics. The lines and presentations they use work for them but it wouldn’t really work for you.
What are you into? Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of magic? Try creating routines based around the topics you are interested in. For example, I have numerous tricks I perform that involve superhero’s. I’m a big superhero geek so that works for me but it might not work for you. When you perform and the trick involves something you are passionate about it will be instantly become better.
Also start reading and studying books on creativity. It will help you create your own character. I would suggest taking classes in acting and stage craft and even stand up comedy (depending on your personal style). Look for inspiration from places other than magic and most of all be open to taking your act in a completely different situation.
The most important thing to remember is if you want to be success it will never happen unless to you make yourself marketable. And there best way to be marketable is to be unique. It would be difficult to be the best version Dynamo but it is easy to be the best version of you.
If you are reading this and you need a magician for your event then we can help. Just click the link below and we will get back to you ASAP.
