I have been a professional magician for 25 Years. I have performed all over the world in front of thousands of audiences. I have performed for audiences that have clapped politely. I have performed for audiences that have screamed and shouted. I have performed for audiences that have literally run away scared. I have even performed for one person that thought I was a devil worshiper! However I have never had an audience tell me that I was crap.
I know what you are thinking ‘why would Craig expect people to think he was crap’. The reason is a lot of people think magic is a bit rubbish. I have lost count of the amount of people who have said to me at events that they don’t like magic. This is before they have actually seen me perform. Afterwards I have the same conversation every time ‘I didn’t think I liked magic but I like you’.
So the question is why do some people hate magic? You might be planning an event that a magician would be perfect for but you are holding back because you think magic wouldn’t be suitable. If that’s the case then this blog is for you. I’m going to go through the reasons why people think magic is rubbish and more importantly why booking Slightly Unusual is the best thing that you can do.
You have seen a bad magician before
There are a lot of terrible magicians out there. I met a professional magician a few years ago who had been given a magic set for Christmas. By The middle of January he had printed business cards and was selling himself as a professional magician. This was three weeks after been given a beginner magic set. He saw an opportunity to make money and he decided to exploit it.
The trouble is a lot of people will form an opinion about magic as an art form based on seeing one magician perform. The problem is there are terrible magicians but there are also awesome magicians. If you saw a singer and he wasn’t very good you wouldn’t think all singers were terrible and therefore never listen to music again. You would just assume that particular singer was not very good. Unfortunately people don’t do the same with magicians. CLICK HERE to see why you should book a close up magician!
Magic is a technical art form
Let’s not beat around the bush, sleight of hand is very hard. If have been studying sleight of hand for over 20 Years and there are still things I cannot do. Magicians will literally spend eight hours a day practicing complicated moves that are designed to help fool you. However these same magicians will spend no time working on what actually makes a performance entertaining. I’m talking about scripting, stage awareness, charisma, developing a persona.
This is why you can see a magician who can do very impressive things but you feel totally bored and underwhelmed by the performance. The reason is technically the performance was excellent however it wasn’t entertaining. I remember seeing a magic lecture many years ago by a famous American Mentalist called Max Maven. He said “people start learning magic because they are socially inept and cannot understand how to make friends. They want to ability to do amazing things so that people will like them”.
Unfortunately most magicians do not have any formal training in performing arts. Most magicians will read a magic book and yet wouldn’t dream of touching a book like ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’. It’s why a lot of magicians are not engaging and instead bore their audiences. CLICK HERE to see why having a close up magician at your wedding is the best thing you can do!
You think that magic is for kids
A lot of people think that kids magicians and regular magicians are one in the same. People see a kids magician and think that if they hire that person for a corporate event or
a wedding their performance will be very child orientated. While it is true that there are some kids magicians that are also very good regular magicians the two performance styles are very different.
If, you hire a magician for your aren’t going to do the sort of tricks you see a birthday party entertainer do. They will have a different style and more importantly the routines and the tricks that they do will be completely different. Being a good kids magician is a very difficult thing to achieve. However please do not think that this performance will be anything like what a close up magician will offer your guests. It’s a totally different thing.
The 1980’s were a long time ago
If you ask your average person to describe a magician most people will use the words magic wand, cape, top hat, rabbit, sequinned jacket, tuxedo. Whilst it is true that in the 70’s and 80’s magicians dressed like this that hasn’t been the case for a long time.
These days most successful magicians make sure their image is up to date and cutting edge. TV Magicians like a David Blaine and Dynamo as well as performers like Derren Brown have brought the typical magician kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. If you picture an old fashioned magician in your head when you think about magic you probably need to check out a modern performance.
So there you have the main reasons why people think magic is crap. I promised I would tell you why booking Slightly Unusual is the best thing you could do for your event. The reason is that we really are the best. Our performances are modern and entertaining as well as funny without being cheesy. But don’t take my word for it CLICK HERE to visit our YouTube Channel. Check out our videos and more importantly watch how people react. Wouldn’t you like your guests to react like this. By the way don’t forget to subscribe while you are on YouTube.
