The #1 Way We Know to Create a Successful Show

Is there gold right under your nose? There probably is and you just can’t see it.

Here is a simple exercise we are going to do. It’s simple but it’s probably one of the hardest things we’ll ever do.

First, we have to honestly, hands on our heart, say that we have accepted a particular premise. You’re going to have to trust me on this one because this is both true and fundamental to your success. By agreeing to trust me, you will be demolishing some of the last places where you may be hiding from your fears.

So here we go…

There are two ways that you can take to be the confident entertainer you desire to be: the FAST way and the SLOW way.

I urge you, I implore you, I am on bended knees and beg you, take the fast way. Yep, the fast way. I know. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Surely you should prepare as best as you can, right?

Nope, you are as ready as you will ever be to get in front of audiences. The one thing that will propel you so far ahead of your competitors and most important of all, your own expectations of what you are capable of, is to simply get in front of audiences. Stage time is the one thing you cannot buy and it is the ONE thing that will catapult you to where you want to be.

Taking the slow way means you hide in a never-ending list of things to do. Each of these things may be meaningful but they mean nothing without stage time. You can’t fake stage time. Some people try and think it doesn’t show. It does. I know. I’ve tried it.

If you’re familiar with the courses I offer, like Build Your Magic Show and Balloon Workshop Blueprint, you know that I always say I can save you time and money by making the mistakes for you. Well, here we go on that promise.

If you cannot, in your heart of hearts, accept that you need stage time more than anything else to gain the confidence you so desire, then all the wonderful mentoring, insights, tips, techniques, and money-saving ideas you try to get and stock up will be worthless to you because you will never use them. Your decision is neither right nor wrong; that’s just where you are right now in your journey. But remember, magic is meant to be done in front of people so there is no substitute for stage time.

Are you still with me? I hope so, I want you to grow as a person.

If you have accepted that getting in front of people is a priority, then get ready to do this simple thing.

Make two lists.

List A: Tricks/gags/effects you can do right now, without excuses, in front of people you don’t know

List B: Tricks/gags/effects you want to do

You see where this is going, don’t you?

Don’t cheat. Don’t over-inflate one list and under-inflate the other. You are the only person who will see this list. You need to show your hand in this round, lay those cards down on the table. You decide right now whether to soar or remain hobbled.

Feel like you are jumping in to the deep end? Don’t worry, I’m standing right here with the life buoy at the ready. I’ve done this myself. I know it can be scary, but I also know the potential outcomes … and they’re good.

No more instructions. It’s straightforward and there are no extra qualifiers needed here.

Get to it.

There you go. It wasn’t too bad, right?

List 1 is YOUR show at this time. It might be 30 minutes long, or 20 minutes, or 10, or 5, or 3. It doesn’t matter. Just turn whatever you have into a routine because the big thing that separates professional magicians from amateur magicians is pros do routines, not tricks.

Restaurant magicians don’t just walk up to a table and say, “Do you want to see a trick?” They may only do one trick, but it is always presented as a routine with an opener, a middle, and a closer. The opener and closer may only be a sincere hello and goodbye and the trick is sandwiched between. So if you have only one trick on your list A, then you have what you need to start getting stage time. It’s true.

Let me share a story with you. For years I wrote entire shows on paper, but I worked out every little nuance of the tricks. I could see the audience lapping up my shows; they couldn’t get enough of me. Then after many months, I would find an audience and try out my tricks—to disastrous results. The only thing I can credit myself for here is my stubbornness to cling to an idea that apparently didn’t work, that didn’t get me to where I wanted to be—and that’s a confident professional magician. I was continually disheartened but luckily, I kept coming back for more.

As I think back on this now, I can’t believe I didn’t say STOP. There has to be a better way to be a legitimate, performing professional entertainer. And let me tell you, some of those crash and burns I did were excruciatingly embarrassing. The worst of all was when I started busking and I didn’t want to be the beginner, I wanted to do full ‘circle shows’ on the big pitch, just like the seasoned street performers.

Finally I got it into my thick head that I needed to start small and work up from there. So I went to a quiet corner and started doing mini shows. These shows just basically had an opener, middle, and closer, maybe with another trick in the middle stuck in there. Get this: after ONE day of doing this, I felt more confident than I had ever felt during the 10 years I had been doing my old approach. I literally skipped back to my car. I was SO happy. This was my big aha moment.

So if you have one trick on your A list in front of you, and you want to get better FASTER, and you want to start doing longer shows more quickly, then grab your one trick and take a big breath and find a spot where there is a flow of meandering people. Stick a smile on your face and go do the trick.

Once you have done that and you become energised with your real potential which you didn’t know you had, then add another trick from your A list and your show is now longer. Add materials from your A list only. This is how you will build your show.

You can work on materials from your B list and migrate them over to your A list when you can do them, with no excuses, in front of people you do not know.

So right now, start making your lists. You will thank yourself later for doing this. Once you have your lists, write out, ON PAPER, the running order of your routine with all the gags included. Do this and you’ll find yourself leagues closer to being the professional entertainer you want to be.