Do you get nervous before you perform?
Me too! Clammy hands, negative thoughts, acrobatic stomach, shaky hands.
All these can be symptoms of stage fright.
I’m a naturally shy person although I’m often told that I don’t come across as shy, well that’s just because I’ve gotten better at disguising it over the years.
As a young lad I didn’t get nervous when performing magic, I just enjoyed the reactions and the feeling of fooling people who I considered to be smarter than me.
After a few traumatic incidents my confidence was shattered and I lost my way.
I foolishly decided that a magician wasn’t who I really was or wanted to be.
Many years later life changed some more and I started to explore magic again, this soon progressed into a love of Mentalism and with that came the pressure of wanting my performances to be perceived as real and not just a trick that anybody could do once they’d learnt the secret.
Add to that mental health issues and social anxiety, it can be a real chore for me to even interact with another human being let alone perform something for them!
Ironically I don’t have any experience of performing on a stage or even in a professional capacity (although I did enter a local magic competition once!)
So why would you want to take advice from me?
Well, I have been in high pressure situations before; I worked as a nightclub doorman and a bodyguard for quite a few years and I’ve competed in martial arts.
Although performing magic might not be as intense as some of those situations, it can still be terrifying to perform for people you don’t know. And I believe I’ve learnt a lot of valuable lessons from my experiences and maybe you can too?
Let’s dive straight in to my 5 tips to help you overcome stage fright.
5: DIET
I recommend you limit your caffeine intake on the day of the performance. Eat a healthy meal a few hours before you are about to perform. A low fat meal with some complex carbohydrates like pasta or a jacket potato. Stay hydrated throughout the day and snack on fruits for energy.
4: RELAX
Practice controlled breathing or meditation.
Now I’m not suggesting you assume the lotus position and start chanting. Just be a bit more mindful and relax your thoughts. Don’t focus on what could go wrong, instead try to focus on the positive. Visualise your performance being successful. Close your eyes and imagine the audience laughing and cheering, and how good that makes you feel.
3: STRETCH
Stretch your body and loosen your muscles.
Take a walk, jump up and down, shake out your muscles and do whatever feels right to ease the feeling of anxiety before your performance.
2: APPEARANCE
Make yourself look good because when you look good, you’ll automatically feel good. I was once at a David Penn lecture and he said:
“Always try to dress smarter than your audience.”
Such simple advice but it’s advice that’s definitely worth repeating.
A tracksuit may be the ideal clothing to wear at the gym but you wouldn’t want to wear it at a gig!
I like to wear expensive aftershaves on special occasions, when I smell good and look good I feel great.
Also a smile goes a long way
Focus on the friendliest faces in the audience.
Connect with your audience; Smile, make eye contact, and think of them as your friends, not as a client. Create moments of laughter when you can, it will help both you and your audience relax.
Act natural and be yourself.
NUMBER 1: PREPARATION
Practise, practise and practise some more.
Don’t just practise a trick, drill it until it becomes second nature. This can be more difficult with Mentalism than with a magic trick. When I practised a magic trick, I would borrow the bathroom mirror (much to my sisters’ dismay) I’d sit and practise the moves or sleights until I fooled myself. With Mentalism that can be a little harder. I know there are some “tricks” or effects that have certain moves but what about those effects that don’t have any? How on earth do you practise something like PK touches?
One of my friends gave me some sage advice:
“A lot of the time you’ve just got to get out there and do it. You can practice scripts and things like billet work. But other stuff just has to be worked in the real world. Try to think of a way to always have an out for anything you’re not 100% confident with. The out can be as simple as “that tells me what I need to know, so I’m now sure you’ll be able to guess which card I reversed in this deck of cards before leaving the house”.”
The thing to remember is; Your audience never knows how it was supposed to look or how it was supposed to end, if it has ended or even if the routine/experiment has begun. That’s super powerful and can be used to your advantage.
In response to practising PK touches, Peter Turner had this to say:
With PK touches, practice on two empty chairs and perform as though they’re actual people. Script it properly and imagine each participant answers how they normally would.
Film it, watch it back and once you’ve got the script down, after several tighten ups, perform again but this time imagine a difficult spectator (the opposite end of the spectrum) how they would behave and answer.
That way you can plan your “out” when you bump into this type of situation and you won’t be unsettled. This stuff ultimately has to be done live. Just when you think you’ve experienced every type of quip or resistance a participant might put up, they’ll surprise you. The video will really help you learn what you actually look like, if you’re pulling a weird face or awkward gestures you can remove them. This will help give yourself the best chance of success before getting out in the real world and really practicing.
Nothings ever “finished” you’ll always find kinks when performing.
Ok, that’s my 5 tips for overcoming stage fright.
I hope you found this post useful and as always if you have any ideas, suggestions or questions for this blog, then please get in touch using the contact page or the comments section.
Thanks for reading.
Ryan