A while ago I wrote about a thing that kids do, which is asking performer to “do a back flip”. I happened to me while I was performing in Nebraska and I came up with a trick to do when if someone asks me that. After I came up with the trick, no one asked me to do a back flip…until last week!
It happened, and I got to finally do the trick and it hit hard!!
So then I decided to try to manufacture a kid asking me to do a back flip. What I’m doing is simply saying, “Is there anything you want to see me do?” It gets them to say “do a back flip” about 1 out of 6 times, which is good and feels organic.
Here’s the odd surprise, people have been asking me for some pretty specific magic tricks…and magic tricks that aren’t stereotype magic tricks. I had a kid ask me to “do a trick where the a ring comes off of a rope”. I think that people are exposed to a lot more magic than magicians think they are. Magic is really good for social media and especially things like TikTok, and combine that with things like America’s Got Talent and you have a very sophisticated audience you’re performing for.
I think the notion that you’re the first magician people are seeing is kinda false. They see tons of magic, maybe not in person, but audiences are definitely exposed to magic! That’s why you need to do good magic and not lame, tired ol’ tricks.
-Louie
