There are some basic rules of magic. Break any one of them and you have ruined not only the magical mystery of the effect, but you lose the credibility and respect for taking the time to practice the effect to get it to perfection.
1. Don’t EVER tell the secret.
Most people will ask how you do a trick if you did it well. Just say “I never tell my secrets, sorry.” Most likely, they won’t persist. If they do, just say, “I am sorry, I just can’t.” Sometimes you can take the pressure off of this by performing another trick. Resist the urge to give in. The fun in magic lies in the secret. Tell them the secret and the mystery and fun is lost.
The masked magician with his “All the Secrets of Magic Revealed” might have gotten good ratings on Fox, but everyone from little children, to adults, to magicians have lost all respect for this man. When you’re performing you’ll gain respect from the audience, just don’t lose it. Trust me. Don’t tell the secret. Just don’t.
2. Only perform magic in the perfect situations.The one exception to this rule is teaching someone who is truly interested in performing magic. I never hesitate to share my secrets with fellow magicians, including people just getting started in magic. If someone is really interested in learning how to perform the trick but they haven’t done magic yet, hold off on telling them the secret to that trick, but teach them how to do a different trick — perhaps one of the magic tricks on this site!
Ideally, you should only perform when asked, but if they have never seen any magic before, test the audience out with one trick. Don’t ever assault someone by showing them trick after trick.
3. Leave them wanting more.
Part of the fun in magic lies in the audience wanting more. This also assures that you don’t overstay your welcome and start to bore someone. Some people like magic more than others, so you will have to experiment with this. This rule is is a classic in showbusiness.
4. Learning one trick very well is better than learning 100 tricks partially well.
The memory of one well performed trick will stick in the memories much better than lots of medicore tricks. Expand your knowledge by learning many tricks, but focus on only a handful to really perfect.
5. Practice to absolute perfection. Then practice some more.
Don’t ever perform a trick in front of an audience that you don’t know perfectly. This will take hours, sometimes days, and sometimes weeks and months to get a trick working perfectly. Do not compromise.
So you want called a great magician? You want people to call you a great card trick guy? A great magician? A great showman? A great person? A funny guy?
Then trust me on this, follow these rules strictly – and they will.