Secrets of Street Magic Revealed by a Street Magician
STREET MAGIC REVEALED
Street Magic was the name of a TV special by David Blaine in 1996 which transformed the definition of the words. The concept created by David Blaine was to approach strangers on the street by walking up to them and attempting to show them magic. The primary difference between David Blaine’s concept and what is known historically as street magic, besides the cameras, was his mobility and him physically approaching them by walking towards them. Before that street magic was when a magician would be standing or sitting in one spot and performing to an audience of people passing by.
When I was younger I didn’t have anywhere to perform. I didn’t have my own show or a venue where I could perform magic for people so I decided I would perform street magic which is also known as busking. The first thing I did was research the laws and attain a license to be a street performer. I bought a little table and a tablecloth and I wheeled it down to areas that had high amounts of foot traffic but were quiet.
On my first day I was armed with a repertoire of card tricks and set up waiting for someone to stop and see some magic. The first person who came around was a security guard coming to check out what I was doing. I had my license and was on the sidewalk complying with all the laws. The security probably had no idea what the law was and didn’t asked, he just saw that I wasn’t causing problems and continued his rounds. I continued to wait with cards on my table but no one stopped. Eventually someone came and gave me ten dollars, assuming that I was homeless and was shocked when I did a card trick to thank him. Another person came and asked me if I wanted a coffee or a sandwich. I explained that I was ok and quickly realized that I needed to change my approach.
The biggest problem was that I was shy and quick and not loud and boisterous like most street performers and I didn’t want to pretend to be in order to get a crowd. One of my inspirations is Bébel, a French magician who quietly performs incredible magic on the streets of Paris. I needed to meet him and decided to go to Paris. One of my friends introduced me to a magician who knew Bébel. We went to go see him perform outside of Mabillon, a famous cafe in Paris right beside Mabillon station. I watched from afar paying close attention to how he looked at people, how he tried to catch their eye and ask them a question, how he sucked them into his world.
I learnt a lot and started to put what I learnt into practice. Soon I was getting people to make eye contact and I would get them to slow, stop and turn towards me with a few words. It’s almost like intercepting a player in a game. If you start to early they put their blinders on and defenses up and try to charge again ignoring you. If you start too late they are already in the clear and won’t turn around or stop. You have to catch them off guard at the right moment and leverage that tension to get them to engage you.
The other thing you learn is what magic tricks you are going to perform and how you need to perform them. No one has any reason to trust you or give you their time so the first thing you must do is establish your credentials by performing magic that’s very quick, very visual, and very strong. That’s to gain their interest and once you have that you move quickly to use the attention they are giving you by performing another piece of magic that is just as quick and powerful.
Once people see strangers having a good time they begin to try to look at what you are doing and hover around from afar because you have what psychologists call social proof or social influence, meaning that because people approve of you and your actions that approval make them more interesting and attractive to other people. From there it’s a matter of making eye contact with the people floating around and giving them permission to come close.
Years later I would deal with the same avoidance all people who have ever manned a booth have dealt with. People want to browse without pressure. Everyone knows the feeling of walking around a store and being asked if you need any help. It’s a slightly stressful situation that people usually want to avoid. The problem is that when you are working a booth you need to talk to people or there is no point of you being there. So you have to figure out a way to quickly make contact with people, get them closer to you as soon as possible, and get them to relax so that they can hear what you have to say and see what you have to show them.
The thing that I see many street performers do is yell and make a lot of noise. They focus on the getting the attention and not any interest. Their performance is designed like a desperate salesman’s sales pitch. You know the one where they won’t stop talking because they don’t want you to walk away. But there are more important things than gaining people’s attention.
All of this stems from them, meaning performers, not owning the space, not owning the street. You see experiments of world class musicians like Joshua Bell playing in the subway and no one caring even and extremely expensive bottles of wine being sampled in Costco and no one noticing. Many argue that the stage isn’t set for them and without the right presentation that no one cares. They aren’t wrong but there is more. As an artist you have to connect with your audience and a large part is figuring out how you are going to share your world with them and how you are going to bring them into your world. No one cares unless you connect.
Performing in the street made me a better magician and communicator as I had to learn to be super sensitive to everything going on around me and everyone’s state. There is also a very deep universality in the skills and principals I learnt and I have successfully applied them to various areas of my art, my business as well as my life.
The biggest secret I discovered is… earned by doing the work and learning for yourself.
Working the streets is tough and really humbles you. It’s not how I would want to make my living and share my magic but it’s nice to know that if I had to I could.
