If you’re like me, you’ve learned a few “everyday magic” tricks that you can do with things normal humans carry around in their pockets, and if you’re like me, you’ve discovered that it’s hard to casually do an awesome, perfectly practiced trick without being kind of socially awkward and dorky.
On The Jerx, Andy describes the state of mind you need to cultivate to do impromptu tricks for the people around you.
The final step in this post is about inner preparation. I think it’s valuable for everyone, but especially for people who don’t perform much because they get anxious when they do. You need to imagine approaching people with a different mindset than you may have considered in the past. You can’t think, “I’m going to fool this person,” or, “I’m going to impress this person with this trick.” You can’t even think, “I’m going to entertain this person,” or, “I’m going to give this person the gift of magic.” These are things you can’t control. Your mindset should be, “I’m going to perform this trick the best I can because I’m curious to see how this person will react to it.” Your goal isn’t to evoke something from them, you’re just collecting reactions. There is no failure in this activity. Even if you mess up the trick you still get to observe their reaction. “They noticed when I dropped the palmed coin,” is still a valid observation. The benefit of this is it will free you from getting hung up on needing a particular reaction and worrying if you are or aren’t getting it.
Project Slay-Them: Outer Preparation and Inner Preparation [Andy/The Jerx]
(Image: How to: Best rubber band magic trick EVER!
, Jester Jim, Youtube)