Be Prepared To Perform At All Times

As a magician you need to be ready at all times to perform a magic trick. Regardless of the situation, if you are in company and it comes into conversation that you are a magician, you should be at the ready to perform and hand out your business card.
For this reason you should prepare a few tricks specifically for those impromptu situations and if they require props, have them with you at all times. Many magicians carry a deck of cards with them at all times for this reason. A deck of cards is portable and there are a wide range of effects possible with cards. However you may also want to consider learning some coin tricks, elastic band tricks or mental effects.
There are also many brands of magicians watches that allow you to make spectacular time predictions that can be used as regular watches such as "Watch and Wear" and "Time Machine" watches. Check them out by visiting my online magic store.
One other thing anyone who wishes to be ahead of their competition is to dress the part always. When I first started out, I did not have the luxury of a website and Google Adwords – which by the way is a god send for any beginner magician who wants to become a semi pro. So I would try to get invited to parties by calling up friends an acquaintances and ask them where they were heading to on a party night and since they know I am a magician it was really easy to be invited. But as soon as I got there I would look around for social situations where I could introduce myself and my friends – especially if there was cute girl around. But I would let my friends get the action. Very soon I acquired quite a reputation to be the ‘guy’ to invite if there was a get together because they knew they could score some girls if I was around. The beauty of it was I never had to pay for drinks as the patrons there would notice what I was doing and would sometimes pass some remarks about what they saw to their friends. And I would just walk to them and show them some magic.
Now I know David Blaine, Criss Angel and Dynamo have their own image and all but I soon realised that I couldn’t compare myself with them. Also I wanted to be sort of like THE pick up artist back then having read The Game by Neil Strauss so I wanted to stand out. I needed everyone to go “Who is that guy?”. So I decided to invest in  couple suits.
Bear in mind it can get quite hot in Singapore so I decided I didn’t want my suits to be tailor made as the cloth used for tailor made suits make you really warm in the bistros that I get invited to. Luckily for me, I stumbled across a shop at Far East Shopping Centre selling Prom Night Blazers. I tried on one and it felt comfortable so I decided to buy it. Sort of testing the water. And it worked. That night I was invited to a pub and the moment I walked in everybody was looking at me. Needless to say, I got to know a lot of people that night. People always commented that I looked really good and would ask me what I was doing for a living. When I told them I was a magician, they always asked me to show them a trick. Well after the trick and some drinks which they bought for me, I would part company with them after getting their contact details. Remember – never overstay your company. You introduce yourself, perform some tricks, hustle for a drink and leave after getting the digits. Was, rinse repeat.
Since I started doing the above, I get recognized almost at every pub, bistro and club that I get invited to. My bright and colourful  blazers have become so much integrated into my image that these days that when I leave my house in normal clothes, nobody recognizes me in shorts and T shirt. 
Yours Magically
Solomon
Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Choose Your Repertoire Carefully

When deciding on what tricks you are going to include within your act, take your time and consider all the factors involved before deciding on the tricks that will go into your set.

Pick tricks that you like and that suit your style and work for you. If you like the effect, chances are your enthusiasm for the effect will be apparent in your performance. If you are unsure about the value of a trick to you, you can always practice in front of a friend and ask for feedback.

Different magicians can get away with performing different tricks. It really depends on your image and your character. You may be suited to fast paced tricks such as "chop cup" and "ambitious card" whereas other people may find gambling demonstrations or mentalism is more suited to their character.

There may even be some people out there who can make mathematical tricks or spelling tricks entertaining!

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Get A Good Website

These days more and more people are looking to the web to book magicians. For this reason it is vital that you have a good website to help get you bookings. A poor looking, unprofessional website can make you appear like an unprofessional magician to your clients whereas a good website can help secure gigs that you may not otherwise have got.

You should also consider employing someone who knows about search engine optimisation to help you appear at the top of Google's search results for your chosen targeted key phrase.

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Tips On Articulation

When speaking to your audience, be wary of how you talk. Speak clearly and try not to mumble. Speak loudly and clearly at all times. If the audience cannot or struggle to understand you, the overall effect of your performance may suffer or they spectators may not follow your instructions correctly leading to errors in your tricks. If you have a strong accent, be extra careful, particularly when giving instructions.

If you have a problem in this area, you might want to speak confidently by reading paragraphs from a book everyday or better still practise and rehearse your trick with patter until you can fully articulate it without blinking.

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Find Your Niche In Magic

Whilst it's wise to be as versatile as possible, at some point you may want to focus your attention to an area of magic and focus your attention in that area.

For example, you may want to specialise in close up magic. This type of magic generally involves cards, coins, cups and balls or smaller props.

Some magicians may prefer "Mentalism" which includes mind reading, precognition, telekinesis, metal bending and esp.

Other magicians may prefer to focus on stage illusions or cabaret magic or even escapology.Whatever niche you decide to enter into, find something you enjoy doing and that suits your character and focus on it.

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Join A Magic Club

When in doubt, go to the expert.
- Italian proverb

Why not join a magic club or society? Joining such clubs will not only help you to learn new effects  but also to share experiences with fellow like minded people. It also may help to keep your passion for the ilk fresh and allow you to gain insight into other styles of magic.

Also, if you have any difficulties, you will never be short of people willing to help you progress.The insight you get from discussing your approach to magic with others will bring you insight that is priceless.

If you are a Singaporean who is interested in homing the art of magic but find that you don’t have the galls to try out street magic you might consider joining The Singapore Association Of Magicians.

The Singapore Association of Magicians was officially registered in Singapore on 27 September 1973 after it became the first Assembly of the Society Of American Magicians International to be formed outside the United States of America in March the same year.

The Society of American Magicians International itself is the World’s oldest Organization of magicians, having been founded in 1902. Today the society has more than 150 Assemblies (branches) with more than 7000 members- professional, semi-professional, amateur magicians and hobbyists- in the major cities of the United States, Canada, England, Rhodesia, India, Japan, Australia and in Singapore. Members of the Singapore Association of Magicians are Singaporeans and Malaysians who find magic to be a relaxing and creative hobby. From an initial small group of only 12 founder members the Association has grown and  exceeded to a total of over 50 members currently.

The club is constantly upgrading to serve it’s members better. It organizes monthly meetings and has an occasional guest night where members of the general public are invited through it’s secret doors to watch magic performances.

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..

Quality Over Quantity

When Houdini, the famous magician and escapologist was asked how many card tricks that he knew, he replied "Oh, maybe eleven or twelve". This came as a great surprise to many as from his apparent skill with a deck of cards, it would be easy to assume that he knew hundreds of cards tricks.

Unlike many magicians today, Harry didn't spend his life trying to digest every magic tip, secret or trick that he could, instead, he selectively focused his attention to a dozen or so tricks and perfected them. This was to became his entire repertoire.This only goes to prove that you do not necessarily know to have a massive range of tricks to be a top performer. Remember, quality is far more important that quantity! Strive to be great at the effects that you actually do perform rather than be poor at hundreds of tricks.

Yours Magically

Solomon

Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..