Showmanship for Magicians Quotes

“Then deliberately wait for the applause. Wait ten seconds or more, if necessary. But wait. The applause will come. Look right at the audience. AND JUST WAIT. Even if you aren't good, someone will start to applaud and others will follow.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“You have a product to sell. The product is yourself as an entertainer. It is necessary for you to develop an entertainment product that is in great demand.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“But don't make the mistake of doing another trick for them. You've got 'em where you want 'em now. Don't risk loosing that smash finish. When they're yelling, clapping, whistling, and stamping, you're on top. If you go back and do another trick and they're content to let you finish, you've lost a lot of ground. Quit at the peak.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“SELLING the trick is more important than doing it.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“ROUTINE: A method of procedure, induced by circumstances, worked out with particularity, item by item, to be regularly followed until it becomes habitual, in the performance of entertainment.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“Thought is provoked by any situation when our instincts and habits fail to deliver us automatically.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“So it is best not to listen to the volunteer critic, unless one has reason to know that his taste is sound and his advice valuable”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“Good general rules for the presentation of a trick or a program of tricks follow: Gradually slow down your tempo as you approach the climax of your trick or act. During the last few moments of your final effect ritard the action more and more. Pause two or three seconds after each IMPORTANT phrase. Pause almost twice as long just before the phrase establishing a point. These are general rules for insuring clarity and adding punch through captured attention.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“Don't practice individual tricks. Practice the whole act as a unit. The trick should lose its individual identity now.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“You can start the planning of your act or routine with the smash climax first and work backwards.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“The strongest appeals are invariably to the instincts, not to the mind. When you appeal to the mind, thought is necessary and sometimes reflection. To convince the mind, argument is necessary. And sometimes an argument is lost.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“The minute you stop selling yourself in the entertainment field and start selling your goods instead, that very minute you are starting to pick your own pocket.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians

“In order of importance general appeal responds first to the allure of outstanding personages, second to the reasons why people do things and third to the things people do.”
― Dariel Fitzkee, Showmanship for Magicians