I thought I knew what to say during my performances. Then I watched a video of myself and discovered I was rambling, repeating myself, and filling silence with meaningless noise. The first script I ever wrote changed everything.
Read MoreKen Weber's Big Three Reactions framework gave me a ruthless filter for every line in my script. Every word should target rapt attention, laughter, or astonishment. Everything else is filler -- and I discovered half my script was exactly that.
Read MoreA script is not just dialogue. It includes every physical action the audience sees -- where your hands go, where the props move, where you stand. When I started writing actions alongside words, my fumbling and dead time disappeared.
Read MoreGoing deeper into action scripting -- the level of physical detail that separates amateurs from professionals. How mapping every hand position, every prop transition, and every movement freed me to actually focus on the audience.
Read MoreA seemingly trivial question about which hand holds a prop determines your body position, your angle to the audience, your ability to gesture, and the entire visual picture. I learned this the hard way with a prop that kept ending up in the wrong hand.
Read MoreWhen Scott Alexander watched Dennis Miller perform for a week straight in Vegas, he discovered the ultimate truth about spontaneity: it's all scripted. That lesson changed everything about how I approach my own performances.
Read MoreI used to think memorizing a script word-for-word would make me sound robotic. The opposite turned out to be true. When I stopped thinking about what to say, I finally started thinking about how to say it.
Read MoreKen Weber's recording exercise is brutally simple: write your script, record yourself speaking it, then listen back with your eyes closed. The gap between what I wrote and what I heard changed everything about how I script my performances.
Read MoreThe best revision technique I have ever learned has nothing to do with writing. It is about not writing -- stepping away from the script and letting your subconscious do the work you cannot do consciously.
Read MoreKen Weber's voice technique turned everything I thought I knew about delivery upside down: stop pausing where commas and periods tell you to, and start pausing where the audience least expects it. Predictability is poison.
Read MoreThe iterative cycle of reading, recording, listening, and revising is how a rough script becomes a living performance. Each pass through the loop catches a different category of problem -- and the process never really ends.
Read MoreThe same ruthless editing principles that professional writers use on manuscripts apply directly to magic scripts. Every sentence must earn its place. Felix's consulting background in editing strategy documents gave him an unexpected advantage -- and a painful lesson.
Read MorePete McCabe's Scripting Magic changed what I thought scripting meant. It is not about writing patter. It is about crafting dialogue with the same rigor a playwright brings to a stage play. This book made me take my words as seriously as my effects.
Read MoreThe act is never finished. The professionals I admire most are always adjusting a line, tightening a transition, testing a new beat. Scott Alexander put it perfectly: the moment you think you have a perfect act, you are dead in the water.
Read MoreKen Weber's principle is unforgiving: if a line does not target rapt attention, laughter, or astonishment, it is filler. When I highlighted every line in my script and categorized it, the amount of filler I found was genuinely shocking.
Read MoreSome instruction IS necessary -- you have to tell a volunteer what to do. But most performers drown their magic in over-explanation. I learned to draw the line between essential instructions and padding that kills the moment.
Read MoreThe gaps between effects are where shows fall apart. Most performers have polished routines connected by awkward silence or 'For my next trick...' I learned that transitions are the cement that holds the bricks together -- and they need scripting just as much as the tricks themselves.
Read MoreKen Weber's 'reverse engineering' technique revealed something uncomfortable: the script I thought I was delivering and the script I was actually delivering were two very different things. The gap between intention and reality was wider than I ever imagined.
Read MoreFor years I heard the same vague feedback: 'Just be more entertaining.' 'Add more personality.' 'Make it fun.' Nobody told me HOW. It was not until I found specific scripting tools that I realized generic advice is not just unhelpful -- it is actively harmful.
Read MoreThe ultimate goal of scripting is words that sound completely natural and spontaneous. Scott Alexander calls it 'scripted but not scripty.' Getting there means solving a chain of problems that starts with sounding written and ends with killing every laugh in your set.
Read MoreCorporate event producers script everything -- lighting cues, stage directions, audience flow, even the walk-on music fade. The professionalism gap between their world and the magic world is staggering, and it taught me more about scripting than any magic book.
Read MoreThe best lines I have ever written did not come from writing sessions. They arrived in the shower, on a train, or at three in the morning when my conscious mind was somewhere else entirely. Here is why stepping away from a script is sometimes the most productive thing you can do.
Read MoreThe first thirty seconds of a performance carry more weight than the next ten minutes combined. I have rewritten the opening lines of my best pieces dozens of times each, and the return on that obsession has been enormous.
Read MoreYou know exactly what is going to happen. You have done this effect hundreds of times. The card will change, the prediction will match, the impossible will occur on cue. So how do you script a reaction that looks and feels genuinely surprised? This is the acting problem at the heart of all magic scripting.
Read MoreThe capstone of the scripting journey. The central paradox that took me years to understand: the more you prepare, the freer you become. The script is not a cage. It is the safety net that lets you take risks you could never take without it.
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