I used to think sincerity was something you either had or you didn't. Turns out it's a performance skill -- one that starts with actually meaning what you say.
Read MoreAudiences have changed. They grew up on reality TV and social media and they can spot a phony in seconds. The old-school magician persona does not work anymore.
Read MoreI recorded myself performing and was horrified. I sounded like a bad period drama. Stilted phrases, archaic words, theatrical affectations -- nobody talks like that. Here is how I purged it.
Read MoreI confused confidence with swagger for an embarrassingly long time. Real confidence is quiet, earned, and audience-focused. Arrogance is loud, defensive, and self-focused. Here is how I learned the difference.
Read MoreEvery confident performer I have studied shares one trait: obsessive preparation. Confidence is not a personality type. It is the byproduct of being so prepared that fear has nothing left to feed on.
Read MoreEvery performer knows someone who walks into a room and the room shifts. They call it the 'It Factor' and most people assume you either have it or you don't. After years of studying what makes performers magnetic -- and trying to build that quality in myself from scratch -- I think the truth is more complicated and more hopeful than either camp admits.
Read MoreMagicians tend to study magic. That sounds obvious, but it is also the problem. The performers who develop the fastest stage presence are often the ones who train outside their discipline entirely -- in theater, dance, improvisation, public speaking. I resisted this idea for a long time. Then I stopped resisting it, and everything changed.
Read MoreThere is a test I apply to every performance now that has nothing to do with technique or method or scripting. It is brutally simple: after the show, would the audience want to sit down and have a drink with me? If the answer is no -- if they admired the magic but felt no connection to the person performing it -- then something fundamental is wrong.
Read MoreDenny Haney said something that sounds like it cannot possibly be true: it doesn't matter what you do, as long as they like you while you're doing it. For a long time I thought this was an exaggeration. Then I watched a performer break every rule I had learned and get the strongest reactions in the room, because the audience simply adored him. And I realized Haney was not exaggerating at all.
Read MoreThe last few posts have been about likability, presence, and connection. And every word was true. But there is a dangerous misreading of those principles that leads to performers who are charming and warm and completely forgettable -- because the audience never experienced anything impossible. The full formula is not 'just be likable.' It is 'be likable AND fool them.' Both halves matter.
Read MoreI spent years choosing effects because they were impressive. Then I figured out that the question is not 'what is a strong trick?' but 'what is the right trick for me?' Once I understood my character, half my repertoire disappeared -- and the half that remained became twice as powerful.
Read MoreI wrote a script for every routine in my show. The words were good. The structure was tight. And then I stood on stage and sounded like I was reading a term paper aloud. The gap between a well-written script and a natural-sounding performance nearly cost me everything I had built.
Read MoreThe difference between a performer who sounds rehearsed and one who sounds spontaneous often comes down to one thing: where they put the pauses. I learned to break the rhythm of my written sentences and discovered that silence, placed correctly, makes scripted words sound like genuine thought.
Read MoreI was performing at double the speed I should have been. When I finally forced myself to slow down -- genuinely slow down, not just slightly reduce my tempo -- everything changed. More laughs, more gasps, more moments of connection, and an audience that stayed with me instead of chasing me.
Read MoreAfter years of studying sincerity, emotional engineering, and the Big Three reactions, I discovered that every single one of them depends on the same foundation: a performer who is genuinely relaxed on stage. Tension kills sincerity. Tension kills timing. Tension kills connection. Relaxation is not the absence of effort -- it is the presence of mastery.
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