Anthony Hopkins terrified audiences not by screaming and raging but by holding immense power beneath a calm surface. Derren Brown applied the same principle to magic: the grandeur of your performance should be withheld, felt rather than seen. The more you hold back, the more the audience feels it.
Read MoreI used to tell audiences what I could do before I did it. Then I learned that the most powerful form of communication in performance is what you never say out loud. Bold statements are questioned. Tiny cues -- a glance, a pause, a slight adjustment in posture -- are believed without examination.
Read MoreThe most powerful communication in magic is the kind that looks accidental. When the audience thinks they caught something you did not intend to reveal, they trust it completely -- because they discovered it themselves. This is the art of apparently unintentional implication, and it changed how I think about every moment on stage.
Read MoreI spent years studying scripts and patter before I realized the most powerful thing I communicate in every performance is what I never bother to say out loud.
Read MoreThe audience has already decided how they feel about you before your first trick begins. I learned to control those decisions by controlling what I communicate without speaking.
Read MoreEveryone has a mental image of what a magician is. That image was my biggest obstacle until I found three words that made it irrelevant.
Read MoreMy performances got stronger the day I stopped filling every moment with words. The silence was terrifying at first. Then it became the most powerful tool I own.
Read MoreThe night I stopped offering to perform and started waiting to be asked, the reactions went through the roof. Reluctance is the most underrated tool in a performer's arsenal.
Read MoreI used to walk up to people at events and ask if they wanted to see something. It took me an embarrassingly long time to understand why that question killed the magic before it started.
Read MoreI spent two years trying to be bigger, louder, and more impressive on stage. Then I learned that the most powerful performances are defined by what the performer holds back.
Read MoreI used to walk into every performance loaded down with props, as if the magic lived inside the objects. Then I discovered that the most powerful starting condition is the one where the audience can see absolutely nothing.
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