Trouble Performing for Friends and Relatives...

[slieghtlyimpossible]

Well the title pretty much sums it all up... I have vast amounts of trouble performing for anyone that i know well. I've been doing magic for about 3 years now and I am able to master new tricks and create my own versions of old ones. I can perform for my immediate family with no problem (i.e. Dad, Mom, Sisters). But if it is a friend or relative i feel really awkward and nervous. I don't get nervous at all when performing for strangers and i can really get into sharing my magic with them and i have a great time in doing it. I would never ask my friends to see a magic trick and i will only do one or two if they beg and plead and even then I'm afraid to do anything with even a couple of sleights (like an ACR routine). My magic seems subpar to anything that i can perform for random strangers. It seems like I should be afraid of performing for strangers not the other way around...

Anyway, My Question to anyone and everyone out there is...

Did you ever feel like this? And if so. How did you stop it?

Thanks for the help...

 

[DLeerium]

I guess the fear to perform for friends is the fact that they can ridicule you and maybe you are afraid of them catching on to the secrets of your effects?

I rarely perform for my friends, but if I do Ill say something like.

Hey tell me how this looks, and go into the trick from there.

Just don't snap into a completely different person when you perform, because your friends and family can tell, while strangers cannot.

 

[bd]

If you have trouble performing for people, perform more. For strangers and people you know alike.

And be yourself, not an actor.

 

[LuseifHo]

I experienced this before
I founda few solutions

1, dont perform to them. hah. not that good but still.
2. Practice and just do your best. After a while, they will realize that you arent pure crap and will actually begin to respect your skill.
3. Scrap what ever persona you have and be yourself. Making up a new character for people who know you is almost as fake as it can get. People will be thinking "what the hell just happened to him?"

I only perform for them when they ask. I never go up to them and ask if they wanna see something as they usually dont want to or they will be like "pft.... lame..." If they ask, they usually want to see something, which means they are accepting what you have to offer.

 

[gambit13]

Calm down

Hey its only natural that you get nervous. See i work in a bowling alley so i pretty much know everyone and i used to get scared that someone would see how i did it or they would see a flash of a sleight, really all you need to do is understand that if you do flash in front of them or they do critisize you that you can take that and turn it into an advantage. Like i performed Crunk by daniel madison for the first time today and i flashed. i used that and practiced a little harder and did it once again for someone else i knew and it went over great. See people will always burn you if you give them a reason to but if you act as if its as natural as breathing you can become one of the greatest magicians of all time. Well i hope you can use this in real time. Thanks for reading.

 

[slieghtlyimpossible]

That's not the problem...

it's not that i'm not myself when i perform.. or that i "get caught"...i've never been caught at any "moves" by a spectator...my friends and family are actually blown away by my magic...it's just that, even though i see their reactions i'm still uncomfortable in front of them...

Anyways, Thnx for taking the time to try and help...:

 

[tally-ho]

Maybe you feel that because they are your friends and family, they are saying you are better than you are, and when you perform for a stranger, you don't know if you will get as good a reaction. The only way to get better and become more natural is to perform as often as you can.

 

[r.zhang]

I used to have the same problem. The reason it happened with me was because i was afraid that if I performed for them too many times, they'd catch on. Then one day I just old myself "I don't care" and I just perform.

 

[slieghtlyimpossible]

I used to have the same problem. The reason it happened with me was because i was afraid that if I performed for them too many times, they'd catch on. Then one day I just old myself "I don't care" and I just perform.

That is really good advice..I'll really think about that..

 

[1201]

Its funny... I use to have a very similar problem with performing with my family. My issues with them was they seem to praise me so much that I felt like I would let them down. It really was more my insecurities that enhanced this. My solution was to keep performing for them over and over. After awhile it will go away. They still think I am awesome but now I know I am


1201