How to Become a Magician: Honest Advice From a Professional

I get asked "how do I become a magician?" regularly — usually by teenagers who've seen Dynamo on TV, adults who've discovered magic as a hobby, or parents asking on behalf of an obsessed child. After 29 years as a professional magician, here's my honest advice.

Start With the Basics

Every professional magician started the same way: learning basic card tricks, coin tricks, and sleight of hand from books and videos. The fundamentals haven't changed in decades — a classic pass, a double lift, a French drop, a palm. These are the building blocks that everything else is built on.

Where to Learn

• Books — The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braué is the single best starting point. It's been the recommended first book for decades for good reason. Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic covers all areas, not just cards.
• YouTube — there are thousands of free tutorials, but be selective. Look for established performers and educators, not random channels teaching badly-executed tricks.
• Online courses — sites like Vanishing Inc and Theory11 offer structured video courses from working professionals.
• Magic clubs — local magic societies meet regularly and are welcoming to beginners. The Magic Circle's Young Magicians Club is excellent for under-18s.

Practice Properly

There's a difference between practising and just doing the trick over and over. Proper practice means:

• Working in front of a mirror — so you can see what the audience sees, not what you see looking down at your hands
• Recording yourself — video doesn't lie. You'll spot bad angles, nervous habits, and timing issues that you can't see in real time
• Practising the whole routine, not just the secret move — the presentation, the patter, the timing, and the audience management are as important as the sleight of hand
• Performing for real people as soon as possible — family, friends, colleagues. The gap between performing in your bedroom and performing for a live audience is enormous, and you can only close it by doing it

Perform Everywhere

Before you can charge money, you need experience. Perform for anyone who'll watch: family dinners, house parties, the pub, friends' weddings (for free initially), local events, open mic nights. Every performance teaches you something — how to handle someone who grabs your cards, what to do when a trick goes wrong, how to approach a group of strangers.

The uncomfortable truth is that your first 100 performances will be rough. That's normal. Every professional magician went through a period of being not very good. The ones who succeeded are the ones who kept going.

Find Your Style

The magicians who build careers are the ones with a distinctive style. You can't just do the same tricks as everyone else — you need to find your voice. Are you funny? Mysterious? Casual? Intense? Do you prefer cards or coins or mind reading? Do you want to perform at weddings, corporate events, on stage, or on the street?

Your style will emerge naturally over time as you discover what feels authentic and what gets the best reactions. Don't force it — but pay attention to what works.

Going Professional

Turning magic from a hobby into a career is a big step. Some practical considerations:

When Are You Ready?

You're ready to start charging when you can comfortably perform for 2-3 hours at an event, handle any situation that arises, and consistently get strong reactions from strangers (not just friends who are being polite). For most people, this takes 2-5 years of serious practice and regular performing.

Building a Business

• Website — you need a professional website with videos, testimonials, and a clear way to enquire
• Videos — film yourself performing at actual events (with permission). Showreels of card flourishes to camera don't convince event organisers
• Reviews — ask every client for a review. Reviews build credibility faster than anything else
• Pricing — research what other magicians in your area charge. Start at the lower end and increase as your reputation builds
• Insurance — public liability insurance is essential for performing at events. Most venues and corporate clients will require it

The Financial Reality

Full-time professional magic is competitive. The top earners perform 200-300 events per year, but reaching that level takes years of building a reputation, collecting reviews, and marketing consistently. Many magicians work part-time alongside another job for several years before going full-time. That's a sensible approach — it reduces the financial pressure while you build your client base.

The Magic Circle

The Magic Circle is one of the world's most prestigious magic societies, based in London. Membership is by audition — you perform in front of a panel and are assessed on your technical ability and presentation. Membership levels range from M.M.C. through A.I.M.C. to M.I.M.C. (with Gold Star for exceptional ability). I won the former Magic Circle Young Magician of the Year competition back in 1997, which was a pivotal moment in my career.

Membership isn't essential for a career in magic, but it's a recognised mark of quality that clients respect.

Essential Qualities

The technical ability to do tricks is only part of being a successful magician. The qualities that actually determine whether you'll succeed:

• People skills — you need to be comfortable approaching strangers, reading body language, and managing social situations
• Resilience — tricks go wrong, audiences are tough, bookings dry up. You need to keep going
• Business sense — marketing, pricing, client management, accounting. Magic is a business
• Reliability — turning up on time, dressed appropriately, prepared and professional. This is where many talented magicians fail
• Continuous learning — the best magicians never stop developing new material, refining their technique, and evolving their style

My Advice

If you're serious about magic, start today. Buy a book, learn a trick, perform it for someone. Then learn another one. The path from beginner to professional is long, but it starts with that first trick performed for a real person.

And if you ever want to see what a professional close-up magic performance looks like at an event, watch my live videos — they'll give you a sense of what you're working towards.