Recently when I have been working on my magic I have wanted to “spice” up my routines. I seem to come up with some neat ideas, however the problem is that the idea may seem cool to me, or maybe to other magicians but logically in the routine for a real audience it makes no sense. As well, trying to work on the patter so that the patter can justify the new element sometimes comes off as too contrived like a bad movie.

So as I work to add that spicy sauce to my magic routines I have to balance the spice with the overall feel and get the right flavor that tastes well. This takes a lot of time and experimentation and testing. What I do is I make the changes to a routine to spice it up and rehearse it. I try to record and video myself doing it. Then I leave it for a while and comeback and watch myself do it. If I feel it is ok then I start to test it with real people both magicians and non-magicians to get feedback. Then go back, or try testing it in a real show to see how the changes go.

My advice is if you want to make changes to a current routine to add spice take your time and make sure everything makes sense and test it out. Add some spice to your routines can greatly improve them if you do it right or be very bad if you don’t prepare well. Any ways back to trying to spice up a routine!

Aaron