There’s an age old cliché that has been bothering me recently: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. It’s bothering me because it’s wrong, especially when I hear it applied to magicians and the opening of their act.

An example: at the International Convention recently, a friend and I made a pact; if within the first minute, we thought the act was rubbish, we’d leave. Ten seconds in, I was convinced that it was time to leave. The act’s introduction left me cold and it didn’t show any sign of improving.

But then, just as we were edging forward to leave our seats, something happened. I laughed. I laughed again, and again. It was one of the best acts I saw during the entire convention. This act was good, but their introduction wasn’t.

This happens all the time in magic so I wanted to point out that it is possible to save your introduction if you bomb within the first few minutes. You have to work way harder later in your act, but it is possible to turn your audience around after as poor introduction (whether it’s your fault or not). The key, I think, is to not stop looking at your introduction as your first minute with the group, but as your first performance and you’ll always be focused to give a great performance every single time.

I’ve seen a lot of magic performed over these past few months and there’s one word that keeps popping into my head and I’ve never heard magicians talk about it before. That word is relevance.

Magicians will always tell you that a magic performance must be entertaining and that it must be fooling (and I wholeheartedly agree with them), but in my mind, unless it’s relevant neither of those things really matter.

Here are some questions that I think every magician needs to ask themselves:

- Are you relevant for the audience and venue that you are performing for?

- Are your presentations relevant and up to date or are you still using patter from twenty years ago?

- Are your tricks relevant to your audience? This is the only way you’ll make them care about the tricks that you’re performing.

- Are your props relevant to your personality, age, performance style and the environment that you’re performing in?

In my mind, however technically good you are, or however funny your presentations are, you’ve already lost the battle if you can’t answer yes to all four of those questions.

Our great friend (and star of CoinRUNEque) Rune Klan appears on the cover of the November 2009 MAGIC Magazine:

The article was penned by Vanishing Inc. cofounder Joshua Jay and providers a great insight to this interesting Danish celebrity and close-up magician. We’re proud to have one of our best friends and biggest supporters features so prominently in the magic press!

For those looking for a little more of Rune’s amazing magic, we’re actively working on Rune’s book, set for a 2010 release.