Dealing with & understanding nerves

[Shodan]

Hi all,

I'm a self defence instructor and as such spend a lot of time coaching people on how to overcome "nerves" - aka the effect of adrenaline. I've noticed that this is a fairly common subject around here.

If anyone's interested I shall write a short article on the subject in the general magic forum which may give some insight into the psychology and physiology of this phenomenon. In my experience, once people really understand this concept they are far better equipped to deal with "nerves".

For now, let me just add to what everyone else has said about nerves with a couple of tricks and tactics:

Breathe deep and slow...you can even build this into the initial stages of a routine, e.g. blowing on a card to change it, using a long magic word etc. This will slow the heart rate and make you feel calmer.

Shakes? Foot tapping will disguise them. Also big broad sweeping gestures.

Before you perform, visualise as clearly as you can what you are going to do. When under stress the brain shuts down to a large extent and you have to rely on visual memory retained in the upper spinal column. Clear visulisation will help to stop you freezing/forgetting what to do.

There's a whole bunch of tricks and techniques, from posturing to action triggering to NLP. This is the stuff which works for street self defence scenarios, which is an extreme example of this kind of situation.

Anyways, lots more to add if anyone's interested.

Cheers,
David

[NickBurton]

Thanks for the great tips, i would like to see what other tips you have for calming nerves. I have my own ideas but i want to see what you have to say first.

[Zander]

Great thread David, I'm definitely interested in hearing more techniques and I think it may be very beneficial for other beginning magicians on Ellusionist to have some helpful tips for real world performing and nerves.

[QuantumEnigmas]

I have a question because I understand nerves in the realm of self defense more than in performance. I know sounds weird but I almost feel more prepared for an altercation than I do just performing an illusion. What might you suggest for helping the transition?

-QE

[Shodan]

Alrighty then,

The main contributor, in fact arguably the only contributor to nerves, is adrenaline. Adrenaline is the body's "rocket fuel" and was originally designed to provide us with a simple and direct solution to potentially dangerous situations, e.g. dealing with a ravenous sabre-toothed tiger looking for an appetiser (that's you!)

In any case, the world moved on but our adrenaline system did not. Since our environment has changed, so has our subconscious perspective of what constitutes a "threat" and as soon as the body perceives a threat, BANG, off goes the adrenaline.

Why is this important? Well, most of us mistake nerves for "fear", self doubt, stage fright etc. It's not at all - the body is simply percieving a potential threat and reacting to it the only way it knows how. "Nerves" are not a sign of weakness or incompetence.

How can performing magic be subconsiously percieved as being a dangerous situation? Public humilation, plain and simple. Here's a funny fact - studies show that people who are scared of public speaking (the majority) tend to equate it with death! The equation goes something like failure to speak well = public humiliation = lack of potential mates = death of your genes = death.

Weird but true.

So the problem we face as magicians is how to overcome this primal rocket fuel and perform subtle and precise movements in front of an audience. Let me explain a little about what adrenaline does to the body...

It shuts down the "sympathetic nervous system". Higher brain function, growth, digestion, peripheral vision, they all go kaput. One major and important effect is that it becomes remarkably difficult to perform fine motor actions - finger movement, any subtle hand or wrist movements become very difficult to execute. Gross motor actions are emphasised, big swings of the arms, running etc.

The adrenal reaction prepares the body for "fight or flight" - if you do neither then you FREEZE - stagefright is a classic example. Think bunny in the headlights.

What I shall now do is go into some practical, testable methods for controlling and to some extent using the adrenal reaction in a performance situation. A little background on self defence first: in a self defence situation, adrenaline is your friend. You will hit harder, run faster and feel less pain. Good self defence utilises gross motor actions to deal a powerful knockout blow and then escape; "bash and dash" tactics. Unfortunately, none of this applies to magicians! However, the situation is different and this can be turned to our advantage, as you are in no immediate physical danger, thus we can overcome some of the effects of adrenaline by using similar methods.

MAKE A COMMITMENT
In order to avoid "freeze", you must make a commitment to your course of action; in this case, performing magic. In self defence, we utilise a "fence" which is a defensive tactical posture. It's purpose is firstly to safeguard your personal space but most importantly to make a commitment to yourself to stay and fight. It is a physical way to make a conscious decision without the use of your malfunctioning sympathetic nervous system. As soon as the fence has been assumed, symptoms of shaking, voice shaking etc. are reduced.

So in magic, have a physical posture or action that says "I'm ready to perform" and this will help to control your nerves. When you practise, ALWAYS start with this posture.

PICK A CARD...ANY CARD
The steriotypical opening line. And steriotypes exist for a reason - there are lots of examples. Ever wondered why this is such a common opening line? Even if it isn't one you personally use (perhaps because it's such a cliche?) I bet you have a favourite effect to open with and I bet you use the same sentance to start it off.

This is an example of action triggering and it is your best friend for getting into a performance. Action triggering is a kind of self-brainwashing technique. In self defence, you may use a word or phrase, then hit a target. Over and over again, hundreds, thousands of times....until the point comes where you say the word and your fist practically launches itself. Action triggering is essenital to self defence because we have to overcome the intense discomfort at hitting someone else. Having a word or phrase trigger an action without thought is a neat way to avoid thinking "I'm going to hit him now".

The moral of this story is, always practise at least your opening line of patter in each effect, but especially in the first effect AND in your approach "Hi, would you mind if I showed you something amazing?". I only have to trigger my first strike; the rest come easily until the other guy stops hitting back. Once you're into your performance and the first effect has gone well, your adrenaline will settle down and you'll feel more confident. This advice is nothing new, but perhaps gives another perspective on why practising with patter is such a useful tool. And open with something SIMPLE, that you are SUPREMELY CONFIDENT with and always, always practise the "approach phrase" and first line of patter (at least) along with it.

SHAKES, WOBBLY VOICE AND VISIBLE SIGNS OF ADRENALINE
You will never stop being nervous. Each audience is new, even if your tricks are second nature you always have a nagging voice...maybe they'll spot what I'm doing, I'll fail..blah blah. Exactly the same in self defence...I KNOW I can knock someone out with a punch, I know I can take out their leg with a kick, I've done it a million times in training. But faced with a real opponent out on the street and my mind is flooded with doubt and the adrenaline goes to work. Maybe magicians even experience this to a greater extent, because to us, the effects are obvious, we know what's going on and that can make it harder to believe that the audience won't catch on too.

So nerves will always be with you. The more experienced magicians can testify to this fact. New people, new audience - the jitters will be there. As you gain experience you will maybe experience them less but they're never completeley gone. The key is therefore not to hope that the nerves will "go away", but rather to disguise them so no one even knows you're nervous.

Each of us has our own adrenaline symptoms. With me, its shakey arms and legs and a wobbly voice. Here's a few tactics for masking nerves:

Tap your feet to music to mask leg shakes.

Keep arms in motion near the beginning of a performance to minimise the appearance of arm shakes. Once you've achieved success with a good opener, your fine motor coordination will become more available and you'll be able to move on to more subtle sleights and effects.

Use breathing to regain control of your voice. Doormen at nightclubs often smoke to achieve this effect - taking a deep drag on the cigarette to mask the action of breathing deeply. I don't mean to say we should all take up smoking, but blowing on cards, or using long magic words will achieve a similar effect. Slow down your breathing, this will slow down your heart rate and reduce the effect of adrenaline on your system. In fact, the symptomes of adrenaline have been linked to heart rate; the higher your heart rate, the more severe (and varied) the adrenal symptomes become.

PICTURE IT!
Memory and descision making go out of the window when the pressure is on, so it is important to be prepared in advance. VISUALISE yourself starting the routine, going through your little ritual of posturing, triggering and succeeding in wowing the audience (important). Do this while you're getting ready to approach and you'll be much more likely to stick to your game plan.

IN CONCLUSION
All of the above combines to a powerful and practical system for using and understanding the adrenal reaction responsible for "nerves". It works in life or death self defence scenarios and has been passed down to me, and through me to my students, from some of the most experienced and potent authorities on self defence in the world. As I wrote the above I was struck by how much of what I was saying was "old news" - much of it you will have heard before, countless times. However, I hope I have shed some light on why these tricks and tactics work, and the understanding of the concepts has helped me ascend to a new level in coping with adrenaline in all its forms. In that at least I hope I have made an original contribution.

Go back to your videos and watch the likes of Brad performing for real people. Look at their posture, their little quirks and "rituals" that go with each effect. Phrases they use over and over with different audiences. These are examples of action triggering, or posturing, ways of making themselves confortable in a difficult situation. With experience you will find yourself doing all that naturally, but through understanding the concepts early your can shortcut through some of the "awkward phase" - maybe.

The only way to test it, is to do it. Practise some of the suggestions then go out and give it a go and remember - adrenaline "nerves" are not any reflection on your ability but a natural reaction to the situation. Of course, the more confident you are in your effects the better you'll feel, but that should be taken as read anyway!

That's all for now, but there's also a shorter bit on misdirection and the use of body language which I'll put up tomorrow if there's interest. I use this stuff a lot in my performances and it always gives me the cover I need. Scientific and reliable.

Thanks to anyone who read to the end, and I hop at least someone out there found it interesting and useful! Any feedback, questions or discussion are welcomed.

Cheers,
David

[QuantumEnigmas]

thanks for the tactical transition. I guess as I said being more comfortable in an altercation is because of what you refered to as posturing. If I were to get into an altercation I know how to stand or move in a secondary way. I've already visualized the fight ahead of time....

So once again captain obvious and his sidekick duh join the fray as it clicks to use the same techniques here in performance. Only instead of physically hitting someone you pop them in the head mentally with a K.O. performance.

-QE

[Shodan]

Glad you found the information usefull!

[novice]

A great thread made by Shodan, i have to say, very interesting, i found out some new stuff, thanks a lot Shodan and of course write some more stuff if you can.

[c013310]

Great info Shodan, you really know how to deal with this kind of stuff. All that information was great and has opened my eyes. Thanks!

Chris

[KidCrenshaw]

Shodan, I've got to say that this is probably one of, if not the most useful thread I have ever read on these forums. This applies to everyone, and everyone can take something from it.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share with us your insight, very helpful.

A+++ post!

[phillong]

Excellent article!

It should be mandated, that everyone prints this, and adds it to their notebooks.

Thank you,
Phil

[Shodan]

Wow...guys thanks so much for your kind words. I'm so pleased to have made a contribution to this community which has been so helpful to me. Later on today when I'm done with work I'll do the promised bit on distraction and misdirection from this same perspective.

Once again, thanks so much for your kind words. That's made my day!

Cheers,
David

[Guns N Roses]

Shodan, I've got to say that this is probably one of, if not the most useful thread I have ever read on these forums. This applies to everyone, and everyone can take something from it.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share with us your insight, very helpful.

A+++ post!

I would have to say the same thing very very nice topic.

[justinw]

thanks alot , this was a great help and was also interesting thanks.

[Shodan]

Deception

Distraction

Destruction

The "3 Ds" of self defence. What this is all about is creating a powerfuil advantage over your opponent in order to maximise the likelyhood that your punch/kick/strike will finish them off.

I want you to try something, right now. Take off your shoes and socks, go over to the wall and give it a kick (NOT TOO HARD!) making sure you impact with the big toe.

Done that? OK so its not the most pleasant feeling in the world, but you shouldn't be in agony, unless you've put a hole in the wall in which case I'd advise you to limp over to the emergency room and ask for a new toe.

My point is that when you see something coming, often its no big deal. However, if you stub your toe it hurts like blazes for maybe a good half an hour. We apply the same principle to self defence - distract their attention them BAM, hit em and your strike will be many times more effective.

Naturally,. this principle can be applied to the art of misdirection. When people don't see something coming at all the reaction is increased a hundrerfold, as we all know.

So how do self defence practitioners put these principles into practise?

DECEPTION
Deception is the use of submissive posture and language. You allow the opponent to think they ahve a secure advantage over you, which lowers their guard - perfect! There are examples of this in magic all over the place - maybe you use one of Brad's favourite lines "I can sometimes do this" or you fumble the cards a little to make it seem as if you're not that hot at all. Disguising your skill will cause the spectators not to look for sklilful handling and sets them up for your "big hit"

This can also work the other way - convincing the specator that you're very very good at what you do, so they will believe that something very simple is very hard and will miss simple handing because they are anticipating difficult handling. Vegas card cheat anyone? Or how about bluff arm spread vanishes and bluff crdsprings a la Jeff McBrride in Art of Card Manipulation?

This "reverse" deception is also used in self defence as a method of avoiding a fight - basically masking your fear and scaring the other guy into backing down. It's not my favourite tactic but I have used it on ocassion when I've detected a clear advantage over my opponent.

Another way to bring down someone's guard and make them more relaxed is through establishing rapport with the person. Using complementary body language is a very easy and subtle way to do this, and you see many street performers doing this automatically. On the flip side are perforrmers who use completely contrasting body language (I believe Blaine falls into theis category) to keep their spectators off balance. Personally I prefer the former as it gets the spectator "on your side". Use of complementry body language means subtly mirroring aspects of your spectators posture and can be conscious or unconscious.

DISTRACTION
This section is really the point of my post, where hopefully I'll be able to explain some of the underlying principles of misdirection from a different perspective.

In order to distract an assailant, we ask them a question. There are other, supporting methods but that's really all there is to it. Asking a question to someone charged up with adrenaline causes their brain to reengage, creating a moment of complete confusion and distraction in which, ideally, the strike is delivered and it's goodnight charlie.

Although it doesn't work to the same extent in a specator situation (they shouldn't really be buzzing with adrenaline!), asking a question will distract their attention away from you momentarily while their brain works to produce an answer. Especially illogical or confusing questions. Some of my favourites for self defence are "what's the time?", "is that your ford parked outside?" and even "how's your aunt doing?". These questions require a lot of attention to process, creating my window.

So good questions for the magicain looking to misdrect are complex or confusing, such as funny questions - "have you memorised your card? Both sides?". "Have you ever had a paramornal experience?" and so on. Everyone has their own style. Questions also engage the audience, which is good practise anyway.

Another verbal distraction tactic is to use words that we have been programmed to respond to from an early age. Your name, "NO!" and so on. Calling a specatotor by their name will almost certainly get you eye contact and make them much more receptive to obeying instuctions - such as "don't move your hand" if you don't want them to turn a card over.

Finally, you can take advantage of "visual eye accessing cues". What's that? When we construct or remember an image our eyes tend to look up at an angle. Visually constructed images cause you to (in general) look up and to the right, Visually remembered images cause you to look up and to the left. In some cases you can also "stare off into the distance" but this is less likely when engaged in an intereaction with someone else.

I have had a great deal of success instructing spectators to "form a vivid image of your card" - if I'm lucky they'll actually look up, if not then the eyes will flicker, creating that instant of distraction. This is an excellent method because people are not aware that their attention has lapsed, and they'll swear blind that they were looking at you the whole time. Perfect.

DESTRUCTION
What all this adds up to is what every magician knows. The less the spectator suspects, the more you employ techniques of deception and distraction, the bigger the impact you'll have. The invisible pass is a perfect example. Done right it is a totally innocuous movement - and you don't even need perfect technique if your distraction is good enough. Huge reactions, because as far as the specator is concerned, nothing has happened. However, if they even see a flicker and relise that you did someting - no idea what, but something...they are prepared for something to have taken place and the reaction will be reduced accordingly.

I hope that this article has proved interesting, and possibly provided a different perspective on the process of getting that all important killer reaction. What strikes me on reading through this is that nowhere have I said your technique must be brillieant to get brilliant reactions, only that the audience are not aware of your sneakiness. This is exactly true in self defence also:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ABLE TO HIT INCREDIBLY HARD TO DEFEND YOURSELF - JUST HARD ENOUGH

Thanks for reading,
David