Magician: What do you wear?

Steps to take to be a better magician

Magician's job is much more than doing just tricks. At professional level it is full work.  My intention in these writings is to point out things that many people do not necessarily even think or consider to be a part of being full time magician.

WHAT DO YOU WEAR? 

What should magician wear? This is an issue that rises steadily up in magician’s net communities. There are numerous opinions on this. The main factor responsible for this however is the performer himself and the character which he wishes to present.  Wilder younger person may very well dress in jeans when another older person may deliberately try to wear something eye catching that contains even sparkly glitter that makes him/her to stand out from the crowd.  They are both approvable choices. I don’t want to get tangled up in this sort of details, but instead I try to focus on few highlights and universal things connected to dress well.

Magicians can be seen a lot in badly fitting suit. Especially young magicians seem to suffer from this problem. I have often seen that 17-19 year old magicians are still using the suit they got for their 14-15v confessional parties or bar mitzvahs and such. That suit might have been a perfect fit back then but that has gone hopelessly old and small in few years. Similarly its normal to see magicians who dress well but their posture is completely ruined by the amount of stuff they put into their pockets. Confess to been directly guilty of both of the above. That was however years ago…

For years I tried to find good suits and clothes from my favourite clothing stores directly and although I sometimes got lucky, most of the time it was waste of time. Most suits are made for standing in place and looking smart. They are not designed to be wear by performer who moves and really uses his pockets and such. So Dressman or similar mans clothing shops may sell basic black and gray suits at quite low price and in Finland you can even find discounts from them that sell suits for about 100euros... In addition, they have been made in mass production and finding a suit that fits you well is pain in the ass. Therefore I recommend you to contact directly the tailors of your area.

Tailor made costume is not as expensive as you might imagine. The prices vary depending on the location and supply. Few years back I asked a tailor of big mans clothing wear shop how much it would cost to get me made Bonjour-style long silk coat. The price I was gives was 400euros and fabrics. Of course I felt that the price was quite high but the other clothing in that shop was in same sort of price range as well so it didn’t really surprise me. Therefore I asked around from some local tailors and students or tailoring and I found out that an average price of my wonderful suit would be about 100-150euros + fabrics. That was about 200-250euros of perfectly fitting suit. Not bad if you ask me. Of course, this price depends a lot where you live.  for example in Asia or old Russian countries the prices of tailor made costumes is ridiculously cheap.

The tailor made suit has many advantages. First is of course the fit. It is made entirely around your body measures and your body structure. Also it is made for performer so it can take into account all sort of special things you might want to add into it. For example sleeves may be extended or enlarged if they happen to be used by the magician. Sleeves and shoulders take into account the fact that the performers hands will move around a lot, for example magician will keep his hands a lot at chest-height. Jacket may contain specific number of pockets of your choosing. Also their size and location can decide by you. They can also help a lot in maintaining your suits posture. For example several small pockets inside your jacket allows the jacket to maintain the shape even though the pockets have lots of stuff in them.  Actually, when it comes to pocket management Tommy Wonder sometimes emphasized that magicians should not carry anything larger or heavy in their jacket pockets, but instead they should wear a west under the jacket and the pockets would be made into the west. Other way to ease your pocket management is to get small leather carrying cases that can be held on your belt.

The importance of the positioning of the pockets should not be underestimated either. For example as magicians we tend to use often jacket inner pockets. Traditionally the placements of these inside pockets is relatively high and moving them down inch or few will already make substantial difference that can be noticed when loading a card inside a wallet in the pocket for example. Also the precise placements of sidepockets allows you to do number of different steal and ditches. Just see any work by Patrick Page or Guy Hollingworth. For example Hollingworths book has a whole chapter on how to download cards into different pockets of the jacket.

What about the other parts of the suit then? Shoes is something which men do not usually think of when it comes into dressing but you will not believe how many woman believe that the shoes make the man! First thing many woman will look for in a man is shoes! I have no idea why they do this or find it important but they do. If you know any real women you know most of them looooove shoes.  That is why also magicians should pay attention to their shoes. Are they clean and do they look otherwise polished? Are they comfortable and can you stand or walk long periods of time in them without hurting your feet. Just try to stand whole day at tradeshow in bad shoes and you will know how big difference a good shoes can make.

What about the other things we wear; watches, jewellery, hat, tie and so on. All these are instruments we can use to develop our character and use to build our image. If your character tries to be wealthy you can’t be seen with plastic Mickey Mouse watch on your wrist.  Bill Malone said in an interview that when he began to work for millionaires the first things he bought were Rolex and a good Armani suit. Successful people want to do business with other successful people. Can you tie a tie properly and neatly?  Do you use a tie clip or wear a belt?  What could your belt buckle tell about your character? How about wearing a three-piece suit with a vest?  What about the hat? Would it enhance your character somehow?

When acquiring a costume a good tailor should not be underestimated. So, new time your thinking of  buying a new trick how about investing into a decent suit instead?