The World's Most Practical Magic Trick

When you are a self-employed entertainer, you need to have an arsenal of skills at the ready to keep yourself working. If someone calls to book a show and wants to give you money, it pays to be able to do what they want. During the course of my performing career, I became interested in memory work- mnemonics. The idea of being able to memorize and recall large amounts of information was very interesting to me on a personal level, although I was never entirely sure of how to make such an act theatrically viable.

Since I've learned how to use mnemonic systems, I've come up with several ways to integrate it into my performing work, and I'm still honing it. At this point, one of the best things I've found to use it for is pre-show warm-up work. To wit- this morning, I had a show at a day camp for kids ages 3-6. While we were waiting for the groups to enter the room, I took the time to memorize the names of all the kids present- about 20 or so kids. I've done this many times, and it never fails to impress the heck out of the adults present. Basically, I go through the room and ask each child his or her name. I repeat it once, and move on to the next kid, only this time I repeat both names. I do this for the entire group, as time allows. The effect on the adults, as I said, is amazing, but it also has another purpose.

When kids are in an audience and decide to start making trouble, one of the things that emboldens them is their anonymity. There is a grown-up in front of the room who doesn't know their name, which allows them more latitude in acting up. However, when that grown-up can address said attention-seeker by name when asking him to please stop talking and take his seat, it carries a lot more weight. Not only that, but hearing his or her name also give the attention-seeker the validation they need to feel like they have won. In one fell swoop, everyone is happy.

The ability to quickly memorize names and facts isn't limited to entertainers. Anyone who meets lots of new people in the course of their business life would do well to learn this skill. It has been said that the sweetest sound each of us knows is the sound of our own name. Use this knowledge to your advantage, and start learning how to remember names (and faces.) Here are a couple of resources to get you started.

Quantum Memory Power: Learn to Improve Your Memory with the World Memory Champion! (Audio CD) by Dominic O'Brien

Remember Every Name Every Time: Corporate America's Memory Master Reveals His Secrets (Paperback) by Benjamin Levy