Patter, oh yeah, I knew I've been forgetting something. Most of the tricks I do lack patter. The This 'n' That trick has great patter, a little story but I think I really need to work on patter for the other stuff I do. It may help to misdirect and take some heat off my "moves". I'll do a search here on patter and see what I can learn.

I agree with them. Practicing not only the effect but also your presentation will help you a lot from being nervous and messing up. I'm also quite new to magic, about 10 months and I remember when I was in my early 3 months, I kept on practicing for those 3 months before I showed it to my family. I've seen how great their reaction was and it gave me the confidence to perform for total strangers. So the day after,me and my other two friend magicians went to a nearby mall and slowly starting to approach strangers and we did some card magic to them. Lucky for me, their reactions were great and the rest is history.

Performing for strangers is good for the following:

1. Having patter that stands on its own and doesn't depend on a previous relationship with a spectator. (When performing for a friend, there's the temptation to make references to in-jokes, pet interests, shared experiences, etc.)

2. Understanding which tricks play big. (When performing for strangers, one is more likely to perform a trick that packs a punch. Not every trick that one knows necessarily packs a punch, especially if one knows a lot of card tricks.)

3. And if you have self-awareness, performing for strangers tends to make a clear-cut distinction between "tricks I am ready to perform for others" and "tricks I need to work on a lot more before performing for others".

Ultimately you gain confidence performing for strangers by performing for strangers. Do you have a local magic shop? Or even a small shop that might sell novelties and a 'bit' of magic? Tell them you work on Saturday, etc. for free. You just want to demo and help sell their magic. Tell they right up front you are looking to increase your skill level and comfort working for folks. Seriously. This is a great way to gain experience. Best,