I have heard some magicians say, tht you should never be waiting for something, because you can spend that time practicing. Here is my concern. When practicing in public, won't the people around you see what you are doing and see how an effect is done (talking about sleights) or am I just over thinking all of this and it doesn't matter? I'm always worried that when I practice a sleight in public, by doing it over and over, some people around me will figure out how it is done.

Sean M.

I think it's generally good advice not to practice in public, but...

There are ways to practice a sleight so that you don't expose what it accomplishes. For instance, a secret steal and a secret load of an object should expose nothing, so long as you don't show the vanish and reappearances as effects. It'll just look like you're doing something odd.

I was also given an exercise in card palming from my mentor. Cut the deck, then palm. Cut the deck again, replace, and then cut once more. The idea is to hide the actions of palming and replacing within the actions of cutting.

Dai Vernon was also known to practice the top change under cover of apparently knocking over the card box that he was placing the card down on top of. He'd do it without revealing the fact that the card had changed. To people watching him, it would have looked like he was simply knocking over the box, repositioning it, and then knocking it over again.

In theory, you should aleays practice in private... But practically speaking, there comes a time when you need to start performing in public. If you have never done that before, then this becomes a new way to practice... I guess that waht I am trying to say is that you should work in private until you feel confortable with your sleights, and the trick as a whole... But facing the public will bring you to a whole other level of performance. People will see some things you were not expecting... and you will learn to handle that... through practice!

Louis

Just practice and don't worry about it. You can do what you need to do without drawing attention to yourself. Just make use of your spare time and practice without making a big deal of it. Most of the time, no one will even pay attention to you as they're busy enough.

Mark.

I walk the dog with a deck - I learnt colour changes and palming moves whilst the dog walked ahead -

it is also a good way to practice sleights with cold/num hands

I like to practice my rubber band stuff if I want to practice in public. That way it just looks like I am fiddling with a rubber band. Though in some public situations you will find that people could care less what you are doing.

Honestly, you can practice almost anything in public without drawing that much attention to yourself. Unless you're doing crazy XCM style flourishes or trying to practice the cups and balls, you're not going to drawn many eyes. There's a whole lot more interesting things going on than whatever toys some lonely dude is fiddling with

I've practiced several sleights in public, and I don't think anyone knew what I was doing. I learned some of my best coin sleights standing in line at Walmart.

Most people are to preoccupied with there own stuff to notice what you are doing.
If you ever seen the video where you are told to count the passes that a team makes and then upon re-watching the video you see that there was a huge gorilla or bear that you did not see the first time because you were preoccupied counting passes then you know that's true.

The moment I bring out a deck of cards in a café and start doodling with it, I become completely invisible. There is nothing less interesting to progressive urban café dwellers than a geek playing solitaire, which is what they think I do presumably.

I don't practice sleights tho, only tricks and sleights withing them, like shuffles, and I won't do things that has bad angles relating to tables behind me or to the sides. That sort of thinking is practice too.

The above poster is 100% correct. When I was working on a gambling demonstration, I practiced a lot at Starbucks. Most people didn't really care or know what I was doing. Also, practicing in public like this is a good thing, because its kinda like a real performing environment, noisy, lot's of people socializing etc.

I don't like to practice in public, But many friends here don't resist and play all the way with the cards.
The chance here are 50%-50%, for some people maybe you are playing solitaire or poker with yourself and ignore you, but in the moment that they know or notice that you are practicing MAGIC...it could be a hard time, and they come to you for the classic "Show me a trick" situtation that for me is very uncomfortable... ( Just for me , that's my problem!).
A clear example, One day my friends and I were having dinner with the great magician Gregory Wilson here in Puerto Rico. My friends take out the pasterboards and start to chat and do a mini session in the place...a couple note that we are magicians and the men comes to us to "Fry" our minds with the SPECTACULAR 21 CARD TRICK...they don't know to who he is "Performing"...next Gregory take the Cards and the rest is history.
I don't like to be in the gentleman place...Gregory practically humillates ( In the good sense ) him and HE is the one that expected the bad experience...but no one knows, if you don't are as good as Gregory Wilson?
I repeat, many...MANY of my friends like to play with the cards on restaurantes, Cafés, planes, hotel lobbys...YOU NAME IT!
Me? I don't!
My best,
Hansel!

I do practice with cards quite often in public, and honestly don't see the issue if people do figure out a single sleight (and this would be incredibly rare!) as it is the routine that really matters, the use of the sleight in context.

The only thing that's happened to me has been people asking me if I was a magician and if so would I perform for them

I've got a long commute (1.5hrs each way), and find that playing around with a deck of cards or a coin is a brilliant way to pass the time. Perhaps it's the British thing, but very few (if any) people give me a second glance. Unless there are young children around, and then it can become an impromptu show.

When I'm first starting to learn something, it's always in private. But I do practice (usually with cards) in public once I've got a move down. It's a good way to keep it sharp, doesn't bear much risk of being caught--and like others have said, no one gives a rat's patootie what some guy with a pack of cards is doing. They've more important things to worry about.

I have to agree that for the most part, your practicing will go by unnoticed. No one notices when I practice coin routines. They might flash a glance when my hands move, but since there is no performance, there is no lingering interest. Just don't practice during a work meeting, because they get irritated when they hear the coin fall on the table!

Finding the solitude to practice is one of my great problems. Even reading a magic book in public can present a problem. Thanks, all, for the ideas ... I'll give them a go ...

If you don't feel comfortable reading a magic book in public.. what I've done on an occasion is made my own cover for the book from an old drawing. Simply wrap the book in it - voila. Actually easier and more inconspicuous would be to take the dust jacket of another book. Wrapping paper would work, anything actually.

While I have practiced card flourishes surreptitiously and not so surreptitiously now-a-days I go through a memory palace, Aronson or try to see what I can surmise from what I see about the people or surroundings near by. That's good practice too.

Always keep in mind, no matter how bored you are, it's not wise to be too oblivious in public.

- Mary Mowder

Most of what I call Sway Methods were developed from public observation -- and the lack of it. In sasles presentations I would move a lot of objects around representing different aspects of their business or problems. Sometimes people reated strangely to 'discovering' an object was other than where the expected. I tracked this and them began doing certain moves deliberately to see the reaction.

It took 30 years and about 4,000 presentations, but I learned how to pass object invisibly from one hand to the other --

but, no one knew I was a magician -- so, I wasn't realy practicing -- just experimenting. The key factor is that you will learn as much from what the spectator don't notice as what they do.