3 Professional Lessons from a Trickster

A few years back, I was driving to a house party in an upscale neighborhood. My vehicle at the time wasn’t the type you’d normally see driving around that area, so it’s no surprise the security guard gave me a funny look when I pulled up to the gate.

“Can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m looking for this address….”

When I spoke with the party planner a few months prior, I scribbled the address down on a business card, which I handed over to him.

“What are you here for?”

“Birthday party.” I said. “I’m the magician.”

“Well, can’t you just make yourself appear there?”

Snarky security guard. I bet he was secretly a fan. But that’s the tone I often faced when anyone found out I was a 30 year old man with an interest in magic tricks.

It wasn’t until I started working for HP in 2010 that the line between “hobby” and “career” started to get blurry, however, by that time, it was too late. My crazy brain had already started drawing relationships between magic tricks and professionalism, and I couldn’t help but continue to explore it. Let me share with you three professional lessons I learned from that experience – and because I happen to work with students preparing for their first internship or full-time position – I’ll steer it towards them. There are MANY more than just three things, but let’s keep it light for today.

The Silent Script

In 1969, a magician named Henning Nelms published a book called “Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers”. In this book, there is mentioned a performance technique known as the “silent script”. The basic idea is that actors, magicians – anyone performing for an audience – can use an inner monologue to help them drive a believable exterior performance. In other words, if the performer believes in it, the audience will believe in it. If I make a coin disappear, and really make myself believe it’s gone, then my performance should be strong enough to convince the audience it’s really gone. In reality, the coin doesn’t really disappear, and I know exactly where it is. But if I’m trying to convince you that it’s gone, and you aren’t buying it, then the overall effect is ruined.

Professional Lesson #1

As a campus recruiter, one exercise I would sometimes try is asking the candidate to explain something to me.

“Explain….anything?” is usually the response that I received.

The idea was to have the candidate talk for a minute or two about something that they’re passionate about. Unfortunately, some candidates would discount their own ideas before they even started.

“Well, this will sound silly, but I’d like to talk about gardening.”

Confidence will take you far in your career. This can be a big issue when it comes to students and new grads in the workforce. Sales skills, although many times underestimated, are extremely important when it comes to your new career. If you’re pitching a new idea or explaining something to your team, do it with passion. Don’t discount your own ideas before they even see the light. Believe in what you’re saying from the start. People respect good ideas, but they also respect the people that back up those ideas. If you talk about gardening, then talk about it like it’s the most important thing they’ll hear all day. 

Establishing Authority

Speaking of confidence – nothing will tear down a man’s spirit faster than a group of rambunctious five year olds. At some point in learning magic, I used the silent script to convince myself that I’d be a great birthday party entertainer. That’s a case of the silent script gone wrong, by the way.

“Here is a mysterious ghost box that my grandmother gave to me a long time ago!” I said during a Halloween living room performance.

“IS YOUR GRANDMA DEAD?!” yelled the birthday boy.

The mistake I made for so many years was that I went into each show assuming everyone already liked me. I mean, I was the magic guy! I was the entertainment! Deep down inside, aren't we all just curious little kids?

Turns out, they really do say the darnedest things. And they’ll continue to do so, and interrupt the performance if you start off on the wrong foot. So how do you gain immediate control of a group of hyper children buzzed off of birthday cake? The answer - establish authority within the first 2 minutes of the show.

Those first few moments were the most important part of the performance, since that’s about the amount of time I had to show this crowd that I was in charge. To do that, I would perform something quick, funny, and magical – something to get them thinking, “Hey, this guy knows something we don’t. We should probably listen to him.”

Professional Lesson #2

When you start in a new job, or switch companies later in your career, establishing authority is an important strategy if you want to open doors and create trust with your teams and leadership. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, and it’s still very true – the first 90 days can set a strong standard for the rest of your career in that organization. By showing early on that you’re good at something, your personal brand is strengthened and you start to become synonymous with success. The term SME (Subject Matter Expert) might get put together with your name, and with enough persistence, you may even have high level people knocking on your door for help. That definitely beats having a bunch of wild five year olds running around the room.

Make it Your Own

Despite what Aliyah Fulton might confidently tell you, I, in fact, did not go to magic school. My initial interest goes back to when I was around 7 or 8 years old, however it wasn’t until my teenage years that I started reading basic instructions in books and watching videos on the subject. Something interesting that I learned over the years of study is that, although sleight of hand dates back to the days of the pyramids, there really are only a handful of principals. In other words, you could watch a thousand different magicians, but you’ll only see different versions of productions, vanishes, transformations, restorations, teleportation’s, levitation's, penetrations, and predictions.

In many ways, magic itself has been the same for centuries. What changes over time are the performers behind the tricks. When I was first learning the art, I did what most people do – copy and do exactly what I read in the books and videos. That creates a basic, cookie-cutter magician – the kind with a black suit that waves his hands over a top hat and pulls a rabbit out of it. Instead of copying, the challenge is to make each trick your own. If someone studies the art long enough, they begin to realize that there are a thousand and one ways to make a coin disappear, but what makes a memorable performance is how the magician does it in their own way. Adding their own story, character, staging, facial expressions, energy, movements – these are some of the ways a performer can make something their own and become memorable.

Professional Lesson #3

In every role I’ve ever taken on in my career, I’ve tried to make it my own by adding a unique spin to it. When I teach my students, I encourage them to always ask themselves, “What impact will I leave when I move on to my next challenge?” Companies hire talent because they have problems that need a solution. Helping solve some of those problems by adding your own creativity to it is a great way to become memorable, and leave a positive mark. Think far beyond the job description in the same way that good performers challenge themselves to think beyond the basic instructions in a magic book. Put your own twist on your duties. Play off your strengths, and shape the job into something that you can perform perfectly.

These days, I don’t do shows anymore, but these ideas continue to naturally play a big part in my career. It’s just like learning magic – once you see how it’s done, you can’t ever really “unsee it”. That’s a good thing in my book. And as for that security guard, I wasn’t really offended by his comment, especially after all I've learned from the art. Besides, I’m sure deep down inside, he’s just another curious five year old waiting to see a magic show.

Jason Cirilo is a Career Development Specialist and Lecturer at the Naveen Jindal School of Management @ The University of Texas at Dallas. He serves students through classroom instruction, workshops, and one-on-one coaching sessions in order to share his knowledge of corporate recruiting strategy and professional development. Learn more at JasonCirilo.com