Josh shares his pre-show ritual  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏

Issue 14 | 19th October 2025
Three Tiny Pieces of Wisdom By Joshua Jay
What does this mean? Read below to find out...
For this week’s Edition, I wanted to share my pre-show ritual. It’s also my cure-all for any stage fright or nerves I’m feeling at a particular show, and it’s my way of setting myself up to be the best I can be. It’s three tiny pieces of wisdom, given to me by wiser, smarter friends, and I have them written on an old-stained piece of paper I keep with me at every show. I later had these printed up on little cards that I would give away to young magicians who attend my shows. Other bits of advice have fallen away, but the three things I’m about to share have become my mantra–my pre-show ritual–and they are the twenty words I fill my head with just before beginning a performance. Tonight is part of the process. Perform like it's the first time and the last time. Enjoy the show. Tonight is part of the process I’m hardest on myself when a performance or a trick or a line don’t do what they’re supposed to do. I blame myself because I think, sometimes correctly, that it’s my thinking or judgment that has failed me. Why didn’t I come up with something funnier? This isn’t knocking them over like I had hoped. Or the dreaded vagueness of, This is missing something. But when I remember that every performance is part of that same process, it gives me comfort. Tonight won’t be perfect, but it will get me one performance closer to it. And “Tonight is part of the process” also reminds me of the upside of honing the performance in real time: the thrill of a mid-show insight that can become a hard-won, permanent detail of the piece.
Perform like it’s the first time and the last time When I read these words, I think about this old musician’s parable. An orchestra is about to begin a performance of Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony,” arguably the most famous piece of classical music. Backstage, the conductor says, “I know all of you have played this piece innumerable times, and the audience has heard it many times. But tonight, I want you to play for two distinguished guests. One is a little girl who is hearing Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’ for the first time. The second is an old man, who will be hearing it for the last time.” Enjoy the Show I don’t believe in rules for performance, because I can always think of exceptions and discrepancies in the arbitrary lines magicians draw. But, to me, this is an unbreakable rule: audiences can always tell when a performer is enjoying themselves. And I can think of plenty of performers I admire in other ways, but who exude a distinctly bothered, indifferent energy onstage. You can sense when someone isn’t have a good time, and that will doom a show as much as any other factor. “Enjoy the show” is always the last thing I say to myself before I walk onstage. I hope this helps. I first talked about this concept on Six Impossible Things, a comprehensive collection of my off-Broadway show and more than three hours of explanations afterward. It talks about how to put a show together, I explain my material in the show, and I go over all the details you need to develop original material of your own. If you’d like to check it out, it’s HERE. Joshua Jay
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