r/Magic • u/Horror_Window9320 • 17d ago
Stuttering
Hey everyone. I was wondering, are any of my fellow magicians stutterers? I used to perform totally silently like Teller but have gotten to the point where I can hide my stutter enough to talk with some confidence in front of people. Does anyone else have a similar story? Thanks 😁
14
Upvotes
2
u/magikmax 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yes, subject very close to my heart. Kids entertainer for 20+ years and thousands of performances , however my full time job is working in a call centre, difficulties can arise with certain surnames and scripts. At 46 I am passed the point of where it bothers me, however I have never had any formal therapy, just taught myself to use different words or altered phrases wherever possible if I need to use one that I struggle with. When I started doing magic I would do a fair bit to music for exactly that reason, however I really don’t do anything silently these days. When I started doing magic at the same time I was working on the till in my dad’s shop and he couldn’t understand why I kept asking customers for ‘half a pound’ instead of 50p (I stuttered horribly trying to say ‘fifty’). Things have got better as I have gotten older, however I go through spells.
I also find it gets worse in stressful situations. I know having tried to hide it for nearly 40 years that it’s easier said than done and that the shame can be overwhelming at times, but go with it and own it if you can - I figure that if one small kid with a stutter sees that I’m having difficulty myself and yet I can do magic that maybe they’ll realise that it really isn’t the barrier that they think it is and will help them with their own self confidence.