Samuel Hogath, Magician
Samuel Hogarth is a street magician based in London. He is originally from Chorley in Lancashire, England. Samuel uses authenticity during his street shows, which he believes helps him to connect with crowds and makes his show stand out from the rest. Samuel credits authenticity as helping him garner more notoriety as a successful magician.
Creating magic
I always knew I wanted to be a magician when I was young, however I only decided I was actually going to pursue a career while studying Law. I was from a small town so I had no idea I could actually pursue magic as a career.
When I realised, I could make a job from it, I gave up studying and started my career toward becoming a magician. What I like about being a magician is I can own my own mistakes. I have the full freedom to make the choices I want; my job is essentially going out and helping people have fun.
Being authentic in my work
Authenticity to me as a magician ultimately means being true to yourself, if you’re not true to yourself you’re just lying to everybody! I don’t think you necessarily need authenticity as a magician. Uri Geller never actually says that he is a magician but that is what he is, he’s a magician. You can package yourself as much as you want but if it isn’t you, people will know.
I personally like to be as authentic as possible as I think that is how you can stand out from everyone else; you can take pieces from other magicians and market them as your own, but if it isn’t you, you won’t stand out from the rest.
“Performing as a street magician relies on truthfulness and authenticity, as you have a short window with the public, you need something to draw them in.” – Samuel Hogarth, Magician
I can honestly say that at the end of the show, it is 99% based on whether the audience liked you or not. It doesn’t matter what skills you have. They must like you more than what you did for them for you to get paid – and if they feel like they can trust you, only then have you successfully created a connection.
For me, being a magician is the best job in the world. I think any job that is what you love doing is the best job in the world. I choose everything that I do, and it brings me joy to make kids happy and make adults feel a sense of wonder that they haven’t felt since they were children and to just briefly make everyone forget their troubles.
Using magic in everyday life
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you any of my magic trade secrets or specific techniques, although practicing magic does require a lot of mental arithmetic. This includes remembering deck orders and certain dates if you wanted to read someone’s mind. You would need to recall top lists of a hundred names people would think to remember or certain events, so, those mind palaces. It has become a skill remembering all of those! But what I have learnt through a lot of my performances is about how to engage and connect with people, which I do use in my day-to-day life.
Watch Samuel talk about his journey of authenticity as a magic
