Product Description

Would You Like to Become More Commanding, Convincing, And Charismatic?

In this book, Steve Cohen, master magician and star of the long-running Chamber Magic show in New York City, will reveal the secrets of all great showmen and magicians—how to persuade, influence, and charm, and ultimately accomplish the things you've always wanted to do. As Cohen writes, "You'll discover how to take over a room, read people, and build anticipation to a feverish pitch so people are burning to hear what you have to say."

Win the Crowd will teach you Steve Cohen's Maxims of Magic, simple rules you can use to take charge of practically any situation, from on-the-job disagreements to dating to important cocktail parties. The Maxims of Magic will wash away insecurities and hesitations, and replace them with confidence, poise, and leadership. What's more, Steve Cohen will show you:

• How to Create a Magic Moment. Capturing people's imaginations and attention so they listen carefully to every word you say.
• How to Command a Room. Showing everyone in the room that you are speaking right to them, making them all feel unique—and completely focused on you.
• How to Read People. Learning to sense what people are feeling and thinking as you speak, what they want from you, and how to make them feel like they are getting it.
• Misdirection. The most important trick in all of magic—getting inside people's heads, and directing what they are thinking at every minute.

When you strip away the sleight of hand tricks, magicians are essentially masters of attracting and holding attention and impressing audiences, exactly the psychological secrets you need to be successful in life and business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214092 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Released on: 2005-06-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Who knows better than a magician how to captivate an audience? As Cohen (who calls himself the Millionaires' Magician—an indication of who his audience is) notes, "[M]agicians are masters at attracting interest, holding attention, and leaving audiences with fond memories of their time together."Demystifying the psychology of magic in clear, pithy prose, he explains how to use a magician's tricks to make better, more winning presentations. Cohen distills five "Maxims of Magic": Be Bold; Expect Success; Don't State—Suggest; Practice, Practice, Practice; and Be Prepared. This may be familiar territory, but Cohen's advice has a magician's spin (including how to perform some tricks). For example, to practice being bold, he suggests dropping a quarter surreptitiously into someone's pocket. The magician's preparation and presentation also include creating a compelling character and making a magical entrance to command a room. Cohen also discusses the power of specific word patterns, how to discern unconscious but visible responses in listeners and the use of misdirection. Readers gain insight on how magicians lead and read people, so that how a magician figures out what card you drew from the deck becomes clearer. This thoughtful and charming guide should win a crowd of readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Alan Greenberg, Chairman of the Executive Committee, The Bear Sterns Companies Inc
"Worth its weight in gold if you want to learn the real secrets of magicians—showmanship."

Stephen Messer, CEO and chairman, LinkShare Corporation
"This book helped me capture some of the toughest crowds of all—hardcore businesspeople."

Customer Reviews

Helpful information
Steve Cohen thank you for sharing your experiences and your knowledge about presentation & people skills. I have enjoyed reading this book and I recommend anyone that is involved in public speaking to read this book. Maybe you could learn a few magic tricks to gain an audience's attention. Overall a really good book. Thanks again.

Good Primer
Win the Crowd is a good primer for people who want to understand some of the skills necessary to be effective presenting yourself with confidence and being persuasive in front of groups of people. The book categorizes what is needed to be effective with crowds (there are one-on-one discussions as well) and suggests some tricks to help strengthen the skills which may need to be improved.

Steve Cohen obviously has worked for many years perfecting his stage presence (he is a successful magician), and how he presents himself to smaller groups at private functions. His opinions on how to improve presentation skills in front of people come from his successful trial and errors. The most helpful portion of the book is when he gives practical advice on how to be more engaging, confident and improve ones appearance when on stage giving a speech.

However, the book has a lot of filler that contains generalizations merely touching on other important aspects that reader may want to study further. These sections also tend to mutate into references of magic that are interesting but not necessarily informative. His sections on building a better personality, charisma and reading people just scratch the surface of what can be done, and offers no enhancements from what someone could find in a psychology text book. His build-up to the chapter "Misdirection" led to a major let down. Although I did try the magic trick he teaches to my children and failed miserably. Practice, practice, practice is a major theme. Obviously after the magic trick failure I need to be reminded of that more.

Win the Crowd has good stuff and does identify the secrets needed to be effective with crowds (both large and small). It's only fault is that it does not dig deeper into some areas. However, once these areas are identified, more research from other books can be found if the reader wants additional advice.

Great for less "Magical" MUSICIANS too
First off let me say I'm a performing semi-pro musician and writer of "How-to" gigging information for the music press.

A few months ago a change in personnel in my band meant that we were without our regular front man, our extrovert who handled the majority of the audience interaction. I was looking for a guide that would help me and the rest of the band be able to deal with those sometimes awkward moments in between numbers. Something that would enable us to feel more relaxed ourselves and encourage the audience to have a good time.

Although this book is written by a performing Magician, Steve Cohen's book promised me I could "unlock the secrets of influence, charisma and showmanship". Perfect for any performer but a tall order to deliver in my case.

Cohen gives simple to follow guidelines which really help you to feel in control and less at the mercy of circumstances on the night. His whole approach is based around faking it 'till you make it. Basically, audiences want their performers to appear confident and in control. If you don't feel it at least pretend you do. This will relax both the audience and you.

Some of his gems include:

1. Practise the words and phrases you'll use on the night - beforehand, alone and in the dark.
2. It takes three attempts at "banter" with an audience before they succumb to you. It takes a little while to establish credibility, you can't do this in one phrase. So, don't worry if at first they don't respond to you.
2. Audiences don't want their performers to be too slick. Some top performers fail at certain things to show their fallibility. The audience generally wants you to succeed if they see a small failure. This was a great help in terms of taking pressure of to be word perfect when speaking to the audience.
3. If you're not offending some members of the audience you're too middle of the road (I liked that one!)
4. Don't take yourself too seriously
5. Establish eye contact with audience members to show you're in command

Other tips which helped me greatly were to raise my voice so that it sounded too loud to me. That way it would be about right to an audience. And, to slow my words down so they sounded unnaturally slow to my ear. Again that would be about right to the public.

A final killer tactic to get an audience going and which I can guarantee which works like a dream is this. Early on look for the most receptive members in an audience, anyone mouthing the words to a song, or dancing along etc. Play to them, in terms of your in between chat and you'll receive the best responses. As Cohen says, "it only takes a few to get the rest of an audience going". Using his advice, I would look for a couple of different groups or a handful of people scattered about every audience. These would also be the people I'd get up on stage later in the night or that I'd wonder off wireless to "serenade" if the mood took me.

All in all a great guide for helping you feel more comfortable in front of an audience and full of practical tips so everyone enjoys themselves more on gig night(including you).