If it's not on the page - it's not on the stage.
I meet many magicians (professional and amateur) who tell me that they don't want to script their routines because they want to improvise and be spontaneous. First, to improvise you need to have something to improvise upon - this is called a script! Second, this is just laziness. If you want to be different, make your routines uniquely your own and feel the satisfaction that comes from real work - start scripting your material. This does not mean a full word-for-word memorization and delivery, but it does mean that you thought about, and wrote down what you want to say. Be sure to memorize your routine's opening and closing line.
Being an old speech and dama major from college I was fortunate enough to have much of this information drilled into me. Speaking for myself using scripts habitually wether performing close-up or on a stage gives me the confidence to try new routines, fall back on tried and true routines and allows me to deviate from a known script, comment on something in the moment and then rejoin my script when I decide to. Without a script I always feel like I’m driving a car without a steering wheel. I might get to where I want to go but there may be a few accidents along the way. It’s a huge confidence builder. And who doesn’t want that when they perform?
These 4 sentences are the real secret to performance success. I have written scripts for all my effects but truth be told the original script looks nothing like the final. Your first script is more or less an outline and as you rehearse and share it with real people you find out what works and what doesn’t. You are constantly reworking it and in the end when you have what you feel is the complete script…you might add changes to give it new life for YOU!!!