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HELP! I've a possible chance of doing a stage act at a hotel. Would be great if any of you guys could give me a few pointers. Was thinking of opening with a tossed out deck routine. Looking for comedy based magic. Was thinking of closing with vanishing bandana. Any thoughts magic friends.

any idea on the size of the audience? Is it for any special occasion?

Maybe I'm just being an old fuddy duddy, but I recall somewhere in those old dusty books I had, someone said that you HAD TO HAVE AN ACT IN ORDER TO GET THE WORK. I could have swore I saw that

I guess I've done it the hard way all these years, having a product to sell that was ready to go instead of waiting to the last minute and tossing a bunch of unknown, new, unrehearsed junk together and calling it "an act" or worse "a show".

and we wonder why there's so much bad magic in the world today???

I simply can't believe there are so many of you amazing lads out there these days; your looks alone and just mention that you do magic tricks, gets you jobs with major headliners and working in high end facilities... I'd love to know the secret to this... but then, I've never been one that allowed for the casting couch option... maybe that's where I went wrong.

RAther than asking for help, you might want to book a lecture tour explaining to all us old farts just how you do this kind of thing... placing the cart before the horse.

family type of audience, but not sure about size of audience . But i have a friend who has connections and i show him magic all the time and he has recommeded me. But in general just looking to make an act up anyway if the situation should arise in the future. How long sholud the act be. Is it best to open with something not involving anyone. Was thinking of doing bill malones card across on stage as it would be real fun. Any ideas anyone

Maybe I'm just being an old fuddy duddy, but I recall somewhere in those old dusty books I had, someone said that you HAD TO HAVE AN ACT IN ORDER TO GET THE WORK. I could have swore I saw that

Just love it Craig - surely a classic response

Cards on stage can get very hard to see i mean put a card on your window and walk 3 foot away ( typically the distance from you to the victim on stage) now walk 30 foot away ( this is the distance to the back of a small adiuance) can you see the card? theres your problem.. also kids often find card tricks boring i like to use such golden oldies as the vanishing bandana, any thing vanishing or appering stuff goes down well other than that look in books and stuff on performing! it teaches you alot

also are you confident on stage? face to face is ok you can contol one person more easily than 20 or 30 or 200! so all in all Think are you ready?

and

Look Before you leap

Please don't think i am having a go ( i am NOT) but you should never seek work for an act you have not got yet. As Graig says, this is a very dangerous game to play. You need a well practised and smooth act to impress your clients. If you get the material ready at the last minute you will not be as full of confidence as you normally are.

I would strongly advise to try and get several acts ready before seeking or taking work. If the act goes wrong due to the fact you have not prepared well in advance it may affect future bookings.

Anyway, best of luck

Good advice but to be fair, from what I gather Russellmagic was approached and asked rather than going out and seeking the work.

Whether daying 'YES' was the right thing to do is a different matter. Perhaps he's told the hotel that he's not done stage or cabaret before but they're still willing to give him a shot. If this is the case then I hope that all goes well for you.

russle pm me if you like and i'll see what i can offer you.
to many questions for a basic post need answering.

dat8962 is correct. i was approached to do a stage act and i wasn't actually seeking to do one as what i normally do is close up magic as i love the personal magic between a few people but would like to take a go at doing a stage act to taste the waters. maybe i could do a mentalism set. i really appreciate everyones replies, it really does help and this is a fantastic site. today i did out of this world on a stranger and she was floored and also very hot magic is awesome also was thinking of buying disjointed what do you guys think of the effect?

Things that could work well on stage:

Kioku (Roth)
Contact Mindreading to hidden object
Angels & Devils (Banachek)
Little white lies - 4 white balls, 1 black ball (Derren Brown and loads more)
Chair Swindle followed by 9 envelope force (Andy Nyman)
Invisible palmtop (Banachek)
Graphology (Nyman)
Swami/Super Sharpie - but dress it up a bit. Maybe have a pre-written card with three bits of info missing.

Every single one involves the spectators and all except contact mindreading are failsafe and self-working. Palmtop isn't easy but should be fine if you have a wallet.

These are off the top of my head. I'm sure I could find some others. The point is that none involves cards and all involve the audience.

Every single one involves the spectators and all except contact mindreading are failsafe and self-working

And the only reason the CM isn't "failsafe" is the performer hasn't explained things properly and hasn't actually learned how to do it right.

Contact Mind Reading/Muscle Reading has been a prime part of my arsenal for nearly 30 years... I actually learned most of what I know from my father's step-dad who was a very well known Dowser in West Virginia, Virginia and down through that territory. He located tons of sweet water wells, did healings and found coal veins for major mining companies... in short, he's a bit of a legend.

Long story short, he's the one that put the sticks and pendulums in my hands when I was a kid... I've been using it ever since and I don't miss. If you know how to handle things, aside from your practice of the technique, the misses aren't seen...

You've had vastly more experience that I, but in my very limited experience there are some people where it doesn't work, either because they can't visualise the thing strongly or get distracted, or because they deliberately think of another one or whatever. Banachek says that he will get 3 people up on stage to be sure of finding a good sender among the three.

I have found techniques, as you suggest, that greatly increase the hit rate with every person, but (and I can only speak for myself) there are some people I find it doesn't really work with. So far it's abvout 10-15% but then I'm very new.

Craig, just out of interest (and please don't see it as starting an argument) - if you really believe dowsing works, why not take Randi's million dollars?

I'm a bit of a traditionailst so I recommend a rope routine and a chop cup to start. Some sponges, perhaps an egg bag type routine and a jumbo card effect.

With the right patter and some audience participation that should keep you going for around 20 to 30 minutes.

Remember that you're most likely to have an adult - mature audience who won't be into all of this XCM type of stuff and tricks like mindbender.

They'll most likely be of a generation that remembers and likes good old fashioned variety