talkmagic.co.uk

K88, I have the Magic Coloring Book and a few wands including the Breakway wand which is always good for a little laugh. Thanks for the advice on..."Something that maybe involves them, or something they can hold and feel special." I always knew that effects for kids had to involve them to interest them, but I had forgotten the fact that it does make them feel special so I will work some of my performances for them around that thinking.

Cardza,

When it comes to 13 Steps - you're right, you won't really have time. You MAY, if your really work at it, be able to pick up some Sound Reading (pp.38 - 42); Try Step Three for the Amazing Memory Test, which didn't take me that long to learn and is a real crowd-pleaser and something that little bit different and you may also want to look over Step Ten Card Tricks. It will take work, but I reckon those are the most doable ones if you are going to try and get some material from the book in such a short space of time.

I have looked over the sound reading bit but it did not really appeal to me but I use what I have learned throughout my performances to add a little twist if the spectator slips up and makes a noice that I would have normally just ignored.

The Amazing memory test I am working on now...lets see what I can remember...1:gun 2:show 3:flea 4:saw 5:hive 6:tricks 7:goes to heaven 8:gait 9:out of line 10:pen 11:comes from Devon (what does that mean?) and 12 (have only looked through till 12 because of a lack of time):shelf. I think I will be able to get this down by Tuesday.

Thanks for the advice on reading Step 10, especially since card tricks are very much my style for teens-adults because of how much you can accomplish with only 1 prop. I will also take a look at this this weekend or

With Art of Astonishment, flicking through my copy now, Improv. Nightshades, Apple, Earth Shoes are things which would play well to children as well as some of the card material... It's really hard to say, especially when it comes to adults - there is so much great material it really does come down to personal preference, what you can get down in that amounts of time etc. etc.

I will probably get off of my lazy bum (Friday and the only sleep I got last night was 4 hours...on the floor in my halway ) open my copy before you get a chance to even read this, but on the off chance that you will; what volume is it in? Thanks again for the tips, they are greatly appreciated!

Connor O' Connor, I have never done a single Sponge Ball routine in my life except for Cups and Balls. I own Mark Wilson's Complete Course so I can pick up the basic routines from there probably but I already know all of the meathods for appearing and dissapearing them just from common sense and can pick up a routine watching YouTube.**variation and not exact copy of course**. I will see what I can get from Mark Wilson's book and if that will not satisfy my needs, I will let you know .

Thanks!

Thanks Mandrake, I will call him today and see if he minds and if he does not if we can work something out. I guess you have a point there, but I am still "stealing" a secret...But you're the boss .


Very good news:

Not only do I have this weekend to catch up on my sleep and to practice but...Next week, because of Thanksgiving (U.S. holiday) we get half of Wednesday +all of Thursday and Friday off +Staturday and Sunday weekend and my mom has allowed me to skip Wednesday altogether because school will only be 3 and a half hours long. So I have a ton of time on my hands for practice .

Off to practice from 13 Steps and Art of Astonishment and get some sleep (or try to at least).

Thanks everyone for your help and also to everyone who has PMed me with great advice!
~David

David R. wrote:The Amazing memory test I am working on now...lets see what I can remember...1:gun 2:show 3:flea 4:saw 5:hive 6:tricks 7:goes to heaven 8:gait 9:out of line 10:pen 11:comes from Devon (what does that mean?) and 12 (have only looked through till 12 because of a lack of time):shelf. I think I will be able to get this down by Tuesday.

Devon is a sunny little place in the south-west of England! Lovely little place.

I will probably get off of my lazy bum (Friday and the only sleep I got last night was 4 hours...on the floor in my halway ) open my copy before you get a chance to even read this, but on the off chance that you will; what volume is it in? Thanks again for the tips, they are greatly appreciated!

All Volume One material! .

Thanks!

Sorry for all of these questions but here goes another one.

How needed is performers insurance at my age? And also, how important would it be for me to get into the IBM considering the fact that you have to be a member of it to do a lot of things and also considering the fact that they give very cheap performers insurance.

Thanks everyone and sorry for the short, barely informative post,
~David


P.S.

I have no clue what-so-ever how I have already managed to get 100 posts on here...

I am going to see my friend's dad who is also a magician to get some more advice on top of everything said here (...and no...the fact that he has 2 shelves of books is not enticing me one bit ..). Alan (my friend) also said that supposedly his dad got me a coin magic DVD which is very good since I have always been bad at coin magic and this way I might be able to get a few good palms down by the time of my show even though I dought I would do any of them unless to "test" them. I really appreciate all your help and will tell you how talking to him went.


I am almost done with my Amazing Memory Test routine and will hopefully be done by Wednesday .

P.S. Sorry if this sounds like a useless post, I am just sharing how everything is going and to hopefully get some more advice.

Thanks,
~David

I've sent you a PM regarding the Amazing Memory Test .

Take your Joker Tube with you.

This will entartain the littlest kids, the medium-sized kids and the adults. It's an awesome effect - there is someone on talkmagic that has his own routine to it btu I can't remember who it is. Not helpful, I know, but if they read this, I'm sure they'll let you know how it goes.

Good luck with the show. Well done.

Let success follow you like that annoying song you hear first thing in the morning...

Cardza wrote:I've sent you a PM regarding the Amazing Memory Test .

Thanks, I read it all the way through but sorry if it takes a while to respond because I have a lot to do .

I'll have to test that out when I can get all 30 of these darn number-to-words down like the back of my hand (harder than I thought...but I'm down to the last few numbers that give me a little bit of touble).

Thanks!
~David



Edit:

The magician I went to visit let me borrow his ID (yes...I know...I knew how it worked but did not want to fork over the money for it...), gave me a coin magic DVD and told me a very good borrowed ring and rope routine that has endless possibilities.

Also:

I just tested out my routines in a foreign language for my grandparents for Thanksgiving (they only speak Russian and because of this I had to cut out most of the patter in my routines) and it ended up lasting, without the patter, a bit over 25 minutes. All of the tricks I am comfortable with, so I will have a lot to choose from when going there as I am assuming there is going to be a big crowd so the routine can only be probably 10 minutes long max. Thanks everyone for all of your helpful PM's, some of which I have not even been able to answer yet (If you are reading this connor o' connor, I am sorry how long it is taking me to reply).

Thanks,
~David

David R. wrote:

Cardza wrote:I've sent you a PM regarding the Amazing Memory Test .

Thanks, I read it all the way through but sorry if it takes a while to respond because I have a lot to do .

I'll have to test that out when I can get all 30 of these darn number-to-words down like the back of my hand (harder than I thought...but I'm down to the last few numbers that give me a little bit of touble).

Thanks!
~David

No problem! Just hope it's of some use!

Sorry I missed your last post, a few of my favorites from the billet section in 13 Steps are:

3 Little Questions
The Center Tear Routine
Great Minds Think Alike

The last one is a must. You have to learn it. The effect blows people away.

Again, good luck with your show!

Edited a little bit for clarity as it was written past midnight and has a lot of mistakes .


Wow! Sorry it has taken me so long to post this but I have been up to my neck in work. I have actually already done a second show which I will post upon either later on in a second message today or tomorrow. Well...were should I start...

My attire:

Not too dark black pants with black socks, black dress shoes, and a black shirt and black leather jacket (wow I wore a lot of black).

My effects:
A deck of cards with tons of *nearly* perfected tricks with a variety of about 12 or so between the different groups. ID. Brass Hot Rod. Crazy Man's Handcuffs. Box Monster. And a crystal ball with an Ace of Diamonds etched into it. For the adults.

A few "mini" things easily buyable in a Marvin's Magic Kit . Brass Hot Rod. Crazy Man's Handcuff's. For the little ones.

How it went:

Up until the last half hour before my show I was completely calm but just before leaving the house I started to get really nervous and started thinking about how everything could go wrong. Actually, for the first half hour I was there everything DID go wrong, but after that I settled down a little bit and for an hour after that I was doing my magic flawlessly.

So I walk in, hang up my jacket and start looking for a "one man group" to start off with. I spend a few minutes trying to find the best bait to warm up on and find my target, a middle-aged man who was just sitting down doing nothing, not talking, not eating, just sitting there and I thought to myself "Perfect, I can brighten this guy up a little" (all the while being very nervous) I walk up to him and say "Hello my name is David and I am tonight’s strolling magician, if you have a few minutes I would like to show you a few miracles". I had no doubt in my mind that he would say yes (I have never had anyone turn me down before except one day a long while back when everything was going wrong) but low and behold..."No thank you." I was in shock, panicking, and ready to throw up. Thinking to myself, "Oh no! These people don't like magic, I got turned down by the first person here! What am I doing wrong!?" (Although I later found out at the very end that the only reason he said no was because his religion would not permit him to watch magic, this was a real confidence "booster" however when I first heard him say no and did not know the reason why). Then the person throwing the party walks up to me (she noticed that I was looking for someone to perform for) and says, "Hey, do a little bit of magic for the kids." (now keep in mind I was planning on showing maybe one or two tricks to the little kids, all of which were total c*** (not the best), technique was good, but the effects were only supposed to be amazing to kids and only to keep them entertained for a few minutes while I show their moms and dads some tricks. I hesitate and say "I only have enough for a few minutes for the kids." and she responded with "Well, a few minutes is enough and then you can spend the rest of your time here entertaining the adults." Hesitantly I agree thinking "What the hey, why not, I'll get the kids over with nice and easy." Boy was I wrong. She quietly calls over the kids, calling little attention to herself therefore the adults did not care, then when all of the kids were sitting down next to me and talking she all of a sudden, loudly, tells them to quiet down because the magic show is about to start calling a LOT of attention to herself from the adults. Now I am very nervous and I thought that the adults would think that I stink at magic and not want to see what I have to offer to them later on during the party. I proceed to do one of those Marvin's Magic tricks were you take out a mini lamp type thing, take out a yellow ball out of it, place it in your pocket and it can jump in and out of your pocket, disappearing and reappearing in the lamp. Well, I am pretty sure that I fooled all of the kids, but because I was kneeling, I had a circular bulge in my pocket from the ball being there (hopefully that is not exposure and if it is please delete it or message me to delete it) and I could almost sense the heat from the adult's eyes staring at it and I could almost hear their thoughts of "Holy sh** this guy is horrible." I then move onto Crazy Man's Handcuff's which I believe many of the kids did not grasp but some of the adults started to pay a little bit of attention (positive attention) and then move onto Brass Hot Rod, but with my patter I had to do it sloppily for the kids to understand it, which the adults thought was actually how I perform it (so obvious that I was flipping that it was not even funny until I did the main, third change) which got negative reactions from the adults but good reactions from the kids.

All right so let’s recap:
First person = turned down
Asked to perform for kids in a "stage" like setting when I was prepared to do a little bit of kids magic in a walk around setting = c*** (not the best).

I then start to slowly warm up on some of the adults and after the first half hour of being there start to feel positive, back on my feet, and people start walking up to me and dragging me to their groups which made my life a heck of a lot easier. A few people got so into it that I started knowing them and they knowing me on a first minute basis even after over 20 minutes of me showing other people magic. I gave away my business cards to almost everyone there and had 3 people say that they might book me for "this event or that event" but unfortunately no calls yet but I'm still hoping. I am actually thinking of approaching a local restaurant and asking if they would like a magician to work for them on certain days/nights and I will do the first one for free to give them a "sample" of my potential and hopefully then they will book me which will also give me more opportunities to give away my business cards. Before doing this show I did not know what I was missing by not doing shows, but now that I have done one (and a second one which I will talk about tomorrow considering how long it took me to write all of this) I just cannot wait to do another. All of the thrill, excitement, not knowing what is going to happen, and just being able to do what I love, make people happy,...oh and being paid to do it is a "little" extra motivation . But in all seriousness, I'd be willing to do hundreds of free shows just for the experience and thrill of it all.

~David

I found this fascinating reading and I thank you for taking the time to tell us about it. It brings back memories to me of my excitement when I first started doing magic. From reading what you say I think you are better than I was when I was 13!

You are correct. You should do as many shows as you can and don't worry about the money. Big money or small money or even no money at all. Get out there and do show after show. You need to learn your craft and actually performing is the best way to do it. When you get older you can worry about horrible things like money.

I wish you luck on your magical journey and who knows where it will take you............................