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Hiya everyone,

I know I don't post very often but I need some advice on possible
effects. I have an act that I'm putting together for a stage competition at
my magic club, but as it is, it's a little too close to the
minimum performance time for my liking so I'm trying to add some more
to it.

My act is basically all about turning 18, so its sort of the pros and
cons of being 18. Do you guys know of any effects that could fit into
this or perhaps something that could be adapted to be about being 18 or
birthdays etc?

I've tried looking but all I seem to find is effects for childrens'
birthday parties, I'm trying to find some old effects too which perhaps
some of my fellow members have not seen/performed before as I know
how boring and repetitive it can get when every competitor does the
same effects as the previous one!

So far I've got one effects about alcohol where i produce a champagne bottle then show a picture of a hilarious hangover victim (a quick bottle production.. maybe I could turn this into another effect..any suggestions?) one effect about going to university, one about birthday cakes, one about birthday gifts and one about sprucing up my outfit for my birthday party.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks,

Nat

P.S I have no idea why its posted itself in collums like that...

EDIT: Just thought of something else.. what about gambling? But the only effect I can think of that's stage and gambling is russian roulette.. which I'm not too keen on performing

there is a 100% safe version of russian roulette known as "spiked" - talk to seige for details

there is a cups and balls routine using a martini glass or summit? cant remember the name, but its on penguin magic somewhere. Im sure someone else on here will be able to remember.

as for gambling, you could do many effects - from stacked, easy, hard sleights e.t.c. deal your self a royal flush, cut to the aces, e.t.c

thats all i can think of the top of my head.....

ooooh - there is that effect with jay sankey? he has summit about a car - one car garage or summit? its on NUMS either way. you could say about you having a car away from home - at Uni maybe? I dunno - im just spouting out suggestions

stage huh. abotu 18, should be simple. I have been there once.

first thing that comes to mind is the alcohol. Dont use champagne if you dont have to. I would use either a bottle of everclear, vodka, whiskey or beer. Ever clear would probably work best (if you live in the USA, since thats still under age). If your in another country and of age (thats sweet), but still champagne, not a "hangover causer". Wine is worse than champagne. Brandy is one of the worst. [enough on that lol]

russian roullette (sp), thats a fun game/effect. I perform it often and really like it.

there is also 3 shell game, thats a good gambling one. and you can get jumbo for stage if the regulars are too small.

A monte of any sort.

and effect related to university, might help if we knew the name or mascot or even colors, and the major.

i will get back to ya if any thing comes to me.

If alcohol's a theme, a lota bowl effect showing a never ending supply of booze could be a laugh. Morrisey does a Lota bowl in the guise of a beach bucket (available from kidshowmagic.co.uk if you want to make things a little less obvious - while bringing in the idea of a beach party or introducing the theme of childhood toys adapting to new nefarious purposes...

Voting's another theme. Depending on the tone of your act, you could use the ballot paper and ballot box props to run a mentalism-type routine, having spectators vote in a secret ballo before showing that they've all voted the same way, or by counting the votes cast and showing that you predicted the outcome all along...

Just a couple of thoughts.

Pete

not sure your budget but a few make at home items.

three way clouring book, spoty kids turn into handsome ones then get girlfriends.

two flat pack cartons are shown one larger than the other, first is opened then the second is opened and placed over the first on it say flat pack girlfriend just add water, sprinkle water from watering can and girl apears from boxes.

miser dream ending with six foot list of iou's, uni's expensive.

porr student is shown living in a box, on a piece of card, card is turned round to show job opertunities page.
card is turned back around to see student in doctors outfit with own car.

Great ideas guys! Thanks a lot!

I never thought of voting! Thank you

If anyone has any more ideas, that'd be ace.

Cheers

Nat.

For gambling you could try Dice Stacking. You could also work in something about driving (perhaps the Tamariz toy car trick, sorry I don't remember the name). I realize that at 18 one already has had a driver's license for a year or so, depending on where you live, but you could use the "am finally able to by my own car" angle.
Edit: Possible something to do with Romance, or going off to college.

Kolisar wrote:For gambling you could try Dice Stacking.

Being naive now, what's Dice Stacking?

Kolisar wrote:You could also work in something about driving (perhaps the Tamariz toy car trick, sorry I don't remember the name). I realize that at 18 one already has had a driver's license for a year or so, depending on where you live, but you could use the "am finally able to by my own car" angle.

Ah, I think I may have seen that in an act before, not sure if it's the same effct, cheers.

I got to thinking a bit more, and asked some other magic mates about possible effcts and one of them recommended Luke Jermay's Dangerous Opener. I bought a used copy of his book Coral Fang to get this effect and I'm a little freaked out that it uses a really sharp knife... have any of you guys used this effect? Its just that, reading through the manuscipt of the effect, there seems to be a lot of pre-effect stuff to do, like you have to hold the spectators hand all the way from their seat to the stage, I'm a little uncomfortable with this, and I'm sure the spec would be too!

I was thinking I could adapt this effect to be about gambling and talk about roulette tables and the chances you have of wining etc, but you have to be immensly serious.. I'm not sure if I could pull this off as I tend to joke around a bit when I get nervous, which suits the rest of my magic fine, but for this effect to really hit home, it has to be delivered in a serious manner! Does anyone have any thoughts on this effect?

Thanks Kolisar for the suggestions too.

Here is an example of Dice Stacking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDgO3_vRXQ.

One thing not shown on the video above is the ability to control which number shows up on the top die.

The two books I would recommend are "How to Stack Dice for Fun and no $" by Clarke "The Senator" Crandell, and "Shoot The Works" by Ed Marlo.

The basics are quick easily learned and result in quite an impressive display of skill.

And, if you are looking for a not-too-serious gambling-related routine, how about the much-maligned (I have to get my hyphen quota in for today) Color Monte?

OK cool, thanks for that,

But I thought the Colour Monte was a close up effect?

What about the Topy Turvy Bottles? You have 2 martini bottles hidden under tubes. Its a do-as-i-do routine but your bottle always ends up the right way and the specs bottle ends up upside down

Yeah I thought of that, but does it go anywhere? my impression of the trick is just that the magicians one is always the right way round and then its just the end of the trick?

BTW: Miser's Dream, does it actually use a gimmick or not? becuase I've found DVDs for it and I've found very expensive Pails, why are they so expensive?!

Thanks

There are 2 ways of doing misers dream routines. 1)gimmicked pails or 2)slight of hand. Jeff McBride covered it on one of his dvds, but i cant remember which one, sorry!

If I were to be in your situation, what I would do are tricks in the already mentioned categories but in chronological order pertaining to the date of the magic trick's invention. That way, it really is like you are getting older.

Joshua Jay has some nice stuff on the same theme, for example he uses a Televison remote control unit to signify "coming of age" (He gets his own remote!) and he uses this in an amusing card routine. Not sure if it is published in his book, but worth checking.

Things that also come to mind are:

First Pay cheque (bank night)
Girl friends (torn and reestored "Playboy" or comic to playboy)
car keys (production of)