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Colour Monte

I am an amateur magician whose studies well and knows most things.
Being an amateur it’s hard to keep a routine fresh by continuingly honing the routine with Constance performances.
With this in mind I have tended to lean towards mental magic as I have a good grasp of handling people and story telling.

NOW… I am looking for that card effect which I can get out and perform many times without the worry of ‘seeing it again’ and the Colour Monte I think fits that bill.

I love watching it and hope others will as well with repeat performances, which is the way when being an amateur.

SO… Is this the best effect to get down pat??? Or is there better???

Your advice is welcome….

I wouldnt really recomend repeating this effect many times- as they have already seen the ending. The later times, they will tend to focus more on trying to catch you -see how its done.
Thus the rule to never repeat.

plus this isnt really mental magic- its card and poker.


Maybe you should broaden your range, if you are having problems with performances. Pick up some books that will teach alot of stuff- tarbells, card college, rrtcm, Art of Astonishment, Apoc, MArk wilsons...

Color Monte is a good trick, and I like it, but it's a bit easy to figure out if someone sees it several times (I watched the video on Penguin Magic a few times and eventually caught on, then just repeated it with normal cards). A good trick I find that's difficult to spot after several times is the Raven/Bat, but once again, those with a creative imagination might be able to solve it.

As a rule of thumb for magicians, only perform tricks once. If you perform a trick many times, people will be able to see how it's done (especially with tricks that rely on misdirection).

If someone asks you to perform the trick again, it's usually best to either perform a different trick (could say you performed the original wrong or something, heh), use a line as to why you can't do it again (the only one I've heard recommended was "Once is magic, twice is entertainment." but I try to use something along the lines of the trick. Something like "I can't make it dissapear twice, it's already gone!" Or you could just use the straightforward "If I perform tricks many times, people might start to figure it out!" but that kind of takes away from the idea that what you're doing is magic.), or just run away to avoid them.

Oh, and I'd recommend the book Royal Road to Card Magic (rrtcm) by Jean Hugard and Fred Braue. You can order it online from many sites, or find it in a bookstore/library. If you can't find it and don't want to wait for it to ship to your house, here's a website where you can order the ebook version of it (for dirt cheap too!):

http://www.lybrary.com/royal-road-card-magic-p-35.html

After getting through that, check out Expert Card Technique by the same authors. There's a link to the ebook version in the site above.

I find that just going on to the next trick stops them asking for a repeat.