talkmagic.co.uk

Hi All,

This is my first post here as I have just discovered the online world of magic!! I have been doing magic (mainly card magic) for around 5 years now but nothing too serious - just friends and family. I met another magician in our local area and he has inspiried me to start coming up with routines and performing them at a Magic Night we have at a local pub.

Problem is that I have never really thought about an act before and when trying to come up with a list of tricks that would work well together I started getting highly confused

Anyway this got me thinking. I am a software developer by trade and so am going to create a peice of software especially for the magician. My first thoughts are that I am going to use it to store all the tricks that I know and that I constantly learn. By tagging certain tricks it would make it possible to create routines and combine tricks to create new presentations.

The kind of thing that I am think is that you enter a whole host of details about the trick -

Name,
Where you first saw it,
A link to the resource (dvd, manual)
Who created it
The kind of trick (card, mentalism, rope etc..)
What kind of setup (impromtu, stacked, gimmick deck)
Sleights that are involved
Difficulty rating (self working, not many sleights)
Similar tricks (cross referencing)

I was also thinking of using it to store tricks that I have seen that I would like to know more about or the learn and where I can get them etc...This list would be pretty handy for wife and family around b'day xmas!!

I also was thinking of creating an area for slights, endings, performance tips, tricks that need work so that you would use this almost like an arsenal if you need a control for a trick you are working on or another variation of a control as your not comfortable with one presented with a trick.

I am looking for any other ideas that anyone can think of that they would like to see included in this software.

Please help me and post/email me any ideas/comments/features/suggestions that you have.

Thanks again

Ian

Hi Ian - and a very warm welcome to TM.

What a superb idea - something like this would be a god-send for me!

Other bits, which I'd personally find of use, would be:

Purchase Date
Original Price
Original Dealer/Seller
Routine placement (Opener, Mid-runner, or Closer)
Space for various different patter ideas

Now....please, please, please tell me this is going to be available as freeware (or at a reasonable price)

Hope you enjoy your stay here at the madhouse

Rob

Brilliant,
I cant tell you how many times i go into my magic closet looking for "That one little peice of the gimmick missing" or whatnot, and stumble upon a trick i've completely forgetten I had, or a little gem- software with a good "browse" feature would be amazing!

that would be great

please do make it freeware
if not, I would buy it up to about 15 bucks, just because Im cheap

I do the same, but just on an excel spreadsheet. I then have this printed next to my practise table and this helps me with routining.

I to have my own list but would welcome a free or cheap one
Added to my list is.

Age limit for the trick ie not a severd head for kids lol
If and why somthing went wrong.
What worked really well in a performance and what type of audiance it was.

Finaly best place to buy online.

TC All

I have a PDA which I use to keep track of my magic collection. It really is very useful to have something to organise everything and your software idea sounds like a good one. Good luck with it.

What? How organised?
Really though, If you need a database to keep track of your tricks/sleights, then you have too many, and you're not spending any amount of quality time with each one.

beeno wrote:What? How organised?
Really though, If you need a database to keep track of your tricks/sleights, then you have too many, and you're not spending any amount of quality time with each one.

It's not as bad as it sounds; I only have a few effects that I use on a regular basis. Besides, I'm hoping to sell the vast majority of my collection shortly (a lot of which was purchased when I was suffering from a bad case of CUPS). I just like keeping lists of things because I'm anal like that.

beeno wrote:What? How organised?
Really though, If you need a database to keep track of your tricks/sleights, then you have too many, and you're not spending any amount of quality time with each one.

I agree with having a data base just for tricks would be pointless if you only have a few tricks. It depends on what type of shows you do remembering all the Do’s and Don’ts in each category.

I do shows for special needs adults I would never use a red silk for example. Do you or anyone know all the correct words to use with an ethnic audience ? I sure do not so for me a data base helps me keep track of what to update and any changes. Also not to mention your health and safety list, last thing you want is for a volunteer to come on the stage and trip over the IT you dropped in the last trick. When is the next P.A.T testing due on your amps or lighting or any electrical equipment used.
A date base is Ideal for all that info…Just my thoughts.

TC All

robstanley1 wrote:Hi Ian - and a very warm welcome to TM.

What a superb idea - something like this would be a god-send for me!

Other bits, which I'd personally find of use, would be:

Purchase Date
Original Price
Original Dealer/Seller
Routine placement (Opener, Mid-runner, or Closer)
Space for various different patter ideas

Now....please, please, please tell me this is going to be available as freeware (or at a reasonable price)

Hope you enjoy your stay here at the madhouse

Rob

Thanks Rob,

You will be pleased to hear that this will be completly free - my way of giving back to magic the enjoyment it has given me.

Ian

Hi All,

Thanks for all your info I will definatley add the suggestions to the software.

The reason that it would be useful for me is that I go through phases where I will perform card magic for a couple of months and then all of a sudden a customer phones wanting to know if I can come back and do another mentalist routine...

I have many tricks that I perform (just so that I dont get bored really) and also like the idea of combining tricks or other endings that I have seen in my routine.

It would be handy for me to see all the mentalist (or whatever category) of tricks I either know/own or am aware of so that I can start to practice when required.

I will add a section where you can keep track of performances.

Another reason for this software ideas is another magician friend of mine performs at a magic bar. He has a standard routine for when he is doing walk around and went though this list very quickly. He realised that tp perform every week/month to the same audience (i.e. reg visitors to the pub) would mean digging out all his old tricks - with the software it would be easy plus you have the source of the trick if you need to refresh your memory.

Once again thanks for all the input and Ill keep you posted when its done.

Ian

P.S Just one other thing - I need to come up with a name for the peice of software and a domain name - Any one have any ideas?

a friend of mine has a very nifty piece of software for organising his gigs.
All in one program he can set up a booking, see if he has worked for them before and also what tricks were performed at the last gig.

Perhaps with an inbuilt calendar, a scaled down version of the latter could be possible.

magicmonkey wrote:a friend of mine has a very nifty piece of software for organising his gigs.
All in one program he can set up a booking, see if he has worked for them before and also what tricks were performed at the last gig.

Perhaps with an inbuilt calendar, a scaled down version of the latter could be possible.

Do you know what its called and where i can get it from?

Sounds like a nice little app. Be sure to update the thread once you finish it and I'll give it a try.