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i take two decks and one sharpie... and an asortment of coins

My routine is:

1. self-tying shoelace (spectators come up to me)
(mind over matter patter)
2. fork bending (if at a place forks would normally be)
(mind reading patter)
3. psychological card force (perfect reason to get cards out)
(magic card abilities patter)
4. card tricks (two card monte, card transformer, ctw, etc.)
(inherent human magnetism patter)
5. hummer card (card turns into $100 bill to get attention)
(strange property of money patter)
6. money tricks (coin bite, coin vanish, torn & restored bill, floating bill, etc.)
(strange feeling patter)
7. balducci (if and only if i feel it's the right audience)

That seems pretty boring typed out, but I'm pleased with the reactions I get and the flow of the presentation.

As I mentioned to Greedoniz at the last meet I go out to a gig ready to do about 12 tricks but inevitably end up doing maybe four. Having said that my last couple of perfomances have been mix 'n mingle type affairs as opposed to tables and it seems that you can get away with less in that sort of scenario, maybe because you can do a group then wander off and do another well out of sight of the first.

In terms of what I do, I'll always perform CMH, my ACR, sponge balls and the good old 11p trick. Otherwise I chuck in Foreign Affair, a bit of coin and or ring jazz, pk/levitation stuff with IT or loops depending on the light. So there's enough there for at least three table sets and plenty to fall back on if necessary but if I performed more than 10-12 in a night I'd be surprised.

I have to say that I admire magicians, especially restaurant/strolling magicians, who have a random set in their performances. Not long back whilst abroad, I saw the same magician in a bar 3 nights in a row, and on each of the three nights his act was totally different.

His 'repertoire' and arsenal is huge, and it shows. He was fluently mix/matching effects based on reactions.

This is a great way to do things, in my opinion, and it's the way I have tried to arm myself... which is:

1. To learn more sleights/moves/subtelties/methods rather than individual tricks. I think that the more fluent you are with METHODS, the more versatile you can be with performing.

2. To try and stay away from dangerous, volatile props which may not work, or have a high failure probabilty... mainly because I'd had egg on my face several times and it's not nice.

3. To carry a bare minimum of stuff on your persona (unless of course you're a stage magician, which I'm not!). A couple of decks, bands, TTs, silks etc. are just dandy. And don't forget Looops!

4. Positive attitude: we recently saw a magician at a wedding, and his attitude seemed to be 'well, I'm getting paid'. He was absolutely the most boring person for the job, and had zero interest in the stuff he was doing.

I was actually almost embarrased for the guy!

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well.

I carry several effect around with me.

1) Cards! Mostly for ACR, but also the poker trick that E ripped off from RRTCM (I've lent it out so I've forgotten the name but it's in the glide chapter). Also more recently the monte trick in David Stone's Close Up Vol1, Cavorting Aces and other tricks that don't require a set-up. Also a deck set up for a signed card colour change (a variation on Gypsy Burn on the SS DVD)

2) Saw

3) Sinful (I carry a six pack of coke in my bag)

3) M5 and PK ring for PK stuff and watch stopping, respectively.

4) Beyond ESP2 - pendulum and the one that originally came with the Boris Wild Deck. Also if the light is right I'll use the scorpion for a spooky UV revelation.

5) Two gaff decks: ID and Mental Photography

6) Time Machine - can be tricky to get right but when it works it's a stunner.

7) Scorpion UV stuff, wiregram, shaman card, stamp and blacklight.
This includes prepping my left arm for a veins revelation and prepping my right arm with Zenner symbols.

Cutting Edge

9) Bladucci wallet - mostly for when I mess up my ACR! In this I keep flash paper, shaman cards, wiregram, force cards and business cards.

10) Bike Gaff deck, just in case I fancy doing something a little different with cards.

I could ditch the bag, as it mostly packs very small but then I wouldn't be able to perform Sinful which gets such a great reaction I would feel naked without it If I'm performing at a function I'll ditch the bag somewhere and carry everything on me.

OOO pick me pick me.

I usually have normaly.

A sharpie
Some business cards. (I do some of Tomo's primming methoods and write the predictions on the back of that.
Acidus plus (if you dont know it, then shame its ace)
And something me and Lord Freddie share... The power of hypnotism.
the power of muscle reading

If I am impressing

All of the above
Beyond esp 2
my heirloom wallet
thats loaded to gunnals with a nice 3 way prediction ask monkey
A pendulum
and a few other bits.

I agree with Seige that it's better to have methods than tricks. Sometimes you can get away with improvising as well. Just last night I was doing some billet work. I convinced the spectator I could read the twitches in their eyes just by placing my fingers over them. This naturally made their eyes close and then it was VERY EASY to reveal what they had written on the billet.

I must have about 20+ tricks that I know inside out and perform on a day to day basis. When I perform, I use about 12 tricks at a time in sets of 3-4 to each table or group.

well I dont really do gigs, I`m a street magician. but I do have some good tricks.
1. A lot of card tricks, none done w/ double cards so I don`t have to worry about them.
2. STS-That is to say-Self Tying Shoelaces. If u don`t have it, get it. I`m now famous (to my friends & family at least) because of it.
3. A self levitation I invented, that is until I get the Skywalker levitation.
4. A couple svengali decks. I don`t use them much, but they are pretty cool.
5. Mind reading w/ cards. I guess that goes along w/ #1 though.