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After my birthday I'll start doing restaurant magic (at least I plan too) I'm trying to visualize what's going to happen. I have few questions:
-When do you do the magic? while they wait for their food?
- Is there any way to hide angles cause I got a very good trick but you got to palm the coins and I'm afraid the person on the left of me can see the coins which will ruin my effect...
- How can I change packs of cards without them noticing (sometimes I need preperation.
- Do you know any lines that are funny? (Good replies)

Hi Pboparis.

There are already a number of threads on this very topic which will answer your questions. Try using the search function to find them and take a good read. There's LOTS of great advice in them

Go to a few restaurants as a diner and try to visualise the opportunities that present themselves. Usually the best time to ask if the customer would like to see some magic is just after they have placed their order and have their drinks. Don't disturb their eating and that includes between courses.

You only want three or perhaps four tricks at the most per table and yes, you don't want to have angle sensitive material, no matter how good the trick is. Your routines need to be commercial and appeal to the customer - sometimes this will exclude tricks that you personally like.

Good luck

Absolutely agree with dat, run a search and you'll find a wealth of information...

Some thoughts off the top of me head though: know your environment! There are many variables: some have low-lighting which is good for hiding things such as I.T. but can render certain effects hard to follow whereas others have very bright light (meaning that I.T. and the gaffing on some items becomes a lot easier to notice) or lots of natural light.

Full-length mirrors aren't uncommon either, and not only does this mean you have to position yourself such that any breaks or palmed items or whatever won't be seen by half the table, but it also means you have to be careful what effects you perform: revealing a selected card when you're performing right next to a large mirror becomes somewhat suspect unless you are careful to make clear that you can't catch a glimpse of their card by looking away or some such.

You'll save a lot of hassle, believe me, by knowing your performing environment beforehand (knowing, in the instance of the mirrors, where you will position yourself and who would be best to perform to); even arriving an hour or so early and walking around the space is better than nothing.

Dat is spot-on about when to make your approach. I prefer to place myself somewhere inconspicuous and keep an eye on who's ordered and when (if you get on with the waiting staff they will often be happy to tell you which tables have ordered, depending on how busy they are of course). Try and avoid standing in full-view otherwise you'll get your fair share of glances from ill-at-ease patrons.

One other point - give some thought to how you will approach the table with different numbers of people seated.

More people = less space to work but also, a larger crowd will react differently to a couple who may be on a fisrt date, anniversary etc.

Thank you cardza and dat. By the way i already did search that and could only find the sticky (Forgot the name) which helped a lot.

Would the M5 be a good effect for restaurants???

pboparis wrote:Would the M5 be a good effect for restaurants???

I wouldn't advise it as there are too many pieces of cutlery around that can become very attracted to your performance

pboparis wrote:After my birthday I'll start doing restaurant magic (at least I plan too) I'm trying to visualize what's going to happen. I have few questions:
-When do you do the magic? while they wait for their food?
- Is there any way to hide angles cause I got a very good trick but you got to palm the coins and I'm afraid the person on the left of me can see the coins which will ruin my effect...
- How can I change packs of cards without them noticing (sometimes I need preperation.
- Do you know any lines that are funny? (Good replies)

Don't want to seem too harsh, but by asking the above questions it seems to me that you aren't really ready yet to perform in a professional arena.

Don't want to put you off or anything (my first job in a restaurant I had one card trick, a PK fork effect, and a pair of gaffed handcuffs!), it's just your questions aren't the questions of someone who'll be happy, comfortable and confident working in one of the most demnding areas of close-up.

Hopefully you'll prove me totally wrong.

Invest in some David Stone DVDs. If you can tolerate his accent you'll get some great advice about restaurant performing.

I got vol 2, not vol 1. I can do all tricks very well on vol 2 except reset because of my helmsey count. Otherwise I don't watch the DVD in english cause I'm French so his accent isn't a problem (I watch it in French). However themagicwand says I'm not ready so I guess I'm going to do a practise show or at least until I get it right in front of my friends to see what they honestly think off.

You really need to get the practise and confidence in. Remember that the audience will not know you so they will judge you a lot more than family and friends . You really need to be confident with your effects and know them well. You normally perform in between courses

Trick Selection.

1. Always make sure that you can perform the effect well, i have seen some performers who think that the gig is a practise session.

2. You really need to consider your angles, remember that if the tables are close then people will see you do something if you are not careful. Try to go for effects that are angle-proof if possible.

3. Performance Time - Keep the magic short as you will only have a short amount of time on each table. If you do three tricks then you need to pick good short tricks.

4. Never mix magic and mentalism because you lose what mentalism is about.

5. Reset time - you want effects that can be reset instantly or very quickly. The last thing you want is to be rushing around resetting tricks as you move between tables.

6. It is always good if you do some magic with a borrowed object such as money or a ring.

As for good jokes and lines that is hard to answer in such a post. You want to try to develop a performance character for yourself. Look at DVDs of magicians you like and see if you can adpat anything.

Remember that working in the real world can be harder than it looks. What will you do when someone grabs the deck or prop, tells you they saw the secret on youtube, are drunk or rude to you. Gain some confidence and you will be fine.

Get some experience. Yes you can just jump right in and learn the hardway, sometimes the only way. Do you perform in public at all now? Why not go to a local hospital and volunteer to do some walk around magic for the convalesing people there. It is great fun, great experience and you are doing a good thing while getting some experience. I'd probably stay away from PK stuff in a hospital though

Yeah I perform to my brothers often and today I've done magic do school mates. I was really happy about the success they couldn't find any of my tricks and I've performed a bunch BUT someone snatch my pack and started do one of his tricks he really upset me especially his trick was bad (the trick were you guess the card by having a key card) I felt like revealing the trick but I'm not like that... So when I snatched back the deck which felt old and wasn't as smooth as before I wasn't happy if anyone knows how to prevent this it would be a great help.

Otherwise:
-When I perform a trick outside my family I know it perfectly
-For the angles I got to be careful
-I have short tricks
-I don't like too much mentalism
-Reseted tricks... oups... I do have some but I got to remember that
-A good trick with a borrowed object is billswitch and ring box (except I don't have the gimmick

Hi, If your still at school and under 18? I'm not sure the restaurant could hire you due to insurance issues and If your under 16 I'm not sure you can be employed at all. It's just more time to perfect your effects though

Yeah I am under 18 but I don't want to do magic for the money nor for the job...