Hi there guys.
Fairly recently, I was doing a bit of re-working to that beautiful effect "Jazz aces". Basically, as the effect was the penultimate one in my short working (ie. school and pub performances) routine, I felt that, even though it fitted what I wanted, the climax wasn't strong enough. I felt this because by the time you get to the third ace, the audience's reaction is wavering, as they've already seen it twice before. It goes:
Ace 1: wow
Ace 2: I really can't see how it's done
Ace 3 umm.... wow
It was this "um wow" I was getting that I wanted to eliminate, so I set about a new way of thinking which has introduced a double climax to the effect.
I start off with one ace face up on the table and the other three face down on the table. My patter here is a "demonstration of misdirection", so I state how I will make the aces disappear from the packet by misdirection (which also nicely draws attention away from the placing of the indifferent cards on the leader pile). Anyway, to cut a long story short, the use of challenge element used helps to keep the audience's attention, thus bettering the reaction (in my opinion), and the fact that they've almost forgotten about the leader packet also gives a stronger second climax as I turn them all over at the end to show that the once disappeared aces are now all in one pile together.
Now this brings me to the whole point of this post. What effects in your repertoire have you significantly changed either to suit you, or in order to gain a stronger reaction?
My example has been given. Gentlemen (and ladies), over to you.
PS. I apologise to those who are not familiar with the jazz aces, as the majority of my post will have made no sense to you.
