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Tomo wrote:Of course, being capable of Naked effects, I'm lucky in this respect.

Yeah, those two blokes couldn't believe their eyes when you did that Naked routine at the geek meet. They thought you peeked but it was obviously too small...

Impromptu magic seems to be a test even to some experienced magicians, as a lot of relatively inexperienced (definitely compared to the veterans on a respectable site such as this) card reliant magicians like me can't perform really hard hitting magic with general surrounding material.

This is why strong mentalism that requires minimal props or none is a powerful skill to have. But not everyone does mentalism.

If you're in a house setting ask to borrow a deck of cards. If you’re really close to any place that sells cards and the performance benefit is worth it, such as out in the city bar hopping, just go buy a deck for a few dollars. After doing magic with the coins Utilise the surroundings, don’t try to milk a difficult situation if you're able to buy a deck. I’ve borrowed a deck at houses and bought one for on the spot occasions several times.

The Sharpie

This is purely my opinion, but I think every magician should carry a sharpie. A sharpie is metaphorically a magic wand; it serves so many purposes in many areas of magic.

I carry a miniature sharpie on my key ring so I never have to think about bringing it out, It’s just with me everywhere I go. If you're wearing long sleeves, you can do the sharpie gag (seen on Army of 52) where it disappears suddenly without the magician’s knowledge from his hand and it is found, say, in the spectators shirt or behind their ear.

Impromptu Magic – Simple Ideas

The most basic effect when I can't think of anything or can't be bothered, is to borrow a coin and do a clean and simple vanish and reproduction. Coins are everywhere and having even moderate ability in coin magic will serve you well. Contrary to conventional recommendations, I find In the Beginning there were Coins by Jay Noblezada an excellent source for learning.

Let me digress for a moment. I was at a bar about two months ago and didn't bring a deck of cards and unexpectedly was asked to perform magic. I didn’t have any other props that I usually have in my wallet (I’ll discuss the props shortly), so I performed that simple coin routine and realised how much I suck without my cards. I then sat outside with my mate to have a smoke and finish off my drink. It struck me how I never bothered to learn more completely impromptu magic such as cigarette magic, stemming from my heavy reliance and security as a magician on my cards.

If you're a smoker, cigarette magic can be a source of impromptu magic, because you will never go anywhere without them and you can buy them anywhere. From my very limited cigarette magic knowledge, I recommend Rush by Nicolas LePage and there is cigarette routine on David Stone's Real Secrets of Magic.

I realised I had to be less reliant on cards and wanted to come up with something. I just started fiddling with a coin and the empty glass on the table, and came up with a simple and convincing coin through glass using a false transfer.

That coin through glass is not creative or new by any means, but I realised if you apply your imagination you can perform impromptu versions of what we already perform on a regular basis.

Here are some examples:

Use your imagination, as you can substitute the two card transposition (using duplicates) with any everyday objects, such as sugar packets/paperballs/matchbooks/ice cubes/lollies/etc. Applying the false transfer, you can make an object transpose, say you place one under an opaque cup, or even in the spectators and your hand if you use objects that feel similar. (Honestly, you can even just transpose two pieces of paper with signatures on them).

I personally don't do cups and balls (*gasps* every magician should!), so I'm not familiar with handling, however, you can always borrow a plastic cups and use napkins or paper if the handling and routine structure allows.

Here’s something simple I thought of right now so forgive its crude mediocrity. You can get out a few business cards, borrow paper or use old train tickets, and get them to draw basic shapes on them using your sharpie or borrow a pen (you can perform Gregory Wilson’s Recapped if it's got a cap that comes off). Magician force the triangle, for example, have them remember it and reveal it using stigmata.

Similarly, if you find matches, you can lip reveal using Warning using the same method with the shapes. I "swallow" the matchstick as it gives a reason for the smoke to come out of your mouth, and I use a red sharpie because it looks like blood and makes it much more believable than a black sharpie.
Setup takes a quick trip to the toilet.

When I’m put on the spot and I have something in mind, like my coin bend, Warning, Stigmata, etc. the toilet is where I setup. It’s such a perfect natural excuse and it allows you to setup whatever you want with no time limit in complete privacy. When someone asks to see something I immediately (almost cutting them off so it seems legit) say: “one sec I need to *, I’ll be right back” with a little desperate acting. They never even remember you went to the toilet. I intentionally use this somewhat crude language (of course in appropriate company) as the casualness diverts their attention, and they never link any insane routines with possible preparation in the toilet.

Anyway, back to impromptu magic. Depending on the type of magic you perform and the wallet you have, you can carry many props and never have to think or worry about them until performance time. The coin purse carries enough props for a good impromptu performance, as I don’t use the coin purse for carrying everyday change. Contents include two identical rubber bands and a third different colour rubber band, two Souvenir Linking Rubber Bands, and normal and bent coins.

Impromptu rubber band routines I use include Crazy Man’s Handcuffs and Linking Rubber Bands (Rich Ferguson has a great presentation). I also wear a ring so I can perform Rubber Made Part 1 (Daniel Garcia Projects), and Ring Thing. You can also do magic with rings like you do with coins.

Coin bends, although not truly impromptu, are my favourite because in my opinion it’s the most mind-blowing piece of magic possible with such an everyday and borrowed object. One problem is that guaranteed they will ask you to repeat it. For those who do coin bends, I recommend carrying a few bent coins in the coin purse (I'm sure you do already), along with normal coins for a matrix. Matrix are perfect for the pool table at bars.

I made this post way longer than I thought I would... don’t worry its nearly over

So in summary, the best thing is to be prepared with principles that can be applied to different objects and routines. Making magic out of everyday objects can be extremely hard hitting if you think about it from the spectators view, sometimes more so than magic you do with a deck you brought. Use the objects around you, or do some mentalism. Magic props can be anything if you apply or imagination.

In psychology, there is a thing called flow state, where the mind isn’t fully consciously aware of what it’s doing because the individual is so focused or absorbed in the task at hand, the conscious mind is flowing with the subconscious, so to speak. If you can enamor your spectators by inducing a good flow state you’ve got a more enjoyable and memorable routine, especially because it’s impromptu.

Here’s an example of a complete (but lengthy) flowing routine which you can observe the flow:
Crazy Man’s Handcuffs -> Linking Rubber Bands -> Souvenir Linking Rubber Bands (If you carry them) -> Rubber Made Part 1 -> Ring Thing (Just throwing it in here as an idea)-> Ring to coin transformation -> some coin magic -> Coin Bend

Impromptu doesn’t necessarily mean unprepared. To actually perform magic, not random separate staccato routines, you can prepare and practice smooth flowing routines. The audience will see you as truly skilled magician.

kolm wrote:

Tomo wrote:Of course, being capable of Naked effects, I'm lucky in this respect.

Yeah, those two blokes couldn't believe their eyes when you did that Naked routine at the geek meet. They thought you peeked but it was obviously too small...

They had nowt!

Peter Marucci wrote:
"If you refuse to perform, then simply you aren't a performer."

And Madvillainy writes: "So the only way to be a performer is to give performances on demand in any social situation?"

That's certainly one way.

But, in my experience, it generally isn't the best way, and I really don't like the image it projects. And I don't think that politely declining such requests - which range from respectful inquiry to nigh-on heckling - when you are enjoying yourself socially makes you any less of a performer than somebody who is comfortable to do an impromptu silk routine in the middle of the street. Different strokes, right?