talkmagic.co.uk

Hey folks,

I'm a bit scared, tho I shouldn't be. Probably...?

I was a bit merry down a t the pub the other day, and managed to blag my way in to a paid ticket party round here for free because I promised I would pull off a few magic tricks and entertain some folk. Keeping a long story brief, it'll all be locals and friends, mostly, it's a small rural area so everyone knows everyone to greater or lesser degree. My enthusiasm to get into this and throw myself in at the deep end got the better of me. Have I done wrong?

I see the latest sticky here I'll have a better read of later about performing to the public, and I've read the free e-book I got a while back about performing to family and friends, but I'm worried how to pull this off and what sort of things to use.

I was going down the coin and card road with the few tricks I've got and practiced to a few (very well fooled mates but I feel I need a bit more. I recently bought 'reality is plastic' and am eager to go down this route tho have not had a chance to practice yet.

I'm not sure if I have to put tricks in abbreviated form here, so I'll just go for it. For my coin tricks I would say at the moment I could fairly happily do four coins through the table one at a time, a few things involving coin unique, and 'metal sheep' as seen on the automata dvd. For cards I have 'up the ante' impossible bet/prediction, card to location, in this case matchbox in their pocket or wherever. The old 'self righting deck' where one appears to place them all back to front and then hey they're the right way round again in someone elses closed hands, and possibly a couple more.

I just today purchased Anate, and Kollosal Killer, have read anate, brief as it is but not the latter yet.

I was thinking I could work on a more mentalist type routine than my original 'quick coin and card tricks in rapid succession' idea but then thought if I'll be hanging about in little groups of people for however long it takes, I won't be table hopping as such, some more mentalism type stuff could work better and my sleight of hand (four coins through table) isn't totally foolproof yet so to speak...anyone got any advice on which route to take?

I guess also I'm just nervous as hell, as well as quite excited!And I assume the only answer to this is practice practice practice and get your patter down to a T

Any tips tho most welcome!I'll be reading more stickys here later...

How long have you got before the party?
I'd suggest sticking to magic rather than Mentalism if you don't have the time to really get things drilled.
I see a distinct lack of sponge balls/bunnies in your considerations and I would urge you to get and practice the sponge bunnies. Excellent for parties and people will ask you to do them again and again!
Keep things simple so people can follow easily.
Oh and although Kollosal Killer is great I'd avoid repeating it when in a situation where people know you and each other. (you will see why when you read the instructions).

Hey, I have about 2 months to practice and get some stuff down properly...a reasonable amount of time I guess.

Hmmm yes I can see consideration for the instant repeatable again and again would be good for this sort of thing

The DVD corporate Close up is worth getting for the sort of situation you are going to be in but most of automata would be good too.

Thank you so much, I was getting well carried away there I think I do have automata and should probably try and just get most of that down nicely! I have three from there already and they are pretty handy in the sublte and fairly swift reset

Cheers!

soveda wrote:I'd suggest sticking to magic rather than Mentalism if you don't have the time to really get things drilled.

Seconded.

My guess is that the original poster might have mistaken a lack of moves in mentalism with it being easy. Alas, it is not (but not as hard as a Cardini style manipulation act either).

Anate is nice, but I don't think it's suitable for a party and KK is, as soveda said, perhaps not ideal either (but a cracking trick).

My advice for you is to find out what sort of party it is (loud music, poor lighting, more like a dinner party, buffet, sit-down meal, etc.). This will affect your material. How long are you expected to perform? Is it walk-around, or a half hour show? You've talked about coins through table, but will there even be a suitable table, let alone a chance to sit at it?

Also, have you asked what they expect you to do? Can you imagine what would happen if they expected you to (say) entertain the kids while the adults have a few drinks, and you turn up dressed in black with a pentagram round your neck and new goatee beard, contacting the dead on a ouija board?

That is a deliberately extreme example, but as you have rather fallen into this, it might be a good idea to check. My guess is that they will be expecting magic of a similar sort to what you said you'd do. If you were unspecific, they are likely to be expecting either a kids' show (if children will be there - you mentioned it was ticketed, but that doesn't necessarily rule out a family party) or the usual sort of walk-around magic (which doesn't mean you have to do the usual tricks).

Thnaks Part-timer. Ha, I certainly don't mistake mentalism as being easy for lack of moves I think that's why I was getting a bit pannicky, I just like the idea of that kind of routine (and just recently got 'reality is plastic' which is sdomething I've always been fascinated with, but realise there's a shedload wof work behind that and a big lack of people to practice with round here for me).

However, it's in a big mansion house with lots of locals/friends of mine getting pretty merry and milling about kind of like a cocktail party I guess. Pretty likely I will be able to find somewhere to put stuff through a table, and do some cards on. The mistake I made really when winding myself up before my original post was asuming that the more moves and practice a trick required, the better it would be. Thanks to all your great suggestions so far tho I'm coming to the idea I'd be best armed with my cups and flash paper balls, and I love the litle paper ball matrix trick you mentioned elsewhere. Card to matchbox is an easy reset and always a winer tho amungst mates I can probably only do it twice in this group without sacraficing a few more cards to make it look a bit more...

So I think I'm getting a much better idea, and yea I need to speak to main woman and tell her what she can expect and not to put me on the invites as a massive act! The idea as we left it was just for me to have a chance to show off some of my new found skills in a public environment as they have lots of weddings at said big house and I thought it could be the start of a nice little side career if I ... I can't resist... play my cards right! Sorry :p

dressed in black with a pentagram round your neck and new goatee beard

What an image, funnily I think they'd love that!

If you're wandering around you need fewer tricks than you expect. It's important to not outstay your welcome, in fact it's best to under perform and when people say "oh go on, do one more" suggest they come find you later (they might not do, but if they're with others who've seen plenty it stops those others getting overwhelmed).

IMHO 'Always leave them wanting more' seems like very good advice.

Thanks folks, you are all currently my heroes I think I've learned far more from this thread than watching half a million videos and effects that cost a bunch of cash or just don't seem quite right. I've been worried about quantity too but now I'm seeing the light. Gold stars all round, and an extra one for Part-Timer for mentioning paper ball matrix, what a great one! Kind of like cups and balls but almost better I'd say. That's definitely In! Will go nicely with the fireballs and cups too. Whenever I discover a new trick I tend to find once I know how I get worried it seems way too obvious, not enough cunning gadgetry of gimmicks or something, and forget that five mins ago when I watched the effect before the reveal of method, I was totally fooled haha. I guess that may be a common thing for us newcomers. I'm getting over it slowly but surely.

How many tricks would you guys have prepped? I'm thinking you need to vary the routine wondering round so if someone tags along to see what you'll do next, they can watch a few they just saw, and get some fresh ones too, or leave people talking about different things the other didn't get to see...I guess it depends how much banter you lay on them too. I've seen a lot of different styles of the same trick, some performers lay on the banter real think, with history and all sorts which seems to distract people a lot and sometimes make it better, and others just fire in but the banter is always good and covers the swift actions and any set up.

Try thinking in terms of preparing a brief routine rather than "some tricks". I've found that I have often prepared 8-10 different tricks/effects in a routine but end up doing no more than three or four!

I took Eugene Berger's advice where he states at the start of a close up or parlour set, 'I have three things to show you' that way the specs know you won't be there all night and, equally important, they know when you've finished and therefore when to applaud!

I usually have an additional effect or two just in case one of the three can't be done for some reason.

MrCat wrote:Gold stars all round, and an extra one for Part-Timer for mentioning paper ball matrix, what a great one!

Alas, I must return the extra gold star, because in the other thread I was actually talking about the Slydini paper balls trick (at least that's who I associate with it). I learned it from a Jay Marshall book when I was about 11 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW6oQZc_c80

I am, however, delighted that you have found another trick with paper balls that you really like and suits your purpose, even if it was quite by coincidence!

I'm not best placed to answer your question about the number of effects to prepare, but I have had a thought about something that might suit you. How about a routine where you have multiple cards selected by spectators and then find them in different ways? I've seen one version that used ten people (I cannot for the life of me recall the name of the guy who did this one) and there was a relatively recent DVD release, Multiple Revelation Project, that has the potential for even more. As you only have a couple of months, you might not have time to get the more difficult ones up to performance standard, but this could possibly work for groups, or if you are asked to do something for a larger audience. It should also be modular, to an extent, so you can alter the number of selections and revelations.

Doc Eason had a DVD called Fusillade on the same subject. You'd have to order it from Doc in the USA, and by the time it arrives, well, you'll probably have run out of time! If you really like the idea, you could get the MRP DVD and order the Eason one and review that in the light of what you've got from the MRP.

I've not seen either of these, I hasten to add, but both seem to have had favourable reviews.

There was a Fusillade book and Aldo Colombini had book for his version of the multiple revelation called Fireworks, but I think both are out of print.

Ah ha! Yes I've seen that one and had forgotten how good it could be (Paper balls). I think it was Derren Brown I saw do it with a spectator sitting in a chair with back to a blank canvas and I thnk he was making paint powder or something disapear. Nice idea! I'll look into these dvds, I'm actually off to LA tomorrow for a week funnily enough, but it's a big place and I'm not sure I'll be able to get to any big magic store but I'll have a look about. Am sadly on the breadline just now tho!

Thanks again