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Hiya guys. At the moment, i am really wanting to come up with a new eefct, that has not been done before, on new princibles and ideas. I was wondering how many of you have come up withfully "original" effects and how you got the inspiration for them. It is actually myself and my mate whoare trying to work something out.
I hear about top magicians going away in to the country for weeks waiting, but we obviously can't do that.
So i ask you, how do you get the ideas that form a new trick, and are there any clever ways to brainstorm and think new stuff up??

Thanks .

Ben. x

Think about what would impress you, even as a magician, if you saw it.

If for example you saw someone throw a card through a computer screen and it came out the other end... would that impress you? If so... try and make it work.

Failing that, signed card routines are always good because there's no chance of substituting.
But also remember that certain forces and shuffles can hide a lot more than they show.

Don't forget your props either, TTs, IT, magicians wax, even a hanky to cover the crucial move for example.


And always, ALWAYS, try to think of the effect before the modus operandi.

I have come up with a trick, but I don't know if it's entirely original, but the effect is as follows:

The jokers are removed from a deck and placed to one side, a card is shown and dealt to a spectator. The deck is shuffled, a joker is inserted randomly into the pack and the deck is shuffled again. Another card is shown and dealt to the spec. The second joker is inserted randomly into the pack and the deck is shuffled. Finally, two cards are stopped at by means of a riffle and these are withdrawn to be "extras". Upon turning over the cards in their hand, the spectator has both jokers. The "extras" are of course the shown cards. And that just came from wanting a striking effect in which jokers seemed to move about, despite being clearly placed to one side.

Come up with something simple like that - "Queens turn to jacks, queens are back in deck and jacks are gone" and then work it into a routine.

Always the best way I find.
Hope this helps!

EckoZero wrote:And always, ALWAYS, try to think of the effect before the modus operandi.

I'm only an absolute beginner but I'd disagree about the "always". Sometimes the novelty can be found in the method, while keeping the same effect. I found that this morning while doing a long-winded method to establish which card the person saw (that I hadn't). I realised I could see a reflection of the card that wasn't (and couldn't be) apparent to the spectator. Much easier. Then I could concentrate on the presentation itself.

Another thing is to think about methods and think around them. Last night I was experimenting with a short card in a deck and came up with a very simple trick that so far has fooled a good few people today. It's a very very basic trick but nobody has yet told me they know how it is done. Anyone familiar with a short card would know in an instant, of course.

Buy Jay Sankey's Create your Own Magic.

...tempted...very tempted

I agree. 'Create your own magic' made me look at magic in an entirely new way. It comes with an inspirational poster too! I'll do a full review of it if anyone wants. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Jay mentions using a day-old doughnaut on the dvd! It inspired me to create a 'card from doughnaut' effect which proved very messy but loads and loads of fun! (it was a jam doughnaut!)

Sometimes I just watch the world go by and see what inspires me. Sometimes I watch my baby parrot play with his toys and see how he manipulates things.

I believe that inspiration can come from anywhere and Sankey's idea may actually work, but i think i might just need time to really sit down and think.
Yer. Please write a review! Is it the sort of DVD you will keep going back to, or a one watch wort of thing?

Cheers

Ben