talkmagic.co.uk

For me the only problem with gimmicks is that if you get caught in a situation where someone wants to see a trick that involves a certain object and you don't have it then it looks dodgy. Also there's so much amazing impromtu clean stuff out there you can easily go forever without using them.

On the 'magician's guilt' side of things I've just decided that the easy stuff is so good you might as well use it. The one card trick that gets the best reactions for me is Untouched, and it's childishly easy. Easier than OOTW even. And you can repeat it if you want to. I do like tricks that give you a sense of satisfaction so I do those too but invariably after I've done something tricky people will say 'do the thing with the rubber bands again'.