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I am relatively new and am currenty trying to gain some confidence & performing experience. I was all ready to go but a fellow magican then raised a good point.
Is it a bad ideal to just do cards when putting together 3-4 effects in a small routine.
Currenlty I am creating a short routine , it includes red hot mama, Daleys aces and either acrobatic aces or spectators cuts to aces.
Should I add a non card effect to this, I currenly dont have anything and it would need to be something that I could master very very qucikly.

Any ideals and views are very welcome.
Chris

Nothing wron with just performing cards, some magicians have built careers just performing card magic. You may want to try a simple coin trick.

Nowt wrong with just cards.

I've sat and watched Ed Marlo, Guy Hollingworth, Lennart Green, Simon Lovell, Sal Piacente and many more give such creative routines using just cards. Pure entertainment. Solid sets. And more than just this, fantastic skill. Not a sponge ball, coin or hanky in sight.

So many magicians will recommend you vary your set a little—but if you're comfortable with sitting down with a deck and entertaining a crowd then why try to change?

Some cardies use gimmicks or props in their magic (for instance, making a shoe appear from a cut deck, Lennart Green). But these are part of the card routines.

The advice would be to analyse your performance AND your target audience.

Kids don't appreciate the skill or quality of card magic—they're preferred magic is much more visual and innocent. More mature audiences generally are warmer towards cards, and you need to consider audience participation as being paramount to the entertainment value.

I would be prepared to wager that if you took all other genres of magic and pitted them against card magic alone, you'd probably find that card magic dominates to some extent the field of magic.

And because of this, it may seem conditional that a magician is able to perform card magic. But this is more an assumption than a criteria.

Being able to perform a card trick or two is handy. But being able to create a whole hour long set from just card magic is a real skill.

In conclusion, I'd say that it's totally up to you whether or not you add additional material to your card set. But I've said it already once today, if it ain't broke—don't fix it

Ive had this same thought in my mind for a while. Ive been doing nothing but card magic for 14 years now, and many a time I have thought that I should do something else. But I still have not got around to it!

The only thing that I would recommed is to try and work on some ESP card effects. Still cards but a little different.

Anyway, everyone knows card magice is the best kind... (tongue firmly in cheek)

The only reason i would chuck a coin effect in, is if i needed to do a dick switch.

I hope you meant 'deck' there! .

IMO there are only so many things you can do with coins or other miscellaneous objects...there is something about cards which draws people in, it's kind of hard to articulate...but I love watching a full-set of card magic done well, it can be quite beautiful indeed.

Dick switch oopps deck yer i did mean that

Just stick to card magic. Nothing wrong with that. That is pretty much all I do and the odd coin trick or two. Just lately I have gotten into some other stuff. But if you are just starting out then pick something you feel comfortable with. No need to rush it. However if you absolutely feel you need to give the spectators more then just cards, there is a ton of easy gimmicks out there you can get that you will perform as soon as you get it. Scotch and soda is a good one, pen through dollar etc... For now my friend just stick to cards if that is what your good at