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I mainly perform close up roaming - Street, restaurant, trade shows, carnivals, etc - but do the occaisional stage performance for smaller crowds....when the size of venue and crowd is still conducive to my smaller prop size.

Having said that, I did a performance at a banquet last night for 450 people....the sitiuation was for me to roam about during cocktail hour as well as the delay between meal service between tables as all 450 couldn't be served instantly all at once...so I worked the opposite side of the room....when supper was over they had me perform a couple of effects on the stage as a way to segway into the night time entertainment, speeches, etc.

I have no problem with the number of people - comfort wise - but being mainly a close-up performer I am always left wrapping my mind around card effects, small props, mentalism type of things from my regular routine that would still appear suitable with a group that size...obviously coins are not going to work well in this situation - LOL - but just curious as to what effect other are using in this size of stage setting that would be suitable....keep in mind that I am trying to do it with existing comfort zones, etc....not looking to levitate, cut girl in half, etc, or expand my selection of props.....so to summarize, what are others in this venue doing when it comes to cards, etc?

I did a couple of comedy mentalism bits then went into a routine with a deck locked by a padlock and the signed card jumps to my wallet....works well and with my wife at the back row whe said visibility was just fine....obviously not going to do an ACR routine or the like.

Card to forehead is good for stage as well as the tossed out deck effect. Also, if you can incorporate some kind of jumbo deck presentation/routine into the act, it will go down well on stage.

Mike.

There's a simple Vernon card trick that might work well with a big audience. I'm sure you know this trick already. It's called "Emotional Reaction". It could very well work as an opener. I've done it for 17 people and it worked. 450 is a big crowd though...

One of my all-time favorite "big" card effects, is the McCombical Prediction. You can buy it in a jumbo card version, which makes it perfect for stage work. It's more a comedy effect than anything else, but it has a great kicker at the end.

As Michael Jay suggested, the Tossed Out Deck is an excellent effect.

Another POWERFUL effect is Al Koran's 20 Card test. This has an added advantage of not needing a jumbo deck. In case you're not familiar with it. 20 cards are selected from a deck (free choice of cards). The cards are collected, each person being assigned a number from 1-20. The deck is shuffled and then dropped in the performer's pocket. After being blindfolded, the performer begins calling out the numbers (not in order). As their number is called, the spectator names their card. Immediately, the performer pulls that card from his pocket. This is repeated for all 20 cards.

No set-up, no forces, completely impromptu. It takes a little practice, but it's an absolute killer.

I always enjoy looking at the Paper Balls OH tricks, slydini had very good sense of humor.

Im not really into stage magic but i think ropes are suitable and if you like coins you could look towards the miser's dream or a smaller routine involving 1 or more big coins.

Ropes are a great addition to a stage act as is an egg bag routine.

You could also do Misers Dream with some coins and an ice bucket. I've been looking at buckets on ebay and there are some really nice ones to be had for under a tenner whereas I've seen them advertised in magic web sites from £50 upwards.

Check out Thurston's Floating Card in Tarbell Course in Magic Vol.2. Or, for an even prettier effect (though possibly a bit less mystifying), look at Hugard's card fountain (also found in the Risinig Card lesson in Tarbell Course in Magic Vol.2.)

Have you tried the effect where the entire audience makes a card prediction?
I've used this before, for a room of about 40 people.

I have the entire audience shout out the prediction at the same time.
It leaves a very bemused volunteer.

It's comedy effect, I didn't invent it, and it's probably very famous and I don't realise.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone...please keep them coming!

Marvo Marky wrote:Have you tried the effect where the entire audience makes a card prediction? I've used this before, for a room of about 40 people. I have the entire audience shout out the prediction at the same time. It leaves a very bemused volunteer. It's comedy effect, I didn't invent it, and it's probably very famous and I don't realise.

Would you be willing to pm me the basic idea on this, I am not sure i totally understand what you are saying?

Have you considered Devin Knight's Far Sight?

I think that this could be a potentially great mentalist card routine on stage with the assistance of a few volunteers from the audience although I'm not sure that it would suit a noisy environment.

Thanks date8962 I will look into that one

Hi
This is karl.
I think if you decide to do a card trick on stage, it should not be a complicated one.
It has to be one card trick, in witch you combine, CARDS, HUMOUR, VISUAL, AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION;

If you can combine those four factors? YOU ARE ON BUSINESS
______________
Avoid complicated cards tricks in witch you make everybody to concentrate, ......

A simple and very well funny card effect, is one call CARD IN ENVELLOPE;
BUT AS I ALWAYS SAY; al depend of your personnal presentation.

If you got good sense of humour, and a funy way of presenting this one,
it will be a good one for closing your act (up to you)

WITH A CHAIR AND A LOW TABLE (spectator seated)
Invite someone to stage, he select a card, back to ythe deck, shuffle, give him the deck to hold, show freely five empty envellopes, ask him to pick up one,AND CHEK IS EMPTY, aske him to give you back the deck, so he can seal the envellope,
Then say that you need to heat the envellope, for the effect to work.
How should we do that??

in a casual maner, ask him/her to stand up a moment, and casually, place the sealed selected envellope on the chair, asking him to please seat pon it , and "keep me this on the heat".

Now there are many ways to finis this:
f.ex. ask poeple in the room to put there arms (both) pointing at the seated guy, and send them all there mental energy, by shouting loud, any magic word you like or any weard sounds, (?)
Asking the seated person, to , at the same time he gets all there energy,
to make some kind of funy bumb moovements (couple of time).
(do as you like but make it funy)
End: ask him to stand up
pick very carefully the envellope from the chair, slowly and with two fingers, (to show that there are no funny mooves)
open braik the envellope, an take from inside the SELECTED CARD;
______________
Send me a privat pm, will tell you how

hope this help
karl
ps: DONT EVER PREFORME A MENTAL CARD (or other) EFFECT IN A NOISY ENVIREMENT

I do a 45 minute stand up act using nothing but a deck of playing cards. It works for a large audience.

Of course mark
but this young gentleman was in a special situation in witch
sudently they asked him....

HE SAD:
"Having said that, I did a performance at a banquet last night for 450 people....the sitiuation was for me to roam about during cocktail hour as well as the delay between meal service between tables as all 450 couldn't be served instantly all at once...so I worked the opposite side of the room....when supper was over they had me perform a couple of effects on the stage as a way to segway into the night time entertainment, speeches, etc. "

I guess in such a kind of impromptus situation, and everybody with more then one extra glass of wine on it, we cant ask this guy to preforme anythingf serious.
I guess ,
super mario

mark lewis wrote:I do a 45 minute stand up act using nothing but a deck of playing cards. It works for a large audience.

When you say large, how large do you mean? And what types of effects work well for you (do you have any examples, names, of effects you have used successfully? I can't imagine something like an acr working for too large a group.....do you use your sven in something like this?