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Hello and I'm going to get straight to the point I need a routine. I am only 13 and peforming a show next year to loads of people and so far I want a mix of stage magic and close up magic. I've got so far for the show:

Freaky body illusions
excecutive magic set 1 & 2
IT
Magic gold edition
Marvins magic basically every box set
sely tying shoelaces
M5 system
Bitten and restored coin & (cigarette through coin?)

Here is the tricky part to put them all in a suitable order including 1 interval. I have came up with many ideas, but they don't seem to fit
Can someone help using these tricks or reccomend other tricks in an order I will be very grateful and I will choose my fave. When I peform I will send a post to tell u how I got on. Thanx for reading

Anyone who wants to give you a routine would require more information.

Preparing a routine to be showable will require at least one to two months of solid practice.

More info e.g.
1. amount of people at every show
2. stage or close-up etc
3. length of show

I suggest reading Nelms' book Magic and Showmanship.

Other magicians, including myself, might be hesitant to supply you with a routine as magic is something that has to be performed according to each individual's personality for it to really come through. Do try to think it out, post your routines here and we'll discuss them.

The Tarbell Course (which is, of Course*, a must have) has a chapter on routining. I think it's at the beginning of volume 3.

Eric Mead has an essay about transitions between effects in his book tangled Web (a fantastic little book- you will definitely gain from reading it through several times).

Kenton Knepper also tips his thoughts on linking routines and effects in Mystery by Association.

Your own perspective and thoughts about presentation should be your ultimate source for routining, so I would learn from the above sources and use the ideas from them to create your act.

Good luck,
M.

* bad pun

A major problem is that you bought all this stuff, but as separate effects, not a routine.

What I see as the difference between a good routine, and a bad one, is:

A bad routine is 3-5 tricks.

A good routine is 3-5 tricks, that no laymen would know are separate, and they see 1 effect.

I had a decent routine, one trick went into the other pretty well, but the problem, was that they appeared to be separate effects. The routine would never seem smooth, until it appeared that the first effect was the same as the last one.

Lance Burton's routines are a great example of a good routine. I recommend watching them.

I hope I made sense.

HenryHoudini wrote:A good routine is 3-5 tricks, that no laymen would know are separate, and they see 1 effect.

I disagree. I think an act can have different effects and still flow and be good. They just need a reason to be put together. An overall theme or simple patter to link effects together can make apparently different effects compliment and/or work well with each other.

Combining everything that zoomb listed into an act would be tough. Self Tying Shoelaces is hard to link to the other effects, since the styles are very different. That said, if done as an opener, as an almost-throwaway, it can probably fit.

Ok dude, sounds like you've got your hands full, but have faith in yourself and confidence and it'll be cool I'm sure.

I'm probably not the most qualified person on here to advise you what to do, but I'll do what I can... Start by answering these questions.

Firstly how long has the show got to be? This is an important factor, as there's no point cramming 10 tricks into 10 minutes, just like making 3 tricks last an hour and thirty minutes would be difficult for most people.

Secondly, who are you looking at entertaining? Kids, adults, teenagers, grannies? The different age groups could make alot of difference in which tricks you present.

Thirdly Which of these tricks are you most proficient in and which ones excite you the most? Myself I find that the tricks I like the best in my routines are the ones that tend to come across best to the audience. For example, I can perform a bill switch to any age group because it suits my style and I like the effect but I would struggle to do the same thing with sponge balls just because it doesn't.

Finally how would you like your audience to see you? For example would you like them to think of you as a zany comedian, a cool street magician or something completely different. Maybe you would have difficulty pulling these approaches off and would rather just stick to being yourself.

Have a think about these questions and then think again about your effects.
One bit of advice I was given was to try and pace your routine a bit like a movie, start with an attention grabber and end on something that knocks their socks off.
Probably the most important bit of advice I could give is however this. Don't rush in an attempt to cram too much in, each effect has it's own charms and the audience often need time to digest the last effect before the next one starts, so don't let nerves make you zip through everything.

Hope it helps.

sleightlycrazy wrote:

HenryHoudini wrote:A good routine is 3-5 tricks, that no laymen would know are separate, and they see 1 effect.

I disagree. I think an act can have different effects and still flow and be good. They just need a reason to be put together. An overall theme or simple patter to link effects together can make apparently different effects compliment and/or work well with each other.

You're right. I meant that some you need to make sure that it doesn't seem totally wrong to have the two effects next to eachother.

Thanx everyone all of u helped a bit so I'm happy from all angles I will post soon my final routine and tell u how I got on later.

Thanx again.

The main thing I always try to do when putting a routine together is make sure that there's a magical start and finish. What I mean is for example with my sponge ball routines, instead of just grabbing a sponge ball from my pocket and saying 'oh now here's a spongeball'. Instead I take my purse frame out and introduce it something along the lines of 'now here's a strange thing I found the other day, have you ever seen one of these? But what's even stranger is what I found inside' and at that point take a ball out of the purse. For me, I think your introduction is one of the most important parts of your routine, grab the audiences attention from the off and you've got a big advantage. I can't remember who it was who said it, but someone said that it's much easier to loose an audience than it is to win them back.

There's nothing wrong at all in having different tricks in a routine but they do need to work well together. I've got a routine that goes from card magic to coin magic, with the coins being introduced as part of a card trick. That works fine, but you wouldn't for example go from a comedy spongeball routine, into deep and dark mentalism. Are you thinking of doing just one kind of magic or lots? Try to have a link between the different types of magic, one of my okito box routines finishes with the final load as a spongeball, giving me a great reason to go into a spongeball routine if I really wanted to.

And of course the finish, you want a big finish because this is want people tend to remember. I like to go for a total vanish at the end or a silly final load depending on the routine.

hmmm I'm not sure if I've written anything useful of just been babbling but good luick with your routine.

My recommendation is that you try to include as much self-working magic as possible. Or if it is not self working you should have performed the effects hundred times before, so you can almost do the effects in your sleep.

Try to perform the effects as many times that is possible before the show. Try it out on random people in the street, homeless, family and friends , at bus stops or railway stations. You really needs experience and to be able to do the effects absolutely "cold" without having even to think about what you are doing. In the process of practicing this way you will also get a better idea of how to build up the overall performance. From peoples reaction you will get a pretty god idea of what works BEST FOR YOU as a performer.

When I was 10 year old, I did a number of shows (mainly for family and friends and their parents etc). I am not sure how good they were, but I got an incredible response and even today people talk about the shows.

Now every thing I did was either self working (I had a huge number of items I got by mail order from a magic supplier, to choose from) OR was performed at a level where I could do the effect almost blindfolded (e.g. the linking rings). The version I did of the linking rings was technically weak, but that did not really matter and the fact I was only I child compensated for this.

Anyway, hope you will try to follow my advise and I wish you good luck with the show.

Some good advice has been given above and you have enough material for a show routine if you give it some thought. The one thing that I would recommend is that you cut out the body illusions.

There often aren;t thought of as magic by an audience and it may detract from the other tricks that you perform.

good luck anyway.

Hi,

Firstly Good luck and don't panic. I don't know much about the tricks you mention, but I do know this, at 13, I should imagine you have an imagination to die for! and that is what you should use!

As has been mentioned you need to try and tie them all together, but a good story can do that.

Tell them a story, tell them that you seemed to learn magic after banging your head after falling over your shoe laces, but now you can use your magic to tie them up. Then show them an example of your new magic powers, tell them that one day you want to earn a living using magic, and make some money but not too much, money isn't everything , heck you can't even eat it! Or can you.

This is how many magicians of days gone by presented tricks, and will do in the future.

GOOD LUCK!

Let me know if you need any more help.

Oh yes, and read all the books they suggest. Eventually.

I would agree with Lady of Mystery
A strong start and a strong finish is what you need because those are the things that people remember. (It's called the serial position effect, but I'm just showing off now! )

Try and build a patter storyline around these. I dunno like a day in the life of a pro magish.
Wake up get shoes on laces tie themselves , that sort of thing.

Have you got mark wilson's complete course?
If not, but it it's a healthy mix of close-up and stage.

Good Luck

Hi zoomb,

there has already been some good advice given, but I would like to put a different angle on it.

You have alot of Marvins Magic stuff you say. Nothing wrong with that, as it is what is handy for you to get and has given you the interest. The first magic I bought was some Marvins Magic, for the same reason.
I hope the following advice, based on what I remember is in these sets will be of use.
Firstly, DON'T buy anymore magic yet. Mark Wilsons Complete Course In Magic will set you back between £5 and £10. You will learn so much from there and you have some of the props already.

First things first about the instructions.
Learn the techniques they give by all means, but avoid presenting things in the way they suggest. These sets are everywhere, so if you put your own spin on it, it will be your performance, not something everybody else who owns the sets does. If you perform it your way, people who own the set hopefully wont realise you are performing something they know.

I will go through some of the items I think you may have from these sets.

Svenghali cards.
Basic instructions are in there. I personally would avoid the last part where they get you to show all cards are the same. If you have a few sets, try to make a pack of 52 cards if you can. There are usually less in there, making the pack look thin, which screams out the fact you are using gimmicked cards.

Wizzard Deck.
More or less as bove.

Dynamic Coins.
One of the few props they have which are brass I believe. Not only is the effect good, but it looks much better than the plastic props. Works well with adults and children.

Cups and Balls.
I think some sets had larger sets than the others, if so, use these. They are still quite small and the foam squares aren't ideal, but at least you can use them to practise the technique. If you get to the stage you feel you want to learn these better, you can then look at getting a better set.
The other advantage is that, whilst again they aren't really suitable, you could at least get the basic practise for a spongeball routine, as well as using them to learn sleights. Again, if you find you want to do a spongeball routine, then you can buy a better set.


I bought sets from different people, not just Marvins, so if you PM me a list of what you have, I will try to give some help by PM. Some things will be better off a public forum. I wont tell you secrets, but at least I wouldn't be using terms like TT or f****e in a PM.