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I am looking for something that can be done while completely surounded by people, and the entire performance should last somewhere between 3 - 5 minutes.
Some people would say juggle (fire or regular), but I am looking for something more unique and with a larger WOW factor, also something that is perhaps easier to learn. I dont mind if it is something that is made possible do to mechanical or technological help.
Thanks

Hello and welcome to Talk magic.

I would suggest popping over to the introductions thread and letting us know a little about yourself.

Beyond that, a little more information would be helpful - is this a performance for friends or paid? What age group is your audience? Is it at a dinner, wedding, or fair where there are other activities that guests will be involved in?

Will do,
Sorry about that.
Over the course of the next few months, alot of my friends are going to be getting married, so I am trying to find something that I can do in middle of the dancing to amuse the guests and bride and groom.
That is the reason why I am looking for something short but with alot of wow.

Thanks

Mage Tyler wrote:Hello and welcome to Talk magic.

I would suggest popping over to the introductions thread and letting us know a little about yourself.

Beyond that, a little more information would be helpful - is this a performance for friends or paid? What age group is your audience? Is it at a dinner, wedding, or fair where there are other activities that guests will be involved in?

This query has been raised a couple of times before, try the Search Function with Wedding as the key word and see if any of the older posts are of help to you.

Ninja rings....

I always find that a demonstration of spirit mediumship is the perfect way to bring a touch of "WOW" to a wedding reception - especially when great aunt May pops in from the spirit realm to wish the happy couple well.

Mediumship can also be done surrounded, although one should be careful not to find oneself surrounded by angry townsfolk brandishing flaming torches.

It certainly has more WOW than ninja rings anyway, although I personally would be all for fire juggling - especially in a hotel environment. Once the evacuation is over and the fire brigade have left, I'm sure people will start to see the funny side of it. And years later, well, tears will be rolling down their cheeks.

I have a proposal - start with the mediumship (say 20 minutes) and then move on to the fire juggling. Now that's entertainment.

ghurty wrote: I am trying to find something that I can do in middle of the dancing to amuse the guests and bride and groom.

POI! (it's not just me, honestly)
Or contact juggling, but I wouldn't advise anyone go out and perform that without at least a years practising.

Edit: D'Lites? certainly a lot less practise involved.

I'm going to stick my neck out, and ask if it's a good idea at all. Do any of these friends getting married know each other? If so, will they not have seen you doing your thing at someone else's wedding? Will they be OK with you potentially interrupting the mood with your routine?

All may be absolutely fine, but those things sounded like possible problems to me.

I think Lawrence's suggestion is excellent. You can work up a short D'Lite routine in the time available.

Ok... I'll be the practical one in this...

Have you ever actually cracked open a book about how to do magic?

The Mark Wilson or Tarbell Courses are both filled with techniques (tricks) as well as insight the novice (that's you) needs to learn and be aware of... you will also discover that a huge majority of these book things tell you that you MUST PRACTICE and GET EXPERIENCE and as you do this you will learn the nuances of each effect... like how to guard any possible angle issues and work with audience management tactics.

I could give a huge list of effects that can be done in the round... let's start with a Zig Zag or Broom Suspension... Mismade Lady... Spirit Cabinets... the Cremation... Catch is, any one of these items will cost you between $3,000.00 and $15,000.00 and they still require a ton of practice as well as the headache of storage, transportation and getting a reliable assistant that will keep her mouth shut.

Other effects you could do in the round???

Well, you could join the pack of all the other "originals" in our world and learn a bit of mentalism... well, the masturbatory side of it at least such as the 101 card tricks folks delude themselves into believing are mental miracles or the subtle torture of innocent coins and flatware (or wine glasses and light bulbs, if you want to be part of the newest angle).

Ok... enough Sarcasm on my part

The catch is, you aren't going to be overly happy with self-working junk... at least I hope you wont be. Though you can do some amazing things with self-working effects it is best to use them sparingly so as to punctuate all the other stuff. When I'm doing my stage show I always start off with the material that requires those "funny moves" that I might get caught with and move towards the cleaner methodology while making the audience believe we are raising the stakes and making things more difficult...

Why?

Because after they see me do something once and then move into a similar scenario they are going to watch closer or "burn" my hands as they say. I've set them up to not find anything... this is a subtle trick we old guys use every now and then but keep it in mind.

So... what is it you think you want to do?

What is appropriate for a wedding?

What is your goal in doing this short demonstration?

I was just reading something in one Kenton Knepper's books about an old idea (routine) that most ignore and laugh at (though Ali Bongo used to get tons of laughs from part of it)... but imagine how intriguing it would be, if you simply rolled up a few sheets of newspaper into a tube... you tear the ends down about a third of length of the tube at the half point... you give it a quarter turn and repeat this giving you tube four sections with loose torn "leaves"... if you pull on this from the center section you create a Newspaper Tree... it's corny but if you are telling a story about how this symbolic tree represents their love and how it will grow and in the process begin producing the "off spring" of that love... simple paper flowers that you seem to pluck from this tree, which appear right at your finger tips...

If worked with, a story line created on your part, the right background music, etc. this simple $25.00 investment (roughly) could be one of the most memorable moments of the reception... but YOU must transform the two simple "elementary" tricks into something enchanting and worthy of emotion... this is when and how magic happens.

So take a step or two back and evaluate your goals, your skill level (not just as a magician but as an actor/storyteller) and find within yourself the means by which to create MAGICK rather than learning a handful of tricks that have no sense of cohesion or purpose outside your showing off.

ghurty wrote:I am looking for something that can be done while completely surounded by people, and the entire performance should last somewhere between 3 - 5 minutes.
Some people would say juggle (fire or regular), but I am looking for something more unique and with a larger WOW factor, also something that is perhaps easier to learn. I dont mind if it is something that is made possible do to mechanical or technological help.
Thanks

If I remember correctly, Lady of Mystery had a great reaction at a wedding before Christmas in front of an audience she didn't even know she had with a simple routine. I can't find the thread now, but if anyone remembers, it might be a good starting point.

This one - http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic22344.php

That's the one. Now, why couldn't I find it

Indeed she did

It was nothing special, just a nice, simple spongeball routine (roughly based around the one in Mark Wilson's book) with a little flash vanish at the end.

I wasn't really looking for a big 'WOW' reaction and didn't even notice I had an audience other than the couple of friends I was performing for until after I'd finished.

The reason I think that the spongeballs worked so well is that they're bright and visible so caught peoples attention and they're easy to watch, most of the people wouldn't have been able to hear me over the music.

I think if you're seriously looking to perform in that sort of setting you're going to need something like the spongeballs, something bright that's going to catch peoples eye, silks might work well too. Keep it simple, remember people might not be able to hear what you're saying so it's going to need to be self explainitary. As for the big wow factor, I'm starting to realise more and more lately that what we see as a big wow doesn't always seem to entertain the audience. The more I perform for people the more I'm starting to notice that people seem to enjoy a nice, simple, fun routine with maybe a quick suprise finish much more than a big WOW effect.

If you're just going for the wow factor and aren't so bothered about whether it's magic or not, I'd take Lawrence's suggestion and take up contact juggling. It's not easy, and you won't be able to perform straight away, but it's damn impressive and can certainly be done surrounded, because there's no trick to it.

Jim Henson called it the closest thing he'd ever seen to real magic...

At the evening reception, why not "steal" fragments of the disco lights with different coloured D'Lites. Dunno about "wow!", but it's definitely something that gives people a double take if you just do it without warning