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Some advice please from you more experienced guys. I've built up a repertoire since the start of 2004. I've got a shiny aluminium case full of tricks, most of which I'm reasonably confident in. There's a small cupboard full of 'too difficult' or disappointing tricks at home as well where I've ordered stuff and it wasn't quite 'what it said on the tin'. I don't do fancy card sleights, not yet anyway.
So I'm out doing gigs, any chance I get, mostly friends parties and they seem to go OK and people say nice things afterwards.
My question relates to how do you guys organise your tricks and introduce them. I have a written set list with the order of tricks with notes like 'don't do this in bright sunlight' (Thought Transmitter). Each trick is in a plastic bag with a label on so I know which pack of cards is which and they are in some sort of logical sequence in the case so that I can easily find the next trick. Problem is getting each trick ready, out of its bag and into my hand which presents a short pause between each trick. I'm also putting tricks away back into the right card cases/plastic bags again so that introduces further delay but I don't want to just dump a pack of cards into my case. One thing that occurs to me is to employ an assistant, preferably a glamorous one but in the absence of that happening can anyone else provide some guidance on what they do to present a seamless performance. Regards Martin

Personally I organise my tricks with some sort of logical step by step patter.

So for example if I'm doing mentalism stuff, I might start with something like dieabolical which has a 1 in 6 chance of guessing the correct answer and I'll suggest that this is part of my warm up where I'm tuning in to the person, in fact it sometimes even helps to get stuff wrong at this stage. Since I've used numbers to tune in, I'll then move to something like Minds in focus which also uses numbers but now has a 1 in 52 chance of getting it right by guess work. so each step is seen as an attempt to probe a little deeper, finnishing with whatever is my best routine.

I have no probs with the gaps inbetween after they have finished showing their reaction, I just put it away as I begin my link patter for the next step.

Dunno if that is any help at all but I hope so

I guess you are asking how to routine an act. Well, Its very difficult to give advise when you have a wide range of effects. I would be inclined first of all to look at the tricks you cary around with you in your shiny case, and remove 4 effects that you enjoy doing Ignore the rest for now.

Taking these 4 effects, try to string them together in a rough theme.

If you cant, go pick another 4 effects.

You should also invest in books on this subject, the best, and most cost effective being Magic and showmanship by henning Nelmes, which is available from Amazon for under a tenner!

daleshrimpton wrote:remove 4 effects that you enjoy doing Ignore the rest for now.

Taking these 4 effects, try to string them together in a rough them.

Personally I'd aggree with Dale as far as the first sentance of that quote goes. After that, my theory changes slightly.

A theme for a routine can be a really powerful thing because you are moving from one effect to another but yet to the spectator there is a lnk between every effect making it one big bit of magic.

However, a theme can be really restrictive aswell, especially when you're just starting out. Sometimes it's so restrictive that you just hit a brick wall.

By the sounds of it you're doing very informal types of gigs. I love performing like that it makes it so more real in a way. What I would suggest to you is find four or five tricks, like Dale says but instead of "routining" them together, try "pattering" them together.What I mean is use your personality to link the effects together as opposed to a running theme. Use wit and humour or intrigue and suspense to create moments in between your effects.

By approching the problem that way you will link your effects together but it also gives you greater flexibility to mix and match new effects and then your not restricted by a theme.

maybey not so much help but i use a box and table combo for kids shows, i start out with a box production then as i put it away i say hmm what's next.... oh i know a rope trick....wan't to see a big card trick....and so on in a what have i got in this box type of thing....then finish with a kicker ending.
often if a trick dosn't go down to well, i'll say well if you didn't like that then your bound not to like this one, odd but this often turns the situation around.

I should mention here that when i said routining, i meant popping them in a logical order, strung with patter, not like a story , and that the patter should be loose to allow some ad libing. There is in my mind nothing worse that watching someone go through a memorised script, as it can become stale so very quickly...
Dale

My acts developed over several years of performing untill I got to the point where I am basically happy with them (athough no doubt they will still subtely change over time). There is no substitute for experience unfortunately, a lot of routining is keeping in what works, dumping what doesn't and moulding what is left into something specifically your own. If what you are doing is working keep doing it, even if it was an ad lib or accident, if what you are doing isn't working change what you are doing.

There are certain basic guidelines though. An act just like a story needs to have a beginning middle and end, ideally the beginning needs to be snappy and visual, your opening number will make of break your act. Grab their attention now and they are putty in your hands, fail at this point and you may never win them over.

Middle, basically this is all filler leading up to your big finish, if you won them with your opener you can relax and have fun here. It's not important for the tricks to logically link here but it is nice, basically this material simply has to work, it needs to be entertaining enough to hold the audience untill the big finish, ideally each effect should become progressively more amazing or entertaining building up to the big finish or at the very least should be as impressive as the previous effect.

What you do need to consider very carefully here though is stagecraft. Where will you be positioned, what props do you need and where will they be, do you need spectators to assist, when will you bring them up and where will they stand etc. You need to be sure you can move from point a to point b smoothly without backwardsing and forwardsing, you need to make sure that you have easy access to your props and don't need to make illogical prop changes, ie 2 different notepads during the same act, a trick deck routine followed by another card routine needing a different deck straight away. Also you don't want to be sending one spectator back to his seat only to ask for another volunteer for the next trick. Avoid "waiting time" ideally the audience should either be watching or applauding, time spent waiting is dead time and is bad. Avoid different versions of the same trick ie 2 predictions or 2 transpositions unless you can string these into an ever more impossible chain.

Finally the big finish, this needs to be a real crowd pleaser, this is the climax of your act and this is what everything else was leading up to. It will be the last thing your audience sees and the thing they will remember longest, if it is poor they will remember the anti climax long after they remember the rest of your act no matter how good it was, likewise if this is a killer routine they will soon forget a weak middle. Get the opening and closing right and you will have a lot of wiggle room in the middle.

All these are guidlines though, not hard and fast rules, if you break them and it works, keep breaking them, the best advice I can give is that if you don't like performing a trick don't do it, no matter how good the trick is, if you are not having fun the audience will pick up on that in an instant. The key to winning an audience is to love what you are doing, joy shines out to an audience as brightly as any spotlight.

Mark

Wow - Thanks for all the advice - and such a quick response. Some good 'food for thought' in these responses. I'll certainly think about the running order again and the themes involved. I realise I've got a lot of work to do on the patter side of things as well. Thanks guys. I'm well pleased with joining this site for your help, reviews and ideas
Regards Martin