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... Was Awesome !

I had so much fun performing my show. I gave as much effort as I could in presentation and apparently the spectators had the time of their lives !

I started off with Koran's Medallion, and my oh my, isn't it an amazing opener. I chucked the swami prediction for this and I'm glad. My presentation was much more different than the original one It fetched a great reaction as always.

Next I produced 2 decks using a modification of David Stone's Flash Deck Production (disregarding Iain's advice .. but it got a great 'ooooh' and 'aaah' and it really strengthened the base for the effect ) and performed Magic vs Mindreading. I had a solid presentation for this one too and digressed from the original one. Again, the impossibility of this was appreciated by my audience who'd never seen me perform mentalism before. They kept saying.. "But you never did anything ! " , to which I said , "That's right. Coz I'm a mentalist " ( I know... too far fetched.. but you gotta do it for the people )

I kept talking to my audience, acknowledging every single one of them, and they seemed to acknowledge that fact too. They appreciated it and you could feel the gratitude in the air, both from me and my audience.

Next, someone shouted 'Coin trick', and I decided to do 'The Fading Coin' by Tomoyuki Takahashi. I think this blended in well with the 'mentalism' part of the show ( Presentation inspired by Eugene Burger ). If you know the effect, they picked the 'other' coin and I really milked the effect !

It was almost 40 minutes at this point and I decided to take a break by producing a Coke bottle and Lay's packet from a handkerchief.

During the break, people came over and asked me to show them some magic. I reminded them it was the break but they were insistent. I gave in and performed 'One for The Money' by Bill Goldman with a borrowed deck and it blew everyone away. They asked for more, and I borrowed a little girl this time, and performed 'Fingerling' by David Harkey . Nice reactions on this one too.

Getting back to the show, it was a perfect opportunity for the Contact Reading demonstration. The standard finding the keys thing.They all said the saw it on 'The Mentalist'. I was glad . I gave them a nice 'explanation' as to how it works ( finally getting rid of that 'guilt' factor to bluff freely .. )

Now came the.. well.. different and unexpected part of the show. Suddenly people started talking about spirits and ghosts and stuff, and one of the pretty ladies ( my good friend ) started sobbing for her grandpa who recently passed away (apparently they were very close). Now this is when I got really shameless. I asked her on stage and performed 'The Five Gifts of Life' by Jeff McBride and Bob Neale. She was weirdly fascinated by the effect, and in the end when I produced the flower of 'hope', she lept up in my arms like a monkey. I was soo embarrassed. I'm hardly a coochi-coo guy. Maximum physical contact I achieve with anyone is a 'handshake' or a pat on the back.

Anyway, with her settled down and smiling again ( I got a kiss on the cheek for cheering her up ), I decided to completely flip this emotional mood to a happy one, I chucked the Tossed Out Deck and performed the Sucker Ribbon Prediction ( Pavel ). People laughed off their chairs when I showed my 'prediction' because there was so much buildup and tension I'd created. I'm glad I did this one.

Then I went on to perform the 'Bank Night', again involving the above lady in question, so she ended up getting the 'extra', which was a thin key. Everyone looked confused, and suddenly noticed a box on my table. She came up, opened it, and found her ring in it ! It was a great moment for me. I know I destroyed a classic effect of mentalism and made it into a 'stunt' ( as Eugene Burger would say ), but it was well worth it.

Finally, I ended with Chair Prediction (Kurtz) as Iain suggested. And it was very impressive as a closer. The reactions were completely unexpected and brought my show to an end.

I was congratulated by everyone, and got a second kiss from the girl .. ( GOD my girlfriend is gonna be mad !! )

Please leave your thoughts. This was my first major show. I made a lot of changes at-the-moment as you may have noticed, and I'm glad I showed some presence of mind !

Thanking you in anticipation

I'm really chuffed for you Hardik! It sounds like you, and just as importantly the audience, had a lot of fun

It's posts like this that spur me on to get this routine sorted out that I'm working on.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Wishmaster !

Yes it was a lot of fun. And all the best for your routine !!

Others please comment too I've tried providing as much detail as i could..

It sounds like it went over very well, Hardik. Based on everything you mentioned above, it sounds like a success on all counts.

Was this in a public place? A paying audience?

No not a paying audience.. It was a group of friends, and their friends, and their friends. Well, you get it. I knew about 40 % of the faces well in the crowd.. There were about 40 people.

Well done Hardik. Glad it went well.

Thanks a lot

hardik988 wrote:No not a paying audience.. It was a group of friends, and their friends, and their friends. Well, you get it. I knew about 40 % of the faces well in the crowd.. There were about 40 people.

Here I was thinking there were about 10-12 people. Great job!

Wow... that sounds like you had a wonderful experience, and from the reactions you describe, it seems you communicated your magic very well! They say, that friends and family are the hardest audience.

I hope I will be able to do an actual show some day... was this your first one?

Was it filmed? Sounds like you had a blast and your audience did too!

Well done!

well done...

I'm sure you'll get a certain people coming along telling you off for mixing magic and mentalism...however, you shouldnt have your buzz killed...

i won't even mention the flash deck production!

keep at it, work on your personal presentation - by that i mean why is it that you can do what you do as a mentalist..what gift/power(s) do you have?

keep on learning and enjoying yourself too...

Thanks a lot everyone.

Unfortunately it wasn't filmed I was in a state of paranoia before the show and didn't want a potentially embarrassing situation caught on camera :O . I'm also very very camera shy.

Yes Iain I remembered you while performing the flash deck production, a caricature of you was scowling over my head when I performed it, but alas the flash engulfed your face

@Contrabass : Yes it was my first stage show, but certainly not the first time I've performed to strangers.

Thanks again for everything TM !