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Today, my friends and me were out on the beach, and all of them started begging for tricks. Well, this was my chance to do an impromptu show and I grabbed it. It was such a great learning opportunity. Especially for some impromptu and gimmick free magic !

First I'll name the effects I performed, so some senior magicians here could give their valuable feedback. I borrowed a deck of cards from a couple sunbathing nearby, and I used it for many of the routines.

- Tenkai Palm Deal Force/Prediction
- Reset (D. Stone)
- OOTW (Grant)
- Gemini Twins
- ACR ( ending with Card to Mouth)
- Deck Levitation
- Lie Detector Test (Colimbini)
- Two card Transpo
- Torn n Restored Card
- Design for Laughter (Hugard)
- Broken and Restored Rubberband (Harlan)
- Torn and Restored Newspaper
- Some pieces from 5 minutes with a handkerchief (Reynolds)
- Some rope tricks (Daryl)
- Cigarette Vanish
- Drawing Duplication
- Impromptu Book test
- Ocean Meets River ( An effect developed by me.. Water taken from the sea tastes as sweet as it were from a river )
- Metal Bending (Kuffs)
- Contact Reading (Banachek)
- Mind Reading Demonstration ( I name a card the spectator is merely thinking of ! Another effect developed by me..)
- No-Levitation Levitation ( A 3rd effect developed by me )
- Gypsy Thread (Burger)
- Some shadowgraphy for laughs ( the bright sun really helped in this regard )
- Poker Cheat Demo

I breezed through all the effects very quickly, to my friends and nearby sunbathers, and here are some of my thoughts :

- Since it was an impromptu setting on the beach, I was in nothing but my beach shorts, and found it weird performing magic like that
- I had never performed so many effects at a short notice, and hence the presentation wasn't as high a quality as I would've liked it to be.
- Audience reactions were fabulous ! Cause they knew I didn't have anything on me ! (except beach shorts )
- Even though my pace was quick, the audience did well to keep up and appreciate it.
- The beach is an amazing place for performing magic ! Though I wish I would've been allowed to put on my clothes before being forced to perform !
- Onlookers gathered soon, and mistook my friend's hat on the ground as a tip-collection jar. I was in a dilemma on whether to politely accept the tip or refuse it because it wasn't my intention ! I finally accepted it and deposited it in a charity box in th e nearest supermarket.
- I was skeptical about performing the effects I'd developed, but I decided to give them a go, and they passed with flying colors ! Ocean Meets River got a fabulous response ! As did the levitation and Mind Reading Demo
- I ended up winning all the money in the Poker Cheat Demo, and kindly returned it back to the people as I had promised in the start of the routine !! People swore at me when I managed a Royal Flush even when I wasn't dealing the cards !!
- It's much much easier to fool people in an impromptu setting, and I got away with a lot more than I should have !
- Sadly, none of Jay Sankey's Anytime Anywhere material came to mind, and I'm going back to that DVD to check out why I didn't perform any of the material there.. Puzzling !!

All in all, it was a bit scary to perform so many effects at such short notice. But I think I did okay.

That's it. Just wished to share my experiences with you guys

Thanks TM and please let me know what you think !

Wow thats quite a list.

I'm still just working on the contact mind reading

Congrats!

Thanks Infy.
It was a relief to perform some impromptu stuff.

I am not familiar with your performing style, but I know, after doing this for a living for twenty years, that your list there would provide me with about three full-length (two hour) shows. That's a joke, by the way.
I suggest you pick three of those effects and work them into full routines. Milk each gag, each line of patter. Slow down and make what you do really special, rather than blowing them away with a succession of effects that come at them so fast they make no lasting impression.
I do two card tricks. But that's thirty minutes, if I want it to be.
I use a combination of tossed-out deck and ID (with an ungaffed deck) as my first routine. My second is six card repeat leading into cards across.
If I am doing a close-up gig I might add one or two tricks but that is it. David Devant said that he knew about six tricks. There's a useful lesson there. Start with three and make them uniquely yours - signature pieces. Its the first step on a great performing journey.

TonyB, I totally understand what you're saying, and it is what I am trying to achieve as a performer when performing a paid gig..

But, this particular situation was one in which everyone was in a very jolly mood, and it was certainly not a gig. I did this out of my own curiosity, as a challenge to myself to perform as much impromptu material as possible. Also, the thing was, people passing by were watching a couple of tricks, tipping money, and moving on. It was certainly not a place where I could perform an effect for half an hour.

I thank you for your advice and I assure you this is not the way I perform as a paid performer.

amazing. I don't time to finish Royal Road, never mind watch all those items you mentioned and the ones you mentioned in your other performance.

You must spend all day watching magic videos

I think that would be a misconception. I was on summer vacation from university for the past 75 days and had dedicated more than 12 hours a day for practise, and hence my performances. Now I'm going back to college for my final year, and, well, no time for learning anything new, but I will keep performing what I already know.

I think more than watching a video or reading a book, you should try practising, recording yourself ( or seeing yourself in a mirror if you don't own a video camera ) and perform to strangers !

I'm also comparatively very very new in this field, just over 15 months I think, but most of my experiences of performing to strangers has helped me improve my magic.

And please, you will find time to finish Royal Road. As a piece of advice which I didn't receive while studying it myself, logon to iTunes, search for 'Go Magic Go' , subscribe to the 'Go Magic Go' podcast, and the two wonderful magicians Andrew and Keith guide you through the Royal Road text.

Don't get disheartened ! Put your mind to it, and if your heart is already on it, you'll succeed before you know it !

OK that didn't sound right Or did it ?

Hey Hardik (see I spelled it right)

How long did it take you to get proficient at contact reading?

What size objects do you go after?

thanks,
--Infy

Jee thanks for spelling it right.

To say that I am proficient at contact reading would be factually incorrect. I started with 4 walls in a room, got the hang of it, and then included NE (North East) , SE, NW and SW, making it 8 directions.

This one was difficult to get down. I always took N to NE etc, and many failed attempts later, I got my first one correct ! It doesn't mean I still don't fail. I do. A number of times.

EXPOSURE WORRY - Mods please delete above 2 paragraphs if you find them as exposure.

But it is a skill worthy of developing to the maximum you can. As Banachek says, any effect of mentalism (except metal bending) can be duplicated by contact reading.

So the one I performed at the beach was, behind my back, a spectator buries an object into the sand and I find it ! That's it !

Keep practising it on people. I never repeated a demonstration on a single person. Every person's reactions are different.Don't worry about failure ! I looked like a complete idiot to many people on the road while attempting this feat, and as expected, have never met these people since. And even if I do, I'm definitely better at it, and it may even work with them this time.

Hi Hardik. I understand now what you were trying to do - fair play to you for doing it. At an early point in my career I booked myself into a comedy club with no material, except for my opening line. I struggled through twenty minutes but learnt a huge amount.
I am glad that this is not the way you approach your paid gigs, but if you have the guts to try things like that occasionally you will just continue to get better and better. It will keep you from getting stuck in a rut. Vest of luck to you.

wow, i have trouble remembering 2-3 card tricks let alone all those in the list, how do you manage that

@marcuk - Once you start performing it's gonna come to you. It's just a matter of routinizing all the material that you've practiced, scripting down your lines and performing it. Just like an actor would do.

@TonyB - Kudos for understanding my situation. I'm just proud of the fact that I left home without a single item on me for performing magic (including an intention ), and still managed to pull off a few items from the chunk of magic I've been practising. It was great .. Thanks a lot for your wishes