talkmagic.co.uk

I've been working on an effect recently which (providing it actually works this way) I intend to do with little or no actual talking in it instead relying on copious amounts of silence for dramatic effect. The one stumbling block I've come across though is conveying the actual moment of magic to the spectator. Essentially what happens is a selected card moves invisibly from pile of cards to another. My problem is, using only the medium of mime, how should I convey this moment of magic to the spectator.

So far I've experimented with picking up the pile that the card starts off in and then gesturing with it as if I am flicking a card to the other pile but it juct seems a little cheesy. The other 'method' I've tried is holding my hand over the pack so the shadow appears to pick up a card and then transferring it to the other pile but this would really own work under strong lighting.

My question is therefore this: how do you illustrate the moment of magic to your spectators? I'm not talking about the mechanics of any particular effect but rather the dramatic methods you find that work well in the actual performance of the 'magic moment'.

I hope I've explained myself here but I'm happy to give more details if I've been to vague or abstract.

There's a gesture I would use when mucking about with the cups and balls (I can't say I "performed" it) in order to suggest magically removing the ball from beneath one cup and dropping it beneath another. I'd hold my hand out above the cup, and make a pinching and lifting, sort of plucking, gesture, and pretty much reverse the gesture for magically dropping the ball.

That didn't make a blind bit of sense, did it?

Do you really need the movement to explain what's happening? If not, any bit of Woo-Woo (as Eugene Burger puts it) would suffice, as the reveal itself would demonstrate what had happened.

If you've made it clear the card is in pile one to begin with, any sort of action that shifts attention (yours and the audiences) to pile two will do the trick. It just depends on the mood you wish to create.

Sometimes a single card move can be magic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMBFaArc-Ak

Would just a movement of your eyes and head from one pile to the next not suffice?

I don't think you can go wrong with watching Teller and see how he does it. He's debatably the best magician of our time, and his body language says everything that his voice doesn't

Why not point at point at one pile then the other?
If you have a watch on, you could point to that too.