talkmagic.co.uk

spooneythegoon wrote:

Eshly wrote:Why? Did he discover the method?

I wouldn't have thought he would but...
Was he a bit off colour afterwards
Or am I thinking of a different method?

No - he didn't discover the method and (suprisingly) wasn't off-colour either! So I got away with it!

Two things that keep coming back to me when I meet people years after my shows are swallowing a balloon, and talking to my puppet dog. The dog in particular gets remembered. I think ventriloquism is under rates. I am very poor at it, yet people remember it with fondness.

The other thing is the Q&A. People talk about that for years.

I think there are a few things which constitute a trick well remembered, which may be stating the bleedin' obvious, but as magicollie would like to know they type of things people remember, I shall explain what in my experience is very memorable:
-Very visual magic: a bottle through table is very visual
-Very impossible magic (Impossible looking magic?? what the devil do you speak of?) By that I mean, magic which leaves the spectator NO room to think 'he did some slight of hand' 'They were a stooge' e.t.c
-Non Magical magic: Whilst card magic, and coin magic can be very entertaining and very well done, even I have a tough time remembering what how old tricks I used to do went as an effect. I think this is where it relates to the idea of borrowed or everyday items which I think seem to enhance the magic. People always tell me about things they saw on tv when they talk of magic, which seem to be things like people tearing other people in half, people walking on water, people tearing each other's faces off- in general not the type of stuff asociated with 'magic' (Cards, die, cups and balls- not they're weak... but not necesserily memorable. You can forgive me as a card worker).
On the subject of memorable magic- I try to leave each performance having given the audience something they can tell everyone about.. but I do not try to do it with every effect otherwise it can become saturated, I feel. People say when they saw Dunninger, that they don't really remember what he was doing but they remember he could read minds: which is a good thing in the sense that is they don't remember what it was you did, fully, they have no chance of working it out and every chance of hyperbolizing and 'airbrushing' (thanks Gordon Brown) the effects, but still, I want them to have something unique and memorable.
I think it is part of being a magician, and indeed one of the greatest things which makes it all worthwhile, is people talking to you about things you have done in the past and asking you to repeat them. There are many of these things, but one which even spooked me, was predicting, openly one day before, the Haiti disaster. More recently, I also predicted the plane thing going on today openly a week before that happened too. For the cynics, Let's just say I was *Ahem 'hurling the headlines'.

In my stage show, there are two major effects which are talked about years afterwards. I know this because when the client rebooks me, they mention the same two effects over and over..

-Q&A
-Linking Finger Rings



www.mindreader.ca

My drinking chums keep asking me to do Card On Ceiling for them.

I've only performed it for them once, but they still talk about it.

Rob

I had favourable comments years later after performing Colin Miller's "Hollywood or Bust". You can get it with the Mind Spy or Stealth Assassin.

Barry

I recently bought a Thoughtscan pad, for a Q&A even though I know I won't have the skill to perform with it for a long time. (had to buy it now though, they are not being made anymore)

I'm hoping the Q&A is as memorable as people say it is.

For memorbale tricks my cross on any freely named card deck (yeah, I'm thinking about renaming it) trick goes down pretty well.
You take out a deck of cards in it's box, spectator names any card, said card is the only one with a big cross on the back of it. Or "you will name this card" or "happy birthday [insert name]", whatever you want really.
I usually play it through more of an ID routine given that i don't really do the mind reading thing but can easily be adapted.

As for requests....
It's balloon flowers! nuff said.

Lawrence wrote:cross on any freely named card deck (yeah, I'm thinking about renaming it)

COAFNCD!

Sounds like quite an impressive trick presuming the performer does not touch the card after it has been selected; you might market it if thats the case

Eshly wrote:Sounds like quite an impressive trick presuming the performer does not touch the card after it has been selected; you might market it if thats the case

Performer handles the card in so much as runs through the deck to find it and places it face up on the table. That's about as much sleight of hand as there is in it.
The spectator can then turn it over to reveal the back and the card is fully examinable; as such, i will generally leave it with them if I use it to convey a "happy birthday" type message.

A friend did one of my regular gigs for me today as I was doing other gigs. When I arrived at the wildlife park everyone was talking about one trick - his cups and balls.

Klangster1971 wrote:

spooneythegoon wrote:

Eshly wrote:Why? Did he discover the method?

I wouldn't have thought he would but...
Was he a bit off colour afterwards
Or am I thinking of a different method?

No - he didn't discover the method and (suprisingly) wasn't off-colour either! So I got away with it!

Lucky!

Lawrence wrote:For memorbale tricks my cross on any freely named card deck (yeah, I'm thinking about renaming it) trick goes down pretty well.
You take out a deck of cards in it's box, spectator names any card, said card is the only one with a big cross on the back of it. Or "you will name this card" or "happy birthday [insert name]", whatever you want really.
I usually play it through more of an ID routine given that i don't really do the mind reading thing but can easily be adapted.

As for requests....
It's balloon flowers! nuff said.

I use something very similar, only I step into the world of Bizarre magic. The word 'chosen' ends up on the back of the card, as in 'the chosen' exact same effect, I'm presuming the exact same method, a different presentation and a really strong reaction.