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wonder how many tricks i have to know if i want to work at the restaurant? probably tons....right?? that's what i am worrying about..since i am not good at magic now..(card, coin, close up..etc..) i am still practicing 2 hours a day...but i really want to work at the restaurant..
i mean..do i have to professional??

You don't have to be a full time pro, but you will have to be good (I would prefer to say very good but I have seen a few proffesionals who are not) at about 7 or 8 tricks which fit into a couple of flowing routines.

magicdiscoman wrote:i'd sugest :-

haunted key.

I knew you would say that

yer about 7 - 8 effects is fine.

about 8 is right for table magic, whether at a restaurant or a wedding reception where you're doing tables. For large weddings (100+ guests) I take 10 tricks.

You need a good mix of tricks which are all suitable for close up and - YOU MUST BE PERFECT. Anything less and you'll rarely get repeat bookings!

I find that the ID ALWAYS gets them going as does Twisted Sisters. Recently I've also been doing Sankeys 'In A Flash' and Kids Cards by Richard Pinner is also popular. You need to rotate card effects between different tables as you don't want to be doing any deck switches in view. Always use the same colour backs on your decks.

I then do some work with coins and also some fork bending which works in well with the cuttlery that's lying about, and some rope work.

I do a maximum of three tricks per table and then move on - taking an average of five or six minutes for the three.

i really appreciate about answering my questions...so. u guys say about 8 tricks per day ..right?? my question is..if you work for 2 hours..i think 8 tricks are not enough?? if i have to repeat eight tricks over and over .doesn't customers get bored? also..how many tricks per table do i have to perform??
thank you..

Hi

For a start, 8 tricks is ample, and if you are working a busy restaurant for 2 hours, people are constantly coming and going, so no one will see the same trick twice. If you are worried about that though, have 2 sets of routines for alternate tables, so if anyone is "rubber necking", they dont see the same effects.

Hope this is a little bit more of an insight into what you are worried about, i hope its of some use!

Mark

kyunwoo wrote:i really appreciate about answering my questions...so. u guys say about 8 tricks per day ..right??

Indeed!

kyunwoo wrote: my question is..if you work for 2 hours..i think 8 tricks are not enough?? if i have to repeat eight tricks over and over .doesn't customers get bored?

You definitely shouldn't be showing customers the same tricks over and over. It's a matter of opinion, but I think the most common thing is to go to a table between their ordering and their receiving food (some people do tables at the end of the meal). This means that you will go to each table once only. As Mark said, if you choose a halfway busy restaurant, there will be enough customers coming in that you can easily work with one show per table.

kyunwoo wrote: also..how many tricks per table do i have to perform?? thank you..

Depends on the restaurant...but you should have about a 5 minute show, maybe a little more. You could easily pass this time with an opener, multiphase routine, and closer, or you might opt for several short tricks (pick a card, shuffle the deck, produce card fancily, repeat ad nauseum). Either way, with some nice routine ideas, 8 tricks should be plenty.

Hope that helps some , and restaurant guys please feel free to correct me - I'm working on what I've learned from reading and surfing mostly, not personal experience.

Kati

On the right number of tricks:

Something I picked up off Eugene Burger (via Jamy Ian Swiss) is this:

Have 3 effects.

A begining, a middle and an end.

I've been trying this recently with my card work and at first it was a challenge, but once you get over yourself and start doing just three effects you realise that it really does work. You are no longer trying to cram 15 minutes worth of magic down your audiences' throat in 5 minutes. You have the space to play and experiment and interact with your audience. If we were going to be melodramatic about the whole thing, it sets you free.

Of course you can't just do any old trick. Infact in magician's terms it should really be:

An opener, a filler and a closer.

However, I remember that when I was first taught to write stories at school my teacher, who was a rather portly fellow, told me, "A good story is like a good meal, it has a begining, a middle and an end." I think at the time his mind was wandering towards lunch time, but what he said has stuck with me every since. Simplistic but true, a good story has a begining, a middle and an end, and I think that that is exactly what you are doing when you are performing close up magic, you are telling a story. A story about you.

Another favourite line of Mr Burger is "You are the magic" and in my opinion this is a really good way of looking at yourself when you perform. It is you that creates the magic, not the effects. It is you that entertains your audience, not the tricks you perform.

Try it out, 3 effects. But do not see them as an opener, a filler and a closer. See them as a begining, a middle and an end. If you want a opener, you be the opener. If you want to fill some space, you fill that space. And if you want a closer you be the thing that closes the show.

I look at it mathmatically.

if you number your tricks from 1 to 8 and at table 1 you perform tricks 1, 2 and 3.

At table 2 you perform tricks 4, 5 and 6,
at table 3 you perform tricks 7, 8 and 1
table 4 you perform 2, 3 and 4 etc.

If my sums are right you don't start repeating yourself (tricks 1,2 and 3) until you're on your 9th table.

As you can see, even if you get around to table 1 again and the same people are there you are likely to be performing different tricks in which case you can simply skip one and continue to follow the same pattern. However, this is unusual as restaurants want a quick turnover of customers as previously stated. If you have 12 or more tables then these 8 tricks will keep you going all night.

Surely that makes all your tricks either extremely flexible or terribly bland? I don't mean to sound off, but I think a rotational system with your tricks is inherantly boring and unentertaining.

If you're worried about repeating yourself (which personally I don't see as a huge problem) I'd suggest you routine 6 effects in sets of three and simply switch between each set for each table. That way you have two beginings, two middles and two ends which can be combined to create seperate routines in themselves e.g.

Begining 1, Middle 1, End 1
Begining 2, Middle 2, End 2
Begining 1, Middle 2, End 2
Begining 1, Middle 1, End 2
Begining 2, Middle 1, End 1
Begining 2, Middle 2, End 1
Begining 1, Middle 2, End 1
Begining 2, Middle 1, End 2

I think that's all of the possible combinations but even so you've got 8 possible routines from 6 effects.

I don't even think that you need that many - IMHO it's much better to have two or three well-flowing, well-practiced routines than making them up on the spot. If you just do tables alternating 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 then the 'rubber-neckers' will see two shows, and you will be able to repeat tables. You can use the third as backup (e.g. have to perform for the whole room, have to entertain a business table...).

Kati

I'm not worried about repeating myself, or the tricks for that matter and this is merely a suggestion, and not one that's much different to the beginning, middle and end routines.

I don't see rotation as a huge problem either, although I will consider this this depending on the set up of where I'm working. Rotation is not part of a routine that is seen or observed and I don't believe that if used, it can make things unentertaining. What makes magic unentertaining is poorly selected tricks that are badly performed.

In the end, eight tricks are eight tricks and if you've got eight good ones that suit what you're doing and where you're working, and you can perform them well over and over again, then this is what you should be concentrating on.

I'm not taking offence at your comments and you haven't seen me perform. I don't think that that the tricks I perform are bland, and judging by the general posts it would appear that I perform many of the same or similar tricks that others perform, with perhaps one or two exceptions. I get extremely good feedback from my audiences, as well as repeat bookings and referrals so I don't think I'm a bland performer - in fact I know that I'm not! You can't judge a persons ability to perform and entertain through a few sentences of text.

It's interesting how we all try to achieve the same, or similar results using different methods and I don't see anything wrong with that.

I completely agree with Goldfish. A group of three effects is a very good arrangement.

You should try to make the ordering such that the opening is a sufficiently strong effect, the middle is consistent with the rest of the performance but builds towards the climax and the ending being your very best routine.

I would also recommend to have a common theme in the entire show, i.e. a coherent story to tell. Please pick a card, then cut this rope, and finally look at the rabbit in my cylinder is not very effective. Instead, find some way to relate the effects in a good story, or rather choose a theme and select effects that fit in. Some people work as hard on the presentation as on the moves themselves - and that doesn't mean their moves are simple!

If you still have some time left, you can also create a subgroup of three effects in the middle. This will result in a total of 5 effects which will take some time. With sufficient experience you can judge after the opening if people want to see the long show with 5 or the quicker show with only three effects.

If you want more then one show (i.e. more than three resp. five different effects), I recommend you to iterate this process. Hence, create a new story with three/five new and different effects that fit in.

I'm not taking offence at your comments and you haven't seen me perform. I don't think that that the tricks I perform are bland, and judging by the general posts it would appear that I perform many of the same or similar tricks that others perform, with perhaps one or two exceptions. I get extremely good feedback from my audiences, as well as repeat bookings and referrals so I don't think I'm a bland performer - in fact I know that I'm not! You can't judge a persons ability to perform and entertain through a few sentences of text.

Sorry, it wasn't meant to be a personal dig at you as a performer. I haven't seen you perform so I have no right to judge you in that way, and I would hope that I never would.

Bringing it back to the subject, the point I was trying to make was that you can't simply throw three effects together from a rotational system and expect them to be entertaining. It's a matter of routining and actually fusing the effects into one climactic routine. In actual fact I think we are both arguing the same point from different angles.

Some people work as hard on the presentation as on the moves themselves - and that doesn't mean their moves are simple!

Good point and in my opinion I believe that every magician who takes performance seriously should be putting at least the same amount of effort into their presentation as they put into their "moves".

You can use the third as backup (e.g. have to perform for the whole room, have to entertain a business table...)

Kati raises an interesting point in that you should always have something else to perform. An encore if you want to call it that. You will always come across situations in which you have finished your routine but the audience a) have time to see more and b) want to see more (not neccessarily in that order). In these situations you should always have a killer stand alone effect which will really reel them in.

When I say that this effect should be stand alone, what I mean is that it is not just the filler or closer from another routine. Instead it is a whole routine in itself. A good example of this would be an ambitious card routine or a chop cup routine. Both of these, and many other effects out there, contain all of the elements of a good routine ie a begining, a middle and an end.

Don't worry - didn't take it as such and re-reading I agree that we're both probably trying to address the same sort of thing from different angles.

Some good points raised by Rumburak too.

At the end of the day, what you need to do as a starting point is to pick out all of the bits that interest you and try them out for yourself. If they don't work then try something different.

Point is, and what was said early on in the thread is that if you're doing table magic then you need to be a polished performer.

Anyone already performing magic in restaurants, or thinking about getting started would be well advised to read the wonderful articles by Scott F. Guinn on the online vision site.

Some of the releavnt articles are.

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