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Hello,
I am after some tips/help with my patter (for cards), ive got the magic down but my patter and misdirection is, well, not that good. I managed to confuse myself and a friend the other day doing a very easy Ace trick. So i realised help is needed..so can anybody help please.

Hi there Garyz!

I know what you mean. Let me tell you my biggest problem. When I'm practicing, I run through the patter, and get it down to a T. However, during my performance of the tricks (99.9% card tricks at the moment) - I rush and miss out huge chunks of what I wanted to do. Also, I too confuse the specs and myself and sometimes lose where I am!

One tip that a fellow magician gave me was "only perform the tricks you are confident with". Now you might think that you have heard that a thousand times before, and that 'surely that is the golden rule of magic?' - however, what he meant was - only perform tricks that you are 110% happy with, have a 110% chance of working for you (I mean mechanically) - so much so you could do them in your sleep. Only when you are at this stage – perform them. And it’s only at this stage that you can really get your patter right. If you are mentally working out what your hands are doing, or concentrating on 'have I got three cards in my T count?' - then your patter will suffer and so will your misdirection, you will hesitate, nerves will kick in, and things go wrong (well that’s what’s happens to me!).

Now I only perform stuff I am really really 110% confident in. You'll be surprised, but that confidence will show in your performance and patter. If you KNOW that you are in perfect control - it will make the patter and misdirection so much easier!

Try out a really simple card trick. How about doing a really simple btm key card trick. Have spec place their's next to this and simply deal off and say that "their eyes will give their card away". Now this should be very simple to do - but you could really go to town on the patter - making up all kinds of psychic ability stuff - even go past their card, pretend the 'signal' is weakening, and then place cards back onto the deck until you get to their card. You might think it's a very simple and a naff trick - but you will be 110% sure it will work, and then you can concentrate on the patter!

Do others agree? - Have you any other advice for both Garyz and myself?

Good Luck and Thanks!

Garyz wrote:Hello,
I am after some tips/help with my patter (for cards), ive got the magic down but my patter and misdirection is, well, not that good. I managed to confuse myself and a friend the other day doing a very easy Ace trick. So i realised help is needed..so can anybody help please.

3 tips, really for patter... using Ambitious Card as an example...

Tip one... dont' ramble or waffle
Make the patter relevant to the EFFECT, not the WORKINGS of the effect. By this, I mean don't stutter on about every little bit of working sleight or moves... nothing sounds worse than
"I am going to take your signed card, and put it carefully in the centre of the deck, and notice that I haven't done any moves or anything like that. Now, see how the card really does go into the centre, it really is your card. Honest.".

Instead, try and base the patter loosely around what is actually happening, but leave out the actual literal moves... so that would sound like...
"Your signed card is placed into the centre of the deck."

Doesn't sound quite as waffly? That's cos it's not. It's cleaner and more precise. And what's more, you've left more mystery.

Tip two... make a story...
Not only does a story give the whole effect a meaning, it also makes the routine easier to remember. In the case of Colour Monte, for example, the whole effect would be pointless without the story. And one other charm a story has is inherent misdirection.

And the same can be said about the Ambitious Card, and many other effects. For example... taking point one into consideration, let's look at how a story compares in the instance of a 'literal' patter and a 'storyline' patter...

LITERAL: "Please select a card, sign it—notice the rest of the deck is all different—and I will place it visibly into the centre of the deck. Now, look, the card has jumped to the top. Amazing! Right, I will now put the card into the deck again... look, in it goes. And—as if by magic—it's back to the top!"

STORYLINE: "You know they say that heat rises? Well, to demonstrate, please take a card... warm it in your hands—doesn't matter if we see it. Now, to prove it's yours, just sign the face. KEEP IT WARM though. Now, the rest of the deck is still cold... so theoretically, if we place your card in the centre of the deck, it should... RISE TO THE TOP! There it is!"

Now... the 'storyline' version would SEEM to break the rule about waffle... however, it is PERFORMANCE ENHANCING waffle, like this, which becomes PATTER.

Tip three... be flexible and charismatic
Have your patter suit your personality. Don't just learn word-for-word the patter that comes with an effect. Add a bit of your own character to it. Learn the EFFECT first, get familiar with it, then add the patter.

The patter should really bring the effect to life. After all, most magic is pretty dull without a meaning. In fact, you can stretch a 30 second sleight out into a full 3 minute routine with a decent storyline and patter.

Conclusion
The effect is the skeleton, the patter is the flesh. The patter flows around the effect fluidly and keeps the audience transfixed.

Patter is excellent inbuilt misdirection too. It works a charm, especially if you need to throw people of the scent. Close up magic and it's patter benefits really well by using eye contact, and making the patter personal and one-to-one. This always helps. So you could build an 'intimate' group patter to involve one or more people. This is not only confidence building and ice breaking, but it's also brilliant misdirection!

Of course, there is another consideration: does the effect you are doing NEED patter? I find that all of a sudden grabbing someone's almost spent cigarette and someone else's silk scarfe and stuffing the cigarette into the scarfe needs no patter at all.

seige wrote:Tip two... make a story...

Can I suggest, a slight variation on the "story" argument. I don't like to use the word story when talking about patter. I think it suggests you should create some sort of "once upon a time" theme to the effect and that it is the Story which makes the magic happen. To me it all seems a quite naff to have all your effects following their own indivdual cute stories. Admitedly, a story can really be a great enhancement to a trick, for example Sam The Bell Hop would be a rubbish effect if it didn't have the quite rigid and congruant story line which accompanies most versions (save Doc Eason's). However, to use such stories in all of your effects would be a particularly boring performance, in my opinion. I know this isn't what Seige is trying to suggest, but I have seen many performers take the Story approach at face value and it ruins their effects.

Instead, try looking at it this way:

Give your effects meaning

If you give your effects meaning, you are enhancing them with a natural flow that comes from you. This can take many forms, a story line being one of these, or an anecdote, or whatever.

I'm running out of coherant sentances to write here but I hope it makes some sense.

This is an excellent post. I move we put it in a sticky at the top...it's worth it.

At the very least, archive seige's post somewhere - this is applicable to a lot of magicians (me included - I'm terrible at patter).

Kati

The absolute best advice anyone can give you is: USE A SCRIPT!

Sit down, write it out, memorize it and use it.

You don't have to stick rigidly to the script when performing, but it'll always be there to fall back on.

Unless you are a genius at improvising, while doing something technically difficult with your hands, a script is the only way to produce excellent (pattered) performances.

I can't think of any top pro's who don't use a script.
There may be some, but all the ones I've read advocate scripts.

Some good points made. Without wishing to repeat what’s already said I think your own style and character will determine what sort of performance you give. Might be completely wrong for you but I might do something like:-
Pick a card
Put it back in the pack
Put the pack down and vanish a coin.
Finish the card trick.
By mixing and matching effects rather than performing A then B then C etc you can get away with talking about one effect whilst doing another which is wonderful verbal misdirection. It makes it slightly harder for the audience to keep up with you and I find they are less likely to say something or ask a question which would break your rhythm in your patter.
I’m not too bad (not great either) with the chatter as long as I can keep going and that does seem to work for me in cutting down the interruptions.
Certainly isn't going to work for everyone but just thought I'd mention it.

I agree with what's been said and Daza picked up on a wonderful piece of advice being that you shouldn't forget that your 'patter' is a geat way to create some misdirection at key moments.

Going back to the original post on this topic, I would think that 99.9% of performers have experienced what you're going through at some time in their life/career. What makes the difference is that you stuck to it and don't give up.

Not to repeat what anyone else has already said, but make sure your patter fits your personality! I, myself, am a very loose, comical, "unserious" person. For me to get out there and say, "Pick a card. Place it in the center of the pack. Now watch carefully as I instantly make your card reappear at the top." would be very unnatural, and people(especially my freinds) would feel rather uncomfortable around me if I went into such serious patter.
I've found if you try to relate your patter to a current event, or to something they hear in everyday life, it is much more enjoyable, and easier for the spectator to follow. Since right now the Michael Jackson case is a really big event, when I perform a color change routine, If I change a red jack to a black jack, I like to say something like, "He pulled a reverse Michael Jackson on us"(That ALWAYS gets great laughs!)
Just don't make your patter confusing. ***REMEMBER!!!*** Write your patter from the spectator's point of view, not the magician who knows the secret! I hope this helps!
-impromptucards

Thank you all for you advice, I suppose in the end it all comes down to the person I am and what i feel is comfortable. I will take all your advice away with me and hopefully turn it into something beautiful. The way i see it I want people to think WTF!, i dont want to be the magician friend or the guy that does magic. I want to be able to do a trick and really f*ck their heads up , and with all your and other peoples help and advice I will be able to do this.

Thank You