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I there:) im new here, and i need your help to improve my new act i have made. please give me advice on what to do and how i can do things different i take all critics and any comments will help me out:)

best regards

Alexander

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cRLD6TYrc

ok......



dressing the stage..
you should get two matching tables if you need two, as this makes an instant impression on opening. both tables should also be the same height.
you have toomuch clutter on display. Opt for furniture that hides things.

dont dance about. It looks like your busting for the bathroom. standing still
makes a much bigger impact.

applause cues... you need some Big time. An audience must be told when to clap. when you produce the cards.. drop them into something, its much nicer to see a tidy stage . the productions are not done in time to the music.
and your silk steals are very obvious.
another minor thing, shoes.. you appear to be wearing thin Jazz dance shoes. It might seem to be an odd thing to say, but they dont go with a suit. wear shiny black shoes.

Practice a lot more so your actions are smoother.

At 0.27 it seemed very obvious that you pulled the hankie from you pocket, and at 1.18 it was obvious the red hankie was in the other hand. Either work on making it smoother, or drop the red hankie bit do you need the red hankie or can you keep going with the blue one?

I didn't see the point of the phone bit, even if it was used as misdirection it was too out of place.

I couldn't really see the liquids changing colour in the glass the first time I watched it. Either adjust the lighting (or have a light cube in the glass) or get a bigger glass.

The big card's production and the newspaper production was done well. However once again I couldn't see the point of the yellow hankie.
Still all the problems can be overcome with practice and trial and error. Your clearly putting the effort in and thats whats important.

Keep us posted on developments. Good luck.

Hi Alexander.

The guys have given some good advice. Your steals need some work to smooth them out - there is also too much fumbling when bringing things from the inside pocket, perhaps better pocket management is needed. For an act like this everything should be produced elegantly. The initial cards steal may be a little obvious, this could just be a timing issue - have you considered an 'edge of the coat' type holdout for this (ie a big paperclip ) instead of the pocket ?

The cards sequence was very good and youve obviously practiced this well. While stealing a silk handkerchief may seem simple in comparison it still requires the same attention to detail. I suggest you check out Lance Burtons Dove Act for inspiration, its on you tube. While its a diffirent routine to yours you may get some ideas on timing, applause cues (as Dale mentioned) and smoothness of steals.

Which competition is this for ?

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for posting your video.

jim

I watched the vid straight through once to simulate a live performance as much as possible. I also avoided any other replies so that I wouldn't be specifically looking for something or otherwise biased.
__________
Random observations:

Thank God this isn't a webcam with blaring metal or techno music.

Tables need to be the same height or spread further apart.

I have no idea what the phone bit was about.

Tables are cluttered. Found myself a lil' bored in a couple of spots, mainly what I think was a color changing liquids routine, and glancing at the tables to see what was coming up.

Silk productions need major work. So does the timing with the flash.

Card productions are beautifully done.

No idea why the yellow silk was produced.

Too many dark colors. Either change your jacket color, go jacketless or work off to the side, making use of the white and lit background. Holding dark objects at center mass with a black suit should be avoided.

Abrupt changes in music. Music didn't seem to have much to do with the act. Music should either cue your effect, cue the audience to behave a certain way or set the pace of performance.

Timing didn't allow for the wow factor of what just happened.
__________

I know that seems like a lot of negative but overall there was more good than bad. Just needs some fine tuning.

I enjoyed the production of the first large card.

You fumble around too much, as said earlier perhaps better pocket management may be part of the solution. How to move around on a stage might be another.

Misdirection is more than turning the working side away from the audience and fumbling in your pockets. While turning away may hide what you are actually doing it does not stop the audience from knowing that something is going on, and unfortunatly for everyone that is enough to lessen the performance. Some of this may be a timing problem not sure.

Perhaps it was the video but the whole thing with the glass made no sense I didn't see any magic happen. I know what was supposed to be going on I just couldn't see it, again this may be due to the quality of the video.

There were a lot of transitions but most didn't really follow each other. Silk through big silvery thing really didn't add to the routine, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it. I don't think it took away from the routine but I'm not sure it fit.

However, if you are still reading, there is a lot more to be said. But it is hard to say in this format. So I am going to end this on a positive note.

You have a great foundation. You put an act together, you executed it well. There is nothing wrong with the individual effects or the methodology of effects. Over all a great beginning. I hope it is a beginning because with more practice, some hands on help, experience and refinement you could turn this into an excellent routine.

Well done on putting it together, I thought most of it was really good. Sorry for disagreeing with Dale but I liked your movement around the stage, and I didn't see any problem with the telephone interlude - but get a telephone rather than just miming one. The part that didn't work for me was the colour changing wine, it was a bit weak in comparison to the rest. I'm guessing that you are already planning on investing in a pair of shoes and a bowtie that doesn't loosen as the act goes on, but for the main it was nice to see a magician on YouTube who actually dresses correctly.

With the telephone may be you could get a laugh from a comedy telephone/ Secret Squirrel style telephone, or a telephone that squirts water - just some suggestions.

Most of the manipulations were good although will need a bit more practice to be 100percent in time with the music and be really slick.

I think I should point out to alehauga that our responses mean we think your good. We get a lot of requests from new users to review their work, and if they're just bad we would mostly just ignore them.

Your act isn't bad, it just needs tweaking and refining.

The last post said it all really.

Im sure your next video will show that you have taken all of these pointers on board.
Keep up the good work though,you have obviously put a lot of work into your act at the moment,and with some fine tuning,im sure it will be a very good act.

Deano

First of all:

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE FEEDBACK!

It is all very helpfull! My motivation and creativity is just exploding after these comments. It will not take long before I will post I new video with adjustments. I did preforme this act for audience this weekend and magician aswell. The magician's sad it was a brilliant idè and a good theme. I will work on my beginning at first. I will no throw out some ideas I have:

1. entering the stage (with high heal shoes and a tie)(i will just juse one table with a champagne holder)
2. I will pick up a calender and it will stand: 19. november DATE NIGHT!
3. I turn over a page and I will draw a champagne glass. (i little bit like Kenji Minemur produce the shades here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLq0SgrU ... re=related
4. After producing the glass, I will produce a champagne bottle. I will now be ready to change the color of the water in the glass. In the meantime, my date calls me to say that she is ready for the evening

Just some small ideas for a openere. What can I do futher? and I might need some help to produce the glass from the scratch after drawing it?

best regards Alexander

Thats actually a good point and one that is often overlooked.

HOWEVER. The link at the bottom of your posts concerns me. Do you have permission to sell these ? For instance, you have what looks like Theory 11s Pressure there, being sold as Impossible Cell Phone Penetration