talkmagic.co.uk

not forgetting of course that even if you do show them a 3H they may well have no idea what card it is , nor be able to remember it

Look at these arabic cards
http://www.adnil.com/CARDS/arabic.html

I remember watching a thing on TV ages ago where a magician visited a tribe in Africa to show them some magic, and he noted that the card tricks just went completely over their heads because they weren't familiar with playing cards at all. I remember the magician saying he had to fall back onto more visual things, but I can't for the life of me remember who it was!

Here's a video of a guy doing tricks for a tribe in Kenya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GwJK5lc ... dded#at=45

It's not what I was thinking of, but it's interesting nonetheless.

These are modern working, educated individuals who will be more than familiar with our Hindu-Arabic numerical system. I also think they would have seen a pack of cards before

That said I think I'll stick to visual effects, vanishes etc. rather than anything that gets them to remember a card just to be on the safe side. Some great advice here guys!

V

Those Arabic cards look great and I daresay several TM members will already have figured out some great routines for them!

Mandrake wrote:Those Arabic cards look great and I daresay several TM members will already have figured out some great routines for them!

I love working with different cards because they are the last thing people expect to see. I once did a mate's wedding and had some personalised cards made with various photos of the bride and groom on them.

Every time there was a prediction I would use one of the custom cards. Or during a two card monte the two cards left in the spectators hand would be custom ones. After a few hours every table had random photos of the lucky couple on them. They have the King and Queen of hearts framed in their house.

Most companies like this one: http://www.personalisedplayingcards.com will make whatever type of cards you can dream of and at a surprisingly high quality.

Volaticus wrote:These are modern working, educated individuals who will be more than familiar with our Hindu-Arabic numerical system. I also think they would have seen a pack of cards before

That said I think I'll stick to visual effects, vanishes etc. rather than anything that gets them to remember a card just to be on the safe side. Some great advice here guys!

V

If you have a card signed then they do not need to remember it.

Bob,
Knowing your stuff, and since I work with ultra-orthodox jews pretty much every day, I find it hillarious just thinking about what might have happened on that stage

Volaticus,
I don't know that much about patter, but it might behoove you to look out for another potential problem: the different cultural mentality.
When concerning people of arab culture, it really depends on the country and religion they're from. If they're muslims and you see the women wearing burkas (complete head-covering gear), then I think you best ignore them completely and focus on the men, or you might end up insulting them. If they're christian arabs, then you can probably focus on the women as well.

I believe the translator would cut out most of the inappropriate jokes which you should not make anyway. You might consider talking with the managers first to find out more about these groups, and possibly make acquaintance with the translators by asking to speak with one of them, and he can probably tell you all you need about these groups' mentality.

I know it's not quite advise, but the whole presenting to non-english speaking spectators I think is a good thing. I spent a winter working at a hotel in Austria in the resturant. There were a good number of english people who went there, but a large number were german, french and russian. I only have a basic level of german and very little french or russian, so it forced me to make my style more (for lack of a better word) artistic I guess. It ment finding different ways to misdirect and really helps you understand that sometimes less is more.

Good luck, I think that although you might think it's tough, you'll look back and be thankful you got the chance to do it.