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Now I am getting to the stage where I can perform some of my effects well, I have started to look a bit more into the patter I have been using, and it all seems a bit, well, boring. Having only been in magic about 4/5 months I really need some tips on the presentation of tricks and the patter that goes along with them. I am struggling with my fluidity and generally how entertaining it is.

This is kind of an extentsion from my previous thread, and it went so off topic I decided to start a new one on the topic it went off on

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks,
Tjex

Join your local Toastmasters Speaking club. You will quickly pick up the skills to make your presentations come alive - both in terms of content and delivery.

The first question is who are you performing as.

If you're performing as yourself (or an amplified version of yourself) try to look at the more compelling conversations you've had, the crowning moments of awesome when you've held coworkers or friends captivated as you told them about something you read or recited a joke you heard. Think of the patter as being that compelling all the time, talk to yourself in a mirror while you perform, explaining what you're doing to yourself, and see which lines stand out. Refine it with performance to others.

If you're going to be a character, flesh the character out. Go about your regular business in character, become it, even when not doing magic. Getting used to talking a lot and seeing what comes out is a great way to come up with good lines, and if you need them to be lines which fit a character, be the character.

That's how I do it. I'm not saying I've got the best patter in the world yet but it helps me come up with the seeds of ideas to develop.

-Stacy

I'll bet most of what I own that a lot of people on here disagree with me, but...

Read a load of best man speech sites on the internet. Don't focus too much on the gags but look at WHY the jokes would be funny.

My first real public speaking act was as a best man and, reading a lot of these sites' content, I got a lot of inspiration about how to tie patter to "incidents".

ONce you see how you can tie a few gags and storylines to real-life events you'll come up with ways as to how you can do the same with your tricks.

For example, I use Industrial Revelation. You want to engage the audience so you start a story about how your deck of cards came to have a cut through it. You then embellish the idea by saying you thought of a trick to do...,

My advice, essentially, is to create a STORY to go with your effect. It might sound cheesy but it creates an emotional bond between you and the spec which you can play upon to get the reaction you want.

I am going in as myself, with amplification, I am currently developing a new patter for my ID trick, which I would be confident performing. I will definitley look into the best man speaches...

Ideally the presentation (patter) of your effect and the effect itself should support each other. What you are saying should be congruent and aid the actual trick and the actual trick bit should be seen as evidence for what you are talking about.

If your patter is about how easy it is to predict what card someone will think of then the actual ID bit where you show them their card is you demonstrating what you were just talking about. You're making a claim and then presenting evidence of your claim when you show them the card they thought of.

The flip side to that is that your patter should be relevant to what you are doing. You can't convince people that you are reading somebodies body language to know what card they are thinking of and then reveal that you'd already turned one card over in the pack as it makes no logical sense as the ID implies you knew in advance what card they were going to think of before they did.

Most importantly though is that both your presentation and the effect are consitent with you as a performer. Don't make claims about your abilities that people won't believe. If you're doing a trick for your friends they are going to know that you haven't spent years studying body language or whatever if it's something you've never expressed an interest in before so if you try a presentation like that they're going to be thinking 'b*llsh*t' before you've even asked one of them to think of a card. In that situation they're never going to think you've performed a miracle- they'll only ever view it as just a trick and you'll be spending the rest of the evening having them ask you how it is done.

Ultimately your presentation should be something that you feel comfortable and even excited about performing as you enthusiasm will flow out into your audience and they'll feel much more involved in it too. If you're excited about doing it, they'll be excited to see you do it.

The thing which I am feeling like now is that I need something new. I have a couple of small tricks I learnt when I started, and now feel like I want something bigger to get my teeth into. The thing is I feel like all my magic is really bitty, so I really want a good routine that I can do. I am going shopping tommorow, so can anyone recomend anything, Purley cards though...

Thanks,
Tjex

You need to stop trying to fit a bunch on effects into a routine. It's much better if you can first come up with a nice routine and then fit the effects into the routine. Think up an idea and how you'd liek it to go, forget about methods and even if what you want is actually possible but instead put down on paper how you'd ideally like the routine to go. Only when you've done that should you try to start fitting effects into that routine.

Any why limit yourself to cards? Why not try mixing cards in with something a little different. It'll help keep the routine interesting.

Where you going shopping mate ?

Try having a couple of beers

Lady of Mystery wrote:You need to stop trying to fit a bunch on effects into a routine. It's much better if you can first come up with a nice routine and then fit the effects into the routine. Think up an idea and how you'd liek it to go, forget about methods and even if what you want is actually possible but instead put down on paper how you'd ideally like the routine to go. Only when you've done that should you try to start fitting effects into that routine.

Any why limit yourself to cards? Why not try mixing cards in with something a little different. It'll help keep the routine interesting.

I am limiting to cards at the moment because this is what I am really interested in. I love playing around with different sleights and would rather be amazing with a deck of cards than be moderate at several other things. I am planning on going into a bit of mentalism, and, inspired by the ID and the reactions that they get. I find that mentalism based card effects always get the best reactions.

TonyB wrote:Join your local Toastmasters Speaking club. You will quickly pick up the skills to make your presentations come alive - both in terms of content and delivery.

Absolutly the best advice. I might add, take a acting class. You can have the best patter in the world, if you cannot deliver it properly you will always be lacking.

I certainly understand why you limit yourself to cards. I love card magic and I would love to concentrate on cards and nothing else.

But there are issues. Are you performing for other magicians? Are you performing or just showing a few tricks to friends?

If you are going out and performing for lay people, reyling on cards is not going to cut it. It is not like it is in the magic video's that are designed at magicians. In the real world one must look at entertainment value, sticking with any specific type of prop, (cards, coins whatever) gets boring and predictable real fast, (unless you are at a themed event, such as gambling).

You are performing for an audience not yourself. You may only be interested in cards but you audience will find you far more entertaining if you vary it up. I always suggest throwing in a sponge ball routine.

Lady of Mystery wrote:You need to stop trying to fit a bunch on effects into a routine. It's much better if you can first come up with a nice routine and then fit the effects into the routine. Think up an idea and how you'd liek it to go, forget about methods and even if what you want is actually possible but instead put down on paper how you'd ideally like the routine to go. Only when you've done that should you try to start fitting effects into that routine.

Any why limit yourself to cards? Why not try mixing cards in with something a little different. It'll help keep the routine interesting.

Hi Lady of Mystery,

Could you explain your point about routining a bit more? I'm trying to come up with a routine for a magic audition and I'm struggling to create a routine or think of what tricks to do. How do you come up with a routine before or without thinking about the component effects and tricks? I'm a bit confused, could you offer any more advice on this?

Sorry if I'm hijacking your thread Tjex1, sounds like you and I have a similar sort of problem so hopefully the answer will be of use to you too.

cc100

Personally I like working around a theme. I mainly do bizarre routines, I like a story, but even with my general magic efforts I prefer routine linked on a theme. Gambling makes for an easy theme. ESP again works well and has plenty of existing products.