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Showing posts with label tip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tip. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 March 2013

All you Open Travelers

Here is pro tip for you, if you do any Open Travelers (aka Invisible Palm).

DO NOT show your hand empty on the first card. Keep it palm down. Spread the fingers... leave the people wondering how exactly you palm the card. Even make a fist... then go down and conclude the first effect. On the second time you can show your hand empty. But only very, very briefly. On the third time you can be all "open" about it.

Saturday, 2 March 2013

How to spice up your linking rings!

Yesterday I was performing medieval style. In a castle courtyard with a well in the middle. The well was constantly overflowing creating a nice magical surface.

I asked myself, why not to use it in a magic way. I started producing coins from the well. I dipped my magic wand in there and produced a ball from the tip of the wand. Then I placed the ball into my left hand as the right hand with the wand dipped into the water again, then tapping the left hand to make the ball vanish. That's some built in motivation right there.

Realizing that I am building up the water as a power claim it struck me that the linking rings would greatly benefit from the magic water. So I showed two rings, dipped them into the water, linked them and came out with the small chain. Then I dipped in the 2-set and seemingly did the same effect. I could hand out the 2-set and the reaction I got was much stronger than those crash links. Then the usual antics and finally both chains of 2 would fuse inside the water to the chain of 4. It really is an eerie sight pulling out the ring from the water. Even though there is no difference in handling, the whole procedure felt very different. The effect was different. The water caused the magic.

If you got an endlessly overflowing well, use it!

Thursday, 28 February 2013

Long Time No See


Wow I've been to magic show... well not really. It was a bunch of magicians practicing magic... nope that's not right either. It was a bunch of young people, who have a serious interest in wanting to learn magic. The only problem they don't speak a lick of English so all the good books on that naturally are like a big big secret to them. So they got German books from the public library.

And they practiced the hell out of these and I saw something I have never seen before. They actually sat together thinking how this could be presented. They were fully aware that the trick is just a small part of the show.

 So they had this card trick, involving a key card. And here is what they had come up with.

Laypeople mind you! A card was selected and placed under the key card about center of the pack. The deck has then been spread out face up on the table. "As you can see, you see all the cards. Me too. The only difference: You know your card. I don't! But I'm gonna find your card by looking at you." Then the magicians took a deep look into the spectators eyes. "I want you to take a look at these cards. As you do that your pupils will eventually stick on one card a little longer then the others. I will be your card. There is nothing you can do about it. Now look!" The magician silently watches the spectator looking at the cards. Suddenly the magician wipes away half of the cards in a big swooping and dramatic action. "Your card is not among those" The rest of the cards are gathered up, shuffled and spread again. "Look again" the spectator does so. A long silence and wham again a few cards a brushed away "Not those either" only a few cards remain. The magician takes the remaining cards, shuffles them and lays them out in a row. "One of those is your's! Am I right?" the spectator agrees. "Alright, I want you to close your eyes. And give me your hand. Since you know where the card is you muscles will unconsciously tell me the way to your card. Don't look!" The spectators card is now second from the left. But as the magician is holding the spectators hand, the magician wipes away all of the remaining cards and sets the spectators card in the middle of the table. And slowly guides the spectators hand on the card, so the hand covers the whole card. "Alright your hand is on one card, one card only. Open your eyes. There is no more card left save one. Name your card!" The spectator does so and is to lift his hand. A miracle.

 Those young people came up with the presentation all by themselves. They did so many things right. They made it not about the cards, but the spectator. They involved the spectator. They added a big woo woo by whipping away the remaining cards. The silence. The fact that they have the card named before the reveal. The fact that the spectator does the reveal. I'm in awe. I saw magicians trying to create a presentation. And dude most fail so much. They get lost in the methods.

More of the Same

Here is another trick they did from that book. It was the good old saltshaker through the table. Even with the feint of pretending to put a coin through the table. So they sat around practicing stealing the saltshaker when suddenly it dawned on them how to turn this into a full fledged piece. Here is what happened:

"Hey, see this coin on the table? And see this saltshaker? I will try to put the coin into the saltshaker. And there are three ways of doing it. I could open the saltshaker and put it in, which is really dumb. Or I could use pure force to jam the coin through the glass. Or I use magic. I decided to use the last two at the same time." A napkin is taken and the saltshaker is covered with the napkin. "Just in case it doesn't work!" The saltshaker is hovered above the coin and slowly set down. "hear that clink.. that's the sound of it not working" the saltshaker is raised again and the coin is still there. The saltshaker is then placed on the coin again, very carefully. The hand hovers above ready to smack the saltshaker hopefully making the coin go in. The hand comes down, the saltshaker appears to penetrate the table the audience hears it hitting on the floor. (was a pretty though saltshaker and could withstand dropping it on the floor)
The napkin is pushed away the coin is gone. An audience member is asked to pick up the saltshaker and to open it up. Indeed the coin is found inside the saltshaker within the salt.
"Violence and Magic... can't beat them. If you do, they fight back!"

Lovely, I love how they thought of a different effect first, (coin going into the saltshaker) and using that as a ruse to get away with the pushing through the table. They also understood that when the saltshaker hit the floor they had enough misdirection to get rid of the coin. They even thought duplicate coin. They started with a promise, (coin goes into the shaker) and not only delivered on the actual promise, they surpassed it. The version in the book, which is the version that most magicians perform actually falls short on the promise of making that coin go through the table. These young people understood, that this small letdown, is a letdown nevertheless. So they got rid of that. By simply changing the presentation a bit. Bravo. Bravo.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

No table

Did you ever try to rework most of your closeup material so you are using no table at all? I suggest doing that. It gives you a whole new perspective on your repertoire. And a lot more freedom. Coins through table becomes coins through spectators cupped hands. Suddenly the trick has a new interactive level that invites communication instead of stock patter.

Certain card material becomes interesting. Ace assemblies are now seen as the convoluted card tricks they are. And reworking them forces you to get rid of the piles and straight to the point.

Of course there are limits but an exercise worth doing. It makes you aware of a lot of unnecessary stuff. And being aware is the first step to fixing it.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Get help!

Today I'm gonna give you some real good advice. Seriously! I have come across so many magicians and I noticed one thing: They all wanna do everything by themselves. The have no skill programming a website, yet they tinker around until they got a website that looks like shit. They have no photoshop skills and end up with something like this:



Take a look at how others do some stuff that they cannot do. They get someone to do it for them. They hire some expert or ask a friend. The result most often is professional. Get a director if you need a good stage show. A choreographer to help you move. A speech trainer to help you patter correctly. A writer to write you monologue/dialogue. A professional photographer to make nice pictures in proper resolution. A guy who can paint or recreate your props, so they don't look store bought. Whatever it is you can't do, there is somebody out there who can. Get help!

Friday, 1 February 2013

Stuff becomes Stuff

In close up magic most often coins are changed for other coins. It's so common that we have a word for that particular effect: Spellbound. But the minds of the magicians don't seem to stray very far from it. Sometimes the coins change into rings and keys. Sometimes little balls change color....

So just to make you brain consider more possibilities I'm offering a few things here.

Nuts: Are great for magic. They have the right size to do all sorts of manipulations. You can change certain kind of nuts into any other kind of nuts. Like changing a peanut into a hazelnut. "I'm allergic!"

Stones: Come in all sizes and colors. Think about changing a coin several times. It becomes older and older. Finally you turn it into a stone. "Too far we're in the stone age!"

Hardware: Bolts, nuts and Gears... all could be added to a Steampunk themed act. You could have a wire and roll it around the finger. Then change it into a gear. One of those smoke producing gimmicks could visualize the technical change.

Office Stuff: Paperclips could change color. Priority labels could be "downgraded". I imagine a routine where the magician writes something with a pencil, looks at his writing, shakes his head and then visually changes the pencil into an eraser and rubs away his writing. A stamp could become a more valuable stamp.

Food: In fact I remember posting my little idea about gummy bears. Which was motivated and nobody paid attention to. But what if you use the switch for something more layered. Effect: A steel ball bearing is eaten. Many actually. No tricky moves, they really go into the mouth and are swallowed.
Method: You will need ONE real steel ball and the other ones are cocktail tomatoes treated with silver edible spray paint. That way all you need to do is to show how real the real steel ball is, switch it for a tomato and eat it.

Mentalism: Think about mentalism when it comes to spellbound. A regular key can be visually changed into a bent key. A fresh leaf could become an old, dry leave, which in presentation could be a "changing season" thing or in mentalism could be a "sucking out the aura" thing. Two magnets; if you switch one from something that looks similar both will no longer attract each other. Ergo "sucking out magnetism" could be the effect. (Where does the magnetism go? Maybe a demonstration of PK-effects is in order. The falling block of wood makes sense now!)

Changing the Effect: A broken monocle could repair itself.... you see stuff has not to become other stuff. The effect could be perceived differently. In this case a restoration. Now think even further. Some that gets repaired could also just go back in time to a point where it wasn't broken. Now if you think about changing an old toy into a working, shiny version of the toy... you are on the road to create a memorable, emotional effect. As it refers to so many aspects of any body's childhood. When wonders where still acceptable!

Go bold with the plot: What if it is not just the objects that changes, but the whole universe? What if a pack of salt in this universe is a pack of sugar in the other universe? What other changes might occur? I hope you can see where I'm going with this. I swear if I hear the King Midas story again I will leave the room. Changing stuff to gold is a great trick, but don't go back to plots that have seen better days.

Changing parts of nothing: Have you ever done the Spellbound Move with "nothing"? You could see something in the air and catch it. Show the "nothing" between your fingers and then mention the fact that the audience probably won't see it. The simple reason. They are seeing the wrong side. "It's a hole, but you are looking from the inside out. That's why you don't see the edge. Let's me twist it around a bit!" Then add the palmed steel ring to the picture in a twisting motion, as if you have turned a hole inside out.
This is a stupid premise and will not believed by the audience, but they will play along as long as they are entertained. And I think that this premise is a bit of a mind twister. One that is entertaining. (Of course you could continue with the steel ring. It's a portable hole after all. But what's one the other side of the hole? I hope you can see that this flies off in many directions!)

So you close up guys. I hope you put your coins and balls to rest for a while and experiment with other little objects that have the right size for manipulation. Such as: finger rings,
walnuts,
screws, billets,
bunched up silks,
blocks of wood,
feathers,
springs,
crystals,
germs,
jewels,
locks,
caps,
dry beans,
bells,
rattles,
sugar cubes,
dice,
USB-sticks,
pocket knives,
poker chips,
cookies,
washers,
nail clippers
safety pins,
corks,
small candles,
small light bulbs,
LED's,
soap,
buttons,
keyboard keys,
blocks of glass,
ice cubes,
chess pieces,
monopoly houses,
jewelry,
sea shells,
chestnuts,
acorn,
bones,
pencil sharpeners
and matches.

One more effect that is easy and cool.

Effect: "Have you ever seen MacGyver? I love this guy. He can build the most complicated stuff from simple stuff." You get out a box of matches "All he needed was a box of matches. He would take just a few of them." A few matches are taken and the box is put away. "And a rubberband. He would wrap the rubberband around the matches and then add a paperclip."

Method: A rubberband is taken and wrapped tightly around the matches, so they become -sleight of hand-able. Then a paperclip is taken as well as a palmed minibomb (basically just a small black ball with a piece of flash string attached) the paperclip is slipped under the ruberband as well, and then a Boboswitch is made. One hand assumingly holds the match-rubberband-paperclip bundle, but in fact that hand holds the bomb. The other hand goes in the pocket getting a lighter and ditching the bundle.

"That is how you make a small bomb which can take out two, may three blocks."

Then the fuse is lit. "Damn, a dud!"

Friday, 25 January 2013

10 Rules to market magic!


1. The main item needs to fool magicians.
I cannot stress the point hard enough. Magicians will not buy what's practical, but what fools them. If they are fooled, they assume it must be good. 

2. Make sure the main item uses a very obscure method.
Instead of using a Double Lift, use Sticky Tape to achieve the result. Magicians love methods. Even though the audience will not be aware of that. 

3. Add filler material, preferably card tricks.
Card tricks are very easy to create. It's very simple to create a new twist on a tried and true plot. So naturally they are great filler. Magic fluff is the industry term. But of course you don't call it filler. You call it a "bonus".

4. Create a video to demonstrate the effect.
Then edit it so the method cannot be backtracked. Even if you follow rule #1, not 100% of the magicians will be fooled, because some of you are smarter or more knowledgeable than you. Some have even read the whole of the Tarbell Course. So to fool those few you need to cut the video. Otherwise you cannot sell it.

5. Start hyping the product months in advance.
By having your "friends" ask about it at the Magic Cafe. The Magic Cafe is a horrible, horrible place, but just like in a sleazy part of town magic rumor spreads like the plague. Also free snippets will work. Release them for free, if they join your newsletter. That way you have a big base of subscribers that you can market to. For free. But in order to do that make sure you have plenty of material. Not just one trick.

6. If you have more than one item, make sure you spread them out over "Volumes".
No matter if books or DVD the main principle is the same. If you have three great tricks, you need to release a 3 DVD set. If you have have two great tricks, you need to release two books. The rest of the book/DVD will be filled with magic fluff.

7. Publish a release date and offer subscribers an early bird discount.
This is crucial. You need to establish a fan base. And how do you get fans? By making them think they get something cheaper than the rest.

8. Don't sleep!
During the first days of the product's release you have to be awake 24/7. The forums will be all about your product. The better forums will be honest about it. Don't worry about it too much. But those "spoiler" forums will try to take it apart and reveal the method. You need to have a fake identity to post stuff like "Nope, that's not how it works. It uses a clever new principle." That way they buy it.

9. Have less items than the market demands.
The line "out of stock" is magical dynamite. The demand will be high. So about half a year later, you can release version 2.0.

10. Listen to critical responses...
...but forget their names. Use the suggestions how to improve on your routines and work all of that into the version 2.0. Swarm intelligence also applies to magicians. Be the collector of the goods stuff. Make the most of it. And by that I mean money.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Stuff under Stuff

FreePhotoBank
Is it really that hard to come up with creative magic on your own? I cannot be the only one that has no problem whatsoever to be creative. In fact I got the opposite problem. I have so may ideas that I cannot use. Some routines that I come up with do not support my character, some go over my budget and some are too close to other routines that I do.

Example: I got like 5 routines floating in my head where stuff ends up under other stuff. I got this coin routine where three coins one by one end up under the purse. I love the purse as it is a completely motivated prop having around coins. Cards need one hell of a motivation. Also with cards there is "floating" going on the purse doesn't float. My purse has a metal frame so it will naturally create a sound when put down on a hard surface. That sound will completely camouflage any secret placing of a coin. So using a purse makes it possible to do the routine on a hard surface. At the end you can put the coins into the purse and so on. I've been using that idea for a few years now. Darn practical I tell ya!

Another routine would be an ungimmicked Chop Cup routine. So a ball would go through the cup in a variety of ways. Through the table, through to bottom, the side, from the pocket and so on. The main premise was that I have a little assistant who helps me doing all the magic. And that would turn out to be my final load, a stuffed mouse. The main creative point would be the premise. I do that routine for kids and they love it.

The third thing would be the heavily gimmicked version of the Chop Cup by Alex Hecklau. His premise is about how gamblers cheat and so on. I changed it so I explain that magic works by being one step ahead. I show the die and have it roll a few times, so people see that the die rolls all numbers. Then I cover the die asking the audience if they remember what number was up. Whatever they say I lift the cup to reveal the die gone. Then I take the die from my pocket saying "You thought it was about the numbers... it was about stealing the die. You couldn't catch me because you mind was occupied with the other task... let's continue" Then I somehow explain how I steal the die. After having it openly placed in my pocket I reveal that it is back under the cup. The patter continues: "You see, you thought it was about me stealing the die... and again you couldn't catch me putting it back, only because I was one step ahead" Than I seemingly explain how the die comes back only to set up the next phase... you see where I'm going with this. The premise is about how magic works... the creative point again is the premise.

The fourth idea is a take on the Benson Bowl. Mainly the last ball. The audience has seen two of the balls go from the table under the bowl. The last ball would seem pretty anticlimactic if it went under the bowl the same way. So I change the structure by offering a solution, a funny solution. Here it is for your pleasure:

The magician says that he will explain how it works with the last ball. He picks up the ball with his right hand and false transfers it to the left hand. He picks up the wand with the right hand and says that the ball "travels" along the left arm, (wand points along the way) up to the shoulder, behind the neck. To prove this ridiculous claim, the left hand is opened and seen empty. The left hand takes the wand and the right hand goes up behind the neck, producing the ball from there.

The wand is put on the table, as the ball is shown, then false transferred to the left hand. The left hand pretends to put it behind the neck, is shown empty afterwards and then picks up the wand again.
The claim continues. The ball "travels" from the neck down the right arm (again wand point out the supposed path) into the right hand. The right hand opens to prove the statement.
The wand is put on the table again, as the right hand shows the ball and transfers it to the left hand. The right hand goes to the pocket and picks up an extra ball as you claim that there is a hole in the pocket. To prove it the right hand comes out (ball hidden) and the left hand does a shuttle pass to the right hand. "Just watch" the magician claims as he visually puts the ball in his pocket and the ball is plucked right from the outside of the trousers' pocket with the left hand.
"It goes even further" the magicians says, as the right hand comes out of the pocket empty. The ball is false transferred from the left to the right and again the right hand goes in the right pocket.
The wand is picked up with the left hand. And the motion of the ball travelling is pointed out. All the way down the right leg. The right hand comes out of the pocket and is casually shown empty.
The wand is tossed in the right hand and the ball produced with the left hand form the foot area.
The wand is placed in the right pocket (sticking out) and the ball transferred to the right hand. "And now comes the most difficult part of that trick" (looking at the bowl)
The ball is false transferred from the right to the left hand, the left hand goes down to put it back in the "foot area" as the right hand goes for the wand in the right pocket ditching the ball in the pocket for good.


The left hand is shown empty, the right hand is shown empty (aside from the wand of course) and again the pointing out of the assumed path of the ball is shown with the wand. This time from the foot area across the floor (hilarious I think) to the table, up the table's leg through the table's surface, finally pointing at the bowl and lifting it, to show it has arrived.

And there is a fifth idea... but I spare you this one.

You can see that I cannot put those in one show. No way too darn similar, even though they are different. Take those ideas if you need to. But let's make a deal. If you take one of those ideas you must promise to never ever use stock patter again. Never do a trick right out the box and never ever use the suggested handling. Always add your own.

PS: Using a blue silk instead of a red silk to vanish is not creativity.

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Stuff based on Stuff

Let me give you two plots in magic that have not been explored to the full extent.

Here is a nice card plot. The survivor plot. "Imagine there is zombie apocalypse. Hordes of zombies roam the land and only a few people are in shelters desperately trying to make the next day. One of those shelters has run out of food. Food needs to be organized. So a group of three people is set up and goes outside." The deck is separated into reds and black. "The red cards representing the survivors and the black cards the zombies." The red pile is in a sheltered, that means a spectator holds on to them. "Three of the red cards go out and look for food. Unfortunately they run into a group of zombies and are surrounded." The three red cards are sandwiched into four black cards... "suddenly the zombies leave, leaving the survivors alone. Why? Well turns out they have evolved... and have a plan. In fact one of the group is infected." One of the three cards has become black... "but nobody knows... on the way back to the shelter the other two become infected as well." All three black cards are then pushed into half the deck the spectator is holding... "can you imagine the horror?" When the spectator turns over the cards in his hands, they all have become black.

I'm not gonna talk you through a possible handling. Check out Walton for that.

And here is a nice plot that can be taken from close up to stage. The phantom hands. "Imagine a set of invisible hands, right next to my own hands. They do whatever my real hands do." You show a cup and a stamp. You let the stamp fall into the cup. Then both hands mime taking out the stamp, claiming that the phantom hands actually take out the stamp. You mime tearing the stamp into fours pieces and then dropping them back in the cup. When the cup is turned over the stamp in there is torn into four pieces. Method: There is a torn stamp in the cup to begin with. You show a regular stamp and false transfer it to the other hand which pretends to put it in the cup. You ditch the real stamp and the rest is just presentation. There is not much to this... but let's elevate this into a creepy stage piece....

"You know the sensation of being stared at? Well think about being touched with nobody around." Think PK Touches with just one person. Suddenly everything gets a theatrical veil, the veil of mystery.

Stuff from Stuff

Producing objects don't need a lot of justification. The simple fact that you can make something appear from thin air already is a great deal. Think about it. From nothing you make something by sheer will and it will be whatever you want it to be. These are enormous implications. God is supposed to have that sort of power. But of course any production can benefit from some sort of justification or logical or emotional reasoning.

Here is a bad example: Silk and Ball routines. They are pretty, yes but what is the relationship between silk and ball? Do they come together naturally? No! Yet all the production strike us as beautiful when done right. The intrinsic aesthetics are enough to make us not question the purpose of the choice of props. Is there a way to add to the routine by giving it a better justification aside from the "pretty"-aspect? Yes! Here is how:


Basically you talk about your childhood and all those things you encountered during that time. And that all those things might be responsible for your later outcome of your personality.
Of course a fitting music should go along that. Something nostalgic. Something that reminds us of childhood.
Then you grab a piece of silk and from it you produce a baby's rattle. Then a toy block, a mechanical tin toy, a toy car, a marble, a yo-yo, a Game Boy, a pager, a cell phone.
In between you show the silk to be empty. All the standard ball to silk moves come to mind when thinking about methods to accomplish this.
The aim is, that people will recognize those props. Either referring to their own childhood or the childhood of their own children. Along with the music it will lead to an emotional reaction, hopefully. And you end in the "here" and "now". Returning from memory lane.

This is an example of an emotional reasoning that make up the choice of props to be produced. You still have the God like power of creating stuff, but less random and with much more focus on a given subject.

Here is a cool little bit of wisdom. If people can choose what you produce the production will be stronger. Here is an example: Three imaginary coins are floating in the air. A 2 Euro coin, a 1 Euro coin and a 50 cents coin. The magician claims to hold a real coin in his closed fist. The spectator is asked to pick one of the imaginary coins. Then the hand is opened and the named coin is the only one in there. In terms of method: (C/S two times out of three or Shuttle pass, one time out of three.) Technically it's just a 1/3 chance that you are correct. But the fact that your audience could choose elevates it to a much more appreciative realm.

Let's give you an example for a logical production. This was created from the basic "bottle from a bunch of silks"-effect. It is designed to fit in a kids show.

Effect: Explain that you can Different pieces of clothing are shown. Warm socks, a scarf, gloves, a stupid hat. The kids realize, that all of that is needed in the winter. And from this whole bunch of clothing a thermos bottle is produced. The hot chocolate for later.

Method: A chair is standing around. Behind the backrest on a hook a sock is hanging. Inside the sock the thermos bottle. The clothing is shown and put on the backrest to show the next one. Near the end everything is picked up the loaded sock goes along for the ride. The bundle can be seen from all sides. Push down on the sock and the rest of the clothing and the thermos bottle will seemingly pop up.

You introduced the theme of winter. Coming up with stuff that keeps you warm. What could warm you more than hot chocolate? Right! Nothing.

A what the hell, one more: You may be familiar with the effect, that a rope is shown and a knot is tied. Then as the knot is tightened a colorful piece of silk appears in the knot. (Flash Silk on Rope by Doug Edwards Vol. 15 Issue 12 of the Apocalypse, read it, it's cool!)

Problem: There is absolutely no reason for the silk to appear aside from the surprise.
Solution: I put it at the beginning of my knot routine, by explaining that there are three basic simple knots. The first one; The real knot. I do a real knot to demonstrate. I open the knot again. The second one; The knot that is not. I do a false knot. And third; The magic knot. I do the knot and the piece of silk appears in the knot.
It is not the best solution, but it gives it a bit more reason and time... Yes time to see, that the rope is indeed normal.

And as an afterthought I might add a fourth knot. The knot that comes off. To do that, the piece of silk is twirled together like a rope and a false knot made. In your palm should be a removable knot, or it might by tied to the silk to begin with. That way you can pretend to take off the knot which would come as a real surprise and would justify the piece of silk in a strange way. And if you would open the piece of silk and it would have a hole in the center, it would even further explain why a cloth was used and not a rope. Aside from being funny.

Saturday, 12 January 2013

It's the audience's fault

Here a pro tip that some pros don't want to hear. Sometimes the spectators are the ones to blame for killing your show. I give you an example. Let's assume you do your rope routine. You have done that routine hundreds of times. And there is that one part where you always get applause. But this time you don't. What's wrong? Did you go away from your usual patter? Was you intonation wrong? Is you fly open? Do you wear a dirty costume?

Sometimes the answer is to be found with the spectators. Some are just to darn tired to clap or to laugh or whatever. Sometimes it is not your fault. Most pros will tell you that the spectator must never be made the guy responsible for killing the show. Well, most often you can get around the issue by waiting. In our case people don't applaud after you made ends end and middle of the rope switch places. Usually they do. But now they don't. LET THE AWKWARD SILENCE SINK IN. They will applaud because they feel uncomfortable with the silence and need to fill it themselves because you don't do it.

And that might actually loosen up the audience so the rest of the show runs smoothly. If it happens again, you can start filling the gap with a corny joke: "Looks like you see this sort of thing every day." Now they should get the message.

Maybe, just maybe they are just tired. Or maybe they don't like you or magic. And here is why! People gather in groups of shared interest. Those are called friends. A party usually has a lot of friends in one place. They are friends not just because they share the same interests, but also because they think about stuff in similar fashion.

So if you have bad luck, you run into a group which doesn't like going crazy mad every time you make a card come to the top of the deck. Maybe they don't like your look. Maybe you look like those Ellusionist magicians. Maybe they wan't you to get a hair cut and a real job.

It's their fault your show is ruined, but them must never be called out on that. But know that deep inside your show was a good as always. Don't let a bad experience let you down. Sometimes it's the audience's fault.

So I wanna wish you a Merry New Year. (or whatever you say in order to be politically correct)

Have fun with your gig tomorrow!

What? You don't have one tomorrow.... then you're not a pro! ;)

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Stuff in Stuff

So we got this cool little gimmicked wallet. What do we do with it? Card to wallet... yeah how boring. Here is an idea to spice it up, possibly being a prelude to the card to wallet.

Have the wallet in you left inside jacket pocket. Borrow a finger ring and remark it's beauty. Do not make cheap jokes about it. People might chuckle, but they won't like you! The vanish the ring. Anything by Gregory Wilson is nice. Show your hands empty and then get out the wallet. Open the wallet and reach through the zipper compartment to the outside and pull in and then out the ring.

If you do card to wallet anyways here is my little addition, even though a few bits need to be figured out. Open the wallet and show a face down card in one compartment. It's one of those wallets where a transparent window let's you see what is there. Usually for drivers licences and shit. But in this case you see the back of a card. Leave the wallet open as you have a card selected and signed. Free choice of course. Then the usual shenanigans and finally the card is vanished. You claim it's the card they've been staring at the whole time. Cleanly you pull out the card with no funny moves and it really is the card. The method is nothing but a combination of two gimmicks. One is the wallet and the other one is the transparent window in the wallet. It's basically the face down version of the Wow 2.0 gimmick by Masuda. So before any card is in the wallet the gimmick poses as a card. And once the card is in the wallet the gimmick becomes transparent. Now you got a miracle.

Do not load one card, load more than one. It is much stronger.

Borrow the business card of a spectator... look at it, wondering, then saying, "have we ever met?" Then reach for your wallet and inside there will be the same business card. Looking back at the first business card is has now become your own business card which you hand to the spectator. Do I need to tell you how commercial that is?

Have you ever played around with the option of stealing stuff from the wallet as well. That opens up room for transpositions and all of that fun stuff.