license plate prediction – MagicShow.Tips

Great Minds Think Alike…

Last week I was watching Death by Magic on Netflix. It’s a decent magic show, a lot of the old school magicians probably won’t like how it’s shot. It’s done in the “Post David Blaine Style” with a lot more camera cuts. I’ve got nothing against that, however some people (usually older magicians) do. On one … Continue reading “Great Minds Think Alike…”

Last week I was watching Death by Magic on Netflix. It’s a decent magic show, a lot of the old school magicians probably won’t like how it’s shot. It’s done in the “Post David Blaine Style” with a lot more camera cuts. I’ve got nothing against that, however some people (usually older magicians) do.

On one episode he doe a trick where he talks about naming your first car. Then he ends up producing a license plate with that name on it. Sounds like a routine I wrote about in a blog post a few weeks ago. You can read the blog post here.

Obviously the team at Death by Magic didn’t read my post and quickly put the trick into the show. The show’s first episode was four days after my blog post. Someone at the Death by Magic team thought of it, it’s not a huge leap to get from the idea of a license plate prediction to the presentational hook of the name of your first car.

Many magicians think that if they have an idea, no one else could possibly have that idea. That’s 100% false. It’s totally possible and happens all the time. I’ve seen many magicians accuse other magicians of stealing ideas, when their idea was something that you’d think of if you spent any time playing with that idea.

Cases where someone is doing complete act is an entirely different thing. Once you add up all the bits and the order they take place the idea of them thinking the of all of that and ending up at the exact same place is very unlikely.

How I view it, is if someone has the same idea as me and it’s not a blatant case of them ripping me off, I’m fine with that.

TLDR: Don’t get upset if someone has the same idea as you.

Another Presentation for the License Plate Prediction…

A couple of days ago I wrote about a post about the License Plate Prediction trick (you can read it here). I was thinking about it some more and came up with another, probably better presentation. The idea is that in high school you named your car. You have a list of the top baby names … Continue reading “Another Presentation for the License Plate Prediction…”

A couple of days ago I wrote about a post about the License Plate Prediction trick (you can read it here). I was thinking about it some more and came up with another, probably better presentation. The idea is that in high school you named your car. You have a list of the top baby names from the year you bought your car. You run scissors down the list and they saw stop whenever they want. You cut the list at that point. They read the first name from where the list was cut and end up matching your license plate.

This would simply be the trick where you have the list of names printed upside down. So when you cut the list, the name at the top where they think you cut it is actually the last name on your list. That’s a simple and effective force for a trick like this that is list bases.

I think there’s tons of room for fun in this trick. “I named my car “Carl” and would tell my mom that carl and I are going out. It was month before she realized that Carl wasn’t real.”

Now that I’ve got the hook and the method, it’s just a matter of writing the script and testing it out.

Louie

Inventing a Trick That’s Already Been Invented

I always try to keep up with the new magic that’s out and came across this trick: To me this guy was inspired by David Copperfield’s license plate trick, without the kicker of the appearing car. This is a more practical way of doing the trick for 99.9% of performers and a smart method. … Continue reading “Inventing a Trick That’s Already Been Invented”

I always try to keep up with the new magic that’s out and came across this trick:

To me this guy was inspired by David Copperfield’s license plate trick, without the kicker of the appearing car. This is a more practical way of doing the trick for 99.9% of performers and a smart method.

Whenever I see a marketed trick I try to think of ways I can make them unique to me. I do two things:

Think of a different method: A new method can lead to a trick that feels different to the audience.
Think of a new presentation: A completely different presentation will give you a unique feeling trick.

So what would I do with this trick (keep in mind this is trick is already a variation of an existing trick)?

Let’s start with method. Instead of using a flip chart, why not use the TOXIC force? Now you’ve eliminated the flip board and a visual, so the trick now won’t look like the trick above. Now you’ve got two tricks that simply just license plate predictions.

Next let’s get into presentations. The video doesn’t really have a presentation, and it’s been soo long since I’ve seen David Copperfield do his, that I don’t remember what his was, we have a pretty easy starting point. Since we’re using a calculator, you could talk about buying a car and how they talk about all the numbers.

Now that we’ve got a method and a presentation, there’s one last hurdle, getting a license plate that has only numbers and no letters. A google search showed me that all modern plates have both numbers and letters, so buying a used plate on ebay won’t work. However another search showed me that you can have custom “novelty” plates made!

Now we’ve got the routine, the props and method…we’ve got a brand new trick, one that’s unique!

Louie