Tricks – Page 133 – MagicShow.Tips

Selling a Trick Onstage…

One of the tricks that I’m working on is the Silk and Coat Hanger. This is basically a silk and ring routine, if you dig around this blog you can find more about it. Basically the silk goes through the coat hanger in different ways. It’s a fun trick for me to do as a perform, and so far the audience seems to enjoy it as well.

Here’s the problem with it, I’m having trouble selling it on stage. Most people who do it, do it to music, not talking. I think I need some jokes upfront and then do the trick to music. Music is nice because it fills the gap while I wait for the audience’s brains to catch up with the effect. As a talking act, you stand there for what feels like an eternity while the audience processes the trick.

I really like the trick, and it’s semi unique to me. I’m going to keep plugging away with it and hopefully I’ll figure out how to make it work better on stage!

Tossed Out Invisible Deck

In the show yesterday I tried out my new idea for the invisible deck. You can read about the idea here. In a nutshell, the idea is to have multiple cards named and all of them are reversed in the deck. I don’t know if for the audience this is a better trick than the standard invisible deck with only one card, for me it’s an interesting challenge.

I did the trick once yesterday and it went well. All the named cards were reversed in the pack and the people in the audience seemed to not know how the trick worked. This is an important part of a new idea…having it actually work for an audience, now the next step is going to be tweaking the gimmick.

Roughing stick by vanishing in for card magic — image from www.VanishingIncMagic.com

I’m roughing the cards with a Roughing Stick that Vanishing Inc puts out. It works well, but I need to play around with how I apply it to the cards. Right now I’m doing it in the middle of the length of the card. I think I’m going to make another deck where it goes across the middle of the short edge of the deck and see how that works.

The cool thing about the Roughing Stick, is that it’s easy to apply, so I fairly quickly try it in different configurations and see what works best for me. I’m also thinking I need to use two different cards stocks for the trick. I’ll be doing some playing this week!

Ideas and Action

Whenever I get an idea, my goal is to try to get a working version of it as quickly as possible. For me, this is a way to see if the idea has something going for it. There could be a weakness in effect, or method. Knowing that there is early on before a ton of time has been devoted to it is very helpful.

Recently I had an idea pop into my head for a trick. I’m calling this trick “Invisible Tossed Out Deck”. Basically it’s a tossed out deck premise where three people end up thinking of cards. However instead of tossing a physical deck into the audience, it will be an imaginary one. The payoff will be that the thought of cards are in your deck upside down.

It only took a minute to source the necessary props for the routine.

I quickly realized that there’s a problem if I construct the deck like a normal Invisible Deck. I’ll need a cull or displacement for each card I’m revealing. Luckily yesterday I was setting in construction traffic and sat for an hour not moving. I started to play with methods for concealing cards in the spread and came up with a couple of methods.

Later today I’ll give the trick a try during my preshow and see how it goes!

Deck Ripping Routine…

A while ago on this blog I wrote up my deck ripping routine. Basically it’s the split deck trick, but instead of a factory made deck, you are using a deck that you rip in half with your bare hands. One of the things I like about doing this trick is the “barrier to entry”, you have to put in the time to be able to do the trick.

The other day during my preshow at a library gig I had a kid helping me and I just kept classic forcing the two of hearts to him. I was playing around and would top change the two for another card, then rip it in half and throw it away. Then the kid would pick the two of hearts that I just torn up. I did this a couple times. Finally I turned the deck face up and had him pick a card that wasn’t the two and I had him stand on it (after I switched it). I then ripped the deck in half so he couldn’t pick the two. Once the deck was ripped the kid (on his own) reached down to look at the card he was standing on and was very much amazed that the card had changed into the two of hearts!

This is a decent ending to a multiple force routine. You really can’t do anymore, the deck is destroy and the card has changed one last time. Structurally and logically, I need to work on it, but for this “improv” situation it was fun.

While I will probably never do this routine again, it got me thinking about it. What if I used a flap card with a lock. The person picks a card that’s not the force and you set it facing the audience. You rip the deck, and then the card visually changes into the force card. I’m not sure this is better than the kid reaching for the card he’s standing on, because his reaction really sold the trick.

Instagram Force…

A few days ago I wrote about using the Predict n’ Grab trick to force an image on Instagram. I was thinking this morning if it’s better than using flash cards. Everyone can relate to flash cards…but also with Instagram.

Flash cards are a tangible thing which is nice, however so is my phone and it’s larger. For the trick I’m doing, on the person on stage can see the forced animal. The reason for that is simple, since I’m doing this for kids, I don’t want another kid to say what it is. If they say what I’ve forced outloud, I can’t got back and redo the selection because of what I’m revealing.

Instagram also feels “cooler” for older kids in the audience than flash cards do. When performing for kids, I always try to play up to the older kids, than play down to the younger ones. I’ve found that works better for my style of performing.

Magic Apps…

Ugh, this summer for my Library tour I needed a way to either force some information, or get a peek at it. The problem with a peek is this that I need pretty much real time info, I can’t preshow it. I also need it to fit an “educational” bullet point in the show. The bullet point would be researching.

The nice thing about researching is that I could use a book. The downside is that I need to force specific information. I need to force the size of an animal. I was going to use Inject 2.0, however the need for two devices to have working internet was something that I didn’t want to get involved in. This is a huge the problem with most magic apps.

If internet isn’t an issue, then the other problem is why are you using your phone. I use an app on my phone in my show on cruise ships, and there’s a good reason. I make a phone call, and a phone call at sea is very expensive, so obviously I’m not going to use a borrowed phone. The cellphone thing is easily overcome in a kids show, because younger kids frequently don’t have phone on them.

I heard about an Instagram prediction called Predict n’ Grab.

Predict n' Grab magic mentalism trick review

This is the solution. They now scroll through an animal facts Instagram page and stop at one of the pictures and that’s the force! I created a custom Instagram page that has all of the force info in the picture in meme form. Having the info in the pictures makes it much easier for a kid “research”.

Gypsy Thread…

One of the tricks that I’m working on for my summer library tour is the Gypsy Thread trick. Basically it’s a torn and restored string trick, but you rip the string into many pieces and restore it. Technically I’ve got the trick down, but having a bit of trouble selling the trick.

I think it’s a matter of figuring out where to put, and what the “magic” moment is. I think this is a case of me needing to tell them what they are going to see. I need to put some sizzle onto it.

Part of the problem with a restoration for kids, is in our modern society, things just fit together, or fit back together. Yes, things break, but with so many children’s products that just snap back together, the concept of a restoration of something like a piece of string isn’t miraculous. Of course this changes with something like Tony Clark’s Gypsy Balloon, where kids can relate to the broken string.

Audience Test…

When I have a new trick, I typically do my audience testing before shows. I do it as “preshow” warm up for people that get there super early. I’m also very clear that they are tricks I’m working on, and not part of the show. Yesterday I performed at a school assembly and had a … Continue reading “Audience Test…”

I was worried about people not understanding the trick when the silk went through the body of the hanger and ended up on the hook. My solution to this was to simply tell them why what they were about to see made it impossible.

The test run of the silk thru coat hanger seemed to go over well, and I think I’ll be working it in more this summer and hopefully have a solid routine in a few months!

More Silk and Coat Hanger

The main reason I’m playing with the silk and coat hanger trick is that I had an idea for a move. I think this is an interesting move, but it’s also fairly subtle. Here’s just a quick video of me running some moves with the props: The first move where the silk goes from the … Continue reading “More Silk and Coat Hanger”

The first move where the silk goes from the body of the hanger to the hook is what interests me. However I think selling the idea of the penetration to an audience may be hard. The concept of going from a locked place to a place that’s not locked in will muddy the effect. I’m worried audience will thing the trick is that the silk go onto the open hook, and not that it got off of the closed body of the hanger.

It’s more about where it started, not where it ends for the first phase. That’s a very subtle difference in effect, but I think that will make a world of difference to the audience.

Hook for Coat Hanger

Right now I’m getting to the writing phase of the Silk thru Coat Hanger trick that I’m working on. The hardest part it to come up with a hook for it. by hook, I mean a presentation hook, not the literal hook. I need to figure out why I’m doing this.

So far I have a sequence of four moves to do with the silk and coat hanger, that gives me a starting point. One of the moves is similar to the linking ring gag where you show it’s an “optical illusion” with the rings linked, then turn your body 90 degrees and the rings are unlinked. With that used in the routine, I could use the optical illusion angle.

Personally I don’t like using optical illusions as a hook for the routine. Whenever I see someone do it, it feels like they didn’t try to come up with something better. This is probably the biggest challenge for the routine.