I have a lot of tricks that I have bought in the past and have no idea what to do with them all. some of ot i use, and some of ot just lies around. I am overwhelmed with all the stuff i have. Does anyone have any tips on how to sift through your stuff and take out the good ones
Lots o' Tricks
- Thread starter danylo
- Start date
Nope, this one was originally performed by Jesus, who was close friends with God. Sadly, Jesus never released his method; it is rumoured that he was midway through filming a dvd when he died (an unfortunate accident involving some very extreme hecklers).
To the OP: I'd recommend going through your material and writing a big list of everything you have. Look at the tricks and split them into openers, closers and middlers (yes, I just made that word up).From there, Try to find an opener, a closer and around two middlers that all have a similar theme, or that could be linked in a routine. Go away, practice said routine, tweak the bits that need tweaking, create patter, practice more and perform.
Rinse and repeat.
That's all very well and good, but the simple fact is this: if you seriously want to perform to the best of your ability, at some point in time, you will need to drastically reduce the number of effects you perform.
Creating routines of them all is not enough - having 5 routines of 5 effects each will do no good; something will suffer.
Now many people will say, "But I can perform two dozen tricks!" Which is fine. But how many of those can you perform well? For professional standards at least, or even if you just want to be able to perform your best, then that's not good enough. At some point, there will be a limit to how many effects you can keep in your active repertoire, before everything starts to suffer. Be brutally honest with how much you can perform. And by that, it needs to have been worked out over many many performances, you need to know the presentation sleights and timing back to front without delay - when you have routines perfected to this calibre, you realise that it's a tough thing, and that it's a lot of information - and that's when you realise that if you have too many, they will all suffer.
The professionals know this and at any one time have a set number of effects in their act; which doesn't mean they don't play with other effects or even practice or perform them from time to time; however it does mean that they are extremely tough with what they keep and what they don't.
So you need a list of everything you know. Then take out everything you don't perform and have no interest in performing. Then remove everything that doesn't fit in with your persona or performing environment. Then remove everything you were even the slightest bit hesitant about including or taking off. Then take away some more, and you'll have a number of effects you can count using your fingers. Explore things and ideas but at the same time the most crucial thing is to be uncompromising and brutal with what you keep and what you don't.
Creating routines of them all is not enough - having 5 routines of 5 effects each will do no good; something will suffer.
Now many people will say, "But I can perform two dozen tricks!" Which is fine. But how many of those can you perform well? For professional standards at least, or even if you just want to be able to perform your best, then that's not good enough. At some point, there will be a limit to how many effects you can keep in your active repertoire, before everything starts to suffer. Be brutally honest with how much you can perform. And by that, it needs to have been worked out over many many performances, you need to know the presentation sleights and timing back to front without delay - when you have routines perfected to this calibre, you realise that it's a tough thing, and that it's a lot of information - and that's when you realise that if you have too many, they will all suffer.
The professionals know this and at any one time have a set number of effects in their act; which doesn't mean they don't play with other effects or even practice or perform them from time to time; however it does mean that they are extremely tough with what they keep and what they don't.
So you need a list of everything you know. Then take out everything you don't perform and have no interest in performing. Then remove everything that doesn't fit in with your persona or performing environment. Then remove everything you were even the slightest bit hesitant about including or taking off. Then take away some more, and you'll have a number of effects you can count using your fingers. Explore things and ideas but at the same time the most crucial thing is to be uncompromising and brutal with what you keep and what you don't.
Haha, thanks mate. Not to say you were wrong though - it would have been more accurate to say: On top of what Randomwrath said - it's definitely true that you need to work out openers middles and closers - but do it with a small repertoire rather than a big chunk of effects. Some people certainly choose to have a very small (4-5) group of effects in one routine - I personally prefer to have a group slightly bigger than that - but each one is classified in where it needs to go in a routine, what it needs to go after or what needs to go after it, etc - so I have the tools/structure of several different fluid and fluent routines. But knowing the sort of effects they are, and where they fit into a routine, is definitely VERY important.