Order of performing magic

Hi all,

I've been a magician for about 3 years now, along with my brother, and we have only recently started doing performances at parties and things like that.

To give some background. My last performance was at my church's coffee house. We had about 30 minutes to kill as people came in, so I did some wondering around to different tables and performed tricks for them. And my tricks varied from table to table. At some I did some self working tricks and at others I did some tricks from Theory11.

But one thing that I have started to wonder from my most recent performance is, what order of tricks should I be performing?

Like should it be: Self working, some tricks that require some sleights, gaff tricks. Or is there actually no order?

If there is any discrepancy in what I have said, please ask me to Clarify.

Thanks,

Nathanael
 
Jun 10, 2010
1,360
1
Hi all,

I've been a magician for about 3 years now, along with my brother, and we have only recently started doing performances at parties and things like that.

To give some background. My last performance was at my church's coffee house. We had about 30 minutes to kill as people came in, so I did some wondering around to different tables and performed tricks for them. And my tricks varied from table to table. At some I did some self working tricks and at others I did some tricks from Theory11.

But one thing that I have started to wonder from my most recent performance is, what order of tricks should I be performing?

Like should it be: Self working, some tricks that require some sleights, gaff tricks. Or is there actually no order?

If there is any discrepancy in what I have said, please ask me to Clarify.

Thanks,

Nathanael

To your audience, they shouldn't be able to tell the difference. Therefore, it shouldn't technically matter, although I'm not partial to carrying around gaffs and gimmicks. I do a few self-working stuff, but the majority of it requires sleight of hand. Personal preference, really.
 
Jun 10, 2010
1,360
1
Could you elaborate on that?

Structure it in a way that makes sense to your spectators, with a clear opener and closer effect. It shouldn't matter whether it's self working or if it uses gimmicks - if it's done properly, your audience shouldn't know. If they do, you're not doing magic - you're failing a trick and revealing it to them. Where's the magic in that?
 
But in the situation I was in, where I was going around to tables, I only really had enough time to perform 1 or 2 effects. But those effects did tie into one another. Like doing both phases of Daniel Garcia's .44. Would an approach like that work? Where I only have enough time to do 1 or 2 effects, but there is still a transition between the 2 tricks.
 
Dec 17, 2010
13
0
It seems like you want to structure your routine based on difficulty. Probably not the best idea. Base it on impossibility, from the spectators view. As the show goes on, the tricks should become more spectacular and seemingly impossible. Also, if you are doing close up, I think you should start with clean tricks, because people like to inspect you. But once you convince the audience that you are really magic, then you sneak in dirty tricks. Just my thoughts.
Anyway, keep performing my friend.
 
Oct 20, 2008
273
0
Austin, TX area
But in the situation I was in, where I was going around to tables, I only really had enough time to perform 1 or 2 effects. But those effects did tie into one another.
There was a lot of advice going through this forum over the summer, if memory servers, about having three sets of three effects - in a lot of ways to do what you were trying to accomplish.

It seems to me like you were naturally gravitating toward that concept on your own. This isn't by any means me saying "use teh search!!!!" I can't stand when people do that. Rather, someone else said something so well that I can only defer to his word.

http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?29190-How-many-tricks-should-you-learn&highlight=strolling

Hopefully you will find some value in it.

Good luck!

-Andrew
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Order in a set of tricks (that you would do at one table), should be structured in a way that is theatrically entertaining for your audience. Type of effects does not matter, as long as they can all be performed well and with good transitions.

The order of your sets (going form table to table), is just a matter of personal preference and is largely dependent on your setting. For instance, when I worked in the restaurant, I used all impromptu effects for the majority of my sets. I carried a few instant reset gimmicks (like TT). And was ready for 1-3 larger effects that were one shot wonders. That's what worked for me.

Does that answer your question?
 
Nov 30, 2008
249
1
31
Ann Arbor, MI
It seems like you want to structure your routine based on difficulty. Probably not the best idea. Base it on impossibility, from the spectators view. As the show goes on, the tricks should become more spectacular and seemingly impossible. Also, if you are doing close up, I think you should start with clean tricks, because people like to inspect you. But once you convince the audience that you are really magic, then you sneak in dirty tricks. Just my thoughts.
Anyway, keep performing my friend.

Agreed. There's a section on this in Strong Magic. When you first meet your spectators, you need something that will establish your worth, basically. Show them why they care to watch you and show them what you can do. But you don't want anything sleight intensive or gimmick heavy because, as LordDrizzle said, they're skeptical. They have no reason to believe you can do magic yet. After you have established that baseline and they have an image of you as a magician in your mind, you can use that prestige, as Darwin Ortiz says, to build the rest of your tricks on. Your audience has a sense of what you're capable of, so for the rest of the show they'll be amazed rather than trying to search for the secret.
 
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