Effects/Tricks you wish would just go away

May 28, 2018
106
100
Saint Louis, MO
Hey, lets start a flame war!!

I think that there are some magic tricks that are not just subjectively bad but actually an objectively bad idea.

For me it is the PK stopping time. I think that the manufacturers of PK rings/wrist blocks/etc deserve to get sued for their continued insistence on advertising this effect. These days many people who wear mechanicals are wearing decent mechanicals. The average cost of my collection of mechanicals is around $500 dollars--these I would consider cheep. If some street magician made a grab for my wrist while I was wearing my Tissot, I would probably punch him in the face.
 

CWhite

Elite Member
Jul 22, 2016
769
962
First off if a "street magician" made a "grab" for your watch. I'd refrain from calling them a magician.
The problem with this issue isn't the gimmick, but the presentation.
Now back to your question, the Sansmind Sharpie is terrible. The X doesn't disappear... even after soap and water. Which defeats the purpose of the intended effect.
 
Mar 4, 2018
101
85
I have multiple (and these are just my opinion). Any effect by Lloyd Barnes, Tobias Dostal, or SansMinds. As far as plots, I'm tired of the 20th century bra trick and any stage illusion where an assistant is put into a box as the magician flails his arms around and that is suposedly what is supposed to make the audience believe it is magic happening to an unusual looking box.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Honestly? Most of the market. There's a ton of junk out there.

Though your title is a bit off. Effects and tricks are not the same thing, no matter how hard some magicians try to make it that way.

To be more specific - I would be happy to see sucker tricks disappear completely. And anything else that simply serves to stroke the magician's ego.
 
Aug 15, 2017
651
413
I would be happy to see sucker tricks disappear completely. And anything else that simply serves to stroke the magician's ego
Yes...unless of course the theme for the sucker tricks becomes a classic 'Magician in Trouble' or ''Hey...just look at this weird thing that happens even if I don't do what I said I'd do...this is the part that doesn't make sense."
 
Aug 15, 2017
651
413
I dunno if it fits your requirements, but really, I have a feeling the cups and balls routine is highly overrated and although it needs a lot of dexterity, every variation of it bores me to death EXCEPT how Penn and Teller like to do it. Every other, I repeat, every other adaptation of it feels really boring and redundant to me. Maybe it's because I'm a magician and have already seen it loads of times but whatever...

Yes. Now you can go ahead and kill me.

Also, I hate bra tricks too. They really don't make sense. What if a female magician started doing 'boxer tricks'? Huh.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
I have seen a female do a boxer short version of that trick.

Cups and Balls is just usually performed poorly. Most people think they can copy Dai Vernon's routine and people will fall at their feet. That's not good performance. It should be noted, though, that in studying cups and balls, one learns every skill necessary to be good at magic in general.

Magician In Trouble plot devices are almost always poorly executed as well. Either no one believes the magician was truly "in trouble", or they do believe it and when the magician recovers it's "HAHA stupid audience, like I could ever fail."

Again - this is not a flaw inherent in the device itself, but in the more common executions of it.
 
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Antonio Diavolo

Elite Member
Jan 2, 2016
1,092
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California
Most of Ellusionist's recent products. Especially the FU deck. I just can't see any personality or performance where it would work.
I also don't like tricks using condoms or that spongeball penis thing people use. Anything relying entirely on adult humor just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. There's no reason to make a signed card appear in a condom other than for shock value imo. There are plenty of other common sealed packets/impossible locations that you could make a card/coin/ring appear. Just my opinion tho.
 
May 28, 2018
106
100
Saint Louis, MO
Honestly? Most of the market. There's a ton of junk out there.

Though your title is a bit off. Effects and tricks are not the same thing, no matter how hard some magicians try to make it that way.

To be more specific - I would be happy to see sucker tricks disappear completely. And anything else that simply serves to stroke the magician's ego.

My apologies ChristopherT, I did not mean to imply the effects and tricks are the same thing.

As I said in my first post I was thinking of effects or specific tricks that were objectively bad ideas and gave my example of the PK time stop as it has the serious potential to damage personal property--personal property that can be quite valuable.

Sorry for my lack of clarity.
 
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WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
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I wasn't trying to call you out on a lack of clarity - just pushing the info out there for the general populace.

I absolutely agree that many performers are far too casual with personal property. I never want my audience to contemplate murdering me.
 
May 3, 2018
70
74
46
New Mexico
To be quite honest I try to stay as far away as possible from gimmicks and gaffs, they don’t suit me and are generally to expensive for what they achieve. This is of course only my humble opinion, and to each their own.

Cups and balls is only boring when done poorly, and unfortunately that’s how most people perform it. It is however a right of passage as I see it, as it requires so much training and determination to perform it well. Even if you never perform it, you have still learned almost every aspect of magic by practicing it. And again only the opinion of a gypsy magician, who earns his food by performing,
 
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May 28, 2018
106
100
Saint Louis, MO
Most of the boring cup and ball routines I have ever seen is that they have no theme or focus. The magician tries to throw in everything they have ever learned about the cup and balls and, like a chef who tries to use too many spices, they end up with an unpalatable mess. Also they forget that the c&b is not a trick, it is a routine and they have routined the effects poorly.
 

obrienmagic

Elite Member
Nov 4, 2014
1,469
1,422
Orange County, Ca
www.obrienmagic.com
I don't think there are any "tricks" out there I would like to go away. I do think certain presentations or bad habits can change though. Tired and overdone copycat presentations need to go away and people need to start being themselves more. I see a lot of magic performed today where the patter is almost word for word the same as the video they learned it from.
 
May 28, 2018
106
100
Saint Louis, MO
So, I perform a lot of effects that many would label boring:

Egg Bag
Linking Rings
Cups and Balls
McCombical Deck (a sucker / magician in trouble effect where the audience does believe I'm in trouble)
Baffling Bra (performed once for my in-laws)

My view is that it isn't the effect but the performer that makes something boring.

This.

Also magicians should differentiate between "boring for magicians to watch" and "boring for normal people to watch". I never worry about the former.

If you think linking rings are boring then you haven't seen the reaction that Massado gets from people on the streets.

Magician in trouble plots just require subtlety, presentation, and attitude that doesn't rub their faces in it. Tommy Wonder wrote quite eloquently on the subject.
 
Aug 15, 2017
651
413
Also magicians should differentiate between "boring for magicians to watch" and "boring for normal people to watch". I never worry about the former.
Well, surprisingly, although I still am of the opinion that most (not all) cups and balls routines are boring AF, I have to say every linking rings adaptation I have seen is intricately beautiful.
And the way DMC does it makes me want to believe magic is real.
However, even Paul Gertner's adaptation of Cups and Balls bored me to death...even though I love his persona and the effect he performed for Penn and Teller in his first appearance.

Also...just sayin'...many here are of the opinion sponge ball routines are extremely powerful and if I haven't got them down yet, I am being a fool and those performers who don't get good reactions with sponge balls are bad performers...However I have seen that compared to the card or coin or mentalism effects a magician (even the best ones) performs, the sponge balls don't get that much of a good reaction...so while I am sure some magicians perform it wonderfully, in my alternate universe, I would like sponge ball routines to vanish forever.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
There's a lot of magic I wish everyone else would stop doing so that I can keep it for myself. I love all the cliche tricks of the week and the classics but I don't do them. Things like:

French Kiss, Double Cross, Sponge Balls, Professor's Nightmare, Spoon Bending, Cups and Balls, Bowlarama, Vanishing Bandana, Card Toon etc. I love these routines but I perform a few times a year in groups with other magicians and those who are most likely to hire me are already familiar with some magic. So, I avoid them as a rule of thumb.
 
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