Hi everyone, I wanted to share something with you that I found very useful in my magical development:
One of the most cited phrases in magic is that it’s better to perform a few tricks very well, rather than perform lots of tricks to an average standard. This is very true, but why? And the question remains: how do you choose those few tricks to perfect?
The first thing to consider is what are the benefits of perfecting a small number of tricks? The following list isn’t exhaustive, however I think they are the most important points:
• Confidence: You will be very confident when performing those effects, to all audiences in any situation
• Focus: Your repertoire will be focused at the goal you want to achieve
• Adaptability and flexibility: If you choose your effects carefully you can get away with not having a standard routine. Instead you have a list of openers, middle effects and closers that you can pick from to create a personalised routine for your audience and environment.
• Save money: You will only buy a new effect when you think it is either better than what exists in your repertoire, or you want to refocus your magic. This will stop you wasting money on effects that are fundamentally good but that you will never perform.
Whilst there is no combination of tricks that forms a ‘perfect list’, I hope the thought process I went through to create my list can be of some help to you.
Step 1: Think about things from the spectator’s point of view. i.e. what does the effect accomplish in their eyes?
One of the key things to remember when choosing effects is that while two effects can be different in the magician’s eyes, they could appear to be similar in the eyes of a spectator. E.g. in the eyes of a magician, ‘Dr Daley’s Last Trick’ and ‘Here Then There’ are completely different, however in the eyes of a spectator you are still simply swapping the positions of some cards. Therefore you could argue that there is no point in having both of them in your repertoire.
So in order to help you decide which tricks you should perform you should first put your tricks into distinctive categories, where each category represents a different type of effect in the eyes of a spectator (examples below).
(It might be useful to download some free mind mapping software to do this e.g. FreeMind)
Once you have grouped all of your effects you will end up with a list of distinctive categories and you can move onto step 2.
Example categories
Transposition Effects (e.g. Here then There)
Coincidence Effects (e.g. Out of this World)
Revelations (e.g. multiple card revelations)
Transportation Effects (e.g. card to impossible location)
Prediction Effects (e.g. Invisible deck)
Step 2: Every routine, however long, should have a start, middle and an end.
If you are going to use your list of effects to create flexible routines then you need to have effects that are openers, effects that are middle effects and effects that are closers. So it makes sense that in each of the categories outlined in step 1 you should choose three tricks: an opener, middle effect and closer.
Note: The example I gave before about Dr Daley’s Last Trick and Here Then There was purely illustrative and of course you can use both of them as two of your three transposition effects
The result here is that you end up with a matrix with a number of boxes, and in each box you need to insert an appropriate effect. How you fill up this matrix is up to you and depends on what you’re trying to achieve, but some of the things that you should consider are:
• Is the effect impromptu? (i.e. are any gimmicks or a setup required and how would I deal with this?)
• Length of the effect – you should open with a relatively quick effect and your closer can take longer
• Complexity – ideally you want to be thinking about your performance rather than the mechanics so less complex effects are sometimes better. Also more complex effects are better suited to closing effects
Once you have filled your matrix you are in a position to move onto the next stage, which is about using the matrix to construct your routines.
Example
Transportation Category:
Opener: Sandwich Effect
Middle: Card to Pocket
Closer: Card to Impossible Location (e.g. folded up inside a box the spectator has been holding)
Step 3: Creating A Routine
In this final step you can use your matrix to generate any number of routines. The way you have constructed it means you can make a routine of 3 effects (which might last about 10-15 minutes) by choosing an opener, middle and closer from any of your categories. This will automatically create a routine that increases in impressiveness, whilst keeping the variety.
Obviously you can also increase the length of the routine by adding more than one starter, middle or closer, but you should not mix the order. i.e. perform both starters, middles or closers one after the other.
Again you may need to think about how to move from one effect to another if certain effects require a set up, but there is always a way to get around this.
So when I had gone through the steps I have outlined I ended up with a number of effects that were all completely distinctive in terms of presentation and mechanics from the point of view of my audience, and I was able to generate a routine from them which was logical and personalised to my audience in a matter of seconds (which was what I set out to do!) These steps helped me a lot with my magic and I hope some of you agree with my thought and can find something useful in what I’ve said too.
One of the most cited phrases in magic is that it’s better to perform a few tricks very well, rather than perform lots of tricks to an average standard. This is very true, but why? And the question remains: how do you choose those few tricks to perfect?
The first thing to consider is what are the benefits of perfecting a small number of tricks? The following list isn’t exhaustive, however I think they are the most important points:
• Confidence: You will be very confident when performing those effects, to all audiences in any situation
• Focus: Your repertoire will be focused at the goal you want to achieve
• Adaptability and flexibility: If you choose your effects carefully you can get away with not having a standard routine. Instead you have a list of openers, middle effects and closers that you can pick from to create a personalised routine for your audience and environment.
• Save money: You will only buy a new effect when you think it is either better than what exists in your repertoire, or you want to refocus your magic. This will stop you wasting money on effects that are fundamentally good but that you will never perform.
Whilst there is no combination of tricks that forms a ‘perfect list’, I hope the thought process I went through to create my list can be of some help to you.
Step 1: Think about things from the spectator’s point of view. i.e. what does the effect accomplish in their eyes?
One of the key things to remember when choosing effects is that while two effects can be different in the magician’s eyes, they could appear to be similar in the eyes of a spectator. E.g. in the eyes of a magician, ‘Dr Daley’s Last Trick’ and ‘Here Then There’ are completely different, however in the eyes of a spectator you are still simply swapping the positions of some cards. Therefore you could argue that there is no point in having both of them in your repertoire.
So in order to help you decide which tricks you should perform you should first put your tricks into distinctive categories, where each category represents a different type of effect in the eyes of a spectator (examples below).
(It might be useful to download some free mind mapping software to do this e.g. FreeMind)
Once you have grouped all of your effects you will end up with a list of distinctive categories and you can move onto step 2.
Example categories
Transposition Effects (e.g. Here then There)
Coincidence Effects (e.g. Out of this World)
Revelations (e.g. multiple card revelations)
Transportation Effects (e.g. card to impossible location)
Prediction Effects (e.g. Invisible deck)
Step 2: Every routine, however long, should have a start, middle and an end.
If you are going to use your list of effects to create flexible routines then you need to have effects that are openers, effects that are middle effects and effects that are closers. So it makes sense that in each of the categories outlined in step 1 you should choose three tricks: an opener, middle effect and closer.
Note: The example I gave before about Dr Daley’s Last Trick and Here Then There was purely illustrative and of course you can use both of them as two of your three transposition effects
The result here is that you end up with a matrix with a number of boxes, and in each box you need to insert an appropriate effect. How you fill up this matrix is up to you and depends on what you’re trying to achieve, but some of the things that you should consider are:
• Is the effect impromptu? (i.e. are any gimmicks or a setup required and how would I deal with this?)
• Length of the effect – you should open with a relatively quick effect and your closer can take longer
• Complexity – ideally you want to be thinking about your performance rather than the mechanics so less complex effects are sometimes better. Also more complex effects are better suited to closing effects
Once you have filled your matrix you are in a position to move onto the next stage, which is about using the matrix to construct your routines.
Example
Transportation Category:
Opener: Sandwich Effect
Middle: Card to Pocket
Closer: Card to Impossible Location (e.g. folded up inside a box the spectator has been holding)
Step 3: Creating A Routine
In this final step you can use your matrix to generate any number of routines. The way you have constructed it means you can make a routine of 3 effects (which might last about 10-15 minutes) by choosing an opener, middle and closer from any of your categories. This will automatically create a routine that increases in impressiveness, whilst keeping the variety.
Obviously you can also increase the length of the routine by adding more than one starter, middle or closer, but you should not mix the order. i.e. perform both starters, middles or closers one after the other.
Again you may need to think about how to move from one effect to another if certain effects require a set up, but there is always a way to get around this.
So when I had gone through the steps I have outlined I ended up with a number of effects that were all completely distinctive in terms of presentation and mechanics from the point of view of my audience, and I was able to generate a routine from them which was logical and personalised to my audience in a matter of seconds (which was what I set out to do!) These steps helped me a lot with my magic and I hope some of you agree with my thought and can find something useful in what I’ve said too.
