Building your Best Routine

RickEverhart

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Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
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Louisville, OH
Upon trying to make my show even better than what it is I've been picking the minds of some of the older guys in my ring. One of them gave me some great advice that I've never heard before.

Thought I'd share it with some of you.

He said that your show should consist of 10-12 effects and you need to number them from strongest (meaning = I love this and will not drop it from my show) to weakest (meaning= this is what i have in the show now but it could be better).

At each show plug in different or new effects for number 12 and if you are getting better reactions with the new....the old gets replaced. This continues on and on with effects getting bumped down the line.

Eventually you have the strongest set possible and anything you try to add later on simply cannot compete. That is when you know you have a killer show. The minute you find something better...out goes number 12 and everything bumps.

Example: You go buy effect "B" and it hits way harder than numbers 4-12. Well...it becomes the new number 4 and everything else gets bumped up a number with the old 12 getting axed.
 
Mar 6, 2008
1,483
3
A Land Down Under
It is an interesting idea and for the most part I agree. One thing I would probably add is giving you new effects some time to grow. Whilst you can learn the sleights and patter for an effect, each effect should have a period of performance in which you experiment with how to make it work.

So even if your new effects are not as powerful as some older ones they should have a duration of time where they cannot be cut.
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
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Sep 14, 2008
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Louisville, OH
D ICE R,

I would have to agree with you. There probably needs to be some type of time line or time frame where you simply do not cut it until it has been tested quite a few times.

Your welcome Justin.
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
I do want to add something to this... Routines are obviously not just a collection of effects... Therefore what may be theoretically strongest or most liked might not be suitable to put in your show. I know I have effects that are strong, but more importantly, they are there for a specific purpose. Something important happens in them that sets something up for another effect down the line - introduces an innocent prop, develops the theme of the routine, creates a motif, etc. Or something important happens that just happens to be crucial to the routine. Advancing the theme is one of the most important things here. I want my effects to not only have a theme, but to develop and explore it in different ways as well.
 

Luis Vega

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Mar 19, 2008
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Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
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I didn´t fully understand at the beggining...but I get it now...

the only disadvantage that I see is that there is a lot of trial and error...I mean if someone new create a set of pure 5´s then the show is 5...so in order to build the best set you have to perform at least 10-12 times...and sometimes maybe a trick is a 5, but just because we love it we see it as a 12...that also could happen...
 
Jul 7, 2008
66
0
Norway
Very good advice, but I think the routines shouldn't be performed one by one from 12-1. You should rather put the routines together in a way that gives the performance better flow. You don't go from coins, to cards and back to coins again. You could also add small transitions between the effects.
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
3,637
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Louisville, OH
Haavard,
I agree. I would never go from rubber bands to coins to cards back to rubber bands. There definitely has to be a good flow to the show and set.

Prae,
Good point! Perfection does take years because you have to have had enough repetition to see how an effect plays our in many different circumstances.

For most of us hobbyists or amateurs....we don't perform near as many times as a working pro to get the feedback back to us quick enough. Therefore many of us hobbyists amateur continually go buy what we think the next best effect will be.
 

Luis Vega

Elite Member
Mar 19, 2008
1,838
278
38
Leon, Guanajuato Mexico
luisvega.com.mx
For most of us hobbyists or amateurs....we don't perform near as many times as a working pro to get the feedback back to us quick enough. Therefore many of us hobbyists amateur continually go buy what we think the next best effect will be.

That was actually my point in my previous post...it`s easy to get feedback depending on the scale, for close-up it`s easy to get criticism since it`s more easy...
but for stage must be difficult, since there are no much chances to perform...unless you do it for free!!
 
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