List of Effects that Leave your Spectator With a Souvenir

[RickEverhart]

Hey Everyone,
I wanted to get a good list going of effects that leave your spectator with a souvenir that they actually keep. These types of effects leave a lasting impression and they are very powerful.

Signed cards and Anniversary Walts are common.
Stargazer leaves them with a star rubber band.
Torn and Restored Cards

What else do you guys typically like to perform that leaves them with a nice momento?

 

[Al e Cat Dabra]

I enjoy performing a mental card effect where the deck is first shuffled by a spectator. A prediction is then written on the back of each of two of my custom business cards, a different prediction on each card. Each of two spectators is given one of the business cards, prediction side down, and they each, in turn, insert their card anywhere in the deck they like. When the deck is spread, each business card and the playing card next to it are removed. The predictions on the back of the business cards are revealed to show that the playing cards were correctly predicted.

What's really nice about this is that two spectators each end up with a souvenir of a magical effect, a souvenir that happens to be my business card. The cards are quite magical looking. When they look at the back of the business card and see the prediction, the magic plays on in their minds, and of course, the front of the cards has my contact info if they want to arrange for an encore by booking me at their next special event, or to refer me to a friend, family member, or business associate.

 

[RealityOne]

There is a great book called Gift Magic by Larry Haas that is all about these types of effects. There is an excerpt here with a trick: http://www.theoryandartofmagic.com/freebies/GIft Magic Excerpt.pdf. Unfortunately, it appears out of print.

I do A Simple Gift (which is explained in the excerpt) with a different presentation (using ideas from Banachek's Psychological Subtleties) and a different handling (that was taught to me by Marc DeSousa). There is a great rose production by Jeff McBride in Gift Magic and some great ideas by Jeff as to how to sign cards to make them more memorable.

I also do Bob Borgia's Kissed which leaves the spectator with a Hershey's Kiss. This one appears to be out of stock.

One of my favorites (although typically poorly presented by magicians) is Kevin James's Floating Rose. I've seen Kevin perform this and nobody's performance of it even comes close. And, of course, it is out of stock.

Last, but not least is Jay Sankey's Carbon Paper.

I think it wast @ChristopherT who told me the story of when he was performing on a train and one of the spectators mentioned something about a trick deck. After a couple of effects, it was Christopher's stop, so he handed the deck to spectators and got off the train. Pure genius.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

As much as I hate not taking credit for something described as genius, I don't think that was me. I can't recall performing on a train. But I have given decks away before. Perhaps that was Farrukh? (Not sure how to spell his name) The other guy who met up with us in NYC, the one that wasn't Arvind.

When I started I tried to give stuff away all the time. Then I often found those things tossed in the garbage or just on the ground and realized they don't care about give aways unless it's linked to some emotional moment. So I stopped giving stuff out for a long time, and then recently I've found myself creating give-away moments more often again.

I currently have three routines where a gift is given out. One is my quarter bend, which I do very rarely these days. Another is a routine where I end up producing a star in their hands, which they keep. And the other is during my razor blade swallow.

For me it can be quite tricky to find a good way to make an object meaningful enough to warrant giving it as a gift, that also suits my character. Two of those three routines I only perform when doing sideshow, which is a different vibe to my solo shows.

 

[MagicBeard]

Any trick with a signed object could technically make for a good souvenir.

Topological effects such as linking cards, card warp, fused cards, etc. are good because the magic can be "seen" every time the objects are looked at.

Tricks which involve you righting down something that is personal to them (as part of a mentalism/mental magic presentation for instance), such as the name of someone significant, would make a good souvenir as well.

Ideally, the important thing is that there should be a good reason to keep the object other than simply "the magician gave it to me".

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Ideally, the important thing is that there should be a good reason to keep the object other than simply "the magician gave it to me".

This is what I mean by it being linked to an emotional moment. I've seen a lot of signed playing cards thrown away as soon as the magician wasn't looking.