illusions that can be performed (and viewed by everyone) for a crowd of about 100 people, as some of the people sit too far back to see the face of a card or a coin, chop cup scale or larger is ideal. Thanks.
Anyone know a good illusion to perform to large crowds?
- Thread starter SirBillTheAwesome
- Start date
This is a problem I am facing currently with bigger stage shows where I can not broadcast a live stream feed to screens so the whole audience can see.
You can't go wrong with the classic straight jacket escape (or any sort of escapes for that matter). Granted I'm a little bias since lately I've been developing myself as more of an escape artist but there is so much material you can milk for doing escapology. Escapes will definitely get you to entertain 100+ people.
Other illusions I have been looking at are more on the expensive side that I have been looking to get from a magic shop in my state. They can range anywhere from $1,000-$10,000. If you are on a budget but want to make big illusions at a cheap price, check out any of the material that Andrew Mayne puts out. It's fairly cheap but still plays pretty big. Also Scott Alexander has wonderful material that can entertain big groups of people as well.
You can't go wrong with the classic straight jacket escape (or any sort of escapes for that matter). Granted I'm a little bias since lately I've been developing myself as more of an escape artist but there is so much material you can milk for doing escapology. Escapes will definitely get you to entertain 100+ people.
Other illusions I have been looking at are more on the expensive side that I have been looking to get from a magic shop in my state. They can range anywhere from $1,000-$10,000. If you are on a budget but want to make big illusions at a cheap price, check out any of the material that Andrew Mayne puts out. It's fairly cheap but still plays pretty big. Also Scott Alexander has wonderful material that can entertain big groups of people as well.
"Dresscode" is a great crowd pleaser that you can get here on T11. There are also some really interesting stage illusions in Tarbell, some sections are even devoted entirely to low cost stage effects. Some of the presentations haven't aged so well, but if you revamp them a bit they can be absolute killers.
Find out what you want to achieve, find out how it can be accomplished, and build it yourself. There is no easy answers for gratifying 100 spectators. It could end up taking a few months, but you can do it.
Book
Book
Check out Bill Abbott's "Celebrity Smart Ass"! You can buy it or you can do what I did and just do the routine with another method. I performed it at my variety show and it killed! It's a deck of cards and a folder that fills up a theater with hundreds of people.
http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S12952
http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S12952
Illusions generally refer to stage magic illusions like Sawing a Woman in Half, Spiker, ZigZag Girl, Sword Basket, etc. I'm not sure if you are using it in that context or as a synonym for a magic trick. If you are looking for low cost illusions, Andrew Mayne is the guy. Also, there are a number of inexpensive illusions that can be made with foam board in Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. If you have a Genii subscription, there are a number of Osborne illusions (he had a column through around 2009). Also, there are a lot of illusions and parlor effects in Jim Steinmeyer's Conjuring column in Genii. If you are able to build you own, check out Jim Osborne's plans at: http://hamiltonholtinc.stores.yahoo.net/plans1.html
All that aside, one hundred people is not a lot of people and you don't need large scale illusions to entertain that size crowd. That essentially is 10 rows of 10 people. Parlor effects like linking rings, sponge balls, egg bag, rope tricks, etc. will work fine. You could do a whole show from Mark Wilson's Complete Course. The Tarbell series also is a great resource for this.