theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

Camp Performance

I

ibmagic13

Jun 22, 2009
31
0
sarnia Ont. Canada
Hey, everyone, I'm going to be performing at a teen summer camp during the summer of 2010. I need about 5 good tricks (one for each night). They will need to be visual and relatively easily seen since it will be performed at a campfire. Although their will we lights it will be darker than usual. I am sort of blanking on ideas. I was thinking pressure, sword swallow, flow, psycho silverware and maybe a watch steal. Although I will probably only use a few of these. So if you have any ideas it would be appreciated. This is a kids camp however so nothing inappropriate or rude please.
Thanks
 
You could always do things with your surroundings... Like leaf or Ladybug by Paul Harris.

I wouldnt do cards... Just keep it fresh and organic. Perhaps flow and some other things like it.
 
I think it sounded like it was going to be very dark. When I think "campfire" most people aren't going to be able to see what is happening with a leaf or lady bug.

Do you have some props like: change bag, silks, rope, needle through balloon, dove pan, stratosphere, anything like these or are you mainly the street style? Just curious.
 
What ages are the kids? How long have you been doing magic? How old are you (general range - under 16, between 16 to 20, over 20)? What type of magic do you normally do? What are your favorite effects? All that really needs to be taken into consideration before giving you advice.
 
RealityOne said:
What ages are the kids? How long have you been doing magic? How old are you (general range - under 16, between 16 to 20, over 20)? What type of magic do you normally do? What are your favorite effects? All that really needs to be taken into consideration before giving you advice.
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Spoken like a someone who knows his stuff
 
Thanks for the ideas. It is not to dark considerring there are flood lights at the campfire. The kids are about12 years of age. I am in my mid teens and have been performing for six years. So I can present a trick and not only rely on some gimmick. I am quite comfortable performing stage tricks even though I do not own that many props. I was thinking a "this this and that" routine using giant cards or something. Again hope this info helped and thanks for your ideas.
 
The only problem that I can see is that most of those effects play very small. Your best bet would be do a bit more stand up magic. So ropes are good whereas something like flow or pressure may not register as much as you may hope.
 
Slydini's "Paper balls over the head" plays extremely well in almost any environment for almost any age group, assuming you can control your crowd.
 
Thanks for the great advice. D ice r has a good point. I will take this into account. And the paper toss trick by slydini is a great idea. Since this is a young crowd I wouldn't put it past someone to yell out during the trick. These ideas are great. Keep them comming please. Thanks for your help and time.
 
If you are planing doing paper balls over the head I would recommend framing it as Copperfield did. It seems to me that by using his presentation would help get the audience as a whole on your side for the effect. Plus you can always throw the paper into the fire to end clean.
 
AlfieWhattamMagic said:
You could always do things with your surroundings... Like leaf or Ladybug by Paul Harris.

I wouldnt do cards... Just keep it fresh and organic. Perhaps flow and some other things like it.
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Lady bug would be too hard to see in minimal light. It's pretty hard to see under normal conditions.

If you perform in a sport coat or suit coat (and I don't see why you shouldn't) then make sure it has an inner pocket, or use a brief case. You'll want either of those to ditch cards into. Then perform Stan, Kate, and Edith by Channing Polleck. It'll kill.

Since you have a campfire, I'd focus on story based magic. Perhaps some geek magic with some horror story elements mixed in.

Talk about a psyco that used to live in the woods near there. How he'd murder people with a machete. Bring one out and then do a card stab with it. Etc.

Spoon Bending would probably play well too.

Or do something like a bill levitation using an ITR (Invisible thread reel)
 
In accordance with what Alfie said,

You can always just perform a very simplistic torn & restored Leaf, albeit with quite a big leaf. Just handle it like a torn & restored newspaper of some sorts. It will create a lot of talk afterwards, especially if you pluck a live leaf from a nearby tree.
 
ibmagic13 said:
Thanks for the ideas. It is not to dark considering there are flood lights at the campfire. The kids are about 12 years of age. I am in my mid teens and have been performing for six years. So I can present a trick and not only rely on some gimmick. I am quite comfortable performing stage tricks even though I do not own that many props. I was thinking a "this this and that" routine using giant cards or something. Again hope this info helped and thanks for your ideas.
Click to expand...

I think a rope routine would work well. There is a great one by Roberto Giobbi in the November 2009 Genii magazine called the Houdini Rope Trick. Its beauty is that you are pretending to teach how Houdini did a rope trick but end up frying the audience because you obviously aren't using the method you are explaining. You can pick up a copy of that magazine at MJM for around $6. Alternatively, check out Richard Sander's Fiber Optics.

Linking Rings are a great effect for this age group because they so want to figure it out and the spectator you select to help you is just unable to put the rings together or, once you put them together, is unable to take them apart. Present it as if you are teaching one of the campers how it is done. I usually follow this with an Invisible Deck routine where the volunteer (who's ego is a little bruised from not being able to put the rings together) uses their mental powers to select a different person (by picking, throwing a Frisbee or a ball, etc) to choose the color, suite and value of a card that I've reversed in the deck.

Also, think mentalism. A campfire just screams for telling stories and legends. A touch of mentalism can make the stories seem more real. Check out Anneman's Practical Mental Magic - there is a whole section on "Dead or Alive" effects. I particularly like More Living than Dead and The Ghost Hand (use baseball hats and napkins). With those effects, do them slowly and build the effect by using a story. You should shoot for the effect to take more than five minutes. Also, check out The Gypsy Mindreader and instructions on using a Center Tear in Mark Wilson's Complete Course. You could come up with an amazing effect just using the center tear (having a campfire is perfect for using a center tear).

To the extent you do other effects, put them into routines. A short two minute effect is not nearly impressive as multiple effects tied together with common patter into a routine.
 
Thanks for the idea of storytelling William Draven this will be worked in. This is however a story about a chainsaw murderer right before bedtime wouldn't exactly help me keep my job. Thanks for all the great resources RealityOne. I am greatly appreciative of the time spent on these responses they are helping a ton. By the way. D ICE R I love the fire idea and using Copperfields intelligence crowd control method. Again thanks allot everyone.
 
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