First trick you do?

[Kirby]

You're first effect should be quick and involve the spectator. A transposition is always good.

 

[coastaldude]

Biddle or Panic, Both are quick and nice but Panic hits very hard so everything should be just as hard hitting.

 

[Jack Webster]

haunted pack if I have loops

 

[The Wordsmith]

Haunted deck, even if I do not have loops! Yeah get Derren Brown's "The Devil's Picturebook" I can not recommend it enough. Yes I know that was blatant name dropping.

 

[jok3r]

here then there, or biddle.

easy to do, hard hitting

 

[spades]

I would honestly try to steer clear of using cards for the first effect and try to do something more organic.

Earlier in my involvement with the craft, I would always perform card magic for people. It always felt like the most natural thing to do and it seemed to have universal appeal. After a while, I would always inevitably get the question, "So, do you do anything else besides cards?" After a while, I finally started to understand that I was offering people an unbalanced experience. I feel that if all you perform is card magic, people subconsciously feel you're not really a magician, but someone who just knows how to do really good card tricks. You're just a glorified Uncle Bob who knows how to handle a deck of cards. That's it. You become an actual magician once you diversify your repertoire and can perform miracles with anything. After reading books like Strong Magic and Absolute Magic, I saw that my assumptions had credible backing.

I'm suprised no-one has commented on this. It is a very valid point. I have just started expanding beyond card magic (with flow and powerword:fall, both great effects) and though I have yet to perform non-card magic I think there is a lot of potential. Without meaning to de-mean card magic; I love it, but I think that a 'different type of effect' could be more powerful and personal. Could be. Sometimes people also put things down to 'sleight of hand' and you can break these barriers. Although with cards they are classic and part of the stereotype and so it is easy to involve people and start performing. Having said that I will probably still be performing only cards for a while, I want to really find effects that suit me and use those.
Anyway, just throwing out thoughts, I'll stop rambling now.
-S♠

 

[Bizzaro]

Possibly an inversion effect. It really depends on my mood and the person. For a guy I would do something else. For a girl, prolly card in hand.

 

[The Wordsmith]

"Sometimes people also put things down to 'sleight of hand"
I agree with that whole post. I have had quite a lot of spectators roll their eyes and say 'well it's all sleight of hand isn't it?' I think magic without cards has the potential to be so much more powerful. I am getting more and more into effects like Control, Thread, and Saw.

 

[thecavschosenone]

I normally do a biddle-type effect, or some sort of transposition into their hand. But Jroberts gave me an idea. I'm working on a spellbound effect with a fast change from a half dollar to a bronze coin. Then you slow down the change. Its quite visual. But anyways, you lead into a vanish, of then coin, then a re-production, then a coin-to-deck transposition. Then from there I'd go into some hard-hitting visual card material. I like it. It has a lot of aspects in it: Color changes, productions, vanishes, etc.