Need help ASAP!!

[mehar]

Hey guys!

I need help with something very important.

A fundraiser gig is tomorrow at around 7:00 tomorrow (4:00 EST), and I need to know if this sounds like a fine routine. I purposely made it relatively short, I need to perform for multiple tables etc.


- Opening
- ACR
- Here Then There
- Two Card Monte
- Twins trick (4 cards, yet seems to be 8 using the elmsley count etc)
- Mindreading -- AKA a force
- Phoenix Effect
- Gemini Count
- Coins Across

My main question was the order of my routine. I only know that one coin trick (coins across). Should I make that my opener and Phoenix Effect my closer? Or have Two Card Monte as my closer?

Thanks you guys!

Mehar

 

[Slicke]

2 card monte will be good as a closer too .. i would suggest to do some card effects opening with the ACR (just involve your spec. in it , avoid too much repetition and try to have a good ending to the effect) , then coin across ... some rubber band effect will also be good at this point and end with the rest of your card effects ...

 

[joshrobarts]

that doesn't sound short at all. if anything its too much.

 

[mehar]

hmm... 2 card monte is a pretty good trick, i might use it as my closer then. My ACR is straight out of (he who should not be named) Brad Christains DVD. I dnno any rubber band effects.

 

[mehar]

that doesn't sound short at all. if anything its too much.

I can't figure out how to shorten it, I put out my best tricks in that list, which ones do you think I can cut off?

 

[notsoltd]

From the words of Jay Sankey, and I quote, "Within the first 5 seconds of approaching a table, there should be magic!"

Keep that in mind!

 

[praetoritevong]

I can't figure out how to shorten it, I put out my best tricks in that list, which ones do you think I can cut off?

Ok, a few things.

a) I agree, it's not short at all, it's too long. From what I understand, you're performing walkaround, yes? How many people will be there, how many tables?

What I would recommend you do is take your tricks and turn them into TWO routines of three to four effects each. Without knowing details of the event though I can't recommend a time limit, but I'd say maybe give yourself five minutes.

b) As far as routining goes, it's honestly far too complex of a thing to give you a short answer on. You know your routine. You're the one performing here. With respect, a professional performer should not be in this state. What I would recommend you do is take a deep break, list out on paper the tricks you want, divide them into two, and figure out, logically, what should go where.

Think about what you want your opener to accomplish. Put it there. Think about what you think is strongest. Put it there. Think about the routine - how do you want the pacing to go? My opener is quick but a little bit on the wordy side. That's fine for me, because I'm comfortable talking to people for an hour if I needed to. But because of that, my second trick is much more upbeat, the tempo is quicker, and it's a multi-phase effect. These are the things you should be thinking about.

None of us here know you. You're the only one who can really say what should go where.

From the words of Jay Sankey, and I quote, "Within the first 5 seconds of approaching a table, there should be magic!"

Keep that in mind!

Also, for the record, cannot disagree more. I think that's horrible advice (sorry, RK - no reflection on you). With respect to Mr. Sankey, who without a doubt knows more than I do, but in my honest opinion, horrible advice. There are many, but just one, is this: Doing so ignores any semblance of humility, respect and manners. What he essentially advocates is walking up to people and shoving magic in their face. That is the practical result of walking up to a table and immediately starting on an act. No chance to refuse. No chance to connect. It is essentially bullying. Not magic.

 

[mehar]

Ok, a few things.

a) I agree, it's not short at all, it's too long. From what I understand, you're performing walkaround, yes? How many people will be there, how many tables?

What I would recommend you do is take your tricks and turn them into TWO routines of three to four effects each. Without knowing details of the event though I can't recommend a time limit, but I'd say maybe give yourself five minutes.

b) As far as routining goes, it's honestly far too complex of a thing to give you a short answer on. You know your routine. You're the one performing here. With respect, a professional performer should not be in this state. What I would recommend you do is take a deep break, list out on paper the tricks you want, divide them into two, and figure out, logically, what should go where.

Think about what you want your opener to accomplish. Put it there. Think about what you think is strongest. Put it there. Think about the routine - how do you want the pacing to go? My opener is quick but a little bit on the wordy side. That's fine for me, because I'm comfortable talking to people for an hour if I needed to. But because of that, my second trick is much more upbeat, the tempo is quicker, and it's a multi-phase effect. These are the things you should be thinking about.

None of us here know you. You're the only one who can really say what should go where.



Also, for the record, cannot disagree more. I think that's horrible advice. With respect to Mr. Sankey, who without a doubt knows more than I do, but in my honest opinion, horrible advice.

The details of the event are as follows:

an hour of magic

15 tables (x person said I do NOT have to show them all magic)

8 people per table

working off of tips

small area

What do you mean by two routines?



I want my routine to go as follows:

- A brief introduction explaining who I am and what I will be doing

- Gemini Count (Continue with a decent, medium paced trick)

- Continue to a fast upbeat, not the best, but great trick (ACR)

- Continue to a strong effect (Here Then There)

- Hit them with an even HARDER trick with a similar effect (Two Card Monte)

- Elmsley count trick -- go wordy and a bit faster

- Mindreading (force) -- throw in a bit of mentalism, if you want to even call it that, and go even faster

- Phoenix Effect -- Raise the intensity with the help of flash paper and switching signed cards around

- Coins Across -- A very strong, up-beat, coin routine

- Closer -- telling them how I am not working for any money.. etc except for tips etc... say thanks and move on.

 

[notsoltd]

Well in the DVD he suggested walking up and "picking up a half dollar off the ground" and asking if it is anybodies and when the say no proceed to change it into a copper coin then a chinese coin. It was something along those lines, very quick, and then he introduces himself and continues with the routine

 

[RDChopper]

Also, for the record, cannot disagree more. I think that's horrible advice (sorry, RK - no reflection on you). With respect to Mr. Sankey, who without a doubt knows more than I do, but in my honest opinion, horrible advice. There are many, but just one, is this: Doing so ignores any semblance of humility, respect and manners. What he essentially advocates is walking up to people and shoving magic in their face. That is the practical result of walking up to a table and immediately starting on an act. No chance to refuse. No chance to connect. It is essentially bullying. Not magic.

+1 to the above statement.

Besides not mentioning the lack of rapport that you are not going to get if you approach this way, also take in mind that not all magicians are alike and what could work for Jay Sankey, may not work for the rest of us.

But yeah, I completely agree with prae's point.

 

[praetoritevong]

The details of the event are as follows:

an hour of magic

15 tables (x person said I do NOT have to show them all magic)

8 people per table

working off of tips

small area

What do you mean by two routines?



I want my routine to go as follows:

- A brief introduction explaining who I am and what I will be doing

- Gemini Count (Continue with a decent, medium paced trick)

- Continue to a fast upbeat, not the best, but great trick (ACR)

- Continue to a strong effect (Here Then There)

- Hit them with an even HARDER trick with a similar effect (Two Card Monte)

- Elmsley count trick -- go wordy and a bit faster

- Mindreading (force) -- throw in a bit of mentalism, if you want to even call it that, and go even faster

- Phoenix Effect -- Raise the intensity with the help of flash paper and switching signed cards around

- Coins Across -- A very strong, up-beat, coin routine

- Closer -- telling them how I am not working for any money.. etc except for tips etc... say thanks and move on.

Yep, far too long for 15 tables and only an hour of performance.

Let's say you theoretically performed for all tables. That's 4 minutes per table. You can fit maybe two effects into that.

Let's say you theoretically only performed for half the tables (not sure this is a great idea). That's still only 8 minutes per table. If you're doing all those tricks in one routine, you're doing more than a trick a minute. Not possible to do well without compromising something. I'm wary of saying something's not possible, but I honestly don't think you can pull that off. You'd be rushing, which is an even worse thing to do. If you're rushing tricks, then you're not taking the time to develop rapport with them, but are instead focussed on rolling off your tricks.

Also, just because they mentioned you don't need to get to everyone - they will still expect you to get to a fair number of people. I think that if you've gotten to less than half of the people in the room minimum, I'd probably consider that unacceptable. It's your job to get to people - doing your job efficiently is part of being a professional performer.

What you need is two shorter routines, as I mentioned before. What I mean by that is to split your current routine into two separate routines, and making sure each routine has a separate trick list. That means you'll be performing the same effects, but in two separate routines that are half the length of the current one.

Perform routine A for the first table. Move onto the adjacent table and perform routine B. Then go to the third table and perform routine A, etc.

 

[RickEverhart]

I am not going to rehash everything but my advice is exactly like Prae's. You need to follow his recommendations. That is how i perform my strolling as well when I do wedding receptions, corporate picnics, etc.

Two routines of 3 or 4 effects.

 

[Sam Hindrichs]

The details of the event are as follows:

an hour of magic

15 tables (x person said I do NOT have to show them all magic)

8 people per table

working off of tips

small area

What do you mean by two routines?



I want my routine to go as follows:

- A brief introduction explaining who I am and what I will be doing

- Gemini Count (Continue with a decent, medium paced trick)

- Continue to a fast upbeat, not the best, but great trick (ACR)

- Continue to a strong effect (Here Then There)

- Hit them with an even HARDER trick with a similar effect (Two Card Monte)

- Elmsley count trick -- go wordy and a bit faster

- Mindreading (force) -- throw in a bit of mentalism, if you want to even call it that, and go even faster

- Phoenix Effect -- Raise the intensity with the help of flash paper and switching signed cards around

- Coins Across -- A very strong, up-beat, coin routine

- Closer -- telling them how I am not working for any money.. etc except for tips etc... say thanks and move on.

Personally in your introduction I would tell them that you are not being paid and are performing for tips. That way its out in the open from the start.

I am all for splitting this up into 2 routines. As far as the first routine goes, I would open with the mind reading force and introduction of a prediction card under your card box on the table but save the reveal for your closer, then move onto the Transpo (here then there), next do a 4 step ACR ending with card 2 mouth, then 2 card monte and close with the reveal of the prediction on the table. Before you leave the table reinforce that you are performing for tips.

Thats the way I would do the routine if it was me. I would say you probably have about 5-10 minutes of material in the routine I wrote above. Remember you don't have to rush through things. If you perform all the material at each table that you are wanting to perform you are going to end up standing at each table for 20 minutes and rushing to get done in that amount of time. Also, it is better to perform for 5 minutes and leave the table wanting more than it is to perform for over 20 minutes and boring the table by the end of the routine.

 

[Craig Browning]

Hey guys!

I need help with something very important.

A fundraiser gig is tomorrow at around 7:00 tomorrow (4:00 EST), and I need to know if this sounds like a fine routine. I purposely made it relatively short, I need to perform for multiple tables etc.


- Opening
- ACR
- Here Then There
- Two Card Monte
- Twins trick (4 cards, yet seems to be 8 using the elmsley count etc)
- Mindreading -- AKA a force
- Phoenix Effect
- Gemini Count
- Coins Across

My main question was the order of my routine. I only know that one coin trick (coins across). Should I make that my opener and Phoenix Effect my closer? Or have Two Card Monte as my closer?

Thanks you guys!

Mehar

Ok, here comes my regular lecture/butt chewing on this topic...

WHY would you accept a gig when you're not prepared?

Secondly, the sort of thing you're asking about can't really be answered in all honesty, through an on-line chat. People need to see you work so they know which routine is your personal best, etc. It's not the effects, its YOU and your ability to present them; stop thinking otherwise and you'll go much further...
...regardless, this is what local IBM/SAM type groups are about and one of the functions they are to fulfill... helping young people round out and actually create a genuine ACT vs. a collection of tricks (there's a huge difference).

I'd strongly encourage you (anyone) to think ahead when it comes to possible gigs, and create a soild 10 minute stage/platform routine or two and do the same with your close-up. Don't rely exclusively on cards, contrary to the magician's belief, not everyone likes card tricks... in fact, most do not, so grow a pair and learn how to do more with alternative things.

I would suggest you visit Steven's Magic and check out their video material (the older stuff). They offer some excellent material on improvisation and bar magic that will take you a long way in the real world.

 

[houchini]

Yep, I aggree with what's been said : 3 tricks per table, no more if you want to entertain as many people as possible in one hour (which is, as you'll see, very whort in fact).

On my first paid gig I had a set of 5 tricks with a "mentalist" approach :
- Geller (from 100 $ miracles),
- mentalist gag (you write "no" on a piece of paper, and ask them to honnestly tell you if they can feel what is written. Their answer is no. Perfect match. I used this as an intro to the following mind reading trick to see if there's a connection between the spec and me)
- challenge mind reading (osterlind)
- in a flash
- invisible deck (with a prediction premise).

...needless to say, I only did 3 tables out of 8 within the time I had ! For my other gigs I removed in a flash (it didn't really fit in here, at least with the patter I used) and I paced differently the whole routine, and it went much better.

What I say here is : keep it short, so that you don't miss the opportunity to connect with your audience (a routine that takes you 1 minute to perform in front of a mirror might take 2 minutes in front of real people). and don't expect to be the best magician out there on your first try, of course you'll make mistakes, but this is an opportunity to have a critical look on your work and to eventually get better : which tricks worked best ? Which didn't ? Why ? And how can you adapt your routine to make it stronger, more efficient, more fluent ?

 

[mehar]

thanks you guys for all of your help! I will split my routine up into two routines 4 minutes each.