Talent Show Magic

[CadenK1]

Hi, so, my school is doing a talent show, and auditions are Monday, December 6th. Each act is supposed to be 3 minutes, and I felt rushed when I did it last year. I don't want to feel rushed this year, and now I'm looking for any suggestions that would allow me to put on a good performance and not be rushed with a trick or two that translates well on stage. Last year, I did a teleporting card routine, but it didn't seem to translate well, especially since the audience had no way of affirming the card was the same, considering how small it looked from the back of the audience, and the glare of stage lights. I also want to be able to convey some sort of message behind my performance, which I had scripted out last year, but had to scrap due to the time limit. Please, if anyone has any ideas for me to have a nice, smooth, message-conveying, and a jaw dropping performance, it would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Antonio Diavolo]

It's sort of hard to give recommendations based on the information you've provided here. We don't really have a sense of your skill level/experience and I'm not sure what message you'd like to convey with your act. Are you most experienced with cards? Or would you be willing to do something else? How much would you be willing to spend for your act, if anything? What was the act you did last year?

I don't have much experience in stage magic so I wouldn't really be able to help much anyway haha but @RealityOne might have some ideas for you.

Good luck!

 

[CadenK1]

It's sort of hard to give recommendations based on the information you've provided here. We don't really have a sense of your skill level/experience and I'm not sure what message you'd like to convey with your act. Are you most experienced with cards? Or would you be willing to do something else? How much would you be willing to spend for your act, if anything? What was the act you did last year?

I don't have much experience in stage magic so I wouldn't really be able to help much anyway haha but @RealityOne might have some ideas for you.

Good luck!

I know more card tricks than anything, but I do have a gimmick or two up my sleeve for stage magic. I would be ok spending anything less than 5o bucks, assuming I can get it before Dec. 6th, with Thanksgiving coming up. My act from last year, as afore-mentioned, a teleporting card trick, where a crew-hand volunteered to pick a card, and I teleport his card to my sock. It seemed to work well, however, to start the show, I used the rabbit out of a hat concept to produce a deck of cards, lighter, and flash paper, which may have been the ultimate cause to my having felt rushed, as well as the audience not being able to actually see the card, and for those close enough to the stage, not being able to see it with a glare from the stage lights. The message I wanted to convey, was along the lines of how believing isn't always seeing, and using a series of quick, 5 second magic tricks/slights to demonstrate this.

 

[RealityOne]

What resources (books, DVDs, Etc.) do you have?

Your best bet is to get a subscription to Genii magazine, and look at the "Conjuring" columns from Jim Steinmeyer. There is a searchable index here: http://genii.somee.com. Type in Steinmeyer in the Person blank and all of his columns come up. There are enough of them that I suspect you could find one that fits your style.

There is some really great stage magic routines in Handsome Jack. Other than the comments by John Lovick, the book is amazing. John's a great guy, but his jealousy of Handsome Jack is just a little too much to bear. The magic routines are all very Handsome and very Jack. You could probably do very well with any of the routines (but not as well as Handsome Jack... but who can?).

 

[CadenK1]

What resources (books, DVDs, Etc.) do you have?

Your best bet is to get a subscription to Genii magazine, and look at the "Conjuring" columns from Jim Steinmeyer. There is a searchable index here: http://genii.somee.com. Type in Steinmeyer in the Person blank and all of his columns come up. There are enough of them that I suspect you could find one that fits your style.

There is some really great stage magic routines in Handsome Jack. Other than the comments by John Lovick, the book is amazing. John's a great guy, but his jealousy of Handsome Jack is just a little too much to bear. The magic routines are all very Handsome and very Jack. You could probably do very well with any of the
(but not as well as Jack... but who can?).

Thank you. I will definitely look into that. Also, for anyone else following up on this thread, please feel free to add in your own two cents, or advice or anything. I will take as many suggestions and as much advice for this as I possibly can.

 

[obrienmagic]

Anything easy using props can work as well. You may even pop into your local magic shop and ask for some advice. The nice thing about a brick and mortar is that you can see the magic and feel the props (usually) before you buy it. This will give you time to practice as well. Dec 6 is like 2 weeks away which isn’t much time to put something together. However I’d recommend using some large props so everyone can see.

One that usually gets a solid reaction is the one where you make the handkerchief vanish into an egg. You then show step by step how it works but then after vanishing the handkerchief you crack the egg open and it is a real egg. This one will easily fill 3 minutes and gets a good reaction every time. Things like this are what you want to look out for. Avoid card tricks if possible.

 

[Gustav Dubh]

How about making an ID from jumbo-cards? Easy to do and with the right presentation you can make it as long as you want. Or get a good rope-trick like Pop Haydn's Mongolian pop-knot or the professor's nightmare, that is a sure winner too.