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willgraham New user 29 Posts |
So I've been into card sleights and other visual magic for almost a year and on Saturday night I did my second "show" in front of family and friends (about 6 people). I wanted to share my entire routine and tell how it went. I am bored and at work right now so please forgive the length of the this post as it is pretty long. Any comments are welcome.
Opener I went with twisted sisters and it got a really great reaction. They were so loud in expressing their surprise to the red/blue backed queen transposition that I had to wait almost 10 seconds to show that the rest of the cards were jokers. I wanted to go with a simple, almost sleight-less trick to start off so I could gain some confidence, and I think this definitely worked. They wanted to see another card trick, and I hadn't actually planned to do the one I did because it still needed some more practice, but I was feeling bold so I decided to go for it. Steven Youell's "The Card Trick that Has No Explanation". I went through the whole routine explaining how each step of the trick demonstrated how fair and straightforward everything was. By the time I gave my sister the deck to deal, they were completely convinced that a) I had no clue what their card was, and b) the card was completely lost in the deck because they had shuffled it. At the point in the trick where my dad answered "Hearts", my sister (who was dealing) asked "should I spell HEARTS or HEART", to which her boyfriend replied "Spell Hearts. He said we spell out the exact answer!" (PERFECT little touch to completely convince everyone how fair it was, and I didn't even have to say a word!) When my sister finished spelling out the word "court", I made her pause and I pattered about how impossible it would be that the next card in the deck was the chosen card. MAN, when they turned that card over (and I was praying I had counted right) it was the best reaction I have ever gotten from a card trick (even better than my Extractor card-to-wallet, which I performed as my closer). Awesome, Awesome. I was feeling so confident that I went with Houchin's Coin in Soda for my third effect (an effect I had not yet performed "live"). This did not go seamlessly, but to my surprise it still got great reactions. At one point my sisters boyfriend said "I heard the coin!" (when he wasn't supposed to hear it). So I quickly went through the act of showing the coin was gone and the can was clean, and then I went over to him and shook the can saying "Yea you can hear it can't you!". The climax was a bit disappointing too because when I opened the can it shot out all over my blazer (awkward), and on top of that, it took about 1 minute to get the *** coin out of the can (a good subtle touch to show that the coin couldn't have gone easily through the top, but the audience clearly lost a little interest while I was trying to get the coin out. My mother was probably more concerned with me dripping soda on the floor). Next effect was Extreme Burn. I had performed a basic TT switch to them before, so my patter was "I figured out a better way to transform money. And I can do it with any number of bills at the same time" (I used 5). First switch went perfectly (I used his underground switch), and everyone was blown away. I should have just put the bills away because the reaction was so strong I didn't need to turn them back, however I did turn them back using the flutter switch and it was not perfect (the gimmick rested a little high on the lower pad of my left thumb instead of being flush with the other bills after the switch). I'm not sure if anyone saw anything (I asked my sister and her boyfriend after the show and they said they had no clue how it was done), but I was a little frustrated at myself because it's such an easy effect. At this point I went into my Fadeout routine (a very easy routine), that I screwed up ROYALY. I'm not going to go into detail for risk of exposure, but instead of having every card in the deck turn blank but theirs, I was left with TWO unblank cards in the deck. I made a huge mistake here because the minute I did the move which enables every card to turn blank minus the selected card, I KNEW I had screwed it up, but I continued with the effect because I was just HOPING that I hadn't in fact ruined it. I should have put that deck away before I turned it over to show the blank cards, and pulled out my Invisible deck. Instead I just admitted I had screwed up and apologized. Next effect was Branded (used with a ecrof cissalC), and it went very well and got really great reactions (hard to screw this one up). My mother told me to go put Ice on my finger. And finally, I closed with my version of the card to wallet (triple threat wallet) using the Extractor. Can't talk about this one too much, but I think it went really well. The only thing I noticed was that my sister's boyfriend was staring at my right hand when he shouldn't have been (He was at my very worst angle - a little to the left of me whereas everyone else was in front or to the right of me), even though my patter and misdirection was very good in my opinion (based on how I practiced it). I really couldn't tell if he saw something though because his reaction, as well as everyone else's, was very strong. I was still disappointed with my finale though because there was that doubt in my mind that the card was seen by one of my spectators before it ended up in the wallet. There is one thing that did take away from the overall climax of the effect. Rather than having my sister sign her name, I had her draw a picture on the card (to make sure it was something I never could have predicted). And she, being a high school senior, drew an immature picture making fun of me. So when the card was revealed, much of the attention was now on ME to see how I reacted to the picture. Very disappointing, but I learned a valuable lesson: DON'T have a young spectator draw a picture because that picture could draw (no pun intended) all of the attention away from the climax of the effect! If you have read this far - I am glad you found this interesting/entertaining. I am by no means skilled at putting together a full length routine yet as most of my practice in the last year has been devoted to sleights and misdirection. And even though my show was only half a dozen mainstream individual tricks (except one) in a row, it really left a great impression on my audience, and it left me with much more confidence (I am usually pretty nervous before I perform). Now that I look back on my performance, I actually think I performed too many strong effects in one show, and maybe that is why I didn't receive the reaction I wanted with my CTW. Before my next show, my goal is to have read Ortiz's Strong Magic. And who knows, with a little more practice and confidence I could be performing to strangers soon. Thanks for reading. |
M Sini Inner circle 1359 Posts |
Congrats! Sounds like you left your audience entertained.
Quote:
They were so loud in expressing their surprise to the red/blue backed queen transposition that I had to wait almost 10 seconds to show that the rest of the cards were jokers. I wanted to go with a simple, almost sleight-less trick to start off so I could gain some confidence, and I think this definitely worked. Good idea starting with something selfworking. Take as long of a pause as necessary until the final reveal. I love to watch their reactions to this one because they think the trick is over and then you get to hit them one last time. As for your sister, that's what sisters do. However, I'm sure she'll be one of your biggest fans in the end. I have to credit my younger sister with quite a few bookings. Keep up the good work! |
Rpascual Special user USA 667 Posts |
Sounds great! anyways I know what you mean when you get nervous before performing it would happen to me. I would get sweaty hands also:S it sucked! I worked out a routine if you want to see it:
insecure restoration (cameron francis) collectors any what it isn't cameron francis bedazzled peter duffie double jeopardy peter duffie elevation joshua jay wavestunner cameron francis card to pocket (invented by me) witness (forgot who created it) connected peter Harrison it's not really a great routine but with enough presentation it pacts really well. |
mackinley New user 76 Posts |
It sounds like the show went well, congrats!
Regarding your thought that you may have included too many strong effects, you may be onto something. However, I think the problem is more likely the order of the effects, rather than the effects themselves. I don't think it's possible to have too many strong effects, but it's key that each effect is stronger than the previous one. Mr. Ortiz discusses this in Strong Magic. You should make your goal to read Strong Magic 6 times before your next show. Actually, you should make it your goal to read it 6 times by wednesday, lol just kidding. But seriously, I can't recommend reading this book enough...it completely changed the way I look at magic(for the better). It may be the best book I've read on the subject. You'll be performing for strangers in no time. You obviously take pride in your magic, you're passionate about it, and are willing to put the time, energy and thought required into putting together a good show. These are all the things you need to be successful...keep it up! |
zaki_rafih99 Regular user 164 Posts |
A agree with mackinley. your presentation, based on your wording, sounded pretty good. good job! you should just for next time put the tricks in a different order that leaves the big applause for the end. and who knows, maybe you'll find a way to make those "less entertaining" tricks more entertaining. maybe instead of saying that you messed up that trick where their card and one other card appaeared as the only cards with faces, you could have covered it with a joke "oh, the card I thought of turned up too. ho ho magic!" hahah.. or whatever you think
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Steven Youell V.I.P. 3866 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-01-19 11:01, willgraham wrote: Thank you for using the material. It makes me feel good that other people are using it and tonight (which hasn't been a good night) I really, really needed to read this. Again, thank you for posting this and the rest of your performance. SEY |
salmononius2 New user 97 Posts |
Great Job!
You said you thought about putting away Extreme Burn after the first change, and I personally prefer that way of performing it. I believe that it lessens the impact to turn it back into the lower bill. When I perform the bill switches (using Hundy 500, not Extreme Burn). I leave it as the higher bill when I end the trick. You probably figured this out by now, but when you open the soda for Coin In Soda, hold the soda away from you ( Although it probably isn't a good idea to perform this indoors to begin with ). I actually Lol'd when you wrote your mothers reaction to Branded . Looks like you did a great job! |
willgraham New user 29 Posts |
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
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