BUMPING THIS THERAD

I want more info on silent routines. If you've read my "Pacing yourself at a sweet 16 party" in the table hopping section you'll see I was introduced to a club scene seemingly ill-prepared .. none-the-less had a champion of a night.

But now I feel half deaf. This thread has offered many good ideas:

- moving signatures on card (no talking though. Loud music. How do you do this without talking?)
- Coin Vanishes
- Ring work
- Ropes
- Crazy Man's handcuffs and other elastic stuff
- D-Lites
- Balls and silk
- Lit matches in to TT
- Other TT stuff.

I say we keep the list going.

No talking. No way you could be heard. Let's talk about non verbal communication and how to approach when you cannot be heard.

Hello again everyone its been about 2 years so I am back posting again to my brothers of the night haha!

I was performing at 2 night clubs a few months ago and just wanted to report a bit on how it went. The first club I just did card magic: ACR, colour changes. And I did a bit of a story routine involving the connection/relationship between 2 people. Where 1 spectator chooses a card, the card is lost in the deck, and then the 2nd spectator finds the 1st spectators card.

A bit of a longer routine, but it went down well!

I also did Houchines french kiss routine, and as long as you don't act like a seedy guy and build proper rapport you can basically get away with almost anything in a club haha!

The 2nd club I performed at, I mixed in a bit of palm reading, others did say it was a tough environment for such a routine but I think I did rather well!

One blonde lady I did a reading for was so touched that she almost cried and gave me a hug. It was rather emotional but a beautiful moment and it all happened in a night club haha!

Anyhow hope you guys enjoyed my sharing and I wish you all the best in your night club adventures!

kindly,
Jordan

Performed in a night club last night. Not as a paid magician, but as a fellow party goer. I knew I would be asked to do magic, so brought a few of my usuals

In the quieter area, I did coin stuff. The one coin routine got the usual great reaction and a jumbo coin can be seen in poor lighting. Coins across works well. I avoided any sort of colour changing coin stuff though, as the visibility would not be as good.

Chicago opener worked in one area, but couldn't be seen in other areas, so I avoided most card routines. I think card to pocket and ambitious card would work best when the visibility of the card is poor. An alternative to signing may be to use a distinctive card (ace of spades) for all the phases and have them ensure there is only one before. Not as strong, but practical.


But hands down what got me the best reaction was using my D'lites!
There was a girl who straight after me doing it, said I must have "things on my thumbs". So I let her feel both hands completely empty. Then I went straight back into producing lights! She absolutely freaked!
Don't overlook these as being over-exposed - there is nothing more visible in a night club than producing light!

Hello, looks like this thread just might be getting back to life again!
I just started a pretty cushy gig working a club in Boston MA. They want it to feel like a speak easy kinda. They have a front "library" room where the door is a bookcase, this is where I do most of my magic. They also have jugglers (which I do a little bit of as well) block heads burlesque (spelling?) dancers.... LP's ect....

What I've done the past 2 nights I worked 2 weeks apart

-Kevin James perrier with a twist (so visual) doesn't even need words- Coin in coin out bottle appearing disappearing, pens disappearing.. Its got it all!

-Greg Wilsons blank deck routine- If they are still into it at the end, I actually do an Omni deck at the end of the blank deck and say oops I meant to make that disappear, then I use a topit for a quick vanish.

-Ambitious Card, end with folded card in mouth

-Regeneration by Blake Voigt... KILLS! No matter what, people see that and they are floored.

-I also do a light up dancing cane, in one of the girls dance numbers, called circus, its a lot of fun and a sweet thing to get people to know I am the magician and after they see me do that they will usually come up to me on their own and I don't have to do the whole, hey have you ever been to stage before? Im mark and I do magic, blah blah blah

I do other things as well when the situation calls for them, heres my beef tho... I am new to this. It can be super hit or miss with the customers... some are like HECK YEAH MAGIC!!!! Others are like mmmm come back after a few drinks. And some flat out hate magic and kind of get the other people around them to hate as well (group mentality) no one wants to say they like it if they are in danger of being made fun of... I don't know just the thing that bothers me at the club.

Finally I found a thread I was looking for. For me the main question is ”what effects are good for silent routines”?

I have a few, ultracinese, crazy mans handcuffs, but I’d like to learn more. Also I have few routines where I need to yell over the music: ”WHAT’S YOUR NAME”? And then I write it on blank card so I can perform ambitious card routine with JOL wallet.

So… help needed, magician helping magicians, right? Do you have recommendations for routines which are visual enough to follow after several drinks and which are ideal for performig almost silent, because of loud music in background?

- Maybe some packet tricks with visual ending?
- Maybe pick a card tricks without speaking? Just gesturing ”take one” and then some controlling and shuffling with fancy reveal.
- Quick and straight to point approach would be perfect.
- Must be angle safe and it would be a huge plus if can be performed very close up or in hands of spectator.
- Most of mentalism requires some asking and talking and more guidance, so that’s not what I’m looking for.

I’ve also performed invisible deck, because it’s very straight forward, but sometimes it can be difficult to ask suit and value in loud party.

Please, if you have some ideas for routines which requires minimal talk, it could be perfect. Like ring and string, perhaps professors nightmare or other rope tricks?

Arepsi

Tbh, I would say that whilst there are tricks that can be performed under the circumstances of very very loud music (card to pocket, classic force repeated, colour changes, signature transpo, omnideck, card to mouth, torn and restored etc etc) I would think more about positioning within the venue itself. Perhaps focusing your attention on the smoking area or the queue? just because a) these are the areas where people often experience a lull in their night in general b) there tends not to be other forms of entertainment in these areas (thats speculative but in my experience this has been the case) and c) normally people go a club expecting to dance to loud music so where the music is heard loudly you tend to find dancefloors and the main bar areas, which are no go areas for me (dont want to disrupt what the DJ is doing with the crowd on the dancefloor and I do not want to slow down the transaction period at the bar).

So yes, I 100% agree that no matter what else, when you are performing for drunk people, the more visual the tricks the better. Just adding my 2 cents to what could ease your need for purely visual tricks. One effect that I have found has been going down really really well is a simple cigarette through coin effect... I do it super nonchalantly as an encore effect with a tipped coin.

The advice in this thread is a good few years old now however most of it still holds true (especially Michael Bakers words), thanks for reviving it!

Sam

Hey guys,

I am playing devils advocate here haha, and though I understand that visual effects are much easier and better to perfrom in noisy clubs, I have had more ideas to perform mentalism (and readings) in night clubs.

Do you think that if club managers gave me a small space (that was relatively more quiet) and away from the noisy dance floors, there would be a market for readings and mentalism? (particularly for the female clientele, because they love that stuff!)

I was thinking of approaching the club managers, pitching to them and getting them to pay me a fee of say $100 for 2 or 3 hours in a small VIP room or somewhere else away from the noise. They can advertise me as part of the entertainment for that night, and anyone who visits the club that night can have free readings and close up mentalism.

What do you guys think? I think that if I approach enough clubs, some of them will actually take up my idea!

Kindly,
Jordan

No.

I would hesitantly say give it a go and see

We do not know your approach or your style of performance so we can only judge this idea for ourselves based on whether our styles would work under the parameters that you have set out. For me that would be 100% a no and I can't really picture or imagine a style where it would work (however that could be a limit to my imagination!)

I would, however, completely get rid of your idea about female clientele and their love for mentalism. If you are a good performer and mentalist, people will like what you do regardless of their gender. If you are crap, female spectators tend to be a bit more tolerant/less immediately dismissive than male ones (and not by much, maybe 55/45) to bad performances. But make no mistake, they all saw the same performance and will all be saying the same thing once you have left.

The real difficulty you will find, I suspect, is avoiding falling into the perceived category of 'trying to get laid'. Mentalism is inherently a little bit creepy and creepy within the aforementioned category is a formula for disaster.

You are talking about taking up space. Square footage in night clubs generates money. It is that simple. You want them to pay you $100 to take up space in that club that can not be used to generate money. Good luck.

Can you manage it with the right approach and the right club? Sure anything can happen. It just seems unlikely.

Maybe terms are different in Australia but a VIP room here in America in almost any club would cost a lot of money. They simply won't pay you to be in one. The formula you propose, at least here in America, generally would be laughed at pretty badly.

A club VIP room generates a LOT of money. It is a premium. Like I said maybe things are different in Australia I don't know. But to get a club to pay you to put their VIP room out of service seems a tough sell.