These are all great ideas and thoughts. Write them all down. Do not hinder your creative thinking cycle by stopping to wonder how you might do some of this. There are always methods but creativity needs to flow.

What you need to do now is to stop and think what exactly is your character and what is he like? Is he a spy, man of mystery?

What is he doing on stage? What is the story being told to the audience and what do you want the audience to feel through out your performance?

Think more about your character and the story plot and let me know of some of your ideas. This is so critical because it becomes the skeleton for a good act. Everything in the act relates directly back to this.

Kyle

Perhaps you could produce something from an inflated balloon by shooting the balloon with the gun.

Produce the gun, shoot the balloon and out flies a dove or something? Perhaps for the finale?

Excellent idea Maylor! I will definitely keep that in mind! Thanks for the input!


Kyle, let me think about this for a day or so, and I will get back to you and let you know what I come up with. Thanks for taking the time to help me with this. I am very happy and I appreciate it so much.

-Thad

Since I don't know you, I'm not sure if will fit your personality, but I've always wanted to see a manipulation act themed to a date with a magician, perhaps even with someone from your audience.

Thad:
You are most welcome. I will be more then happy to work on this and brainstorm ideas with you for your act. It would be my pleasure.

However, with anyone I work with, I will ask you to put forth the effort and do a lot of brain thinking on the things I ask of you. It will only make your act that much stronger in the long run. Trust me on that. =)

I think you have a wonderful concept that could be full of great ideas. Let's get started and get those character and plotline ideas out on the table.

Kyle

Kyle,

I would like to a basic Bond Movie if possible, but maybe down to like 10-15 min. Not necessarily all manipulation, but whatever I can do. If you've ever seen a Bond movie, you'll know he always has a few certain things happen to him. 1, He always gets caught by the villian. 2. He always saves the girl and gets her at the end. 3. He always defeats the villian. Taking on the footsteps of all other James Bond movies is what I would like to do. Not copying them, but write my own Bond story, and then present it as a magic act. What do you think? Any suggestions? I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

In Bond movies there is always romance, action, and some humor as well. I think these traits are also a great thing to have in a magic act.


-Thad

So are you gonna actually have a girl in this act? Do we have 2 people to play with? - so to speak!

Thad:
This is a great start and there are many ideas and concepts we can play around with. Maylor brings up a good question. We must ask you:

- Is this a solo act or are you going to use or need others in the act?
- Do you plan on competing with this act.. what is the goal for this act?
- Describe your own personality and let us know how OTHERS see you.

These will help as well. Then we can try and start thinking up the character and basic plotline for the act and build around it.

We have a great start indeed.

Kyle

DJ-

Brilliant comments & Oh SO TRUE!!

Sums up why we do this in the first place--just reading this inspires me to go & create all new routines, etc.

YANYAK 5-

Write down everything you do--you will be surprised how much manipulation you do know.

Try and blend a few ideas together--eg 3 effects.
Is there a theme possibly around these effects as mentioned above?

Add a few more--a bit of music. Have fun doing it and soon a routine will start to appear and you will add and subtract effects that you like and dislike.

Aim for 6 mins to start and work from there!!

Good Luck.

If for a competition.. you will want to have about an 8 min act as most contests have a 10 min limit. Not sure what your intentions are for the act but thought I would give you this information.

Kyle

Kyle,

I do not work with an assistant, however if the act calls for one, I will be open minded. It's not that I don't like assistants; I've just never used them, so that will be a new concept for me. I am very open minded and am up for anything. Whatever it takes.

As far as a competition is concerned, this will not be for a contest. However, maybe this can be used for a competition later on down the road? I would hope so.

People see me as jolly. They will never see me without a smile. I have many friends, and I get along with every one of them. They like to hear me joke and goof off, because growing up with magic, I've always been into the weird, cool, funny things of life. I was voted class clown in high school, and even had teachers tell me I would rather tell jokes and play with a deck of cards in class than learn anything they had to offer. Which is true. I hated school, but loved to be around people.

I am still the same way in college, though my grades are much better. I have new friends, and am always laughing and smiling. I get along great with the professors, and I make them laugh a lot. Maybe this will help out a bit? I hope so.

While I was typing this up, I thought about a possibility for a character for this routine. Maybe James Bond could be a klutzy, goofy, spy. Maybe he never does anything right, and he's just a screw up? Just a thought.

ABM, I have bee writing down everything I can think of. From my character to all my effects, and you're right! I do know a lot more than I thought! Thanks for the input! I appreciate it very much. Pelase feel free to leave more if you have it!

Thanks again to everyone for all your help.

-Thad

I thought about the costume a bit. Here are some more ideas. My character should wear a tuxedo. Sunglasses would add a "Mr. Perfect" element. He could vanish the sunglasses, or even levitate them? If he had a cane, he could make it dance? Make it Appear? Vanish? Produces a watch and puts it on. Maybe he can then produce a girl? Give her flowers. Go into a candle light dinner and do something with the candles. (Fantasio) Just then a villian comes in and crashes the dinner. Bond produces fans of cards and throws them at him hoping to hurt the villian. nothing happens. He then produces fans again to throw and nothing happens.

Here is what I have thought of so far. It's just a rough draft right now.....

Nice sequence ideas but I think you need to work and develop the story line a bit more. Figure out exactly what is to happen on the stage and what the plot is to be told as seen from the audiences perspective. This way all your effects will tie in better and will add to the telling of this magical story.

You have some great ideas so far so do not lose those. Just work on plot ideas and come up with various ones that might work. Keep them simple yet fun and see what ones might work better for you.

Kyle

I once did a routine sorta like this but the tricks were all different and it was themed around Mission Impossible. I made a time bomb zombie ball with a bunch of wires sticking out and one of them was the gimmick. You could probably use this. Hope this helps.
Dave

There are a lot of great ideas in this thread, but I'd like to jump into this discussion with a suggestion.

Right now you are working cerebrally...thinking of ideas and writing them down. That's a good start, but now it's time to "get physical." The next step would be to actually get into a rehearsal studio and start trying these idea out.

I think you will find that much of what you planned may not work out as well as you had hoped, but that in the rehearsal process you will discover many new possibilities.

To paraphrase Voila Spolin, author of Improvisation for the Theater: "Do not superimpose the goal upon the activity, instead allow your goals to grow naturally out of the activity you are engaged in."

Make sure you also video tape your practices and rehearsals. This is a great way to see what you are doing wrong before that wrong move becomes habit.

Also keep a notebook with you at all times. Write in it any and all ideas you have for the act. Do not care if you do not have a way of accomplishing the idea. The main point is to get these ideas down on paper so you can refer to them later on in the process.

Kyle