I love to play D'lite and Lite Flite routine in night. It is extremely visual and easy to draw crowd.

Rings, Rings, Rings - my very own "3 Ring Circus", just three rings, and using moves adapted from Chris Capehart, Jim Cellini, and Dai Vernon!

BroDavid

Cups and Balls,
Ambitious card,
Linking Rings,
Coins across
Misers dream
...
Sawing a woman in half and disappear before the police is arriving

Just kidding!!!

... just looked at my first post in this thread. Wow. Wotta blowhard that Legare guy is!

After a couple months 'in the trenches', the amount of stuff I carry to work with has diminished considerably.

When I go out now, I'm armed with Cups and Balls, a set of Sponge Balls, those silly foam rabbits and enough rope to do Professor's Nightmare and Rope Through Neck as a blow-off. It works out, since the sponge balls make a decent final load for the cups and balls (which I'll readily admit I'm still a tyro at).

My favorite is the 360 Arm Twist because I have performed it a lot and I have never failed yet. It is so simple that it fools everyone and it´s totally impromptu.

My favorite is Pencil Through Dollar and Crazy Man's Handcuffs.

I still think the Total Eclipse of the Sun deal is one of the best street effects of all time. I know that it has some drawbacks in that 1) your timing must be perfect 2) it can only be performed in the daytime and 3) the re-set takes so darn long...
But you have to admit that it packs small and plays REALLY big.

Multiple Selection Rising Card is also a winner in my book.

alleycat

I always have a Expanded Half to do a "In The Spectators Hand 3-Fly"...a deck of cards to do about a 3 minute show, nothing too long, doing a ambitious card routine, sandwiched card, triumph, and a few others...

Card in mouth...

Packs small, plays to huge laughter which translates to bigger hats....

Ojasa

CMH, Pyro Perception, My version of invisible deck and brainwave.

Color changing knives, Invisible Deck, $100 bill switch.

I love bent silver copper transposition from the AOA books. it gets a great reaction as they are not expecting the coin to bend and it gives them a little present to take home and remember it by.

Should we perform magic that is interesting to us, or those which get the best reactions (money)?

Zodiac, here's an easy reference:

Interesting to us + Get great reactions = DO IT!

Gets great reactions but not interesting to us = Eh, do it anyway.

Interesting to us but does not get great reactions = Don't even think about doing it!

Is not interesting to us nor does it get great reactions = Sell it on e-bay.

Wow what an awesome thread. I've been doing street magic now in the same spot for six summers now. I never knew it was termed as busking though.

I do clowning, and balloon animals too ocassionally with my magic. People know me well where I set up, so I have a lot of repeat "customers", so I do tend to bring a lot of tricks with me in my close-up table. I've never really done too much to "draw a crowd". I mean people stop, and I just perform a few things for them. I find it takes a crowd to draw a crowd.

Ocassionally I'll have a couple of friends standing around me while I'm doing something for them so that others stop. I do mostly small groups, and sometimes big groups, so my tricks aren't especially big. Here is a list of tricks that I do more than well with.

Remember though, because I get repeat people sometimes on a weekly basis I'm always buying or learning new tricks. The list is as follows :

*1. Red Hot Mamma (My own version)
*2. Scotch & Soda
*3. Brainwave
*4. Deju Vu Deck (David Regal)
*5. Mental Photography
*6. Cut n Restored Rope (more for the kids)
*7. Hot Rod (more for the kids)
*8. The Coloring Book (more for the kids)
*9. Professor's Nightmare (more for the kids)
*10. Appearing & Vanishing Silk with T.T. (more for the kids)
*11. MacDonald's Aces
*12. In A Flash
*13. Card To Wallet (Mullica Wallet)
14. Mind Power Deck
*15. Then I know about 20 sleight-of-hand card tricks, with a normal deck of cards, (ace cutting, last trick of Dr. Daly, sandwich tricks, Malone's cards across ect.) These 20 are the really good sleight-of-hand tricks, I must mention, and not the 21 card trick.
*16. My Thumbcuff Routine (with handcuffs too ocassionally)
*17. Card Ward
18. Hollow Hole (A Card Trick With a Yellow Ribbon)
*19. X-Ray Box
*20. Ambitious Card (usually in combination with the card to wallet)
21. Svengali Deck
22. Detour De Force (John Bannon's Awesome to person, two card prediction trick)
23. Vanished & Gone
24. Impossible Opener
*25. SUM Deck (a mind-reading routine)
*26. N.F.W.
*27. Vanishing Deck of Cards (Tony Curtis Model)
28. Lethal Tender
29. Hell Bent
30. The W.O.W. Book Test
31. The Twisting Arm Illusion
32. Thought Transmitter
33. Drawn A Blank (Aldo Columbini)
*34. Quadriflex
35. Black & White Surprise
36. Ball Throught Bolt
37. Mis-Made Flag (a kids routine with change bag)
38. Nickles To Dimes
39. Mastermind (A Chris Kenworthey Card Trick)
40. A Marked Coin To Brass Nest of Boxes
41. Princess Card Trick
42. B'Wave
*43. Lighting Bolt (A Penetration From Marcello Contento)
44. Automatic Miracle Deck
45. Rising Cards
46. Bob Swadling's Visible Changing Card
47. Limited Edition
48. Force Of Thought
49. Half-Washed
50. Match Box Penetration (with brass block)

Well I'm sorry if I made the list too long but maybe the tricks that I listed could give some newcomers about some terrific tricks that play great for me. You have to remember I don't live in a big city so its rare that I get huge crowds.

I've never had to use a P.A. system ever. I work in a big tourist town, especially in the summer. Don't get me wrong I don't have all of those tricks in my close-up table at once, maybe 20-25 at the very most. Like I said I have people expecting something new every week pretty much, so that is why maybe to some of you the list may be a little long.

That list took me 6 years in the making. Now the tricks with the star (*) are the ones I do the most, or are always in my case. I use the close-up case from Ronjos. It carrys like a briefcase, and screws to a tripod and opend up in a drawer fashion.

I always carry a back pack with me too to carry stuff, like lights (for night time), the coloring book, rope, a light jacket and so on. I've never owned a car so I have to walk (luckily for me I only live like two streets from where I "set up" or perform I should say). In my town the street performing is legal, so I'm not hounded by the police.


Now tricks I never do are the 3 Card Monte, or find the queen, because I don't want the association of being a "hustler" or being a "gambling stand" at all. I'm a Magician. Even now ocassionally people will walk by and say, "Oh look the 3-Card Monte", without ever reading my sign "Magic by Eddini" on my close-up case. I just yell out "its magic NOT gambling".

I perform from like 6:00 pm - 2:00 am every Friday and Saturday night, and money-wise I do pretty good I think, but it varies. I'm sorry to make this so long but I felt maybe for the sake of the new comers that this (in my own opinion anyways) might be good advice. I may not know a lot about a lot of stuff, or other types of magic, but doing this for six years straight I feel has given me some knowledge and experience in my humble opinion.

Thanks for your time and I hope this helps, Ed (Eddini).

When we say "street magic," I'm assuming we're talking Blaine style and not busking.

I don't do Blaine style street magic as a regular thing, but last October I did so in front of a theatre (and in the lobby as well) to promote a stage "Ghost Show" I was performing in that weekend for the SAM.

I performed mentalist effects that invariably left the spectator with my business card at the finish.

Steve