I want to work in night clubs or bars during the week end .

As advised by Mr Eugene Burger I want to start with only a few tricks that I love and find really strong and entertaining for an audience; I plan on 2 silk tricks, 1 ring tricks, 2 mentalism tricks, 2 gambling demonstrations, and 2 cards tricks (or more if the audience asks for), plus 1 coin trick.

In the future I would like to add the 'Whit Haydn Chicago Surprise' ,
I don't have the book yet but from what I've read you need to be able to do successefully the Classic Force.
Without revealing the secret is this true ?
I find the classic force very hazardous so I would prefer if another methode is possible but anyway really wat to work on Mr Haydn's version that is beautiful.
Thanks in advance for your answers or advises,
Best

Tyalox

Hi Tyalox

Nightclubs are awful to perform in - for me, that is (and I've only done it once). People are usually drunk, and they want to touch and interfere with your props constantly, and they love heckling.

I do a bar night down the road from where I live every friday night, and it's a lot of fun. For some odd reason, people are a bit less "touchy - feely" at this bar.

Whatever material you choose, make sure that its "visual and clean", by which I mean CLEARLY VISIBLE (in the dim lighting), SHARP, DIRECT and CLEAN AT THE END!! Mentalism works great too, especially when done for women. I occasionally use Derren Brown's effect where the spectator's hand is stuck to the table and then she forgets her name. Trust me, you want a reputation, then learn this effect. I also do Sankey's effect of flattening a beer bottle cap (pocket management is key here).

The point is, people in bars don't have the patience (or coherence) to listen to a long spieled card trick. Hit them hard, and if you're going to do cards - do a couple of color changes (face and back).

Good luck

"Chicago Surprise" is one of the strongest things you can do in a bar.

It uses a classic force, but the method that is explained makes it easy, and if the forced card isn't taken, the "out" is just as good.

This is one of the best routines with which to learn how to do the classic force correctly.