Agreed. It drives me crazy when someone uses 'to' in the place of 'too' as well.

This is a perfect setup for a vanishing act where your assistants are the bouncers!

Why are you having trouble? What have you explored so far in trying to find an opener for your set? Is this the set you'll be doing as you approach a group for the first time?

Just say something to make them laugh.
I usually make a positive judgement statement about the group I am approaching, and this always gets a laugh.
I have a zippo palmed, or thumb palmed and a coin held at the fingertips. I do a kind of bobo switch, in essence turning the coin into a zippo. Even though palming a zippo is awkward, they haven't started "burning" your hands so they do not notice anything unusual. This production gets their attention, and they also will begin paying attention. At this point I light a tiny piece of flash paper to produce the coin.


I think that it takes 20 to 30 seconds for people to be comfortable enough to want to select a card or write their name on a card. Though it is possible to do it sooner if you come across as likeable and are able to chat with them like old buddies from the onset.

When I do walk around, I open with Jay Sankey's "Holey Moley" or a 4 coin production that leads into a coins across routine. Bob Solari's "Beetoven's Suprise" is also a good opener with the production of a full size miniture baby grand piano

I just remembered the PERFECT Opener... Check out Johnny Ace Palmer's lecture notes and video - he has a little routine calls the "perfect opener", and it is. I"m sure it could be adapted to any restaurant setting - In his video, it's the coke bottle production. Check out his excellent video that's been re-released on DVD it's a gem!

http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=5629

Color changing knives is a good opener. I do Michael Skinners routine with some Whit Haden moves thrown in.

I'm certainly not as experienced as other people here, but I agree with Mediocre about starting with coins. It's something familiar to the spectators, and it will allow you to get a feel for the table before you get audience interaction, and they get a feel for you. I don't own the effect (yet), but if you're allowed to use fire, Pyris by Nicholas Lepage could be a great opener, and I've not heard anything bad about it. Plus it's a great lead in to a coin routine.
Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

I'm certainly not as experienced as other people here, but I agree with Mediocre about starting with coins. It's something familiar to the spectators, and it will allow you to get a feel for the table before you get a lot of audience interaction, and they get a feel for you. I don't own the effect (yet), but if you're allowed to use fire, Pyris by Nicholas Lepage could be a great opener, and I've not heard anything bad about it. Plus it's a great lead in to a coin routine.
Anyway, there's my 2 cents.

EDIT: Oops, sorry about the double post, guys.

Thank you to everyone for all the useful tips you taught me! :]

I agree with the color changing knives, I approach the table and ask for fashion advice and say "should the knife match the shirt or contrast" each time changing the knife and the going into the routine.

Gil Scott

When music is TOO loud open with an Invisible Deck is good. Handling the invisible cards to someone to shuffle and all that stuff looks well. I need to mention this is for Strolling in where the music is very loud!
Hansel!

Because you're in a restaurant, you should consider Zander's Precious Metal. This is a funny and amazing bit about bending a spoon. Great topic for restaurant. You present a large spoon in your hands, and do some funny business about making it bend, blah, blah, blah. What you try to make look like bending the spoon, is just the spoon swiveling in your hand. But to the audiences surprise, the spoon has now changed into a fork! Wham! Immediately let them see the fork. Ungimmicked.

I've used this as an opener before, and it always get a good reaction. Total time from start to finish - 30 seconds. I like to poke fun at the "Uri Gellars" of the world when I do this, because the bending part is a complete spoof.