Hello everyone!

I'm thinking about making a routine about different themes of magic and different kinds of magicians and would like to get some feedback on my idea.

I'm thinking of starting by talking about the picture of a magician as someone pulling rabbits from his hat and then do some produces and vanishes myself. Then I was thinking of producing a deck of cards and start talking about card tricks.

After this I will start to talk about how many magicians fancy mentalism and proceed with some mentalist effects myself. After this I will continue by saying something like "I often get the question: If you really can do magic, why aren't you doing anything meaningful, like producing money?" This will be my introduction to coin and money magic.

Then I will continue with something like "But there are more ways to earn money with sleight of hand. I'm thinking of how you can earn money by cheating in different kinds of games." This will be my introduction to "gambling magic".

Of course I could do all the different parts on their own and have a lot of smaller routines, but I at least want to try them all together. What do you think of this and do you have any tips on the presentation? Like how to smooth out the transitions between the themes?

It sounds like a full evenings show to me!

So you think it could work?

Well, I don't know you nor your experience level, but let me make a suggestion. There is something I wish someone had sat me down and told me when I was very young: "You can do anything you want in life, but you can't do everything." I think you would be much better finding your passion and focusing instead of trying to master every area of magic. There are reasons that magicians focus on special areas of magic (e.g. close-up, comedy, mentalism, etc.) One would be because they are passionate about that type of magic. Two would be that magic is not easy, if done good, and take a lot of focus.

What if two beginning magicians were both given a complete set of Card College. One of these magicians spent 10 hours a week for a year and learned every sleight in the series. The other young magician spent that amount of time and energy into learning only two sleights (say a very good force and a top change) until they were second nature to him/her. Who do you think would be able to present some killer magic at the end of that year? The first magician could certainly fumble around a lot and could impress people at the magic club about her/his wide range of knowledge, but the second one could most likely actually perform a short memorable routine of card magic.

Find your niche, your passion. Focus, Focus, Focus. ;-)

PS: I really like how passionate you are about magic! Don't lose that, just channel it.

Thank you for your advice Wabojeg! You are right about focusing, but it is just so fun with all sorts of magic! (I know, typical amateur answer) I will see which of my "themes" I like the most and try to focus a bit more on that to start of with.

Darn it, you got to 50 post before me Calle! I know the allure of everything new. I thing Eugene Burger called it the "Tyranny of the New." Read his book "The Experience of Magic," it should be required reading...though there are no tricks in it as I recall. I don't think that there is anything wrong with continuing to look at and play with the new stuff, as long as you set aside time to actually practice a few specific things. It is about balance. Oh, and I am saying this as much to myself (if not more) as I am to you.

haha, you you will get there as well! ;D I will definitely look that book up! It's doesn't matter if there aren't any tricks in it. Currently it's the presentation, patter and routine-building I need help with the most, so your advice is very helpful! Thank you again!

I'm pretty sure wabojej is wrong about not being able to do everything in life.

That said, I read your original post up until "start talking about card tricks". I wonder what exactly you would say about card tricks. Most card tricks are mentalism effects, and it boggles my mind that magicians might consider mentalism a completely different art and at the same time perform card effects.

My thoughts, then, are: what would you say about card tricks?

My thought was to do some tricks here that I neither considered as gambling effects nor mentalism effects, such as for example an autograph transposition. About what I would say about these tricks I hoped to get some tips on. Perhaps it would be easier to do everything on it's own but if you have any advice on how to present this I would be glad to here it, and if you think that I should do it some other way I would be happy to get advice on that as well!

I really want to improve my patter and presentation

(Sorry if I'm expressing myself fuzzily but English is not my native tongue)

Okay.

I don't have any specific tips for you about transitions. I was hoping to learn about card trick, or how to present them.

Then I hope someone can help us both out

Good thinking. It would be better if you could tighten up the connection between each phase... with a more meaningful story line -- even if it isn't completely factual...

Example 1 - a chronology of Houdini's life -- he started out performing bla bla bla, then he became known as the king of cards... bla bla bla then he...
Example 2 - Styles of magic in the 20's, 30's, 40's, etc....

Making it seem like there is a logical sequence will tie it together better...

Another way (and more practical) is to tell them up front a lie that makes your routine make sense...
Example 3 - To be considered an expert close up magician you have to master for types of magic -- balls, cards, coins and rope... Then proceed to do four tricks that you tie together -- like your idea with producing a deck of cards -- find a way to incorporate the "next thing" into the ending of the prior one... then after rope (for example) tie it back into ball magic...

I once did a program about magic through the ages where I started out as a wizard, walking through the room, admiring all of the amazing magical objects, such as electric lights, refrigerator, etc. I wore the Gandalf-style robe and hat. I talked about ancient magic and performed an effect that could be considered "ancient" (I can't remember now what I performed). I took off the robe, and underneath I was wearing Renaissance-style costume. After discussing this era, I performed a Cups and Balls routine. I then removed the Renaissance vest, put on a tux jacket, talked about modern magic, and went into the rest of my show. It was a one-shot performance, but it was very well received.

Oh, on top of that, I made my own costumes...

It think you could do a whole show around it, go for it!

Although you are going through different styles of magic, it is important to maintain a single theme, and maintain your persona/character. This will help keep the whole routine more cohesive to the audience, rather than a series of disjoint effects. In the end, a spectator will leave with the memories of the show, and you want them to remember an entertaining and magical performance, not just individual "tricks", which they are more likely to nitpick later. A solid theme/character will make your magic more of an artistic performance and less of a puzzle.