Hi All,
Most of the magic I perform is for friends and often they either ask to see a trick again or will get someone over and ask me to show the trick to the newcomer. I am aware that in general most tricks are done once and not repeated. "Trick me once, Teach me twice" I think was the quote.

While a great performance in many instances can misdirect enough to allow a repeat of the trick, there are some tricks that are robust enough not only to be done a second time, but which can be equally or more impressive the second and subsequent times a spectator sees it.

Two examples of tricks from my repertoire that this applies to is This That and Other and ID routines.

I have avoided stacked deck routines to a large extent purely because once the trick has been performed or the deck shuffled, it needs to be reset and to do this with spectators still around will reveal enough of the method to lessen the impressiveness of the trick. For this reason I like tricks that can be done with a borrowed deck.

I am keen to add more tricks of this type to my arsenal and would love to hear what those of you out there find are repeatable and equally or more effective on the second performance.

Thanks in advance,
Darren.

An idea that I’ve been playing around with is the Cards Across trick. There’s the “traditional” handling, but then there are alternate handlings like as are found in Art of Astonishment, for example.

In this example, you would perform the traditional handling, as part of the routine, but then later when people ask to repeat a trick, you would perform one of the alternate handlings that are the same effect, but with much different handling. To the spectator, the effect is the same, but they will be even more astonished because they are looking for some of the same moves that they saw before, but you have effectively eliminated them.

I've performed in restaurants for many years and through experience I learned to do the same effects
in a different way. The key for me was to learn many different moves and handlings. When you buy an effect, if you are not experienced, you execute it as per the instructions either written or visually (DVD, download) verbatim.

Card magic provides countless moves that can be substitued to change the MO.(modus operandi)
I love to perform CTW. (Card to wallet) I use a Mullica Wallet in my back pants pocket that doesn't require palming. If asked to perform it again I have a JOL wallet in my inside breast pocket that does require palming a different handling with the same outcome but how you get there is different.

Peeks, Top Palms, Palming, Side Steals, Controlls, False Cuts etc. etc. are arsenals you can call
upon to switch up the methods but achieve the same result of an effect.
I too like to use a standard deck.

I hope that made sense and was a little helpful.