So I am trying to understand how big certain tricks really play on stage. Can the people in back understand the trick? Does it play to 100 or 1000 people?

Card manipulation (productions)
Rope Routine
Linking Rings
T&R Newspaper
Fickle Fire
Jumbo Deck Trick
Axtell Drawing Board
Dove from silk
Appearing Cane

Thanks
Joe

This is an excellent question!!!

I cannot imagine how many magicians recite that seemingly bit of sage advice, without really understanding the concept. Of course there are many items used by magicians that pack small. From your list...

newspapers
rope
silks
linking rings
jumbo cards
etc.

These same objects can be displayed to the audience to appear larger than they are able to be stored away. But, how a magician handles these objects has much to do with how large they appear. A silk wadded up in the hands, or hanging, rolled up like a rope is not being displayed for its ultimate visual properties. A 7 or 8 foot piece of rope can be crammed into an empty card box, but will appear quite long displayed at full length. However, a 20 foot piece of rope will look like a string from 20 feet away, and will look like nothing if displayed against a similarly colored background.

While these are certainly important points to consider, they are not nearly as important as to how a magician presents to the audience the effects created with these items. Properly played, a small trick can be seen, understood and appreciated by the back row of a large theater. I have personally seen Paul Daniels hold an audience of nearly 2000 people spellbound with his chop cup routine. That fact was a more important point to ponder than just about anything else I have ever seen in magic.

I have also seen magicians completely confuse an audience with objects 10-20 times as large in a room with less than 20 people.

The objects by their nature may pack small, but it's the true magician who plays them big.

~michael

I have seen Gypsy thread performed to a quite big theater.

Among the best are the cheapest. EGGS!

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

If your presentation skills are up to it, you can present just about anything for a large group. Blackstone Jr. performed Brainwave with a poker deck, for thousands. Paul Daniels performed Chop Cup for thousands. Many magicians have Himber ring routines that they perform for thousands of people.

Regarding the Axtell Magic Drawing Board - It plays well in a theater or up close. From a distance...Can the audience see and read your own face on stage? If so, the cartoon face on the drawing board is much bigger than your own face. Hope this helps. Ax

Steve, you're right. I've seen the Magic Drawing Board played at shows both large and small.

Hey, Bob... if you try to pack your eggs small, make sure your silks are in another case!

~michael

Michael,

What if I flatten the eggs before leaving home?

Usually I just put the silks in them.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Don't forget Houdini doing the neddles at the Hippodrome. Showmanship.

Jim

Bob, will you teach me how to do the "restore the eggs" trick. I already know how to do the flattening part!

:)

Regan

Regan,

Next time you see Lucy ask her what the yellow ozzy mess was in her blue coat pocket last week. (Give me a chance to run first!)

Bob

Right on Alan.
I have 2 bad shoulders, and cannot carry too mush weigh. I was forced to pack small play big.
I did 3 performances in a theater to an audiance of about 250 kids including parents, using my birthday party routine.
Scepter wand---silk cabby--multiplying sponge balls--egg bag---silk wonder box--change bag---bunny production.
that's it, just 7 tricks.I'm booked again for next year.
It's all in the presentation.
Richard.

Irv Weiner(Mr.Fingers) opened wiht a torn and restored cigarette paper.to a full theater.Cordially,Hward

Irv was incredible!

Paul Daniels doing Chop cup in a Vegas showroom.

Of course, I am still partial to flowers and silks.,

Richard

Getting back to the heart of the question... if you were a "capable" magician,(you understand how to play an effect to a crowd, how to display props, etc), how big would props really play. (You or me ... Not Houdini, )

I'm quite sure that card manipulation could play to a few thousand.

What routines have you done for large audiences and how big does this stuff really play???


Joe

It's all about how big "YOU" really make it. In my opinion someone could do a large amazing stage illusion but has terrible presentation, while someone could do a color changing silk and have it look phenomanal.

What my drama teacher always reminds me and I remind my self of every day is
PRESENTATION, PRESENTATION, PRESENTATION.

Best
Brandon

Once I did a center of a Gym for a Gymanastic presentation. I opened with Temple of Benares. Girl was already inside and came out with a mutilated parasol. Then I did Cane to Bouquet, Garden of flowers and Botania. It played easily to 4,000 people surrounded.

Presentation is the key. I have seen Blackstone do the tossed out deck in the largest hall. Billy McComb would do the Gypsy thread explaining verbally what he was doing and he had done.

Watch circus performers. They know how to sell the trick. David and Dania have that circus background. Watch how they sell their act. Duane Laflin knows how to sell the simpliest silk effect. Learn how to sell it and you can do any effect to any size how. Emil Jarrow did the Dime and Penny on Vaudelle stage. He competed with Goldin's sawing by Sawing a Lemon in Half (Bill in Lemon). SELL, SELL, SELL.

Richard

Favorite example: T. Nelson Downs-"miser's dream" signature innovation

I've seen Paul Daniels open with a rubber band at a theatre. It was a yellow band, he flicked it across the stage and it came back to him (boomerang band?). No problems with visibility (full lighting, make sure the yellow's up, on a black stage (usual colour of stage floor)). And there was that coin magician (was it Buckley or Al something...) who ended his set with a coin roll, he put a tight pin spot on it. Thimbles are (ok, were) common place in manipulation acts, as were cigarettes...
The most famous of pack small play big guys had to be Gali Gali, with the chicks (under cups, from audience members trouser legs...) and coins across.
Remember that sound is also a wonderful tool. And you'll want to study your lighting. Lighting is wonderful, what will play to 100 people in a dingy cabaret venue, will play to 1000 in a proper theatre with correct lighting.
As has been said, it's all about showmanship, well, showmanship including an understanding of how to work a stage. All those tricks are quite big... go watch a show, or few! (Even if not a magic show, you can still look at the props they use (size and clarity), how they light it, watch how they walk on and off, applause, how they draw the audience in, the set (heaven forbid a magician actually having a set!) etc...)
Paul