How many card tricks do you do in a row? Assuming one leads into the other, of course. (Or, at least they do from my point of view.)

I'm thinking of something like this with a signed card:
-- As the volunteer “randomly” picks an “unknown” card, you tell them what it is. “Pick a card, and don’t show me. Show the audience you picked the three of clubs.”
“Okay - pick another one. Why did you pick the three of clubs again?” Maybe one more - drop the deck into a paper bag and shake it up, reach in and pick a card, 3C again!
-- Next a trick with each of us having a deck and the revelation shows we have chosen the same card.
-- They sign it and return it to the deck, and the chosen card turns over in the deck.
-- They return the card to the deck, and there is some card dealing and counting based on the cards they have dealt. When they count the number of cards they dealt (I have not touched the cards), the last one is their signed card.

Is that too much? Would you stop there? Or go on with more with the signed card? Would the age range make a difference in how you handle this?

Ed

There are some magicians who do their entire shows with just card tricks. So, there is no set number as to what is too many or too few in a row. Age range would make a difference, as younger kids are less likely to keep their attention focused on a series of card tricks than older audiences. Just make sure there is enough difference in the effects to keep up interest. You don't want to drag.

There's an old joke: How do you get a magician to do a hundred card tricks? Ask him to do one.

If you're strictly a card entertainer, you really don't have a choice but to do card tricks. However, I would throw in a little something different as a closer, such as a card in balloon trick or card on the ceiling.

Jim

I had thought of the card in balloon. I saw one where the selected card is pulled out from a balloon. (Sankey??) Is there one where the signed card is the only one to get into the balloon? I think that would make a nice take-me-home-and-talk-about-the-great-magician give-away.

Ed

How many characters should a novel have? How many eggs does it take to make a cake? In your performance routine, you put as many of whatever type of effect as it takes to deliver the over all message you seek to deliver.
Now, let's not make that any more complicated than it is. I'm not saying you have to write a story, or that there needs to be some moral depth, but your performance needs to "say" something. From there, you add what ever it takes to say that, but no more than it takes to say it. Stage craft is all about efficiency and just the right amount of everything; no more, no less.

JackScratch,
Well said. Please site an example from you own work. This, I think, will help us to better understand what it is you are saying.

I usually open with a simple transposition. The in-hand one. I follow that with Vernon's "Triumph", citing that in magic there must be a progression, and the card revealing itself, along with a misfaced deck righting itself is one. I asked if my audience wonders how such a thing is possible, to which I always get an affirmative response. I tell them I use card control, which is the ability to cause one card to remain on top of the deck and execute a simple Ambitious move. Then say, "But that doesn't tell you very much, does it? That's because I have cheated, all the cards in this deck are actually that one card." I move the Ambitious card to the bottom and execute a move similar to the Hindu Shuffle, which shows all the cards to be the same as the one Ambitious card. I then fan the deck showing them to all be different.

I consider the routine to be a simple statement about card work. At the same time there are twists and turns, basic comedic writing where expectations wind up being the opposite of expectations.

That is so funny! I usually open with the "Ambitious Card" and talk about perception not being reality. I discuss being a woman in magic, sort of being the odd person out, and then I do Vernon's "Triumph" with some Marlo subtleties tossed in for kicks. Thus, illustrating the "odd person" out. And then, I end with a "Transposition" that I read in "Million Dollar Card Secrets" by Frank Garcia. I talk about being a magician and that the audience themselves can be magicians. I talk about how it might be nice to switch places with the magician. And we do!

I think that it is important to pick simple and easy effects to perform. Something that doesn't require a great deal of skill, but shows the audience that you have chops. I wouldn't do multiple shifts and center deals for laypeople. Unless of course I was doing an expose, but I frown on any type of exposure.

All that really matters is that you make a statement to your audience, and that each and every effect you perform adds something to that statement, makes it clearer. I'm not surprised either that your effects are similar to mine, or that your message is a different one. If we all had the same thing to say, it would have been said long ago, but allusions are very flexible.

The Answer is: 42