Here is a rundown of the effects I'll be performing for my first Halloween show. They are not all necessarily in order but should be generally close. I wanted to hold off on visual tricks until the end so it will mean more (rather than every effect involving a levitation or illusion). I also wanted to keep the tricks to a small number so I can spend some time with stories and patter. I have a haunted key that I want to incorporate somewhere but have yet to figure out a story for that one. I'm needing help with a strong closer and I'm not sure if the haunted deck is it. I've done it for a few people with unimpressive results but they are the same people I'm constantly trying new tricks on so they're used to it. This will be a dinner table type magic show with dark lighting and candles (which will be rigged to burn out at certain times).

There's minimal time and I cannot purchase new material so I have to work with what I have.

SPIRIT SLATES (pocket version) using Eugene Burgers routine from Spirit Theater
WHITE STAR by Jim Critchlow
TIL DEATH DO US PART by Jim Critchlow
GEMINI PROJECT - Tarot routine from In the Play of Shadows - TC Tahoe (card is selected and signed on back, another card is signed on front and it ends up being the same card)
GLORPY / OUT TO LUNCH - Eugene Burger
Scared (Haunted Deck - Jamie Daws)

I have an Ash Pen but I'm hesitant on using it for this show. I'm not portraying it as a seance but more a series of experimental rituals. Here's my opening lines which will lead into the first effect:

"I’ve always been interested in strange, mysterious and paranormal happenings and each year in October, as the weather begins to cool and pumpkins and ghosts line the store shelves, I find myself, more than ever, wondering if spirits, ghouls and ghosts are merely figments of our imagination, or something more? Is our mind playing tricks on us when we see something out of the corner of our eye? Or when we hear a noise in the other room, knowing no one else is home? Tonight, we will explore and attempt to push the boundaries of what we know as normal, into the realm of paranormal. What we are doing is not occult. Everything that we will try tonight will be completely experimental. Remain quiet and follow my instructions exactly. I don’t want to take any chances in anyone being hurt in the dark, or unleashing anything that might get out."

Very nice, I like the opening lines good luck on your show ,all the best.
Shane

Topherhester,nice having you here!
Be a team player,instead of just asking questions,too!


Best!

Hi Top

Here is my .02 If I can't do an effect 110% whilst holding a non related conversation at the same time,, I don't want to perform it for anyone. I do not call myself a pro so take my reply with a grain or two of salt.

You have a great starting story. Do you keep that story going and weave the "tricks" into the story?
I would think it is less about the trick or the mechanics (as long as you can perform it flawlessly) and more about your story. How are you ending your show story wise?

C

I plan on carrying the same story going throughout the show. I'll talk about telepathy vs. clairvoyance, I'll go on to talk about famous mediums from the 1800's and say that we will try to re-create some of the rituals they used and see what results we come up with. I wanted to end the story with a personal story (fictional but they won't know that) about a woman who lived in a large victorian house in my hometown. The house was always rumored to be haunted because the womans twin brother tragically died when they were teenagers and she spent her life consulting psychics, mediums and hosting seances in an attempt to contact her brother. I then explain that after she died, when I was still a kid, my grandparents went to the estate sale and happened upon some cards and an old key wrapped in a hankerchief. I'll say that my grandparents thought they were a type of card game when in reality they were a small pack of tarot cards. (I have a set of aged tarots from card-shark). I'll talk about some handwritten notes I found with the cards that briefly described one of the seances and I'll go into the haunted key (which went to the deceased brothers room) and the gemini project. I'll have someone draw a tarot card freely, sign the back of it. Place it back in the pack and I'll spread the cards and use the key on a pendulum to hone in on a certain card. The front of that card will be signed and returned to the deck and I'll end by placing the key on the pack of cards and use the SCARED haunted deck method to have the cards cut to the first card that was signed. Then the spectator will turn it over to show it was the same card that was signed front and back.

In conclusion, I will allow the spectators to draw their own conclusions and will not elude to anything as tricks or effects. I'm very comfortable on the handlings. I just wish I had a better way to tie in each effect into one story.

In "Life, Death and Reincarnation" I end the show with Realm of the Pharaohs (my extended version of Christian Chelman's Psychostacy). "Realm" concludes with my giving a carnelian heart to the woman spectator who has been helping me. I thank her and she returns to the audience. Then I deliver the closing remarks, so that I am alone in front of the audience at the end.

Without my seeing your show, I think that the haunted deck routine might be the closer. Whatever you select, I think it should be something visual that the entire audience can see.