A rope routine is nice and straightforward, ootw can play well on stage as can cards across (Paul Daniels has done this sitting on the edge of the stage with two spectators and was excellent for the whole theatre!) Could even make a devils hank from tea towels and do a vanishing bandana where a spectator reads out the instructions

I agree that there is quite a bit that you can do with an hours's preparation and some nearby stores. But the situation Ku7uk3 describes is more fitting with the definition of impromptu: " I went to see a fellow magician perfom his show and he didn't turn up. With an entire audinece of 30 people waiting for him, I decided to offer my services to the management who jumped at the opportunity.

I had zero time to prepapre, and dressed in street clothes I stepped before the audince."

His advice was superb, I thought.

I have found it interesting in threads like this on "impromptu parlor" usually A) Revert to an hour's preparation/buying pertinent supplies. And B: Revert to, or inevitably include mental magic.

Quite a bit of impromptu magic is close-up and not suitable for parlor. It seems to be quite difficult to come with parlor material in this circumstance.

If I had one item for this circumstance, it would be a roll of paper towels. With that you could do a torn and restored, paper balls over the head/'sponge' balls, also Dan Harlan's "Starcle" and, you could vanish things and have them appear inside the tube. A roll of toilet paper would work too for much of this and there would almost certainly be one of those on the premises.

Body Magic, money magic, paper magic, and pick pocketing would be valuable tools to have in one's head for these situations.

"I had this happen to me once. I went to see a fellow magician perfom his show and he didn't turn up. With an entire audinece of 30 people waiting for him, I decided to offer my services to the management who jumped at the opportunity.

I had zero time to prepapre, and dressed in street clothes I stepped before the audince. I survived 50 minutes before I decided to end the show as It felt time to wrap things up."

This is quite an interesting topic as I have long thought it worthwhile to be able to do a half hour or more magic show under these circumstances. That is, a parlor situation with only materials available in most any public place or a private house. We would never be caught off guard, and it would make us better performers: ones who are able to conjure up entertainment in difficult circumstances. What is interesting about this thread is how many want to visit a craft store and such, OR resort to mentalism. It seems to me that there are not all that many true magic ( and not mentalism) effects available for a magician in these circumstances. Some Body Magic is a good suggestion. Probably there is a good Money/bill routine out there where all can be borrowed and it would be fairly visible. Paper Balls Over the Head is classic, and I would add Starcle to the mix. I also think that some mentalism methods could be used to do a magic trick, such as, the entertainer asks up front to briefly outline some of the things he wants to do on a borrowed Post-it pad. In the process he writes Seven Of Hearts on a separate sheet, and folds it. He will then slip it under a cup or into someone's pocket or stick in any number of places. Later, lamenting that he does not have a deck of cards, he works with imaginary cards and the audience would come up with a chosen card, (think "Seven" (Bryn Reynolds, or any of the full deck equivoque routines). He would write the card on a post-it note, then the 'card' would vanish and show up in the impossible location. Any other suggestions are appreciated here.

Knife thru coat always goes over big. All you have to do is find a small sharp gimmick like a tine broken off a plastic fork and sheet of paper.

Also, another five minutes with a finger ring and a silk-like scarf - many methods

on the mentalism side, the method I know as "Just a Magazine" works well - can even use a phone book. (See Furst Time)

NOTHING

I agree, if you're that unprepared and you've got one hour until you're expected on stage, you got more serious problems. Forget hobby magic and attend to responsibilities of your life. Your audience will thank you.

Yes... but that was SOME knife!

Oscar

"I agree, if you're that unprepared and you've got one hour until you're expected on stage, you got more serious problems. Forget hobby magic and attend to responsibilities of your life. Your audience will thank you."

The situation described was that a different performer was scheduled to perform but did not show up. Perhaps he had a personal or family emergency, or a traffic accident stopped him cold, or any other number of reasons. You are in the audience and are asked to do something because an expecting audience is about to be disappointed. saying NO and doing NOTHING is certainly an option, but I and some others are wondering if it is possible to do a reasonably effective magic show in these circumstances and save the day,

Thanks for the mention, Ryan.... I loved reading that!

Bryn

A reference to Max M. , I think.

"On Apr 2, 2018, ringmaster wrote:
NOTHING


A reference to Max M. , I think."

Perhaps, but I had that DVD at one point and A) It was mentalism, not magic. And B) Required a trip to a store and so would not help in the situation being discussed where, on the spot, a person was asked to perform magic when another performer unexpectedly did not show up.

I would just perform some app tricks like Digital Force Bag by Nick Einhorn, card tricks like French Kiss by Wayne Houchin and end with the Social Prediction by Debjit Magic.