Hello Friends

I am new to magic and have been putting together a few trick/story ideas.

I have learned and have been practicing Al Schneider’s Matrix and have been trying to develop a story to go with it. I came up with the idea of showing an ancient land ruled by a benevolent father who upon his death granted each of his four sons an equal share of the land – represented by 4 quarters. Here I use the EC to show 4 jokers (the hidden card is a king). I then place each of the 4 cards on top of a quarter and proceed with the story. The story is that the brothers lived happily for a while but became dissatisfied with their respective shares of the land. They eventually started to fight with each other for a bigger share of the land. One brother fought another, lost and was banished from the land while the victor got half the land. The second brother fought, lost and was also banished from the land , while the victor got three quarters of the land. Finally the third brother fought, lost and he too was banished from the land. The remaining brother then had total control (ie. all 4 quarters) of the land and became the king at which point I turn over the final card to reveal a king.

Does this sound like a story that could work? I appreciate any feedback you may have. Thanks

I'm not familiar with the Matrix variation you're using, but I like your story much better than the one I came up with to the Matrix recently.

Dave

I do like that storyline and the kicker King reveal. I will have to play with that a bit. Thanks for sharing. I would love to see a video clip of the performance. My matrix presentation is pretty boring, but magical (as any good matrix can be).
John

I like routines that are set in stories, so I started playing around with your idea right away. I have one caution to suggest. There is a problem in having a double climax to any magic routine: (1) the coins are assembled and (2) the joker is now a king. Magic is srongest when the revelation and the climax are the same. With a double effect, you prolong the ending, and both effects are weakened because the audience has more than one thing to react to. If we're going to combine effects, then the early ones need to be "stepping stones" to the final one. So, I'll suggest that the story in this case emphasizes that the four sons were essentially incomepetent (jokers), making the coins a lead-up to the transformation of the joker to a king as the final moment of the story you've been telling (a story about personalities, not moving coins). At the end, let the audience take in the assembly of coins, wait a beat to let them gasp and clap, and then say something like, "Now, when he had defeated his brothers and reassembled the kingdon, the last prince had at last proved that he was no longer just a joker... (wait for it)...but worthy of being a king" (flip the card). I think set-up and timing like this makes the most out of both effects.

Credit where credit is due: I'm taking my thinking from "Our Magic: The Art and Theory of Magic" by Maskelyn, Devant and Bianchi.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think your suggestions regarding the shift in emphasis and the timing of the final reveal are great. Thanks.

That is a very clever anthropomorphic storyline; thank you for sharing. It opens a lot of possibilities

Very nice. Mine goes more like, "Look, it's here. Now it's over here with this one..." etc.