I have seen Jonathan Pendragon completely "fill" the auditorium with a multiple card selection routine, and I have seen several performers beautifully close their illusion shows with Gypsy Thread.

What is your favorite small effect that has been adapted for the stage?

Out for lunch, basically an effect where random people write 3 digit numbers and then the numbers are added up to find the magician has predicted the outcome closes some of my illusion shows. Its a great effect and like you mentioned, it fills the auditorium really well...

How's this for a tiny stage illusion?

http://www.magicnook.com/magicbob/IHCT05......ince.htm

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

That effect is "Add a number"
"Out to Lunch" deals with business sized cards and pictures of the Indian Rope trick.

Die-Vision. It is really cool.

Add a number can be really cool its a simple effect but you can dress it up and make it huge. I saw a guy do it witha hanging prediction on stage and make it look like somthing huge. It was cool but if doing all the dressing why not add some more prediction to make it bigger. I saw a guy do gypsy thread with glow string one time so everyone could see it from stage which was neat. A great "tiny" srtage ilusion can also be a bill switch. A lot of times its not how big the props but how big the presentation is.

Abbotts die box. Young and old love it. Fantasio candles. I produce 3 in a row and put them in a mini candelabra. Losander's floating table.

Actually, the Out to Lunch methodology can easily be applied to the Add a No principle by simply turning the packet of cards 180 degrees and having the three spectator-chosen numbers written on the part of the OtL packet that stays behind when the card is pulled free of the rubberband. That loose card - which now has three convenient numbers written on it - is then handed to a fourth spectator to do the math, while the no-longer-needed packet is put away.

TW

Invisible Deck, Mismade Bill, Chop Cup, Slydini Silks, Egg Bag...the list goes on. I don't like carrying too many bulky props. I rely less on the showy props and more on presentation.

Where can one obtain "Add A Number"?

Might be taught in "13 Steps"(?)

You can also find a very sparse version explained here (on page 4 of this pdf), giving you the most bare-bones understanding of the principle.

TW

I always use Dick Zimmerman's "Dangle Book". That is his version of "Add A Number". I have a number of versions of the Add A Number Effects. Some quite expensive. I think Dick Zimmerman's "Dangle Book" is the least expensive one, but I like it the most. When I grab the pencil at the end, I always say "I don't want to touch the pad because I don't want you to think I'm switching numbers or anything". This effect, along with my routine, always gets a great reaction from the audience.

I saw an awesome invisible deck routine at wonder works in Florida where the cards are shaken in a paint can. It was dressed up really well.

Starcle

I was always obsessed with having a small routine adapted to be a part of my big illusion show... And here's what I've come up with... I do the very basic TT routine with a TT rainbow colored silk streamer. You know the routine - show your hand empty, close it into the fist and produce a streamer out of your empty closed fist, make it vanish and reproduce it from another hand... Make it vanish again and finally reproduce it from your mouth... Now everyone knows that...

But the very same routine when fitted into an illusion show becomes a showstopper and brings out a beautiful emotional moment... On every show I can see ladies in the audience with tears in their eyes...

And the routine actually looks like this... I tell the audience a little story of how I became a magician... "When I was a little boy, my biggest wish was to become a magician... And everyone kept telling me that the wishes can come true once you go over the rainbow...". At that moment the "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" theme from "Wizard of Oz" (sung by Judy Garland) starts playing. Around me there are rays of lights each one in one of the colors of the rainbow. There are several hazers employed here due to the fact that the rays of light and their colors are meant to be very visible. Having it coordinated with the light technician I "collect" rays of colored light by reaching into the ray and pretending to grab it and that light is simultaneously being shut off. As I collect each ray, I put it in my empty hand. As they are all collected I pull a rainbow colored streamer out of my closed hand. Of course, during the whole routine there are magnification video screens (with the camera zooming on me) on the sides of the stage so that every tiny little detail is made completely visible. It is such a joy for me as an illusionist to hear a thunderous applause as I produce the little TT streamer out of my fist!!! As if I have performed the biggest illusion!!!

I make the streamer vanish, but instead of just showing my hand empty, I pretend to throw it on a big video screen behind me and at that moment the giant screen becomes filled with all colors of the rainbow and that's another big applause cue...

I pick up the lights again and reproduce the streamer. And there's a little added twist as I walk into the audience next and make the streamer vanish from the hand of a child or a lady in the front row. As the child looks at his empty hand in confusion the big screen becomes filled with the colors of the rainbow again. Another big applause cue.

I return to the stage and make a movement as if I'm inviting all the colors from the screen to the stage and the lights move forming rays around me once again. I "collect" the rays again, "eating" each one now. I reproduce the stramer from the mouth slowly and as I finish, all sorts of the lights in colors of the rainbow (moving heads, gobos with rainbow like patterns) are now on the audience (these lights are specially installed on the ceiling of the theatre as I don't want lights for this to go into spectators' eyes but just to color the whole audience in the colors of the rainbow). I often get a standing ovation for this little routine and the pleasure is all mine!!!

The routine is perfectly synchronized with music (except for the sentence I say at the very beginning the rest of the routine is completely silent) and each production and vanish of the streamer as well as each movement of collecting the lights is done on very logical accents of the music and so are the applause cues.

This is just an example of how the simplest routine - a kind of a routine that a 10 year old aspiring little magician does in his show becomes a part of a big illusion show on a cruise ship (of course, with the aid of a little bit of hi-tech lights and magnification screens) and gets equal amount of applause as any of my illusions!!!

I was very stubborn to employ the simplest possible routine that I could think of and to make it a piece to remember. And after the show it is one of the things that people talk of a lot!!!

Of course the simple routine psychologically follows the line of the plot about a little boy dreaming of becoming a magician, there was a lot of thinking involved in staging it in such way that it would cause nostalgic emotions in the audience and it really brings the whole audience into their own childhood for a moment... And of course, the music builds up that whole feeling to the maximum.

Even though nowadays you can buy TTs even in many toy shops and even though that some kid magician in the audience might perform the very same routine, it always brings the house to their feet!!!

It is always important to have a sort of a "small thing" in an illusion show to bring the climax down a little bit and to give the audience "a little bit of a rest" after many mindblowing illusions.

Once I have finished this routine I go straight to my strongest piece in the show.

I'm impressed and inspired diamond, thanks for relating that...

Hey everyone,
I found this thread after I created my new close up act. Here is the link to my Lego Cups and Balls routine. It's still in the "Alpha" phase and it needs some work, but it's a start! I just performed it last weekend and I used a camera and projector.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFGE8yJDYOE

Hope you enjoy it.

With Magic,
Sterling

Hey Sterling,

Like I told you in Facebook, Fantastic!


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Raphaël

Great!!!

Diamond,
Thank you for sharing. Sounds beautiful.

Jim