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Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
Sometimes I use this simple routine in my shows, it is always good for a laugh and provides for great misdirection should you be performing card tricks, coin magic or anything that puts you up close with the audience. I imagine that if I expanded on it I could use it in my mentalism act.
The routine is I will walk up to a person looking for help with a trick and address them by their name. The person is stunned. "How the hell do you know my name!?" (the usual response) I respond with a shrug and a confused look, "Magician, now just follow me." Then I will usually fan the cards and ask if everything looks normal...yadda yadda yadda. Then I will hand them to someone else whom I also address by name. "How do you know my name?" again the usual response. This time I feign frustration...shake my head...roll my eyes... etc. "I'm the magician love, now just look at the cards." This usually invokes a response from them "But I never met you how do you know me?" To which I usually respond... a little risque... "Whatever helps you sleep at night darling." (especially cool if she is siting with a guy, heh heh) If possible I may address a third person by name which by this time brings about a certain chaos. To which I usually say something like, "QUIET... BELAY THAT...SHHHH...." and then look at the original person and say something like "Now Katie (Whatever name) darling, just pick a card." This came about all by accident. The secret is that my wife is usually in the audience as she does not feel comfortable being my assistant. My daughter is usually there with her boy friend as well. Before the show they are mingling, not telling anyone who they are or they are just sitting amongst themselves talking and.... eaves dropping; listening in on people's conversations; picking up names etc... Then they will come to me backstage and say, "The woman in the front row with short brown hair...the woman in table next to the stairs...etc is wearing a light blue dress and sitting with a man in Georgia Bulldog sweatshirt and a pair of kahki shorts, her name is Veronica, Tonya or whatever. I've used this three times and it is amazing. Not to mention the misdirection it causes. You could march Heidi Klum, naked, across the stage leading an elephant and they'll never see it.
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
Magical Dimensions Inner circle 5001 Posts |
Great that you have discovered this pre-show work idea. I bet that it works good for you.
It is not a new idea and I have use this idea of getting a name of a person to use in one of my effects during my program. As a side note since I have done magic for over 30 years before getting into mentalism, I would not fan a deck of cards and ask if everything looks normal. I would also not say the words, "I have a normal deck of cards". You are asking for trouble with these comments. You have planted the idea that there must be un-normal cards out there somewhere and by calling a deck of cards 'normal' might invite the person to reach out and take them to examine! Why even use the word normal, if they are normal(or at least supposed to be)? This falls under Magic 101, doesn't it? Also why are you calling yourself a magician when you are a mentalist? Or are a magician doing mental magic? Ray |
TonyB2009 Inner circle 5006 Posts |
I love hearing a name in the crowd. I always try to use that information a few minutes later. I might turn to someone and say: Michael, what is your name? That always gets a laugh.
By the way, if you called a woman darling in Ireland you would probably earn yourself a slapping. It comes across as sexist and condescending.
Check out Tony's new thriller Dead or Alive http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alive-Varrick-Bo......n+carson
http://www.PartyMagic.ie |
Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
Quote:
A lot of people say that but I have found a great many people believe the opposite. They expect a trick deck. My philosophy is that everything I do should be open to examination, if possible. With large scale illusions like the Shadow Box or Assistant's Revenge you can't parade everyone on stage or even stop the show and allow someone on stage to examine the props. But with card and coins and other close up magic, I allow everyone who wants to examine something examine something. Because there are no trick decks and if there are any gaffs they are not present before or after the illusion. My philosophy stems from my curosity growing up, if a magician would not let me examine something then I couldn't believe. So, when I say its a normal deck of cards and hand it to them the attention re-focusing starts. When and if I say, a normal deck of cards, I now have the focus on the deck and nowhere else, kinda like a Trojan horse or a little Sun Tzu. As for what I call myself, I am just an Illusionist, large scale full blown illusions, mentalism and close up.
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
John C Eternal Order I THINK therefore I wrote 12941 Posts |
I say, "Say whatever makes you feel comfortable. Of course as you mature in performing certain things you find are no longer neccessary to say any more."
There's a youtube video of Eric Mead performing the ID. He still says "A normal deck of cards." So there you go an advanced pro. J |
Sting New user 73 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-07-10 16:44, Dreadnought wrote: The opposing views of explicitly acknowleding the normalacy of an object can be reconciled, I think, with a simple maxim: if the object in question is one that would normally invite suspicion from laymen, then the fact that it is apparently normal is worth pointing out explicitly. People are not stupid and they know that gaffed decks and such exist and will easily consider "you used a trick deck" as a sufficiently good explanation of the effect. So it's worth it to discredit common suspicions of your methods. However, there is probably less of a need to vocalize "This is a perfectly normal notebook as you can see", for that would probably invite suspicion, as the existence of gaffed notebooks is less widely known than gaffed card decks. |
CdnAndrew New user 80 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-07-11 04:08, Sting wrote: While that idea does have some merit, I can't help but wonder; if you merely telling your spectators, "this is a normal deck" is enough to convince them that it is, shouldn't simply displaying the deck, or having them interact with it on a more personal level (for example: handing them the deck and asking them to select a card from it) would be enough to convince them, without drawing unneeded focus to it? If you are in fact, not using a normal deck, would you still call it "a normal deck"? I think it might still in better interest to follow the old writers rule: "show, don't tell." |
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