I have about three television apearances booked since my friends father is the manager of our local fox broadcasting station he told his pop so much about me and last saturday I met with him showed him some card effects and he litirally jumped about ten feet in the air he was hooked. THen a day later I found out my friends uncle is the CEO of ABC then I showed him some stuff and he paid me 45 dollars because that's all he had on him at that moment to teach him something and now every week he goes to the local magic shop and buys tons of stuff and plus I'm booked on ABC this saturday and on may 18th. I'am probably the most excited magician in the world. But I do have a dillima and that's where you guys come in. I need super astonishing and I just want a huge response with visual card magic.So can you guys tell me what effects are worthy enough for television. Thank you so much.

Well..i can tell you that a snap change works best on tv due to the weaknes of ther angles.

Complete Card Linking by Sixten Beme. Looks impossible.

Dance with who brung ya. If what you showed him kicked his butt, do it for the TV.

I once did Card Warp on TV with the cameras very close. It went over very well.

Best regards,
Glenn Godsey

I think the snap change would be a good one. Maybe you could do a "UFO Card" type trick. That might look cool on TV as well.

Gary

This has to be a joke, right?

You are going to perform on ABC, and you are coming to the magic Café looking for advice on what to perform!?!?!?!??!?!?


Please read this article:

http://www.online-visions.com/pro-files/0402scott.html

It is on when to say no.


Whatever you perform should be something that you've been doing for years and is polished, don't do anything new.

You should probably say no to performing on TV, because right now it is obvious you are not ready and you would only hurt yourself by continueing.

Daegs has a point.

I can imagine your position and I feel excited for you. But if you insist on going, well, I guess something good (and easy) for television would be Freed's 'NFW!'.

Maybe a nifty ace production you're familiar with?

Hey Master Class you go on TV and forget about what these guys here are saying. Why? Because you're doing tricks for layman, not for magicians, and the public will love you regardless. I do recommend what one of the guys here said, do what you already know and don't try anything new especially if it's hard to do.

Opportunities sometime only come once in a lifetime and you have to be at the right place at the right time in order to make it. You're in the right place at the right time and if you fail at least you can say to yourself later on in life that you went for it. Hey think about it, if you don't you'll still be in the same place that you're in now but if you do you'll be on your way to being famous.

Fellow magicians what we need to do is push our friends instead of knocking them down.

Hey Master Class I'm not a magician I cheat for a living and I'm good if I can be of some assistance in gambling then let me know. Don't forget that cheating in not magic.

Your Friend

Doc

I agree man. You are gonna be performing for laymen, and the only people that would really care or catch on to your tricks would be magicians. I can also see whre you're coming from, if I was going to be on TV, I would also be looking for advice on cool tricks to fill up my air time. The only advice I have for you man, is to make sure you have your own style, don't try to be a "clone" of Blaine or anything. Now go out there and show us what you've got man.

Gary

If it was me, I'd be much more worried about how to present myself rather than what tricks to do.

The real masters are those who who can captivate and enthrall an audience, not the ones with thousands of different tricks at their fingertips. People like Kaps and Berglas could/can entertain a crowd just by being on stage. Their effects were just the means to that end, and secondary to their stage and acting abilities.

Here on the Café we're much more involved with sleights and the latest gimmick (and I suspect DVD and Video learning has a lot to do with that). And that's okay for us insiders.... I guess. But in the real world it's very different.

Anyway. I suspect you need to find out what sort of filming they plan to do. Are they going to zoom in to your hands, or film you full body? Cardwarp sounds great if they're framing your hands, but not if they're showing a distance shot. Bob Swadling's Torn & Restored card is a nice bit of flash work for TV, but demands a distance shot.

Is there any chance you can get more details?

Anyway, all the best with it.

Ian

Apart from my opinion that performing magic on television is a dumb thing in general, the time issue has to be considered. How much time have you got. I guess no more than 30 seconds. Also: If there is any dirty work, please be so kind and do it outside of the frame or shot, taking advantage of the situation. Nothing make my heart more bleed than a performer who shows how clever he gets rid of certain stuff while being filmed.

And while on the subject. Why card stuff?

I would have to say...if you don't know what to perform, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

Knowledge of presentation and angles comes with time and experience. If you don't have that, you shouldn't be doing this.

I can't agree with doc here.

First Impressions are... well, FIRST IMPRESSIONS!!!!! TV doesn't give you a second chance.

If you pass on this, you can still be on good terms with your friend's uncle(CEO) and can perform on ABC months later or even a couple years. If you really kill, then you will be asked back and other stations ect can pick up on you and you might get a special.


If you do take this, and perform something you just learnt or don't have down, and you bomb or expose on the show, you will not be asked back, you won't be on good terms with the CEO because you ruined a segment on his show, and you won't have any more oppertunities on other networks because they will look at the footage and decide not to have you on their show.


You should postpone your appearence until you have something down solid that the CEO thinks will play well on the show.

Doc makes sense.

Daegs, fortunately, you make more sense.

Doc, I am not insulting you in anyway, please keep that in mind.

We all would love the opportunity to be on TV (well, most of us would). As such, we want to give the best image of ourselves on that medium.

That being said, master class pass, if you are unsure of your material, don't be shy, let them know you're not ready at the moment. This will leave a door open, so when you ARE ready, it'll still be there. I doubt the CEO would forget you so easily right? When you're ready and packed, you have something worthwhile, then you get a good name, CEO is happy and we all get cake.

The main idea is, if you turn this down because you are unsure of your material, you will live to do a show on another day. And most probably a BETTER show than what you have to offer now.

You might think, "This is a good opporunity!" Indeed it is, but at the moment it has a very high potential to turn into a very bad and horrid opportunity very very fast. If you go on there and do a trick flawlessly but isn't so stunning (compared to the other types of magic shown on TV), you'll feel satisfied, but will the audience be?

Don't forget, TV magic is way way different from what we are used to doing.

Listen, don't think of it as losing an oppotunity, think of it as buying yourself time to really hit them hard.

If you mess this up, you close ALL doors.

Good luck brother,

Logan

I have to agree my friend Logan (hey man how do you do? nice to read you).

Don´t misunderstand me, I think you Master Class, have a great opportunity, maybe one lot of magicians or magic fans will neve have.

That´s a point.

But for me, in my opinion, the magician is not a man who do tricks. First must be a person WHO LOVES MAGIC. A loving magic is not practicing the last pass, or buying the last book, or going to all the magic conventions. LOVE is RESPECT. Loving magic is respecting magic.

That´s the real point. If we consider ourselves "magicians", first is to respect magic. And I am not talking about tv. I am talking about people you ask "do you like magic?" And they say "NO". And you asked why, and their answer used to be "once I saw a magician? who did this, and that, and was horrible, boring, and so on".

TV is nowdays the biggest theatre in the world. All tvs, in all countries.

That must be your point. If you love magic, you should respect magic. If you respect magic and treat it like what it is or should be AN ART, you should be honest with yourself, and know if you are or not ready to perform in TV, if you are ready to show MAGIC to the rest of the world, as what it is... an art.

And, with all my respects for you, I think that if you are here asking this, maybe you are not ready to be on TV, maybe you are not ready to respect magic and treat it like an art, and maybe acting in tv will be the worst way to demonstrate your love for magic. Or maybe yes. I don´t know, but that´s my opinion.


All the best magic,

Pablo Tejero

Master class,

you've got more than a whole month for practice!!! You can decide in a sort beautifull routine, you have the time to practice it, learn it, polish it, make it super perfect AND you can get professional opinions about the camera angles from the staff at ABC (since you know the CEO).

Don't get discouraged by anyone saying their humble opinion, about not going and about practicing for months(!) and even couple of years (!!!!!!!!!!). Sorry Draegs, but that's a joke!!!

I feel that Master class, can already perform well with cards and that's why he impressed ABC's CEO. And if he impressed him, he can surely impress other laymen as well.

As Doc says, seize the opportunity and make the best of the time you have been given. If you wait months or years, your chance may come in another life time

For a routine, I would choose the McDonald's aces.

Use the 'ash pen', ten mins, before you go on.
Get your host to write down his chosen card on a piece of flash paper, you burn it (great for tv), rub some ash on your hand (camera zooms in) BAMM it's written on your hand ! Easy, effective, theatrical, and all you need to worry about is your presentation ! Oh , and good luck,Master class hope it goes well for you ! Kenny.

Do you know how long Dean Dill waited to go onto Carson's show(dean had an open invitation) so he could get a super-polished routine together???




I also want to say that impressing CEO's / Movie Stars / Millionares isn't any harder than any other laymen, only you get to brag about it more... Why do you think there are so many magicians on local TV shows that are never asked back?

It's because they impressed someone, got their chance(that they weren't ready for) and then never asked back.



This isn't a case where the door shuts if he postpones it, he is IN GOOD with his friend's Uncle..... if he says he needs 6 months to get something together, he will still be able to go on in 6 months(unless the CEO stops being his friend's uncle which I think is almost impossible).

Think about the long term, this oppertunity isn't closed if you postpone.... only made into a better oppertunity.

In fact, you might even get more time and recognition if they fit you in at a later date when they don't have anyone "big" booked and need filler... who knows?

I agree 100% with Daegs. He is not telling us about his TV gig and us telling him he is not ready. He is asking us what to perform--and he has a gig on Saturday! How do we know what he should do? We know nothing about him. Heck, I think that he should do Roll Over Aces, by Derreck Dingle. I would do that myself if I had a couple of years, and a lot more talent than I have now.

At the very least do what got you there. Then tell us how it went. Good luck.