Hi guys !

I am thinking of making up a new rose or flower act !
The act is about how much I miss a girl who left me not long ago .

Maybe , for the finale I will get a fake knife and cut on my wrist . So that blood start flowing out . And then I immediately 'take' some blood with my right hand (right hand stole a red snowstorm) . Throw the knife away and start to fan the snowstorm ?

Any ideas ?

Please shed some light , my fellow brothers ! Any replies would be highly appreciated !


Thank you,
Kenny

In an act like this you really need to take a step back and ask yourself what "layers" am I going to be placing into this act? What story am I trying to tell the audience? What is my chacracter on stage and what is this character like?

So many manipulative acts are a show of skill only and nothing more. We tend to hinder our own personal growth by always trying to contain ourselves to what we feel we have to do because that is what manipulative magic is all about. I say simply.. WHY? Why hinder yourself and your creativity by forcing your mind into a funnel that will only limit your results?

So what happens when we look beyond the norm? Well failure can certainly happen and that scares so many people that they come running back to what they consider "safe". That is the life of a manipulator trying to tread on new grounds.

However, I say, sure you may fail but isn't failure a learning tool? To me failure is not failure at all unless you fail at really learning from it. If you do learn from failure, then isn't failure just a stepping stone to success? I say yes!

So strive to break out of this box that tells you a manipulator has to think a certain way or move a certain way or perform with certain objects. Now I am not saying give up on the foundations of manipulation. I want to be clear on that.

A good manipulator must study and learn the building blocks of the manipulative art. This means learning, reading, watching videos and really understanding the moves and fundamentals of the manipulative art. An architect can not begin to build a new and different building until he learns to study the foundations that will hold it all together. The same applies to the manipulator.

Learn these fundamentals of manipulation but do NOT force yourself into searching your magic videos or DVDs for inspiration on coming up with creative ideas for your own act. This is what so many of us do wrong. We go searching to latch on to what we feel has already been done, tested and know works. We do this because it is the safe way out. It is easy to follow what another has done. The heat is off of us. It it fails, it is not our fault, but the fault of the person who's routine we may have used.

Go beyond this. Do not force yourself into taking the easy way out. No one said creativity for a manipulator was going to be easy. It is not, but I can tell you that creativity and your own mind can create some of the most imaginative manipulation you have ever seen. You just have to try it and train your mind into thinking in creative terms.

The magician Topas is a perfect example of this. Here is a man who obviously understands the foundations of manipulative magic but refuses to use the common props of the trade and refuses to do the same old thing. He has charted new grounds and territories by expanding upon what is possible if we just reach out.

Why does a card have to always be a card? Break it down to simple terms and it really is a mere shape. A billard ball is also just a round circle. When you learn to break down the barriers that hinder us, you learn to realize that there are so many objects out there in our everyday world that can be adapted to moves and the foundations of which you already know. The idea is to go out there and find them and study them and work with them.

Once you do that then you can really start to think in a creative fashion. Now your magic becomes as unique as you are and the character you play on stage in your manipulative act. If your act starts to use different and unique props, then these props could very well factor into a story being told by your character as you are doing the manipulations. Now you start to add and build in "layers" to your act.

"Layers" to me is a term referring to what you as a manipulator can personally add to your act that is above and beyond a mere showing of skill alone. Sure a manipulator has to have skill, but should that be the only thing the audience has to latch on to? I say no way. Give the audience so much more then that.

These layers can be anything such as themes, character, style, pacing, transition effects and emotional response to just name a few. Each of these starts to give the audience so much more to get excited about. Soon the manipulative act is not just a guy showing off some killer skill and me expecting to clap for it. The manipulator, using these layers can develop responses in the audience that are emotional in nature just based upon character or theme of what he or she is presenting on stage.

This is why I am glad to see you working on a storyline and trying to convey a story. Doing manipulation with flowers and roses can bring in new objects and ideas to the act. Just make sure to flesh out the story and the characers first before diving too deep into the magic you are going to perform.

Hope this helps.

Kyle

Thank you Kyle , your advices are greatly appreciated !
Right now I am writing the storyline of my manipulation act .

Thanks for your advices again !!

You are most welcome my friend. I would love to see the storyline and the character development as you are working it out. It would be a pleasure to review it with you and assist if I can. My pleasure.

Kyle

Alright ! I will PM you once I am done , Kyle ! Thank you so much !
It is 5AM now , I have to get some rest ! Good night!

Good night and my pleasure as always.

Kyle

I would be careful about slashing my wrist on stage.......some people may be extremely offended if you did that. Just a thought.

Robert Haas

As the finale to his razor blades in the mouth routine Loren Christopher Michaels would use a razor to slice his palm open, then did what we called A Blood Storm in China… Red tissue paper and red Mylar

@Robert : Yes I am well aware of that , that's why I am thinking of something else

@tctahoe : Oh yes , slicing palm is better than cuting wrist , oh yes thanks for the idea tctahoe !

Just be cogniscient of the age range that you are performing for. Use your judgement. Make it theatrical, not creepy- and I think you can pull it off. I also agree, palm is better than wrist...

RObert Haas

Just to put my 2 pennies in; I agree with Robert about being aware of the sensitivities and taste of the audience. In the context of a man who has lost his love, slashing your palms does not have the same significance as your wrist. Slashing a wrist brings to mind suicide (again, not sure it's a theme that'll be well received with all audiences, clearly Goths, sorry, Gothic people, would love it) whereas slashing your palms brings to mind blood oaths and blood sacrifices in magical rituals.

I am stuck for the finale ... After few thoughts , yes , suiciding is not a good ending ... Sighs

Hi,

I like roses/Flower magic a lot myself!

I have bought various roses/gimmicks and to be honest have been disappointed by a lot of them Id say most of them break or are just not what I expected or the flowers look fake ect. I am currently trying to build my own roses for manipulation/tricks.

A real good resource that I am totally happy with is Montys Rose Magic. He covers a lot of things there. That could give you some utility moves to build with maybe? Let me know if you come up with any ideas I can steal for my act.

Nate

Nate , I just ordered Montys Rose Magic few days ago . Can you tell me a little more about the DVD ? I am still stuck for my finale ...

If you really like snowstorm and can do that smoothly then I don't see why you don't go with that.. Just don't do snow.. do it as rose petals. I would avoid the blood/cutting yourself type stuff and try to figure out ways and reasons/storyline to why you are making tons of flower petals appear all over the stage.


Nate

I like the idea of using blood as the magic ingredient to make things change color.... how about something like this... slice open your palm and then sprinkle of few drops of blood changing a white rose to red... go to mop up the blood with white silk (maybe even do the rose to silk trick, and that too changes to red (dye tube or color changing silks)... get some tissue paper, wet it to clean your hand, and finish with the red snowstorm...

Alright , Geoff ! I just wrote your idea in my notebook ! THANK YOU SO MUCH!