I too perform Jay Sankey's Back In time as a default. It's so easy to do yet gets a great reaction. I also do That's It! and Dr. Daley's Last Trick. Those are my 3 safe bets.

Lately I've been carrying Kolossal Killer in my wallet at all times, so even if I don't have a deck of cards with me, I'm always prepared.

"Freezing" used to happen to me all the time.

My problem was that I knew too many tricks, but zero routines. I would learn one trick, then learn another, etc. I never stuck with a trick or two.

Routining is KEY!

Here is how I solved the problem. I told myself, "Ok, I am going to learn one trick that I can do FASDIU (from a shuffled deck in use) and that's it."

That solved the problem. Whenever anyone asked me to do a trick, I whipped out the one trick that I knew perfectly.

As soon as you know one trick perfectly, you learn a second trick perfectly. Then a third, then a fourth. You don't really need that many.

Then you make your routine. Make a routine of about three tricks. Practice the routine, not each individual tricks. Then, when people ask you to perform out of the blue, you will have your routine. You will never have to think about what comes next because you've rehearsed your routine.

In other words, doing magic impromptu does not mean improvise. It means, be prepared with a routine that can be done at any time.


My current FASDIU routine is
1) Do As I Do
2) Four Card Coincidence (my own, inspired by Aronson)
3) Flash Speller (Aronson)

Stedwick