Imagine this... a quick and easy effect that plays well to a crowd - with a built in money mechanism to generate tips....

Do a flashy fire effect - flash paper to spongeball production...Do a cute sponge ball routine for 2-3 mins...do the Extreme Burn effect or one of the variants...
then into the closer...
I ask the crowd - maybe 3 or 4 random people to pull out $1 and collect it buy walking up to them and having them lay the $1 face down on my pad of paper so I cannot see the serial number... I collect $4 this way... I walk over to a 5th spectator - random person and have them take the $4 and look at the serial numbers... I step back... never touching or coming in contact with the bills in ANY way... I look at them - digging deep into thier brain... I see a number... "does one of the serial numbers start with .. X#... yes they reply... I see two more numbers... another number.. more numbers... each time, predicting the very next number in the serial of that bill... I say go on to the next bill that a spectator gave us... I see that number (maybe getting one off a bit... just to add some spice..." the third and forth bill... all predicted perfectly... 4 random dollar bills taken from the crowd... and given to a 5th person to verify.. Me never touching them.... I then say the numbers will not stop.. and I state the dates on each bill... asking them to give them back to me so the stream of mental numbers ceases...

I just did an impossible prediction... and built a $4 min hat for a 5 minute routine. Most people will not ask for the $1 back.... I then say "folks... please, as a performer, I rely on your enjoyment to create applause - and your tips and gifts to keep me sane... the 4 volunteers have graciously blessed me with a tip - please.. offer what you can if you have been amazed by me today... I do this for you and hope you have enjoyed it enough to offer a small (or large!) tip....(stand right at the tip jar... and be quiet and wait) Spend no more than 5-10 mins socializing with starglers before building the next crowd.


5 min crowd building
5 min routine
5-10 min interlude
= turning a crowd every 20 mins...
3 turns an hour = practically guaranteed $4 hat = $12/hr plus tips.


what are your thoughts on this quick routine? Is it TOO SHORT? TOO WEAK?

any feed back is appreciated.

Hmm, sounds like a cheap gimmick being used to try and turn `easy' money. Pfuui! Why don't you just PM Pete Biro and see if he'll lend you his accordian,.. then you can save the few cents on flash paper.

Why don't you go to Medical Websites, and discuss the idea of "telling people they need their left foot amputated, in order to save on shoe costs." They'll love you.

Or hey, here's an idea for you. Throw bricks through peoples front windows with you business card attached: "Mark M. Reed Glass Specialist".

go prostitute someone else's craft!
gallagher

Considering this prediction effect is one of Steve Shaw's best hitting effects for small crowds and one that he has used in the past many times, I would hardly say its prostituting anything. The effect plays strong and its far from a cheap gimmick.

As for your idea of gimmick and cheap in raising a hat - I guess you miss the entire goal of a pitching buskman then - fast, cheap, quick, easy... turn it. I guess you will disagree with everything Don Driver says then about doing it quick, easy, and move on to the next crowd. I guess you think he is prosituting the craft. That is if you even know who Don Driver is!

No need to come across like a disgruntled and arrogant poster - I asked for constructive advice - not ignorant comebacks - on this very simple and quick routine.

Not all of us are up to the Gazzo level of expertise and showmanship to sell out crowds as you sure are. Next time try and keep your reply constructive - as the forums are meant to be.

The effect sounds cool to me. Whatever gets the money in the hat

Gallagher--How does one prostitute one's craft by closing with a mentalism effect which basically has a built-in hatline? Perhaps you are a bit hypercritical of Mr. Reed. "Try to keep the seeing...feeling...the magic of the street." (a quote from one of your other posts in the forums).

Hey Mark, why don't you go to the `Step right Up!' Forum, in the `Carnival of Fun' section,... I think that's where scams and such are discussed,.. with all due respect. I think this Forum is titled, `The Side Walk Shuffle',..`a serious discussion on the art of busking'. I work with different goals then "fast, cheap, quick, easy.",... I know a sweet lady, though; I think on 7th and Broadway tonight,.. she talks about these things a lot.

Maybe if you worked, thought, and practised in other directions,.. you would start coming towards Gazzo's level. The choice is ours in where we end up.

"ignorant comeback",?,... hmm, to tell you the truth, I put a lot of thought in that,.. and feelings,.. it's means a lot to me.

"please mister, tell me how much happiness will cost me?,.. quick."
gallagher

Hay Gallagher! You're way out of line here. Mark Reed has come up with a fine, usable routine with a built in hat line. It's a credit to this forum. This is a busking forum, and one of the main reasons we perform on the street is to make money -yes, we do tricks on the street for money.

For you to get up on a high horse with your fifty cent philosophy and bad punctuation and to compare one street performer to another without ever having seen one of them is really bad form. To invoke the term prostitution as a pejorative in regards to another performer's routine/act on a busking forum is just downright stupid.

I used to enjoy your little "gallagher-world" flights of fancy, but now I'm just sick of it.

Eee Gads(dy)!,
I guess it comes down to the Priorities,.. and Motivations.,.. and maybe the way I inturpret what I read. Yes, `the Money Factor' is part of our game. An important part. The `most important part'?,... cmmmm. The way I read Mark's `Idea', it smells of money-manipulation the whole way. (I probably should have used the word, "stinks".)

What are our Priorities, our Motivations,... our Intentions in what we are doing? What `should' they be?,.. no one can say, for another. But way can say what they appear to be. I can only say what I see,.. what I feel,.. what I believe I am experiencing.

When I call a Prostitute on the streets, a Prostitute; they usually have no problem with it. They know what they are doing,.. they're not hiding behind anything. `This is for money.' Bottomline. Are we being honest here?

Should there be a `problem' with `money-oriented-routines'? This might/could be an interesting Post,... but I guess we should let it for another space, and let Mark's "fine, usable routine", or was that `art-work'?, be discussed here.

Pejorative-ly yours,
gallagher
getty-up horsey

p.s.: I pity the man who has not the imagination to punctuate a sentence more then one way.

Hey did everybody notice!,.. I turned from a `New user' to a `Regular user' on this Post!! Come on,.. if this isn't a sign from the heavens or something!?! Mark; you and I are now bound together in the anals,.. annals of Magic Café History!! You, Me,.. this Idea,... destinded for another. And all this, at $12/hr plus tips.

bounded in fast, cheap, quick, easy disgruntlment,
gallagher

p.s.: Gaddy, since my world is a `flight of fancy',.. I guess that means my horse can fly! OK, a talking horse, yes. But a flying horse?!? Are you sick of me?, or of what you've been drinking?

Grats Gallagher on breaking the 100!

I had the opportunity to try out this routine on the public. It played very well.. I did it for one crowd - no turns... in addition to the $4 built in hat, it generated $18 in additional hat.

$22 in one turn. If that remains steady, this routine should net $60-70 an hour.

I hope to give it more of an extended test in a busking environment soon. Tonights test was in a diner setting. It played very well to the crowd, and I had several people come up afterwards asking "how the hell did you do that - I watched and you never even touched the bills"

I know mentalism is not a common busking performance, but I am finding it plays very well to the crowds in my area. Gallagher comments that he thinks its a scam gimmick - well illusion is illusion- the illusion to read minds and predict, is still illusion - just like the scam gimmick of stage illusion of zig zag.. its illusion and plays well.

My choice to do strong mentalism is not prostituing anything. Its a different form of performance. Once person does cups and balls - I chose mentalism.. its still busking.. busking is not limited to cups and balls.

if you are busking for money, every routine you do is money motivated.... otherwise your tip jar would be kept at home.

Mentalism is an art just as cups and balls is... instead of being hostile - be helpful and recognize we are in this as a brotherhood of magic - not adversaries.

Has Steve Shaw given permission or sold this? Or is he being ripped off here?

It is on the Psi Series DVDs he sells that teaches you various effects.

I was wondering the same thing. Somehow it shifted gears from "Steve's" bit to "Mark's." I hope it was just a "misremembering" of what he said, and not actually attributing ownership to the second person.

Nothing at all against you, Mark. It was the other people in the thread that missed the reference.

I personaly don't like it. But that's me. I would say if you cant get a min 4$ dollar hat in the first place then you are in trouble. Second, the people you get the bills from MAY have wanted to tip you more but if you hold onto their 4$ then they may feel like that they have already tipped you and WHY give more. I would say if you could work it, do it with a 5$ or 10$ and use one spectator. That way you might get a 5 or 10 each time and you are not eliminating other people who may potentialy give.

Also as far as flash paper in the opening. If you are permitted to use fire where you are here is my suggestion. If you just go out there and light up some paper most people will not notice. You would need to do something that first stops the attention of enough people to appreciate the fire. Flash paper is too quick. I would almost think using a fire wallet instead would work. That way you get to talk about money, economy and the fire lasts quite a bit longer. It doesn't produce a sponge ball but it could be were you take out the extream burn bills.

Also some people will feel that by doing extream burn and showing off 5 hundreds or 5 twentys or something will turn people off from tipping you. I have mixed feeling about this but I do feel that people feel happier tipping some one who doesn't seem to need their help. Its strange human nature. People like giving to the homeless or in need because they feel bad, but people like backing winners.

Just a thought, let me know what you think.
Anton

Anton,

Some really valid suggestions. This routine hasnt even been street proven yet, so its very infant in how its put together - I will work in some of your ideas and hopefully be able to test it out soon.

There is nothing inherently wrong with getting a spectator or spectator’s to pull money out of their pockets and “loan” you a bill in the penultimate trick before the hat lines. In fact it is an old ploy. Reference Brother John’s published money playlet that uses two borrowed bills and my own bill to lemon/balloon posted here on the Café. In fact one could argue that getting the audience to pull money out of their pockets before the hat lines is very desirable.

In John’s routine every one in the audience is asked to pull out a bill, two are borrowed, bills are torn in half, one bill is actually burned, and six people are front and center for the routine. It has a happy ending. The routine has it all, audience participation n, money (someone else’s) destroyed, fire, beautiful women (OK I added that), and a happy ending. It is a complete dramatic circle. The beauty is that the money is out and in the spectator’s hands ready for the hat lines.

In my routine a twenty or larger (yes I’ve gotten a $100 on a couple of occasions) is borrowed, destroyed, and not found until the end of the show. It becomes a running gag (aren’t you glad that you didn’t give…er…lend me a dollar bill? Etc.).

The psychology in both Brother John’s routine and mine actually increase the hats by giving the money back! It is subtle but works. I have tested both John’s and my routines by doing shows with and without the routine. I can attest that hats increase using the routines. I have also tested the psychology of giving back the money (borrowing it) or at least offering it back (often folks just say keep it…yes even with a $10 spot!) versus borrowing a buck and keeping it. Hats increase when offering and/or giving the borrowed money back. My data is as close to empirical as one can get in the dynamic multi-variable street venue. Can you tell I used to be a research scientist?

The psychology here is ill used. The routine can be refined to increase the hats many times using the principle I just outlined.

BTW the dollar bill serial number divination is not Steve Shaw’s. It is as old as mentalism! I guess Steve added a white dry erase board to make it his. In fact it is not even the best presentation of the serial number divination that can be done. I am not saying that it isn’t good in the right venue; I am only saying that there are better and more entertaining versions out there.

I find it plays to slow for the street. Ray Fowler’s would play faster and stronger and get everyone involved (in the same way Brother John mentioned above does).

Almost any trick can be made to play on the streets. Mentalism works just fine as you are discovering.

Once again, Harry gives the definitive, authoritative answer to these various issues.

Jim

LOL!! Just some hot air! My dad used to say to me (since I was always a "know it all"!), "If you're so darned smart why arn't you rich!" He could cut to the core of every issue! LOL!!

Harry, in my experience of the world, the people with all the money are good at knowing how to get money and not necessarily the ones who know the most or are the most talented.

Jim

Hey Mark, I had no Internet for the past three days,.. played a real backwoods town. Did me good. When I reread my earlier Posts, I was a bit surprised. I think I was a bit `hypercritical' here. I have some strong feelings about this,.. but I don't `control the path',.. or want to. There are a lot of different ways up and down this mountain. And it was wrong for me to say `yours' isn't a way. Sorry about that. I don't know if I was feeling "holy" in the moment,... or "devilish",.. there's probably not a lot of difference. Anyways, it was wrong of me to condemn you. Sorry about that. Actually, I it's great you're going out there with something else up your sleeves then `the usual'.

I wish you luck,.. and hope you keep telling us how it's working out. I'll keep letting you know how it looks down my path!

good traveling,
gallagher