Hi folks...

I have been asked (at my day job) to show our sales team 5 quick tricks they can pick from and learn - to help them become better sales people -a team builder event if you will ... they may not use these tricks in their day to day office life (ut they could) the ask is to show them something they can learn quickly and it will give them the chance to show their kids, family or colleagues etc. I am not going to get into the ethical debate of teaching magic ... does any one have any thoughts or ideas on what are 5 good easy to learn tricks... ?

or items that might be applicaple for an office environment (pens, business cards, paper clips)

Joshua Jays book: "Magic, The Complete Course;" includes some cool tricks you can do in the office and are easy to learn and perform. Each book comes with a DVD that shows most of the tricks in the book.

Sir Richard.

Interesting that you don’t want to get in a ethics debate when you’re talking about giving secrets. Yes there are lots of tricks in books and out in the domain which you could use freely. But some stuff given away is something people have worked hard on and just trying to getting some reconnection and get their money back on there time. But what you plane to do can be fun and here a few ideas.

1- Mobius strips
2- Binary numbers
3- Linking paper clips
4- A very basic key card trick
5- Sprit tooth picks
6- The stab in the eye trick with a sauce or milk carton

I'd recommend the Twisting Arms trick, perhaps a key card trick, which in essense can be seen as many tricks, maybe a French drop, and for the last two, I'd throw in a few gags. The eye stab I find to be a bit messy to even practice, but it IS a goody! lol.
I assume these are being used as confidence boosters or social skills boosters? I find magic fits in nicely for these types of exercises. Regardless, hope you have fun and good luck!

Perhaps a business card trick that uses the Out-to-lunch principle.

Can't recall the name, but there was a fellow who had a book on office tricks. He had a connection to Paul Harris.

It's called Secret's of the Astonishing Executive.

That was Paul Harris wasn't it?
It was in Art of Astonishment

I love the tricks in that SAE section

Kyle

Kyle,

It was first published as a stand alone paperback book that was sold in mainstream stores.
Way before your time my young friend.
Bill Hertz was the name of the fellow.

Paul Harris' name was on the book as well.

Which book is it in? The volume?

It's a section in AOA Vol 3 and has seven tricks.

I believe that there should be at least one trick that can be shown to the customer that ends by leaving a business card or showing the benefits of the product. I understand the biggest constraint is disclosing tricks to laymen, but there are hundred of children's magic book with amazing material. And they're easy to do (normally)

There are so many tricks that lend themselves to the sales environment. Magic is a great attention getter and ice breaker. Magic can also be used to help enhance a point during a one-on-one presentation or group meeting.

When it comes to sales, money or price is usually a consideration for the prospect. So money tricks are good. Here are a few you can try: Use dollar bill to break a pencil in half, simple automatic bill changes, fold a dollar bill to form a finger ring.

Next would be "impromptu" tricks using paperclips, pens, rubber bands. You can try: Jumping bands on fingers, ring rising on rubber band, take a pen/pencil and show how it's "magnetized" to your palm.

Finally business card related tricks. Try: Magic Squares, Out To Lunch, some sort of card prediction or magician's choice prediction on back of card, or draw some optical illusions on the back of your business cards.

You can always buy a pack of Svengali decks or a number of trick decks, including magic sets at the $1 Dollar Store and teach your sales colleagues those tricks. Some are pretty good!

You could do a B'Wave effect where at the final reveal, instead of three blank cards there are three cards with the business or product information on them that can be left with the customer. US Playing Cards will sell 5000 customized cards for about $300. That trick would be remembered by the customers.

What I usually show people on the spot are these...

ReCap Revisited by Gregory Wilson <http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/466>
Ring Fright by Gregory Wilson <http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/466>
Crazy Man's Handcuffs by Michael Ammar <http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S13531>
Ring Leader by Gregory Wilson <http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/469>
5 and 1 Transpo by Jay Noblezada <http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/1755>

These are my 5 favorite close up routines of all time. They are relatively simple, all ungimmicked (except "5 and 1 transo", but I love it anyways), all using normal everyday objects, most of which can be borrowed, all allow for a good sense of humor, and are all extremely powerful and very visual.

I second the Out To Lunch effects mentioned above.....great way to spread your business card.

Two ones to a two.....transform two one dollar bills to a two dollar bill, then back to two ones. There are other names for it but this is the one I know. You can make them yourself.

I've said this in other threads, but Powerball 60 is great to perform for one time audience only.

Scotch and Soda

Carry them all in a good fire wallet (I use Viking's and it's 100% dependable for several hours. Everyone loves fire wallets.