I don’t know how many times I have read this or heard someone say this:

What routine should I learn for (favorite trick)?



Of course, most magicians are ready with advice on who’s linking ring routine is best or who’s card routine is best, or who’s routine should be learned.



Now, I’m not saying that learning other people’s routines should not be done, after all, that is how a lot of effects are learned. However, shouldn’t our goal in magic be originality... maybe not with props, but at least presentation?



Yes, it is fine to learn card from the mouth using Jeff Hobson’s routine, but do you want to be known as a Jeff Hobson clone?



A very dear friend of mine once told me that the first thing you do when you get a new magic effect is to throw away the instructions.



And, in a sense, that is what I do... if I need help with learning the handling of the item, I do that, otherwise the instructions get shelved

(I can’t bear to throw them away).



Also, when I was at the Kidabra conference back in August, Max Howard gave some important words of wisdom... "Don’t look at what something is designed to do... look at what it CAN do."



We might just be surprised and what we can come up with!



Margarette

It is suprising how a good thread seems to get overlooked. This one should have been picked up on.

I strongly agree that if you mimic another's performance, you will never be great. You are not that performer nor will you ever be. You are you. You must choose and tailor your magic/mentalism routines to reflect the "character" you have developed. If I were to do say the Vernon's Linking Rings Routine, it would not look right for me because I am not Vernon.

I must put in a caveat. I do believe, like many others have said, that you should do a routine by the instructions the first time you do it, not necessariy using any provided "patter." Of course, this is to give you a feel for the effect and give you a basis to determine how you should do the effect to fit you. In other words, until you understand the effect, don't start modifying the "heck" out of it.

Of course, the best of all worlds is where you come up with a routine and have a stong enough base in our Art to find the method to accomplish it. This routine then truly will reflect you.

Margarette,

I think that is an excellent point well made. I try my best to do the same with instructions, once I understand how the thing works I put them in a little cardboard box under my bed.



I do wonder if anyone browsing these forums will one day be held up as an example for all following...



(5 years later at the Cafe...)



"I always prefer to do the Ichazod mental 11 force followed by Steve Brook’s flash pass and Tom Cutt’s ultimate torn and restored deck to finish..."



who knows...?



Gonz





_________________

Never argue with a fool.

He may be doing the same thing.

All good points here.

It's something that has long bothered me.

Why does the majority of magicians say things like: "Have you seen Skretch's cut and restored rope" or "I'm working on Yodar's coins across" or "Where can I find Zamboni's multiplying rabbits?"

PLEASE!

Doesn't anyone think for themselves anymore?

Why must everyone do a routine as it's done by a "name" magician.

After all, "name" magicians can be total dorks, too!

But more importantly, why copy someone else's routine or even use it as a jumping off point?

Why not create your own?

Sure, nine times out of ten it won't be worth keeping.

But that one time will be pure gold.

And --

-- it will be all yours!

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

Do not throw away the instructions. You may not want to read them. But you will find as you get older, and your props get older, they will command a higher price on the "oldies" market if you have the original instructions--coffee stains and all.Same goes for props that come in special boxes. Pain that they might be to save, keep the prop in them...it increases the value for you or your heirs someday.



quack

I agree with Peter--to a point. I think that, until you have learned the basic principles of magic, construction, showmanship and misdirection, you pretty much have to do the routines as they are written (I’m speaking of the actual effects and routines, not the patter). Then, as you become more familiar with these principles, and why routines work (or don’t!), you can begin to create your own versions.



But have you seen some of the stuff being marketed and published by people who’ve been in magic for a few years or less? AWFUL!

Scott said;

But have you seen some of the stuff being marketed and published by people who’ve been in magic for a few years or less? AWFUL!



Have you not heard Scott, there’s no such thing as a bad trick! lol



Yes, I’m with you there mate, some people have been in magic two minutes, have no interest in what has gone before or in reading about it, then re-invent poorer versions of effects already established and foist it on the masses (who also don’t for the most part know they are getting sub standard stuff).



I requested help finding credit for an effect in the card section, didn’t as yet get a single response, because most are not interested in the old stuff or proper credits.

p.s.

Forgot to say what I was going to in the first place. Rather than looking for peoples versions of your favourite routines, always well worth trying to find the source material for that routine, so you have the correct base to work from.



Some routines have been "improved" so much they have gone right back to the starting point! lol

Or, as Al Flosso (I believe) used to say:

"They improved it worse."

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

And great to have a link to the past. Where will those stories and quips go when...



Seriously.

When WHAT?



cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

Yes, oh yes, oh bloody yes. I keep the instructions myself, but you know you've advanced another rung in magic when the next trick you buy is just another piece of equipment to be used however you feel at the time, with whatever other equipment you may own, in whatever routine you're working on at the time. I've seen people buy the same trick more than once, under different names and I think some don't even notice because the instructions are different. I swear sometimes all that changed was the patter.



Sable