I've done a bit of searching and did not find anything that quite fit what I was looking for.

I'm a corporate hack by day; and I love close up magic, have for a very long time. I wish I'd picked it up long ago. I have a few tricks that I've ordered from Penguin, but I'm at the point where I want to employ magic as a part of some of my day to day corporate life.

By that I mean specifically: I'd like to employ magic in situations where I might be giving a presentation; and I could use the magic to keep people on their toes, or just for the sake of giving an entertaining presentation.

Or, use magic as part of a sales meeting, where I'm dealing with a prospective client.

Obviously, time and place, as well as relationship with the audience or prospective client is important. I'm not talking just whip out a trick frivolously.

So my question is this: Would anyone be able to recommend some products that would be good for the situations that I've described?

What is a good number to have in a "small" repertoire?

I've been pretty fortunately in my career, and have a rep for being charismatic; as well as a performer. And I'd love to do this to see about taking my game to another, unique level. At the end of the day, if someone likes you; they will do business with you.

Thanks for any help.

What kind of presentations would you be talking about? What is the topic?

Well...
I'm an IT guy. Specifically, in the area's of cloud computing and data centers. In the IT world, cloud computing is a hot ticket. Data Centers... Not so much, but still extremely good business. I've managed to craft a rep as an innovator in the field. Quite literally, I'm the only guy in the United States authorized to sell Infrastructure as a Service Cloud computing to the federal government through its General Services Administration. Doesn't sound sexy, but it is a dynamic area of IT.

So the topics of my presentations tend to be technical. My audience can range from charismatic sales types, to the IT geeks who's social skills are limited to whatever transpires between the keyboard and the seat. Real, lock them in a room and slide the pizza and jolt cola through a crack in the door kinda folks. But even those guys get loosened up by humor and an entertaining presentation or sales pitch.

Giving a tech presentation gives me more of an opportunity to interject trickery throughout to keep an audience engaged.

On a sales call, when you just want to be impromptu over a business meal or drinks, would seem to require some type of gimmicks of the street magic type.

I can be pretty gregarious and engaging. I'm not afraid to weave a yarn to make a joke, or a point. I'm a corporate sales guy for pete's sake. I do not mind practicing, so I don't need something that is a straight up gimmick that requires no actual skill.

Eddie tullock, a master trade show magician has some very simnple yet effective as he11 effects with just a deck of cards. The easiest one is a very simple top switch. i have used Capehart's 3 ring routine in a sales demo for a consulting firm. The pitch was very simple when banging the rings together I talked about how others tried to fit in to your company's message. But when I said "when you use Roth Consultants your sales force learns to fuse with the clients. However if your competitor gets the sale on low price, you learn how to not only overcome that but get the final sale yourself" while doing the double link. Had a crowd in front of the booth and was told by the fire marshal that I could only do my show every half hour to keep the aisles clear. Got a $1000 bonus for that one.

Excuse me, but I work out of data centers, and these are still JUST AS POPULAR as cloud computing. In fact, doesn't cloud computing exist in a data center to begin with? It's not like it literally comes from the clouds.

-ArchAngel_G

A, who cares about techie computer stuff, this is advice on MAGIC not geeks arguing

I obviously do.

For advice on corporate settings, Benjii may be the better source for advice.

-ArchAngel_G

Geek tricks. OK I work in the geek world, so maybe I can help... I realize you need something quick, preferably not a long card routine or something that requires a table and looks out of place in a geek office. All of these are portable, fast, cute and things I do at the office (when I'm required to go in):

The thumb drives don't look modern, but whatever:


There's always a candy bowl at someone's desk:


Always a hand sanitizer laying around on a desk:


Pointless by Greg Wilson. Pick a pen up from a desk, and do it:


Anything off this DVD:


Anything with coins or keys, dude ...


Plus hundreds of mentalism effects, drawing duplications, etc etc.

It is hard for anyone to give you tricks that would work in your presentation because you can make a lot of different tricks work. You can make a coin disappear and talk about how it is "in the clouds" and whenever you want to get the information you pluck it out of the air...and the coin appears.

You should look into a guy named Joel Bauer. He teaches people to make VERY effective presentations and close/sell a room. He has worked with guys like Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, etc. He will show you how to make the most engaging presentation possible and gives you a step by step guide.

This guy can sell his business card for a minimum of $100. He will literally have 60% of a room standing in line ready to buy his business card...all from presentation. So if you want to make an effective presentation then you need to go to his seminar.

www.infotainer.com is his website

Here is a video on him...http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8053677065

Joel is a controversial man that has made a few companies & people angry, but he is GOOD at what he does. he really is the best in the world. When he did the trade shows he charged $10,000 a DAY! Plus all expenses (hotel, meals, car rental, everything) No discounts for multiple day shows, he would be in a booth at the big electronics trade show in Vegas and got $60,000 PLUS EXPENSES for a 6 day show. THAT is GOOD!