As some of you may know i have a restaurant gig, and have had it and been doing well for over a year now. I like the feel and excitement of the magic. I originally got into magic just for fun and for a hobby and am now taking this aboard as a part time job with my other part time job and school.

Anyway I was restructuring my routine recently and I was looking at some of the effects I do or that I used to do and shock my head thinking what on Earth was I on at the time. So I have some material already, but I'm looking at some hard hitting card effects (book, dvd, pdf, whatever) or sponge effects that I can add to my routine.

I know everyone usually names the effects that they own, but I don't think it is necessary essential. I just want people to throw out some ideas on books or dvd that has material that can be adapted to restaurants. And please, can you post a answer to this if you actually work as a restaurant magician / entertainer. Because thinking you know what restaurant magicians do and what they actually do are entirly different. Also I am not looking for "One Trick DVD's" I want a range of different effects in their. Just throw some ideas out there guys so I can do a little research and check in on what will be useful to me.

Thanks in Advance.

In pretty much the same branch of idea, I have been performing close up for about 15 years now. I did a few gigs here and there but nothing too serious. It's been 2 years since I last did a classic pass with a deck. I decided 2 weeks ago to get rid of all my old Magic books. It's funny how fate sometimes work out, Once i finished posting ads for all of my magic stuff, I started browsing through them and i got bit by the Magic bug again.

This time i have 2 very specific goals in mind.

1- I want to land a Restaurant Gig
2- I only want to learn killer effects.

Sooooo much has happened here at Penguin in 2 years. So many new products came out and there are so many effects i did not have a chance to see. I went to my friends house who is still into magic and he showed me a few things that could interest me.

Turns out that was exactly what i needed so i ordered a bunch of stuff to build an entirely new repertoire.

Things that i will be working on to hopefully incorporate in a restaurant gig is:

- Energy Bill - http://www.penguinmagic.com/specialorde ... p?ID=11146

- Control DVD - Wayne Houchin (slow your heart rate down)

- Tarantula - http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=1931

I will probably order the True Astonishement box as my friend told me theres at least 2-3 tricks per DVD i could use that are killer effects.

So consider that i will also soon have this piece of magic with me. What other effects do you guys recommend for me to look for to build a routine on for restaurants?

Thanks !

If you already have the Art of Astonishment books, there's very little reason to buy this DVD set, since most of the material on it can be found in those books. If you don't have the Art of Astonishment books, buy them instead of the DVD set.

I do weddings (close enough, I hate restaurants) and use 5 things off Party Animal DVD, ring+string stuff collected from different people, Liquid Metal, Paperclipped, coins across, a one-coin routine, Search and Destroy and a topit. If you don't have a topit, that's like 230482358234 tricks right there, and they all look completely different.

If you have a jacket, that opens up a wealth of crap. 8-ball production under card fans, vanishes, Jesus ... hundreds. When you have the spectator check your sleeves to ensure they're empty, show your hands completely empty then drop an 8-ball from under some cards onto the table with a thud ...

Hmm... Good DVDs with several effects that hit hard for restaraunts...

Front Row Sankey is your DVD.

Or Dangerous:// Mystique by Daniel Madison over on T11. I use EVERY single effect from that DVD. Only one I own I can say that about.

I wouldn't completely rule out one trick DVDs, though. Holy Moly and Lit are PERFECT for restaraunts as well.

Yeah i have the AOA books but not many things fall in the whole "Miracle" aspect im looking for. When i first started 15 years ago, I wanted to learn as many tricks as I could but im not focusing more on quality than quantity.

I might go for Extreme Burn by Richard sanders.
and I cant wait to get my Tarantula lol .. My friend showed me distortion by T11 (i think) and THAT's the kind of effect im looking for ... Something amazing !!! I also bought recently Sleeping queens in which you hypnotize a queen and she falls asleep (closes her eyes) and you wake her up (Eyes open) .... This was OK but this I dont think this kind of trick has the WOW impact im looking for. I was thinking about getting Flow ... I know how to do it but i want the DVD to get all the handeling as well as the "thing" to make it happen.

Flow
Control
Tarantula
Energy Bill

These are the kind of effect i liky-a-lot these days.

I love topit, it must be the best buy EVER.

Magic Menu Series - HUGE books dedicated to restaurant magic. From what I hear, it's like Apocalypse for restaurants.

Speaking of Apocalypse...

Pick up just ONE of them and you'll basically be set for life. I got Vol. 6-10 for my birthday, and it is HUGE! 720 pages of all kinds of magic - cards, coins, rope, cups and balls, etc. You name it, it's in there! I doubt I'll ever buy another magic book, no way will I ever run out of material.

Yes I do have a jacket, and No i do not currently use topits, I was interested in them but them I am not sure, it kind of faded.

I'm getting a new vest / jacket custom made one to replace the one I've have for about 2 years or so now and I now need more positioning and organisation rather than pockets everywhere, so if you guys could direct me to a DVD or Book or anything that has information on topits it would be greatly appreciated

Also how about the art of astonishment books or card college? Would they have efffects and routines that can be adapted to restaurant work?

Thanks.

Carl Cloutiers "expert topiting", GREAT dvd, trust me, that combined with "expert sleeving" will totally enhance your magic. you learn a lot of techniques and examples of tricks to use them in.

Yep i have the Magic menus.

And again, I'm not looking for magic tricks but rather for Miracles.

I just ordered Richard Sanders Extreme Burn. I know how the trick works but i am getting the DVD for the special something and for his teachings. This looks like real magic .... Cutting a rope and restoring it is not a miracle to my eyes.

Thansk for the suggestion though.

Oh almost forgot ... I also Ordered Reconstruction from Jay sankey as well as Moving Violation. These 2 effects are not miracles but they are highly Visual and easy to understand. They fall in the category of "If I could really do magic, this is how i would do it" ... I was also shown Distortion from T11, that completely blew me away. I was able to try it out with a friend and i love this. This will probably be my next order.

Any advice?

orcishorde, you originally asked for card and sponge effects which leaves me wondering why you're not doing coin magic. Michael Ammar's "Complete Guide to Coin Magic" will give you plenty of slights to add literally hundreds of coin effects to your routine.

To be honest, I have never been a fan of coin magic in restaurants and another reason why is its Australia. For me to get things like a coin bite or a expanded shell and such i need them all custom made, which would could me a bit.

Currently in my Walk around routines i use:

- Cards (Teens +)
- Ropes (All Ages)
- Sponges (All Ages)

and then i use a few other tricks here and their like use of a T.T and silk and such, but the bulk of my routines are from the 3 items above.

I try to keep away from notes too, because Australian money is plastic and see through in certain spots and all the notes are different sizes, so its nearly impossible to do magic with our notes. . . bar a few effects.

Why else would you recommend then besides coins? with the exception of notes.

You're needlessly overcomplicating things. You don't need gimmicks like a coin bite or an expanded shell in order to perform strong coin magic. In fact, a surprising amount of very good coin magic can be performed with the most rudimentary of coin sleights -- finger palm, thumb palm, shuttle pass, Bobo Switch; add a good retention vanish, the Tenkai Pinch, the Classic Palm, and (depending on what you want to do) Han Ping Chen and you have pretty much all you need for restaurant work.

Coin magic is PERFECT for restaurants, no matter what kind of coins are available to you. Coins are ubiquitous, especially in a restaurant setting; they are an ideal "borrowed object." If your routines involve ungimmicked coins, you don't even have to carry your own props, freeing your pocket space for other things.

Sure, you can rush out and buy gimmicks, but there is so much relatively easy to do strong coin magic out there that you really don't have to. A few things that come to mind from my performance repertoire are Tenkai Pennies, A Questionable Trick, Gadabout Coins, Scotch & Soda (I don't use gimmicked coins), Coins Across, Coins Through Table, Sheep & Thieves, a One-Coin Flurry...

Think about how strong it can be to just walk up to a table with nothing in your hands... borrow three 20-cent coins... make them fly invisibly from one hand to the other... then make them pass through the surface of the table one by one... then hand two of them back as you comment about how this one coin here is really the source of all the magic ("I bet you didn't even know you had one of these...")... go into a one-coin flurry ending with the complete vanish of the coin. They might not even ask for it back, which means you get a tip on top of it all.

Don't pass on coin magic. One of my single biggest regrets is that I didn't devote enough time to coin work in my formative years as a magician, and now I'm playing catch-up. But even so, I have still been able to pull together routines of strong coin magic without having to do any ridiculous knuckle-busting techniques.

Thanks for the addvice Caffeinator I have ITBTWC but never really took hold of it, I'll buy bobo's book and look into it. Thanks for opening my eyes