Is it alright to do just card tricks when you are doing restaurant walk around? I pretty much just do all card tricks and thats it. Also when you are going form table to table, do you sit in with them, pull up a chair? Whats best?¿ And how many tricks is best per table? 1 or 2, then move on?

Thanks. Paul.

Have you ever seen a restaurant magician working?

Some of these questions, that have been asked so many times over, make me wonder. People want to get a job as a restaurant magician but have never seen one and only heard about how good the life is.

It's not forbidden, but people will get bored and you'll lose your job. Variety is the spice of life, and of magic.



Expand your repertoire, or some other magician will take your job from you.



No. You stand, they sit. They are the paying customers.



A good, professional, entertaining show.



Most restaurant magicians do two to three tricks per table. More or less, depending on the circumstances. I'd refer you to some good books on the subject, but no such books are sold at Penguin.

Robert V Frazier

i can't put it better then the 2 guys who already posted.
as paddy said he's a proffesional, and Robert_V_Frazier is learning about the subject (as far as i know...).
i already have an amount of card tricks that could entartain for about 3-4 hours, it would be enough for as many routines with cards as i want for restaurant work, but i do need to vary my act with more things.
the basic routine for restaurant work is a card trick, a coin trick, and something else (doesn't have to be in that order).
i'm right now, like many other people posting in this forum, is working on getting a big amount of coin tricks into my arsenal, so i could vary as much as possibble.
i also think that being a proffesional restaurant performer means being a proffesional magician first! the restaurant is not a place to practice ur tricks on real people instead of the mirror. u first have to be an excellent magician, if u won't, then if another magician would come applying for the job and the manager would simply see that he is a lot more experienced, he wouldn't think twice and hire him over u.

i can say about myself that i'm right now performing for kids, adults, mentalism, stage, closeup, whatever... but i havn't got into the restaurant buisness yet, and i belive that i'm still NOT experienced enough to start with it. i think i'll be ready after i'll gain more tricks and routines possibble with coins, and how to talk with people better face to face.

if u were wondering how old i am, then i'm only 17, and i think i got enough time to gain more experience befor i want to start doing the restaurant work.
i know about paddy and Robert_V_Frazier that their a lot older, and i admire paddy for starting his career as a magician just a few years ago, i think we can all learn a lot from him as a magician.

the best advice i can give u is to start performing for everyone u can (if u havn't done it yet, coz restaurant work is NOT something to start with), by performing diffrent kind of shows u would gain the ability to talk to people and be able to make jokes and get laughs the whole time during ur act, which i think is what were all after, entertaining. as for the restaurant, that's NOT the perpose, the perpose is to EARN MONEY to the restaurant in any possibble way.

if u don't think ur'e ready to do performences yet, then keep practicing, don't give up. i've started doing magic seriously only 2 years ago (bought my first bicycle deck then...), after that i only bought the 3 AOA books from penguin (which is a must have if u ask me), and i've only "spent" 350$ on magic so far. i don't mean to brag (spelling?) here, i just wanted to state that anyone can do magic on stage, for kids, or whatever. but in restaurant magic the magic is much more personal, coz u have to pay attantion to the people and what they say. like if someone says: "i saw u put a card in ur hand, turn the hand palm up!" in that case, u gotta have the ability to know what to say.

anyway, this post is long enough, i can go on and on about restaurant magic, but all i can say is that ur'e not ready yet, and will not be ready for the close time, keep practicing, and best of luck!

Tomer

Thanks for all the help. The thing is I live in a small community and there is like one other magician around. And there is no such thing as Restaurant walk around here. So I can't observer any performers around here for that sort or thing. I do have the confidence and my handling with cards is very good, if i do say myself. I do many many tricks for people at bars and to my friends, I do have the experience performing in front of people and more importantly, infront of strangers.

Do all cards and they will get bored and think you're not a mgician (unless it's an Impossible trick). Learn some coins and other stuff. You might beable to change it all with patter. Magic makes it fun, patter makes it believable.

-Freds

Ya i understand. I do need to broaden my magic tricks. Although I mostly interested in cards and am trying master them. I do need to get into some coin magic. I was thinking of starting off with The Raven? What do you think?

Paul

Get Bobo's Modern Coin Magic first. Cheaper, and has dozens of times more effects than the Raven can do. If you decide to get a Raven after mastering most of the material in Bobo's, you'll be able to do more with the Raven at that point.

Robert V Frazier

I hope you don't think you're going to add just a few coin tricks and that will be it. Coins and cards still isn't VARIETY. Think about all you'll have at your disposal in a restaurant: watches, bottles, napkins, sugar packets, silverware, pens, salt (think TT). Then there are the small things you can bring with you and keep in your pockets: spongeballs, dice, small silk, safety pens, of course cards and coins, bills, possibly buisness cards, and maybe a chop cup to carry some things in.

Of course, if you're starting your variety with coins Sankey's Revolutoinary Coin Magic has alot of stuff good for restaurants.

You could also do some effects with some IT. Lots of tricks can e done with that and TT.

-Freds w/ PM

for the chil'rens do vanishing crayons and then tll them that you have a coloring book (magic coloring book) but you crayons have disapeared so you need their help. works well.

I got my first gig at a restraunt, and I was only prepared with card magic. The only thing is, I'm a very much people person. And regardless of what my prop was that I was using, I sold myself not the trick. I also do stand up comedy. I kinda worked that into my routine. And maybe people liked me just because I was an idiot. I decided to expand and ordered inviso-torch. I would have like that more if I didn't burn the heck out of my thumb in front of some nice kids. But I found throwing in a few oddball things, like crayons, silverare, and things like that helped. But I would do stuff such as after doing a card trick, borrow a ring and ask the kids to give me an object leaning towards the knife, and act like I was going to cut the ring and stop to get a laugh out of the parents. Restraunt magic is all about SELLING YOUR SELF! it's ENTERTAINMENT, no matter how goood the trick, you sell the sizzle not the steak.

You can definitely keep everyone entertained with nothing but cards. It's the presentation that is 80% of the entertainment. Doc Eason on his bar magic video does an entire half hour show with nothing but cards and is extremely fun to watch. Mike Close, who has made his living in restaurants for years and years, has a number of routines using nothing but cards. It's the performer not the prop that's doing the entertaining. I like using different props more so I don't get bored working with nothing but cards. If I get bored my performances will suffer.



Eugene Berger used to have a chair set up for him 5 minutes before he would come to their table to perform to build some suspense. He would come to the table then, sit with them and perform. Can everyone please stop being so dogmatic about everything? What works for one person may or may not work for others.


The bottom line is do what works best for you and your audience. The only thing I ask is that you wait for at least 3 or so years or doing magic before trying to move to a professional venue like a restaurant. Maturity in magic is far different from the traditional definition of maturity. That only comes with time.

OK I am weighing in on this debate. Cards are not enough. They simply are not enough. Yeah you might have some good card tricks but what do you do if some kid asks you to make something disappear? What if the parents want to see mentalism. When I first started doing my coffee shop gig I always had requests. Do this, do that, Can you make a dollar float in the air?


***You might thinks cards are enough but the bottom line is your audience won't and you don't do magic for yourself, you do it for your audience.

Same thing you can do if someone asks you to make an elephant appear. You can make a joke out of it or do whatever comes natural. Granted it is extremely difficult to entertain children with cards. I HATE doing magic for kids, though there are several interesting card effects that can play well for children. (Frog Prince by Mike Close, You don't know Jack by Carl Andrews...). I personally choose to do magic with things other than cards, but my point is that it is possible. I know that it's possible because some successful professional restaurant magicians DO IT. You have to choose what works best for you. My advice was, basically, if you know nothing other than magic with cards then you haven't been seriously studying magic for long enough to perform in a professional venue. When you have studied for long enough and are mature enough in magic to know immediately what effects to do for what groups and how to handle different scenarios, than this will not be an issue! I perform a few routines (typically 3 tricks) with nothing but cards, and many more with other props. Trust me, however, that they are not effects that anyone would say, "oh my Uncle John does that too." I know when I have an audience that will enjoy these routines and which tables need to see a coin flurry or a ring, string, and rubberband routine. Every type of person you may encounter must be taken into consideration when choosing effects for your repertiore. The law is not a good guideline as many people on this forum will say, "I know the 21 card trick, scotch and soda, and crazy man's handcuffs. That's perfect for a restaurant." Your routines must be adapted to fit YOUR personal performing style, venue, and audience.