Alright,

So, i'm Rob. I'm 22 years of age, own a successful "Walk-Around" Illusion business called "Revel Magic" and like short walks around a pool (screw the beach, too much sand).

I've been performing walk-around at weddings, stag/ettes, corporate events, and a few restaurants for 2 1/2 years and have loved every moment of it; however, my ULTIMATE passion is public speaking. I love making speeches and saying them infront of 1000's of people because it is (for me) the best feeling in the world.

Now, you're probably thinking "well, what the edited is your post about then?"

Because i love both magic and public speaking, i have contacted many production companies (the ones who throw $20,000 budget corporate events with crazy entertainment). luckily, they loved my close-up stuff but now want to see what i can do on stage (because that's where they need me).

now, don't get me wrong, i have some pretty crazy stage illusions (gut buster, bill in kiwi/lemon, a 4 phase quick change, bisection, floating rose, my own metal (fork) bending routine, to name a few) and have practiced and practiced and practiced and practiced the routines for each of them; however, i hate to say that i have no idea what to do in between the illusions! i don't want to be stuck having to say the title of this topic.

so, what i'm getting to is... what do i do to lead one illusion into another, or even better, can anyone give me examples of some LONG patter that i may give before each trick instead of just asking for a bill from a volunteer for the bill in kiwi.

also, keep in mind, i try to be a comedic magician; not a david blaine/chris angel -esque "i need to concentrate really hard for this one" magician.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for your help!

Rob, get it touch with me and we can chat about it.

Sam

Last show I did was the majority of material from Pre thoughts (Banachek) which flows nicely from one effect to the other. When I deviated from his show I added in that Sankey effect where you predict a word they have you cut a list in half at (so the word's in half). I thanked the spectators that had come to sit down on stage, shook the young lady's hand and held on tight holding my head mentalist style. I told her to stay where she was cause I'd gotten an image from here, rah rah rah, did my next trick.

When me and my old performing partner Magic Rich did a show a little while ago we had a comedy of errors theme running through the show, constantly trying to redeem ourselves from our 'mistakes' each time we moved on. And the show we did before that had us trying to outstage the other all the time.

My next show's called "Dr. Wu's Fabulously Expensive and Utterly Unique Casino Experience" and what ties things together is the gambling theme I'm using. Each effect involves gambling something, be it my money, spectators' money or even my own safety. I've not got 100% script for it cause that's not how I work, but I know that as I move through the show I shall explain a little more about Dr. Wu's and what makes it so unique (and expensive) and introduce each effect as a demonstration or explaination of the new piece of information I'm giving the audience.

If you're doing your corporate stuff your patter wants to be focused in on corporate ideas. So, when you're talking about the bill in kiwi, why not try talking about how what the company wants is the customer's money, bring out your kiwi with the company logo or name on it, borrow some money and make it vanish. Continue talking about how the customer must be kept happy though, ask your lender if he wants his money back and when he says yes, give him his refund from inside the kiwi. I'll admit I'm not even sure if I know how bill in kiwi works, but I find if you sit down for long enough and think about something, ideas come.

What I'd do is think, what do I want to do and in what order. I like to use slightly generic lines if I haven't got a really good one like "now, I wanna try something a little different here" or "not that I want to darken the mood but can anyone lend me a 20?". Walk around with a note book and jot down ANY and ALL ideas you get for things to say between before or after certain illusions. Even if you don't use half of them this time round, you'll have a whole book full of lines of patter you didn't have before you started the book.

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Thanks povallsky!
I appreciate your words of advice. I think i just have to compile all of the illusions i am going to perform and put them in a specific order that will allow them to flow into each other. My routines for each individual illusion are very adaptable and I feel very comfortable performing them (even winging it because I have practiced the actual sleights); however, it is dificult to flow from one to another. i guess i have to realize that some tricks can definitely flow into each other, but other quasi "show stoppers" have to have a pause after them so that I can allow the audience to let what they just saw "sink in".

Any more help would be greatly appreciated!

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