I'm gonna perform a quick show for my family and friends. Tell me what you think.

ninja rings
sponge balls
radar deck
professors nightmare
scotch and soda
radar deck
cups and balls

I'm tinking of adding silent treatment but im not sure

-JonJon

How long is "quick"? Because, at my pace of performing, I'd probably limit it to a three trick routine that takes up a good ten minutes. That's just me though. If I had to choose three tricks out of your list, I'd do ninja rings, cups and balls, sponge balls. I'd relate my presentation to me showing them the classics of magic and such.

Again, that's just my style.

Usually when I do shows for my cousins, uncles, aunts, (family) I do a about a 45 minute routine. I never used those tricks though. With that routine, as you can see, is not very long. 25+ minutes? That's why. I want to do a nice solid show for them. But are the tricks decent in a correct order?

-JonJon

Here's my thoughts.

Prof. nightmare should be part of a bigger rope routine. Same with scotch and soda, a coin routine. And I don't know what radar deck is, and I don't know why you're doing it twice, but if it's a bike deck then use it with a card routine. It doesn't make sense to just randomly switch props for one trick when you can put them in a smoother pattern.

haha. Radar deck is supposed to be in there once. Anyways, I can transition presto printo and radar deck together. I'm not gonna add silent treatment . But yes, PN will be a big routine, same with ninja rings, cups and balls, and scotch and soda.

-JonJon

I think you aren't doing justice to your effects. I mean, 25 minutes? Where's the presentation?

Did I not say 25+ minutes? Anyways, it's just an idea. It came right off the top of my head. It's just a quick thought. With patter and great presentation, this routine, I think, will be great.

1. this is not a rutine this is a show

2. when you have a show, then itæs bether that every thing fit's pretty good to gether... not, i'm going to do the radar deck... and now i'm going to do some other mind less thing...

3. try to make it simple

Povallsky's rules of thumb for creating original shows for the theatre group he performs for:

1) Pick a theme
2) List ALL the effects that fit that theme blatantly
3) List ALL the effects that can be moulded to fit
4) Draw a line from one weeker one, through two or three middle power and one really strong one
5) Write an entirely new script based on the character I play, the theme I'm playing and the effects I'm performing
6) Jot down how long each effect will take, each section of talking and the intro and outro, add it all up and if things don't fit for time, cut them out
7) Practise and rehearse until two days before the show, leave it a day, run through briefly day of show and then go on stage.

Example:

Theme? Casino, gambling.
Obvious choices? Koran's Medallion, Wilson's Envelope Stand, my own original effect based on Absolute Magic by Mayne.
Other choices? Oddball (Oberon) presentation using spectators' money and burning envelopes.
Line? Not much to choose from but Koran's Medallion, Envelope Stand, Oddball, Mayne variation.
Wrote the script, completely rewriting the presentations for Koran's Medallion and the Envelope Stand, checked for time and eventually turned my version of Absolute Magic into an Oddball presentation having cut the other due to over running.

I did exactly the same when I wrote Fire and Blood with Magic Rich my performing partner a couple of years back, and again when I wrote Choice just this month. I must have listed 15 effects I could perform on stage and narrowed it down to just five. Completely rewrote the script for the intro to Jermay's Silence Soundly Speaks for the show, and I've invented two of the effects to be played.

Anyway, I think that a sucessful magic show has a running theme, a hook, something that will always serve as the link from one effect to the next. Even if that link is simply grand illusion or fairy tale and pantomime, your show needs something. Using just cards is a start, but using just cards and going from magic to mind reading to magick is better (maybe). Using just coins is ok, but start with appearing some from nowhere, ruin a few by bending them, do some transpo and penetration then vanish the ones left and I think it'll work better.

Sorry this turned into a bit of an essay but I always try to think like a professional magician in regards to performance and staging; I view every spectator as a potential client, and if they see a show they like I want them to think about hiring me to perform it again. I'm not going to win hearts and minds by walking from stage left to stage right saying "and now for my next trick...". I don't think of my shows as a string of effects, a natural progression from one magical moment to another, I think of them as whole packages of entertainment. Yes, I want people to experience my own particular brand of magic, but I really want them to be entertained by it. I feel the best way for me to achieve that is to create professionally minded shows, carefully considered and planned, scripted with indepth though to the words used and left out, and rehearsed until they are polished.

So, think of a theme, work around it and entertain people.

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