The other day I was at a restaurant eating dinner, and practicing some routines when I caught the attention of a couple of employees who were fascinated by my magic. It ended up with a little "mini-magic show" around my table and after I payed the bill the owner came over and asked me if I wanted to come over one night to entertain the guests.

We didn't discuss any payment, but I'll be happy to do this for free, as it sounded fun, and it would probably be a good experience for me.


Anyway, over to the actual topic. I'm relatively new to the restaurant arena, and would be glad for opinions and suggestions on building my routine.

I'm thinking of maybe starting off with sponges, switching to cards and ending with loops or Liquid Metal. I am tempted to use flash paper as well : ] Maybe some money magic in between, if its not too lenghty.

Effects im thinking of using:

Sponges
- my sponge routine

Cards
- an ACR/card to wallet routine
- Reparation (torn and restorn card routine)
- 2 card monté
- Gaffed cards from ellusionist (mostly effects from the DVD "army of 52")

Money magic
- Extreme burn (visual bill-change)
- Pen through dollar
- Floating dollar bill

Loops
- Spinning fork, etc.

Packet tricks
- Invisible deck
- Cardtoon 2
- Mental Photography
- In a flash
- Strange Travelers

Shoetricks..?
- Self tying shoelace
- Interlace

Flash paper effects
- Blaze of Glory (flash paper card visually turns into the selected signed) card
- Wholehearted (torn and restorn paper heart, you get the picture)

Other
- Spun
- Bruised
- Origami Rose
- Liquid Metal

I think its hard combining a few selected of the above effects into a short, nice walkaround routine that makes sence. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated

produce a sponge from flash paper/acr/pen through dollar/float something.

Sounds pretty good to me.

I am not the best resource for advice in this area, but here's my 2 cents anyway:

Consider your environment. What tricks work in this space? Is there a surface to perform on? Are all the props usable in this environment(i.e. will they break easily/are they damaged by water? etc.)?

Consider your props/gimmicks. Are they easy to carry around? How many will you take? Where will you keep them before, during, and after your performance?

Consider the effects themselves. Are they suitable for the venue (based on the above reasons mostly)? What is the reset time like? How good are the angles (considering you may be almost surrounded)?

Personally, i would try to have as many impromptu or near impromptu pieces as possible. Preferably magic you can do with things found in the resaurant itself. I would keep bulky gimmicks and gaffs to a minimum, if only so i'm able to carry it all. Also, try to borrow objects from spectators as much as possible.

I recently got Sankey's DVD The Real Work on Restaurants and Bars (because i hope to begin doing resaurant work shortly) and it is a goldmine. Seriously, not even counting the effects taught (which are very very good) the advice he gives on all aspects of resaurant work is teriffic. I would seriously consider picking this up if you plan to do resaurant work more often.

Hope this has helped.

Sponge ball production with flash paper actually sounds pretty cool. How about wrapping flash paper around "one" spongeball, light it and there's suddenly two. Nice idea maloney : ]

elipark: thanks for the advice man, I didn't give the angles much thought actually, I'll check out sankeys dvd. also, i guess i should pick up a japanese dictionary since this is in tokyo, haha. I'm not much of a fan of much patter anyway

Oh boy...

There is nothing wrong with that statement. The greatest magicians in the past used to do silent acts. Cardini, Slydini, even Vernon had silent acts. the thing is ENTERTAIN!!!!

I can bet they didn't do a whole silent act whilst strolling or table hopping!

I think patter whilst table hopping/strolling would go down a whole lot better!

But if the guys in Japan their is no choice, good luck to you anyway.

To quote myself, I said was not fan of much patter. My japanese is "ok", so I'll be able to get the messages across at the very least least.

I do patter, of course. I'm a magician not a mime. But I just seem to think the magicians who throw jokes every other second and gives a little story before each trick, in the end, seem like smartasses. I like to rely on body language, short, meaningfull lines, and eye contact. It's just my personal preference, though. Each magician has his own style.

fair enough. i have experimented with an 'amazement' style, where i used very little patter and let my tricks speak for themselves.

that said, i'm also a big fan of comedy magic, and i think it can add a lot to the effect.

yeah, as long as they are entertained we've done our jobs right? : ]

i find myself adapting my patter to each different situation. for example, if there are kids present, my patter changes accordingly. same with crowds that have been drinking or are in an extremely good mood, i'd throw in some sillyness or jokes.

but generally, i try to create a little atmosphere of suspence and supernaturality (if that's even a word). that's what i found works best for me, but as said before we are all different people, and have to find what works best for each and every one of us ; )

Sounds good.

You think? Iv sat through acts at the Magic Circle, and seen "and now il turn the card over, and now it jumps to the top..." and im just waiting to it to end so i dont look rude leaving.

On the other hand, the "imagine the cards are swans that are jumping through hoops in heaven" magicians annoy me equally as much.

A small story with a fair amount of jokes tends to me most entertaining. In my opinion, no jokes makes it pretty boring for me!

i lol'd

I don't do it like that. When i perform in this way, it becomes more 'drama' than anything else. Like you see some stage performers do. It only tends to work for bery visual magic, which is the only time i use it.

But like i said, i don't use it very often, i definately prefer patter. Just sometimes it seems to fit.