Hello, i was just wondering if any one has advice on creating a nice routine with cards. I have an idea but i would apreciate some tips to help improve it. It also MUST have ACR probably the "closer". but yeah any advice would be great




Thanks

My advice is find effects that you like to perform, and make a list of them. From there, organize the effects into groups so that the effects grouped together have some sort of theme (or, at least, flow into each other well). The routines depend on your personality and presentational style, so you need to find what card effects you like and fit your presentational style to make into a routine. Hope that kinda helps.

-Marc

Actually I think Ambitious Card should be left alone as a routine itself.

Card to Wallet/Shoe/Impossible location is always a good closer. As well as Invisible deck.

That is great advice.

To explain what he means by flow a little more: (just an example)
Start with a four ace production. Go into twisting the aces. Since you still have the four aces out use them for something else. I would do Daley's last card trick. Then to close I would do a variation of the Biddle trick. My patter would connect these tricks as well as the fact that I don't have to stop to find some cards in the deck because I just use the ones I have already.

Hope that helped some.

Another thing you want to keep in mind is that each trick should be stronger than the last. The first trick shouldn't be too strong, but strong enough to grab their attention. A good example of this would be a two card transpo. Then, do a trick that's slightly stronger, like a classic force routine (they keep picking the same card over and over and over again). Then, keep building, until you reach the climax, which is your strongest trick. There are a lot of things you can do for this, such as Paperclipped!, card on ceiling, Omni deck, or card through window.

Hope that helped.

i am pretty sure this works, i start with a decent trick, then do something a little less powerful then hit them with something big, tell me what you guys think about that concept. and do you think this would make your closer say ACR any better on how you lay out your routine, as in using the "decent trick, little less powerful then a massive finish.

---Dan---

^^This is basically right; you should always open and close on the big numbers.

Try this:

First, pick a theme. Then, rate all of your effects you might like to perform in a routine out of 5 (and be honest!) based strictly on how entertaining you think they are from a spectator's point of view. Run through all the 5s (there shouldn't be many) and sort them into Openers and Closers; Openers are quick and easy to follow, and very visual, whereas Closers are the other ones. Now, toss out all the effects scoring less than 3. Look at the time each effect takes and how long your routine will be and add up effects that total about 85% of the time you have, e.g. if your routine will be 30 minutes, you'll want about 22 minutes of magic; the other eight minutes will be introducing yourself, patter inbetween effects and impromptu interaction with your audience. Make sure that you have an Opener at the start and a Closer at the beginning. Last thing to do is to script your routine so each effect links with the ones pre and proceeding it and everything you do fits your theme.

I use this method for coming up with bi-monthly stage shows I put on in Leeds. I know I have 20 minutes on stage, so I always account for about 5 minutes of non-magic. I think up a theme and then make the routine fit around it. Recently I performed a stage show based on control and the effects I performed were all about free choice, how free is choice, how controling choice can be and influencing choice. Very entertaining show to perform and all written and rehearsed ready for stage in just over a week (obviously not a good amount of time but notice was very very short).

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thanks all of you for that advice, its helped alot.


-Sam-

Matter's what type of magician you are I try to get the audience involved with the magic and try to make a comedy routine mixed into it. Throw a joke here and there just not as much as jay sankey XD .

thanks for that, now i know

it also depends what type of audience you have