Help Needed: Tricks I'm Not Using
Hey everyone,
I recently picked up a Sucker Punch and a Haunted Key Deluxe. Even though I know how to use them and can perform the tricks, I feel like I bought them for nothing. They're just sitting there, unused, and I'm totally wasting my money.
Could you guys help me get more out of them and actually use them more often?
I really need your help. Thanks!
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Sometimes it happens to me (quite often, actually) that I buy something I'm really stoked about, I practice it, perform it for a beta audience, everything seems wonderful... But the trick just falls flat.
It feels like something's missing: a better script, a different presentation, or complementing it with another effect. When I first saw it, it looked amazing, but then the reactions (mine included) don't live up to expectations.
Just like I have a drawer of "tricks I don't like" and another for "tricks to study," I also have one for "tricks with potential," which is where I stash those types of effects I just described. I know I'll eventually figure out what's missing, even if now isn't that time.
Inspiration often strikes when I see another trick with similar characteristics that, on its own, doesn't quite resonate, but combined with the one I saved previously, they elevate each other into a complete routine (there's always a third, standalone piece to place at the beginning or in the middle). Or when I'm in a creative phase and come up with better presentations. Or when I figure out how to weave a trick around some common elements and capitalize on them. Either way, if the trick has potential, you'll be able to use it. I recommend not writing it off too quickly.
In your specific case, Sucker Punch is essentially a coin set but with poker chips. It's actually designed to be an affordable kit for practicing coin magic, not for standalone tricks. So, if you're performing a trick involving poker hands, or about gamblers, or Las Vegas, or with bills, or about the value of money, etc., you can introduce the chips as elements in one trick and use them for another within the same routine. Among all the effects it includes, you're sure to find something that works for you.
The Haunted Key is a very specific effect, almost bordering on spiritualism, with which you can introduce the presence of ghosts (not necessarily just at Halloween). You can get the Tragic Royalty Bicycle deck, which is very affordable and accessible, with Tim Burton-esque figures that glow in the dark. Or the Boo deck, also by Bicycle, to set the mood, complement, and perform card tricks. Or you could use an inexpensive Indian Rope for the suspension theme. Or Tamariz's mini-car prop, or the haunted glass... I don't know, there are plenty of elements; you just need to use your imagination.
Sometimes I analyze the phenomenon behind an effect to link them together.
And the underlying phenomenon can vary greatly depending on the proposed storyline.
For instance, the key could move due to supernatural presences, or by the power of the mind, or because the key itself is magical. It could be an instrument used by spirits, the magician, the spectator, or even be a character on its own, like the little car @DeZeta mentions (animism).
This gives us many ways to link effects. I have a routine where I string together effects that I connect to the theme of influences – how some things affect others. There, I could incorporate the key as an example that if we have a clear mind, we can even physically influence and move objects.
Or we could create a routine where we suggest there are invisible impish helpers assisting us, influencing our cards, secretly shifting them around, and then, at the end, say something like... "I don't think you're buying it... You probably think I'm the one doing all this," and then "prove it" with the ghost key in the spectator's hands, as if those sprites were moving it. And if you start with the Brothers Grimm's shoemaker's tale, saying that every legend has a kernel of truth, I think that would feel incredibly magical. Man, I really love this idea! I'm definitely tucking this away to create something cool.
But my point is, if we analyze and define the underlying phenomenon (which, as I said, can have many interpretations for the same effect), we can link things together and also create a cohesive narrative and atmosphere that fully engages the audience.
If you have Top Secret, there's a lot more in Chapter 8.
Thanks, but I don't have it
Yeah, I've seen that, but I'd say it's not really for live performance; it's more for social media.