Hey guys, been performing quite a bit lately, but mostly for friends, family and workmates (big office, lots of people!). I think I have improved alot as a magician over the last months or so (big thanks to the EOM boys for that ofcourse!), but as I perform more and more, I have realised one of the things I am doing now that is having a huge impact on my performance and reactions is personalising performances and tricks as I go (made much easier as you build your repertoire of tricks).

Let me give you guys some examples.

Example 1
I do a trick and one of the spectators go "You must of done something really tricky with your hands!", perfect opportunity to move onto a trick that is pretty hands off, maybe a trick where you start with a double lift, and after the first 2 seconds, the trick is basically done, you can milk the remainder of the trick and go as sloooooooow as you possibly can.

Example 2
I do some trick and everybody is screaming "how did you do that!!", I will reply, you know, it's actually not that difficult, we are all born with magical abilities, but we just gotta unlock it, wait let me show you. Then you do a trick where the spectator does the majority of it.
-Money Cards, spectator chooses random numbers, places in notes and find 4 aces
-Colour Sorting, the spectator helps you sort out a shuffled deck into 2 piles of red and black
-Trick where you say names of a few cards, and the spectator manages to find the cards from a pile, face down.

What do you guys think? Do you have any great examples of this?


     

Thanks mate, awesome post, learnt some things from it.      

I did a version of the Money Cards trick to my friend who recently had a breakup. She was suffocating him. (not literally of course. Just to needy.) He asked me to do a magic trick because they always cheer him up. I said alright. You know girlfriends suffocate you no matter what you do. Not even just with humans. Even with an ordinary deck of cards :P. I then performed then money trick.
This time instead of money next to aces it was king next to queen. The coolest part of this trick was that they even found their own suit! King of hearts next to Queen of hearts. It was cool. I really liked performing this trick because his reaction was just incredible. Mostly because he could relate to it. I think. I cheered my friend up and I also learned a new way to personalize a great trick.
Personally this is one of my favorite tricks because I only touch the cards when I pick them up, and I do that very slowly to avoid suspicion. If you have not learned the Money Card Trick I really really suggest it. It is very easy to perform and you can add your own twist to it which just makes the art of magic that much better.

Your Friend,
kingcole