Boston, Ma. Magician
I've only been at this game for a little over seven years, but early on I realized that there would be a constant evolution in performing and a slow one with material.
When working for the only people that count, the search for the latest and the greatest gets placed on the back burner. If you don't already have at least a handful of "Killer Material", you won't be working very long.
Two [tricks/effects] which have been with me, pretty much from the beginning are "51 Cards to Pocket" (David Williamson) and, "A Familiar Ring. (Paul Gertner) These two pieces are the focus in this blog.
First, there are many variations on 51 cards to pocket. I learned one from Matthew Dowden's DVDs,"Party Animal" This has served me well, and I only adjusted it within the last three months. You see, I ended the routine with a production of the card from my wallet. It always got great reactions, but I already have a few routines in my repertoire where a card is produced from my wallet. Suffice to say, it's not wise to use them all with the same crowd. So, I've owned the Omni Deck for a long time, and I never found the routine that seemed right for me, even though there are many to choose from.You know where this is going, of course. Instead of producing the deck, little by little from my pocket, I remove the Omni deck, with the selection on top. I have the spectator cover the "deck" and the cover card, which is the selection, and to my surprise,when I fished around inside the spectators hands and removed the selection, this got a big reaction, seriously...lots of applause. (I didn't see this coming, as to me, it appeared obvious the selection was on the top of the "deck". Not so! But wait! there's still more...and of course the spectator is unknowingly holding the "Omni Deck." See the reactions in the video
The other piece is Paul Gertner's brilliant routine. What can I say, it plays so well, you've got the emotional hook of a borrowed ring. (usually a man's wedding ring.) There's so much built in humor, and as most of us know, we are not comedians, but magic brings out a lot of laughter.
So what's the problem? Finding a ring to borrow...there is not always one available. I never use a woman's ring with any type of stone or diamond. I've heard the nightmare stories, and I won't be adding a story of my own.
So here's the thing with men and their rings...some men have put on a few pounds since their wedding, and that ring is not going to come off without a saw. Other men will Never! take their ring off...that's O.K. I get it, they see it as a minor betrayal to their wife. So as you can see, sometimes I had to leave the coins to the spectator's hands out of my repertoire, but I wanted to have one available.
One day, I was watching Craig Petty on YouTube, and he was performing a Three coin version for a crowd of people, and not only did the three coins "fly invisibly" to the spectator's hand(s) they proceeded to vanish one at a time with a finale of "The Flurry" (David Roth) with the production of a Jumbo Coin. (Craig produces a second Jumbo Coin, even larger than the first.)
Now, certain parts of this routine could be problematic, but Craig's brilliant structuring solves any problems that could arise...see the results in the video. I've been using this a lot...and every now and then, I perform something special for a couple who are willing to loan me a ring.
