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I'm sharing a bit of my "A" material here because the this section needs some juice.

Senex

Philosopher
Senex
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
6,061
Location
The Connecticut School for Rumpology.
I'm sharing a bit of my "A" material here because the this section needs some juice.

This thread won't run afoul of exposing secrets (even if that is no longer an issue) because it isn't a magic trick. It's more like a stunt or a joke but you represent it as a magic trick when you start. Under no circumstances are you to sue me or Penn and Teller who wrote the article I learned this from if you damage your eye. Reader beware.

OK, this works best if you have been drinking with people thinking your judgement may be off and you and your audience are at the local Waffle House having a bite before calling it a night. You proudly state that you are going to perform a magic trick with a metal fork and your eye. You take a fork and start poking around the outside of your eye with it. I GUARANTEE your audience will be uncomfortable and ask you to stop. You act offended and tell them they are in the presence of a true artist. What your audience doesn't know is that you have cupped/palmed a small coffee creamer in your left hand. When you have worked your audience up to a frenzy that they think you are nuts you bring your left hand up to your eye (hiding the creamer from their site) and puncture it with the fork and squeeze it and the cream (eye juice) will spurt across the table definitely scaring the hell out of the gullible members of the table.

It's brilliant.
 
Since this thread has been resurrected by popular demand I will offer more of my "A" stuff.

What I"m about to write is secret magic stuff. Don't read unless you honestly wish to learn about magic (I'm particularly looking at the single, middle-aged ladies who shouldn't read how the sausage is made.)

Two words: thumb tip. The bare handed cigarette vanish is as jaw dropping an affect as anything.
 
deadrose said:
Not sure how secret thumb tips are, since they come in kid's "Be a Magician" kits. They're handy for doing psychic surgery though.
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No bulloney, I have truly amazed people just using a thumb tip. You can get away with stuff right under your audience's nose and also at a distance. There was a period in my life where I patted myself down before leaving my apartment. I needed to touch my keys, wallet, watch and thumb tip before taking on the night.

I'm clumsy but good at misdirection. The thumb tip can be considered a gateway magic trick so I should proceed with caution. I'm lazy and have always looked for the easy way to perform miracles. The thumb tip is the easy way.

My hope is young skeptics who read this unpopular thread find a nugget.
 
My color changing knives routine has practically earned me a harem. Hand someone a white pen knife to examine and then change it to red and then back to white and then red again and hand back a red knife to be reexamined. It's a standard affect that costs a few dollars and some practice but it pays off big.

I'm writing this one only because I no longer seem to meet people from the site (so you won't see me perform this) and wish to help someone monitoring this dead thread for ideas.

Loops. It's expensive and I'm cheap but it looks like real magic. One thing I do is tell my audience how much of a skeptic I am and then say there is one exception about moving stuff with your mind and i take their glasses off and put them on the table and I can make their glasses move. Right under their noses under any lighting conditions. No bulloney, some people who know me may have believed I cracked the psychokinetic issue through internet reading. It looks like real magic.
 
This is true.

I've never actually mastered any sleight-of-hand, but I was an assistant when my dad revived his stage magic career in the 70's and I spent a year working for Stan Kramien as a roadie, concessionaire, and occasional assistant.

It was an awesome year, and I learned a lot. Never managed to make it down to his Jamboree in Oregon. By the time I could afford it, he'd stopped having them.
 
deadrose said:
This is true.

I've never actually mastered any sleight-of-hand, but I was an assistant when my dad revived his stage magic career in the 70's and I spent a year working for Stan Kramien as a roadie, concessionaire, and occasional assistant.

It was an awesome year, and I learned a lot. Never managed to make it down to his Jamboree in Oregon. By the time I could afford it, he'd stopped having them.
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Through some crazy coincidence I'm reviving my stage magic career and am in need of a female roadie, concessionaire, and occasional assistant. What are the odds? :D hehehe...

Gimmicked decks. There are a number to choose from. It's best if you have an identical nongimmicked deck to switch to.
 
Ha! Back then I was a skinny 19 year old who could carry 4/5 of her body weight easily. Now I'm nearly 59 and too plump to fit into your average stage illusion.

And yes, I've though about just using gaffed decks, but my hands are so small I can't even shuffle cards properly, much less palm one, so it seems like complete cheating to do any card magic at all.
 
deadrose said:
Ha! Back then I was a skinny 19 year old who could carry 4/5 of her body weight easily. Now I'm nearly 59 and too plump to fit into your average stage illusion.
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hehehe... I find magical assistants in their late 50's and early 6o's to be my favorite demographic of assistance.
And yes, I've though about just using gaffed decks, but my hands are so small I can't even shuffle cards properly, much less palm one, so it seems like complete cheating to do any card magic at all.
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I never felt using gaffed decks was cheating. Entertaining is entertaining.

deadrose said:
I'd bet I can still spin floss though, it's like riding a bike.
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I'm hoping "spin floss" is a euphemism. ;)
 
Eh, it's carny for cotton candy. My boss was an old carny, one of the other 2 roadies was a carny, and we frequently did joint shows with a small circus so I learned a lot of the language & culture, and was declared an honorary carny by the circus crew.

Took me a few months to rein my mouth in when I left, I coulda made a sailor blush :D
 
deadrose said:
Eh, it's carny for cotton candy. My boss was an old carny, one of the other 2 roadies was a carny, and we frequently did joint shows with a small circus so I learned a lot of the language & culture, and was declared an honorary carny by the circus crew.

Took me a few months to rein my mouth in when I left, I coulda made a sailor blush :D
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May I ask you to share one story? Your stories outdistance mine.
 
Hm, what sort of a story? Having our load-in turning out to be up a fire escape in the rain? Fun with 4 tons of equipment, I tell you. If I remember right that was also about the time where the magician's wife and onstage assistant was possibly going to have to leave at any moment because her father was deathly ill, which would have put me onstage in her place.

The problem was that she was 6' tall, with quite a figure, and I was 5'2" with a figure that got me mistaken for a pubescent boy on a regular basis. None of her costumes would have fit me in any dimension at all. When I *did* appear onstage I was generally wearing a clown suit and appearing from an empty "dolls house" box.

I was actually the right size for most illusions though, she had to go through some painful contortions to get sawed in half at her height.

Or are you more interested in hearing about shows with the circus and becoming fast friends with their young elephant? Or something else entirely?
 
I've always been an attentive audience member for wardrobe malfunction stories.

However, I know you have many interesting performing stories (elaborating just on what you mentioned ) that would be fun for everyone to read and would give some needed juice to the Conjuror's Corner.
 
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