The Genii Forum

You run into a friend or acquaintence on the street, or even a stranger that somehow knows you are a magician. You don't have a deck of cards or packet trick on you, or any playing cards, for that matter. There is no table or working surface accessible. You are not carrying any "tricks" or gaffs, per se, although you have your wallet, perhaps some change, and/or other common every-day articles that someone might ordinarily have on their person. The friend (or stranger) asks if you can do a quick trick for them. What do you do?

Borrow a coin! Borrow a bill or two.

The vanish of a small object is one of the purest forms of magic there is (and likely one of the oldest). Go with that.

I could go on for ever and ever although I might only do one trick. I judge the mood and the reaction before deciding when to stop. There are a ton of coin tricks you can do. I don't carry a wallet but when i did there were all sorts of packet tricks in there. As for a working surface there are two ways to handle that. One is that they hold their hands out flat and use THAT as a table albeit a limited one or even better if there are at least two people present stretch a handkerchief out so they both hold taut it between them by the corners.

Mind you, it is unheard of me not to have a deck of cards on me. Very rare indeed. I always carry in my left trouser pocket and have done virtually every day of my life for over 50 years two dice, two large copper coins and one silver plus my most wondrous dotty spots trick which is the one I would tend to most frequently.

Of course in the rather more or less impossible scenario that I had absolutely NOTHING on me I could always read the person's palm. It is not magic but they would be far more interested in that than anything done by the greatest hotshot magician on earth. Come to think of it I imagine there are probably some terrific mental effects around where you have no props whatsoever. I can't think of any offhand but I am sure there quite a few.

Grey elephant in Denmark has worked for me.

On a bicycle ride in Bali, we stopped in a small village just as school was getting out. As a group of foreigners, we were approached by young school children. I picked up a stick and a stone and did things I would normally do with a pen and a coin.

have a look here for lots of ideas for practical magic.

There's also Micheal Weber's book "Lifesavers"

I have a couple of one-coin routines of my own devising. And the presentational premise of one of them is that I have no props with me.

The old "think of a finger" trick works very well. It is described in the Magic Digest by George Anderson which incidentally, I have always thought a wonderful book.

Bill Mullins wrote:Fingers across

But it's supposed to be impromptu. He's obviously using a shell.

When I was young, I used to carry around a trick in my wallet wherever I went, because I was brought up to think that a good magician should always be ready to perform at a moment's notice.

However, now that I am old and cranky, the thought of that seems just a little bit weird. After all, if we find out that a new acquaintance sings, we generally don't ask her to hum a few bars, nor do we expect an artist to do a quick portrait over drinks. That goes for professions outside the arts as well: docs generally don't like strangers running their medical problems by them nor lawyers doing a curbside consult when they are in line at the store. I have friends who are married to massage therapists--they certainly don't expect their spouses to be asked to ply their trade as a conversation starter.

I've got nothing against impromptu magic if a magician wants to do it of their own volition or if they feel they need to in order to build business or their reputation. It's just that audiences who insist you must: "Do a trick!" seem somewhat presumptuous.

How do ya'll feel about doing magic on "demand"?

Bill Mullins wrote:Fingers across

Thanks, Bill.

I never knew the name of Art's song - it is from the 1930 musical "Fine and Dandy , music by Kay Swift.
It ran for 255 performances.

Here is your Tune Worm for the day, to pep up your impromptu act

¡Viva Art Metrano!

1. Fine And Dandy - Arden-Ohman Orchestra (Frank Luther, vocal starts at 1:11.)
(No "Da da DA da, da DA da da da"
but
"Gee, it's all - Fine and Dandy/ Sugar candy, when I've got you".)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQxKS5EFZw

2. The Dorsey Brothers (Harold Lambert, vocal at 1:15).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX-9_SzvoMk

3. Chet Baker Quintet (yes, that Chet Baker - very cool.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drOrQ2doTbI

4. Charlie Parker with the Joe timer Orchestra (1953)
"Bird Lives!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NDnrXepfFs

5. Jack Lemmon. (Yes, that Jack Lemmon.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH3aNKm0_xo

..... and many more artists who covered this song.

Either: (1) A complete vanish of a borrowed coin. I reimburse them with a coin that is in the zipped change compartment of my wallet. If they believe it's their original coin, all the better (I certainly don't try to dispel that belief); or (2) A torn and restored bill using their bill - I use a version called "Ripstoration" that I learned off a Harry Lorayne DVD. When you return the bill they don't find the tear.

erdnasephile wrote: How do ya'll feel about doing magic on "demand"?

I will always perform magic on demand providing people really want to see it. It is my raison d'etre. How the hell do you expect to be any good if you don't show people your work? What the hell did you take magic up for in the first place if you don't show it to people? And it doesn't have to be for money either. I am a great believer in doing it everywhere and anywhere. I remember when i was younger doing it everywhere from the top of a London bus, to a bowling alley to a park or even a hotel lobby. That is how I got good in the first place. After a while the reactions were fantastic.

However, I am not alone. Blackstone senior would do it everywhere and anywhere as did Hermann the Great as did Nelson Downs as did Paul Rosini and many more. If you are a professional it builds your reputation. If you are an amateur it is even more important that you do it because if you don't you will have very few people to show the tricks to after all your friends and family will have seen it a million times.

Good thoughts, Performer. I agree.

Erdnasephile, I did not literally mean "demand," in the sense of someone demanding you show a trick. I meant when someone requests. It was a figure of speech.

Oddly enough I love it when people demand to see a trick. Now some magicians take the attitude that they are not performing seals to perform at the drop of a hat just because someone is presumptuous enough to demand it. They will refuse to perform if they sense the requester is being arrogant in his manner and is almost ordering them to perform. Not me. I LOVE it! It means that I can let them underestimate me and I can then go in for the kill. Someone like that has a tendency to heckle or bully the performer and I have always liked that since I allow them to do it on the principle that if you give a man enough rope he can hang himself. And they always do.

Far better than being the big I AM as so many magicians tend to be including so called hot shots of close up magic. Far better to underplay matters, let them underestimate you and then you turn the tables on them.

Performer iso a rare breed of magician. And I, for one, like it!

I am surprised that more magicians have not seen fit to share what they would do in the impromptu scenario suggested...

MagicbyAlfred wrote:Performer iso a rare breed of magician. And I, for one, like it!

I am surprised that more magicians have not seen fit to share what they would do in the impromptu scenario suggested...

Thank you for your kind words, Alfred. Naturally I agree with every word of it!

Invisible Flight - Clayton Rawson

A New Method of Discovering a Chosen Card - Ellis Stanyon.

I usually have rubber bands with me, so that's typically my first "go-to" but if I literally have nothing on me - I do the "blister finger" using one of the holes on my belt to make the blister. They pick a finger on one hand, I put a blister on the same finger of the other hand and then transfer their 'energy' to said finger.

A version of "two in the hand, one in the pocket" using change, especially borrowed coins. A routine where the coins are different (looking for inspiration from Eddie Joseph's "Back Again" or "Nuts to You" from Bobo) are more effective than a version in which all "three" coins are the same.