How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

Ring on Car Keys Trick When You’re Too Young to Drive

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Ring Flight Car Keys

By Ben Williams & Dominic Reyes

It seems that just about every magician is performing the ring on car keys trick, but Ben can’t do it.. he’s too young to drive.

 

Ben writes: ‘I am looking to purchase a ring flight, but many of them require a car key on your key-ring. However, I cannot drive yet as I’m only 15. Therefore,can you suggest some other possible alternative to the ring on car keys trick!’

Yep, a car key on your keyring might look very odd if you are too young to own a car. Don’t feel too bad though. Avoiding this trick might be your best move. The ‘ring on car keys trick’  is starting to be REALLY over done commercially. A lot of working magicians use that ending, and professional magicians are starting to find audiences expecting the ending, especially when they work in city bars or for corporate crowds that are used to seeing close up magicians.  There is no need for you to follow the crowd and be generic/interchangable.. Seek out effects that audiences don’t see other magicians doing all the time.

If you are looking to mix it up a bit, want to move away from the magic herd, or are simply too young to own a car, there are some great alternatives to the ring on car keys trick:

Ring Flight Case

How about a ring flight to a case instead?

https://www.magicshop.co.uk/ring-flite-by-ronjo-trick

Interlace ring flight

A ring to shoelace will blow your spectators away:

https://www.magicshop.co.uk/interlace-by-richard-sanders

ring flight to wallet

How about having the ring appear inside a nest of wallets:

https://www.magicshop.co.uk/super-soft-deluxe-nest-of-wallets-aka-nest-of-wallets-v2-by-nick-einhorn-and-alan-wong-trick

Departure Car Key Ring Flight

If you really do want to do the ring on car keys trick, it’s important to choose a model that is not over priced, yet will give you rock solid reliability and performance. Many magicians go for the Departure Car Key Ring Flight Device

Magicians on Cruise Ships – Getting Work

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Magicians working on Cruise Ships

Eric wants to know how magicians on cruise ships get work

“I am looking at getting a cruise ship magic gig in the next year or so. I am 17 I have no idea where to start or how to get a job on a ship. Do you have any tips?” – Eric

Hi Eric,

We can try to help, but I can assure you, good cruise ship gigs are very tough to get and very tough to hold onto, there is a lot of competition. Now this may sound negative, what I am about to say, but it is really meant as good advice as it can be very hard to get aboard a ship as their entertainer, they can be quite strict about what they require. Having said that it is great to have goals so I admire your ambition.

Firstly, do you have an act? When I speak of an act I mean a 45 minute scripted performance that you already perform to large groups? Most cruise ships require you to have 2 x 45 minute polished acts, fully scripted and with all the details you need such as lighting, music, amplification all mapped out and understood. This is so that you can go onto a ship and rehearse with the tech team and let them know what you require throughout your act, everything can run like clockwork on a ship so you will have limited time to do this. Mostly you will only be on a ship a day before your act so it is a case of getting on the ship and rehearsing for your next nights performance.

They will require professional head shots and promotional photos of yourself, a biography and a promotional video of your act. If you have these things then you are definitely on the right path. If you haven’t got these things then you may struggle to even get close to having yourself booked on a cruise ship sadly. Cruise ships are big business and they cannot afford to test out acts for their evening’s entertainment, they require full professional acts as their customers have paid good money to be looked after on a ship and be entertained well. Everything on ships is scored by passengers, from the entertainment to the food, from the room service to the activities so they require things to be of a certain standard.

A cruise ship will usually get their acts from an entertainment agent, and not book individually, unless you have a history performing for the ship. It is these agencies that you need to work for and to impress, these agencies are the people who will suggest acts to a cruise ship. I would highly recommend checking out some entertainment agencies and seek their direct advice

Checkout the following ebook that had a directory of agents and advice for getting booked.

I hope this helps, please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Best wishes

Ben Williams