How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

What You Really Need In Your Close Up Magic Case

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inside-magicians-case
By Paul Knight

Every time I open up my close up magic case, before I hit the road for my next booking, I get that “Darn it! Why on earth didn’t I sort this mess out after my booking last night!”.

I proceed to go through the laborious task of trying to run through everything I should have with ten minutes to spare. “What do I need? Which decks of playing cards can I throw out? My playing cards have signatures all over them. Wow, those ropes look dirty! Oh no, I’ve run out of business cards!! Aurch! Really should have thrown those lemons out”.

So, in an effort to get myself mildly organized I’ve stripped down the contents of my close up case to basics, i.e. What I really use and need.

Nail Scissors
Self explanatory. There is nothing worse than that moment when you’re doing your magic, all focus is on your hands waiting for the final climax to the trick, when you look down and you notice the state of your nails! Not nice! If that’s what you are thinking just imagine what the audience is made of it! So, I always carry my nail scissors with me. A quick trim takes but seconds.

Face wipes
“Face wipes? Face wipes? Are you sure you’re not looking in a makeup case?”
Nope, you heard correctly. I always carry face wipes in my close up magic case. Many reasons. Firstly, you guessed it, to wipe my face. Yep, they are good at that. Secondly, to give my hands a quick clean before I start, all helps with confidence, and thirdly, to wipe off that coffee stain from my tie. Very handy stain removers.

Three decks of playing cards.
One is never enough. Four is too many. So therefore three feels about right. Two would probably be fine, but I’ve decided on three. It’s my choice and I’m sticking to it, and that’s that, ok?

One deck of blank faced cards
I don’t know why, but still to this day asking somebody to sign a card still seems as alien to me as I’m sure it does to spectators. We forget that, to magicians what seems like such a normal thing to do is actually a little bit odd! The number of times I’ve said “Please madam sign your name across the card” only to be looked at like I’m insane. “Really? You really want me sign the card? But that will ruin them!” Therefore, I carry at least 25 blank faced cards inside my jacket, and when a signature is required I ask them to sign a blank faced card. Nobody questions this, and I think it’s more visual. All in all it makes things easier for me and the audience. There is nothing worse than deciding to go into a four ace routine, only to find somebody on the previous table has one of the aces signed.

Three Sharpies
Exactly the same reason as the three decks of cards!

Deodorant
It’s good to smell. Even better if it’s a nice one.

Tie and Bow tie
Sometimes I’ve arrived at a venue ready to perform only to discover all the guests are wearing Bow ties. Good to be prepared.

New rope
I usually end up performing rope routines at some point in my act. I remembered years ago I saw a magician performing rope magic at a table, and the white rope he was using was clearly not very clean! It looked awful and unprofessional. Therefore ever since that day, I have an obsession with using clean, crisp white rope every time I perform now.

Business cards
Never ever leave home without them!

Mints
Refer to explanation of deodorant.

Bottle of water
With all that talking, and sometimes shouting depending on the venue, It’s important to drink. At least if I forget to drink, when I’ve finished I can grab some water when I empty my pockets and load up my case. Hold on! There’s an incentive to organize my close up magic case before my next booking!

One new effect I’ve perfected, but haven’t performed.
Ok. We have all been there. You’ve bought loads of stuff, learnt loads of tricks. Put it all in the close up case. Gone to booking. Left all new stuff in the close up magic case and spent two hours doing everything you always do.

I’ve found that just having one new trick in my case means, once I’ve done my tried and tested routine, I have options. If I feel comfortable to then approach what I know is a very receptive table of people, and perform my new effect.

Essentially, there is only one thing stopping me performing new tricks, and that’s the first performance of it.

Carrying one new trick and then choosing what I know to be a good audience has really helped get the new stuff out of the drawer and into the act.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
So.. That’s what’s in my close up case. Have I missed anything out? Why not take a moment to grab your case or bag now and have a big sort out. It takes moments and you will really benefit from taking the time to prepare a professional close up magic case.

Other posts you might like:
A Magicians Thumb Tip is Insurance
Mistakes when traveling to a gig
Magicians Finger Nails

A Magicians Thumb Tip Is Your Insurance Policy

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thumb-tip-magicians-insuranceIt’s the most common ‘prop’ magic shops sell, if you don’t count Bicycle playing cards. Almost every magician owns one. For many it’s their first introduction into performing magic. Whether they received it in a public magic set, witnessed a sales pitch in a toy shop, or were recommended one by a fellow magician. The Magicians Thumb tip has become an iconic symbol of close up magic.

Why are magicians doing so little with it?

For the last couple years, we have been asking customers in the shop what they plan to do with their thumb tip as they purchase one. The answer 9 times out of 10 is ‘Make a silk vanish’

That’s fine… But it’s really a waste of probably the most useful prop, any magician can carry with them. Used with imagination, the humble Magicians Thumb tip is an entire magic act all in one.

Whenever the team is commissioned to give personal tuition, we always start with the thumb tip. In fact, we recommend that one should go in your close up case and a second one in your car’s glove box, even if you never plan to use it. ‘Why?’ we hear you scream at your screen:

 Because it’s the ultimate magicians insurance policy

Simply by carrying a magicians thumb tip, you have a complete magic act ready to go, whenever and wherever you are.

  • When you travel to a gig and find out you didn’t pack correctly and you have no playing cards.
  • If your bag goes missing at the airport.
  • When you are not planning a show, but suddenly need to impress a future client or lead.

Your magicians thumb tip is going to be there as a trusted back up. It’s very small, doesn’t run out, and best of all it allows you to perform magic with the appearance that you don’t use ANY magicians props at all.

‘But my playing cards are my back up!’

Yes, that’s true. BUT if you do happen to have a deck set aside as a backup, you are limited to card tricks all night. Some magicians love that, but many performers want a variety of different close up magic tricks in their sets, and audiences expect that too.  Unless you are booked specifically as a ‘card magician’ you really should have a broad range of magic tricks in your working set. A thumb tip will give you that, and you never even have to go near a little silk if you don’t want to.

 

‘But it looks just like a big plastic thumb’ 

Don’t be fooled by that. It actually doesn’t matter what the thumb tip looks like. You can spend a fortune of hyper realistic thumb tips, but they will not be any better than  the Classic Vernet Thumb tip which is the most popular tip used by magicians all over the world.The super realistic tips are sometimes nicknamed ‘paranoia tips’. We think that’s a bit harsh as they have their place. The team at the Merchant of Magic tend to only recommend realistic silicone ‘tips’, when a magician reports that they don’t want to use a tip because they feel it would be too noticeable. Before we sell it, we always try to point out the following..

 

The spectators see what they THINK is there, rather than what’s ACTUALLY there. 

Thumb tips work so well because the human mind is lazy. It simply can’t be bothered to process ALL the information that flows in from the eyes. It’s just way to much data to process constantly. Instead, it uses past knowledge of the world to ‘shortcut’ much of the processing needed to understand what the eyes are capturing. Your mind knows what hands look like. It’s seen more than a few in it’s time, and it’s own body probably has up to two of them itself. The brain scans over a hand and registers that it looks fairly normal. It fills in the gaps in its perception and moves on.

The danger is when a trigger is given out that the spectator should pay more attention. For example, a magician looking a little paranoid about his hands. Now the data gets processed much more slowly and ‘double checked’. That tends to be why people who are worried about using a thumb tip have bad experiences with them. They ‘telegraph’ the fact that their hand is ‘odd’ and a vicious circle starts. That’s when a hyper realistic tip does have value, as it can break that circle and make the magician relax.

Learn as many tricks as you can with your Thumb Tip 

Magic shops are stuffed full of books and DVDs providing ideas for your magic thumb. We recommend that you learn as many as you can. You never have to use a small silk ever again if you don’t want to.

You probably already know a load of different tricks you can do with your magicians thumb tip. If you don’t, we recommend the following resources. View each new magic trick you learn for the thumb tip as another level of insurance, cover and time very well spent. The thumb tip we most often recommend:

The Classic Vernet Thumb Tip

DVD’s to expand your use of a thumb tip:

Patrick Page on the Thumbtip

Examining the Thumbtip

Sankey Hundred Dollar Miracles

The World’s Greatest Magic Series – Thumb Tips

Recommended booklet of ideas for the thumb tip:

101 magic tricks with a thumb Tip

What to do next:
Take a moment to design a small ‘act’ of 8 tricks you could perform with just a thumb tip and some everyday object you would find at almost any gig you do.  Grab a small piece of paper and write them down. Put them into groups of three or four tricks that would flow nicely together. Now roll up that paper and put it inside your thumb tip. It’s your insurance policy document. It’s there for you, should you ever need to make a claim.

Avoid Nasty Surprises At Close Up Magic Bookings

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magician-surprised-at-gigIt doesn’t matter how many close up magic bookings you have done in the past, you simply never can tell what you will find when you arrive at your next booking. Most nights it falls into the same pattern. You arrive, quickly set up and off you go. But every now and then chance throws something at you and which takes you totally by surprise.  This happened to Dominic Reyes this week:

‘I took on a booking to help a friend who was away performing overseas and could not do the date. The client was a VIP and had used him before, so he wanted to recommend a magician, he knew would do a great job. Because of this, I did not use a contract and simply agreed to 2 hours walk around and table magic, during a meal for the guests.  However, when I arrived, I discovered it was for only 5 people, two of which told me right from the start that they ‘Didn’t know why the host had booked a magician as they hate magic’. Ahhh! The venue was a small room, with no ‘side rooms’ to retreat between courses. On top of this, the client wanted a 2 hour close-up magic show consisting of an hour during drinks and an hour between courses through the meal. That’s a LOT of material for just 3 spectators and 2 hecklers to enjoy! Luckily, I was able to pace the magic, and the client agreed that it was better for me to pop in at points through the evening and perform little sets of magic, so it did not dominate the evening too much.   The lesson: Prepare in advance and find out about your audience and the location, BEFORE you actually get there to perform! – Dominic Reyes

Dominic’s experience teaches us that you have to be ready for any eventuality. He’s an established pro and had plenty of material to perform the gig professionally. However, if he had taken the time to ask a few questions FIRST, he would have been able to prepare and start the gig, in a structured and paced way.

You spend a great deal of time preparing your act. Spend time preparing for the situations you will perform in too!

Here are 4 quick tips to help you never have this experience at your close up magic bookings:

1) Get information about the close up magic bookings from the client

It’s vital that you or your agent either ask the client in person or have these questions on your booking form:

  • The location – The full address and phone number for the venue
  • Is there parking available?
  • Are there any special access requirements? – Ferry crossings, security gates, limited access conditions.
  • Who is the event planner or point of contact at the venue?
  • How many guests will be attending?
  • The dress code for the event.
  • The duration you would like the performance to last
  • Will the event be walk-around, table magic or a show?
  • Will other entertainment be running while the magic takes place?

2) Arrive early

Make sure you arrive at the venue an hour before you need to start. That way you have enough time to check out the venue, and deal with any surprises that have popped up.

3) Find a room or screened corner to be your base.

You need a place you can retreat to for resets and the breaks in the evening, so you’re not just standing around. Sometimes you can ask for a room for this, but other times, it may be a ‘chair store’ a screened off area or simply an unused corridor. Stay well away from the serving stations and the routes used by the waiters, as you really don’t want to be in the way.

4) View the room layout 

Being forewarned is being forearmed. Taking a look at where you will be performing BEFORE it’s full of guests, will give you a chance to ask for some changes, or to adjust your planned material to fit perfectly with the setting. Look out for these points:

  • Is there space to access all the tables when the guests are seated?
  • Which tables  have a clear view of your performance?
  • Will other tables be able to  watch the magic tricks, while you perform them to other tables?
  • Will this need angle adjustment to some of the techniques?
  • Does the seating allow everyone to see ok?
  • Is there going to be a lot of room noise?
  • Will the lighting cause you any problems? 

What next:
You may also find this article on mistakes magicians make when getting to a gig useful.  

We would love to hear any similar experiences you have had, or any advice on handling close up magic bookings that you would like to share. Please add them to the comments section below: