We're experienced gentlefolk here. What tricks, or types of tricks, do we like to see best today? I have peers who absolutely detest having a spread of cards thrust into their faces and then commanded to pick a card.

They, on the other hand, love watching tricks which have kicker endings like unexpected twists. Is this a fair representation of today's audiences?

What do youse all like seeing? Not performing, huh. Just watching

I do agree that some card effects can be abit boring. :D

I personally prefer stage magic such as ropes or card manipulation. As for close ups, I'm really like to watch coin tricks, stuff like coin matrix or coins across.

Talk about kicker ending, that's what make magic the talk of the town. People will keep talking about it days after they've watched it live.

I really like effects with unexpected twists or multiple kickers. Especialy if they come with good story telling with dramatic plots.

And i generally pays more attention when someone is not doing a card effect too. No offence to anyone but just because generally they are more rare so it stands out to me by merit of diversity :)

Yay. A consensus.

Lesson :

Be like Apple computer,
Think different.

Be different.

Anything really visual and flashy/flourishy (like Asher's stuff) that lasts under 5 minutes. After that I get really bored.

C.

i like twists too, very surprising. but, good effects with twists are hard to come by. they are usually geared towards magicians who are bored of all the standard stuff.

In his book Strong Magic, Darwin Ortiz provides 2 criterias for twist endings:
1. The surprise ending must be stronger than the ending expected (this is obvious, but many violate this)
2. the ending, although unexpected, must seem logical, almost inevitable
(this is the problem i have with many newer effects geared towards being magician-foolers. eg. many of the effects from totally out of control are very good, but the ending makes no sense! and its not always easy to put sense into everything)

kicker endings adds a surprise element to a magic effect to provide a second, unexpected climax after the initial climate

again, the criterias:
1. the kicker ending should be stronger than the basic climax of the effect
2. the kicker ending should be thematically related to the basic effect

i like john guasteferro's effects as almost all of them have kicker endings, however, if i may quote from the book

"Too many kicker effects violate this necessary sense of unity. They look like the performer took pieces from a couple of different tricks and threw them together haphazardly. (In fact, often that's exactly what he did.)"

most of the kicker effects in john's stuff forexample, lack unity. what's the point of the deck changing color. is there a reason? can unity be provided by patter and flow alone?

if u watch john's performance on the dvd, after a few effects, u feel a lack of security. u are constantly thinking "what is he up to next?", "what is he gonna surprise me with?".

"Surprise after surprise soon becomes ... unsurprising" - S.H. Sharpe


let's just say that if u are gonna do a routine, limit the number of surprises to just a couple or so, and use good ones. a poor surprise only serves as an anticlimax (esp since the basic effect usually register stronger with lay ppl than magicians). some kickers may be at the expense of the basic effect. beware!


oh, i just found something really true in the book:

"The whole subject of kicker endings is muddled by the fact that they are so effective when performing for other magicians. Indeed, the popularity of kicker endings is almost entirely due to the fact that they work so well for audiences of magicians. The amateur magic movement (i.e., magic for magicians) is the dominant foce in magic today and is therefore the cause for most of the trends we see in magic."

i just found the main reason why i prefer books and classics, and refraining from trends. (was never able to put it properly into words)

"However, if you allow yourself to be guided by the reaction of magician audiences in this regard you may be misled in either of two ways. First, we've seen that to be effective the kicker must be stronger than the basic effect. However, with a magician audience a weak kicker may register as stronger than the basic effect because, through overexposure, magicians have become unable to appreciate just how strong the basic effect really is."


anyway, just thought i would share some stuff with u gusy...


oh yes, and to answer the question. as a magician, i like surprise effects (just like aloy) :P

surpise effects are in with me!

john guasteferro's effects always stun me, as a magician. Looking at his hands, being a heckler, i don't know what he did until he revealed the amazing transposition or something.

As u know more and more "secrets" of the magic world, you would want to see something that you've never seen before~ i guess that's what's happening to the lay audience nowadays too. Therefore, pick a card trick and revealing it isn't as exciting as it was in the past.

However, surprise effects reverse that notion. let them pick a card and do something different, or reveal it in a non-conventional way~~

magicians are in for the creative business.

hmm what effects do I like best. NFW is a favourite. Its short, sweet, and people start hugging you if you do it properly ( unfortunately, members of the same sex hug you as well ).