Another suggestion is to just practice sleight of hand. I take my daughter to the park pretty regularly and I have surprised myself at how much magic you can do with basic sleight of hand. The kids say, "Hey, make this disappear, pass this through your body, makes these come out your nose" etc... all while handing me rocks and sticks. False transfers, Bobo switch, various palms will serve you well for this.

If you don't have Bobo's coin magic, get it and take a look. Get reproduction medieval coins and do some coin magic. This alone could provide all of the fodder that you need. Easy to carry and perform with. Tokens from the event can be used as well.

Though chop cups aren't period, I use one to demonstrate "sleight of hand." If you are only concerned about the overall presentation, and props that look medieval, then this would work. Mine is wooden and I say the ball inside it belonged to Alexander Herrmann. (obviously not claiming this to be period). I make the cup nothing more than a storage container. Make up your own routine that would fit.

I always carry a t____ t__. Make ribbons disappear.

Depending on your interest or persona, palm reading could be very entertaining. Once you start you will have a line of people. Maybe a good reason not to do it. Readings can get tedious.

Think about some effect you really like. Figure out how to present it in a way that would be period appropriate.

If you are going for strictly period pieces of magic, then look to the sources cited by Payne. Some of these are available through the Learned Pig.

I also dropped out of the SCA. Too much in the way of politics. I want to play in my free time, **** it!

Highlander playing cards. First site I came across with a Goggle search:
http://www.areyougame.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=USPK1864

So how you come up with a basic story for a effect.

Hard work.

You can start with a story and find an effect or start with an effect and craft a story. In my experience it takes time and effort to get all the parts to come together. Many many re-writes and rethinking the routine.

I am indebted to Master Payne for his encouragement. Check out his talk that touches on creativity. His is the thrid one down.

http://magicalwisdom.com/infopages/view/mm_talks

Or buy a set of my highly acclaimed lecture notes here

http://stores.lulu.com/MagicBooks101

which detail how I go about creating my routines and presentations

Payne, if I may say so again, excellent video. I love your take on performing and believe we must meet in person one day so we can smash our brains together and see what comes out.

Payne,

Are those notes still available? They have to be in their third or fourth printing by now.

Better get them before they sell out again.

Actually I do revisit the notes often. Along with works by John Carney, Mike Close, and Tommy Wonder. For a very right brained guy, hanging around Payne and absobing the creative process that he expounds in his notes unleased the creative part in me.

If you are at all interested in a creative process, get the notes.

My notes are now up on LULU so they print them on demand and mail them off to you. I no longer have to go to the copy store to have them printed out and then put them in binders. This saves me a great deal of time. They are now perfect bound, on better quality paper and have a colour cover.

I'm looking at prof night mare and then ring on rope.I do have mr payne note and mr palmer notes.I am looking at the patten in all of the notes.I think out with basic lines and build on it.

Payne, you are my hero!

When I first did magic at the Maryland Ren Faire in 1978, I went to the Library of Congress and read their first edition of Scot's Discoverie. Thinking it was critical to be accurate, I put together my act exclusively with authentic effects.

Then I arrived at Faire and discovered that many people think "Renaissance" means anything pre-Civil War. I did well, despite editing the patter for the family crowd. Also got to perform alongside some who would go on to become legends.

Nowadays they use anything, including (I am not making this up) a jumbo Bicycle Invisible Deck!

A couple of the performers in MD and VA still try to do it right (Dinty the Moor aka Brian Wendell Morton, Michael Taggert and others) but most have got into a terrible rut.

Cheers,
Eric

PS After a some folks here split off of SCA and started their own group (Markland Medieval Militia) and started an internecine war, I stayed away from all of that.

Bluemagic,

The correct form of address is: Master Payne.

:)

All the best in your creative process.

I took a slightly different route. By the time I started doing ren faires I had been entertaining at SCA events for several years. It was at these events that I developed my faux mediaeval act. I took modern effects and converted them into period appropriate routines. This I did mainly because I was short on funds and couldn't afford to buy new effects. Plus I didn't have access to any books on period magic at the time either. Thus my regular act with its run of the mill props got a make over. My Die Box became a reliquary, my What's Next got a parchment makeover and my sword through neck became th dreaded Ram's Bladder Trick.
My home fair is a tad (well a lot really) more authenticity conscious than your typical ren fair so things like Bicycle Playing Cards or any other modern looking prop is strictly verboten. Thus I am forced to try and keep everything as period feeling as possible.
I think I've done a good job merging the modern with the mediaeval and creating an act that has a real period feel to it even though it isn't historically accurate.

I'm a SCAdian, and received my AA partly through performances of magic, and by performing fire eating at feasts.
I never worried too much about period authenticity with my magic, preferring to go with the LOOK of the 'period' (performing what a period mountebank or juggler MIGHT have performed during that era).

I've served as both the Minister of Science and Herald for my local Shire (Marche of the Unicorn).

Steve (Lord Richard Henri Sanson the Executioner)