I thought this might be a nice story to tell to inspire magicians.

I find myself at a local sailing club. I am taking out a few friends of mine out on a boat when a group of kids attending a beginners sailing camp. A few moments before, my friends and I were discussing magic. As the kids walked by, one of my friends said, hey why don't you do a trick for the kids. Before I could say anything, the kids had heard that and demanded to see a trick. I look around me and I find boats, water, sails, rudders, daggerboards, ropes... ROPES! I reach into a bin of randomly sided ropes (used to teach kids how to tie knots) It took me about 30 seconds to find the right sided ropes (I was amazed because I actually found 3 matching ropes that were almost perfect for Professors Nightmare). So I take the ropes out and perform the Professers Nightmare. Afterwards the kids shout for more, thanks to Richard Sanders, I performed the Fiber Optics routine. When I had finished, The kids had to go and I left on the boat. When we returned 3 hrs later, I found a small crowd waiting at the dock for me to perform the routine again. After I performed the routine again, I got 3 birthday gigs and a job doing walk around at the annual fundraiser for the sailing club.

So whats the lesson here? Always be prepared to perform magic on a moments notice!

I thought, since we are on the topic, what are some tricks you perform when you have NOTHING with you. Not even a deck of cards. Tricks you perform on the beach, in a restaurant, mall, movie theater, etc. These must be items you find around you (and decks of cards and gimmicks don't count).

Derek Merdinyan

I break off my right hand ring finger (with a loud snap) and then screw it back on.

I've found that while on the beach, some of the flat rocks (good for skipping) are ok to do coin work with. It's tricky to do a classic palm or any kind of clip, but a lot is still possible.

George

Now that I think of it, I did a matrix on the beach once with flat rocks, it looked cool

Derek Merdinyan

Yeah, if you don't have cards and coins, why not substitute leaves and rocks (but I never go anywhere without a deck of cards, LOL)

I guess you will never run out of "uneven coin" on the beach. It'd like doing an ultimate coin magic in a bank?