I am wanting to begin developing a new routine of tricks performed to music. I am not wanting to involve animals because I do not do shows often enough to merit keeping them as pets. Where should I begin when trying to develop this set list? Do I start with choosing tricks or is it more about mood/style? I want the tricks to flow smoothly into one another and I am having difficulty deciding where to start.

Just a suggestion:

1) Just start doing it, and do it with an open mind - the process may assist you with your choice of effects, transitions ...

2) However, one of my considerations when choosing effects is to choose ones that will play to audiences of all
types and sizes.

martini

Hi gjfarmer and welcome to The Magic Café !

I understand that it's not easy to build a routine or a magic act. Here's the way I did it, once I knew my stage personna (which is a very important point) :

So first try to define your stage personna and it's character. Define the place, the time, the character's goal he would like to reach, why he want's to reach it, what could happen if he doesn't reach his goal and all the barriers which could make him fail to reach the goal. His emotions and feelings he has at this specific moments...

Now the magic comes in place !

Chose an object that would fit this person on stage and all above mentioned points and do what martini suggested. Try to see how you could incorporate this object in the routine or act, choose the effect. Try to find visual effect for the beginning of the routine to get the audience interested.

To give a short exemple :

You walk into a room, searching for something, but you can't find it. You find another interesting object you haven't seen or held in your hands for a long time. Then you start to think about this and get an idea. Maybe you could transform the object into the searched one, or you could use different objects to build the one you're looking for and make it work at the end.

Or you could simply use this object, tranform it and make you searched object appear from it. (Silk Production, Colorchanging silk, Streamer from this silk and finally the Production of your searched objects).

Anyway, it's very difficult to help you without knowing all the specificities mentioned above. There's no good or wrong way to build a routine or an act. You can start from anywhere, so, as martini said, just start open minded and you'll see what flows from one into another. This will specially be the case if you're looking to put an manipulation routine and / or act together. If this would be the case try to use not more than three different objects in the beginning (silks, balls and cards or coins or thimbles). You can still add other objects later. Keep it simple in the beginning so the audience can easily follow what's happening.

Maybe you have already an effect in mind, let's say Coins Across" or "3 Fly" from one hand to the other. In this case, you could start to make the coins first appear and as a climax transform them into banknotes or make them vanish completely at the end as nothing has happend and it was just a dream...

Last suggestion, but you should be very careful : Watch other magician's acts and routines to get inspired, BUT be careful not to get too much inspired to prevent you from trying to copy them, even if this isn't your goal.

If you tell us a little bit more about the kind of routine or act you would like to put together and more details concerning the above points, maybe we could help a little bit more.

I hope this helps a little bit. Feel free to PM me if needed, even though I'm not an expert.

Good luck,

Oliver.

I think it would be best to start with mood/style because, just as there is a wide variety of moods and styles in music, there is a wide variety of moods and styles in magic. Obviously, a light-hearted presentation style would fit best with light-hearted music.

The effects that are presented by performers as diverse as Tomsoni and Channing Pollock are basically similar. Doves are produced, vanished, and transformed to a silk scarf. It is the presentational mood that sets them apart. One is a "comedy" magician and the other is a "serious" magician. Both are highly respected individually in our profession and the two artists were good friends. The card manipulation moves of magicians as diverse as Cardini and Charlie Frye are similar. It is the presentation style that sets them apart.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I used to do an exercise just to explore possibilities... I would take a single trick and practice performing it to different styles of music; classical, rock, country, fast, slow, serious, funny... whatever I could. This would let me get a feel for the differences in how the effect could be perceived.

At times, I started with an act, which was constructed with character in mind, and later found music that fit the impression I was trying to convey. At other times, I heard a piece of music and imagined illustrating its feel with magic chosen to best do that.

I have seen that latter idea used by a magic club. Every member received a CD with the same song and each person's task was to perform at a later meeting using that music as their background. Just imagine the variations you could see!

What effects do you currently do? What effects you would like to be doing? What type of music do you like?

Michael's method is a preferred method for learning the fine art of music-picking.

In theatre, many acting classes have the student perform a single speech in concert with different tempos and styles of music.
And conversely, to recite different types of speech, to the same piece of music.

This method of "exercise" is also executed utilizing different dances to the same music and, the exact same dance moves to multiples of a variety of musical styles.

This system helps actors understand how to change their tempo, timing, pacing, and intonation.

Older actors also find themselves relying on this system. I do it myself. Eventually many people can just hear a piece of music and a complementary routine screams-out to be used.

Just experiment. Try performing different types of Magic while playing different music. As a Singer/Songwriter, I perform several Magic Routines to my own composed and recorded Songs. I developed several Magic routines and tried out several songs to find out which have the right feeling and length of time that work well with the Magic.
I have also developed routines that are practical. that means those that can be performed surrounded and are easy to pack and transport. The Magic to Music that I do must be able to play almost anywhere.
When the situation arises and allows for it, I think Magic to Music is great to add to your performance and can add a lot to your Show.
Cheers!

Playing and experimenting have always been part of my parlor or close up. In my younger days I learned to
adapt my silent walk around magic to the musician(s) also hired for an event. I have worked with 3 piece bands, single concert
harpist to organ grinders.
As a musician I now use my own recordings as background track.
Here is a short simple example. I noticed my hands moved faster than usual
when using this cover if a Beatles song.

https://youtu.be/-GMTaX4baxk