Hi
Im entering my local magic cirlce competion in September and I'm looking for a few inmproptu routines I can work on, the rules are that the act must be able to fit into a briefcase, nothing can be gimmicked, (except for one item) it can be sutiable for close up or in a hall. The props must be household items and the act must be 10-15 mins long.
So far I have three/four tricks.

Thanks
Matt

Try something with cards, linking rings, half dollars, silver dollars, doves, or sponge balls...Oh, you meant house-hold items for normal people?

Four effects should be enough for 10 minutes. What effects are you planning on doing?

Shane Wiker

Yes house old items for normai people unfortunetley!
Comedy rountine with giant linking paperclips
Hankerchief in matchbox jumps to the other matchbox (possibly might turn into a matchbox monte)
comedy routine with holes across
rubber band magic (cmh, pinnacle ect)
total so far 7mins

Thts all so far, at the moment I'm really looking a kicker finish, a really impressive end but I cant think of one that would do the job.

Matt

I don't know if it would work as a closer but you could try Pinnacle, or a vanishing salt trick. Oh, I have it.
If you have time to get it, get Richard Osterlind's Mind Mysteries 4. He has a marked coin in bottle that is amazing! Perfect for a closer.
If you get Mind Mysteries 4 and don't want to use the coin in bottle, you could also use, "Signed Torn and Restored Post-it Note," or, "Signed Torn and Restored Newspaper," although I really think Marked Coin in Bottle would be perfect for what you are looking for.
Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

Shane Wiker

Cups and Balls...using coffee/tea cups and olives or cherries for the balls...small lemons or limes for final loads and a butter knife for a wand. It was good enough for Mike Skinner...it's good enough for us mere mortals!!!

Mike

Thanks!
Nice way of putting it Mike! I suppose you have to do it differently though because you can’t stack them.
Matt

There are plenty of cups an balls moves that do not rely on stacking the cups.

Didn't the Ramsey routine use cleaned out ice cream cups?

Maybe that gives you an idea for a final load...to bribe the judges with of course

Or use ceramic or clay flower pots for the routine as you explain what is needed to grow something produce water, seeds and dirt as the final loads...then when someone says, "Hey what about the sun?" produce a large orange.

What about paper balls over the head?

Scrabble chink-a-chink?

A card routine using UNO cards?

You could talk about eating dinner at home and explain that someone asked you to pass the salt? Then vanish some salt using a TT in one hand and reproduce it with the other hand, and using only that hand a-la a coins across.

You could even go from there by suggesting that the person kept asking you to pass other items, drawing on the comedy as people wonder how you'll magically pass water, gravy, jello, etc. It could get so hilarious that you put a few items in a paper sack as if filling a doggie bag for the imaginary person if you go with a restaraunt soryline, and then you blow up the sack and pop it over someone's head allowing only confetti to spray on them instead of the supposed contents of the bag. Easyily done with a gimmicked paper sack and a good personality.

How about a CD prediction using a boombox and several cds?

Newspaper prediction?

Book test?

Miser's dream using kitchenware?

Bake a cake in a hat? Or use cake ingredients poured into a recepticle and then explain how you were watching a TV cooking show while trying to think of what to do for competiton, remark how you heard the guy say "through the magic of television the food is done already..." then use a TV remote control as your wand to affect the baking of the cake. Cheesy, yes, but I'm trying to be clever for you.

How about record an inner monologue that you supposedly have while thinking about the competition...then use that as your performance "music" occasionally responding to the inner monologue with "no that idea is so stupid!" only to have the recording say "No it isn't!", etc You'd of course cover a table with household items and use them as the inner monologue gave you ideas about what tricks to do. Then the monologue would cut out long enough for you to say some blatantly cheesy patter, to which the monologue would respond, "Oh you better not say that in performance!"

Just some ideas.

No ideas are too wacky. Think big and then work your way down from there.

Remember, people love a great showman more than the finger flinging he can do. Keep it simple, let them be entertained by YOU, and YOUR personality FIRST and then the magic.

Hope you don't think my ideas are too looney, it's late and I'm not being very practical, just using my imagination.

Good luck!

-Brad

Thanks Brad I'm a bit waky so I love these ideas!
Matt

No problem, good luck and have fun!

Try needle thru arm.. it's good for closeup and can be done in halls.