I usually carry, coins, a deck of cards, a TT, hot rod, receipt from debit card purchase, and lint.

I agree with Harry Murphy - do effects with spectators own stuff or better still nothing.

When I'm called on to demonstrate my abilities when I'm on 'my own time' I perform a loose routine based around what the punter has, selecting from:

Banachek’s Psychokinetic Time

An improvised 'Haunted Key' (you can do this with almost any mortise type key if you practice.)

A 'Reversal' number mind read

Pulse stopping

Metal Bending

Various cigarette/coin slights/vanishes.
None of the above requires any equipment whatsoever.

I will admit that I do carry a couple of gimmicks at all times but only because I actually use them in 'real life':
I have a Flying ring (which I use as my real key holder), which has a 'coin pocket' built in. I habitually keep a 'Unique coin' and a folding coin in there.

However, these things don't look like props (actually the spectator doesn't even see them) and still allow me to perform miracles with the audiences items (their ring, there coin etc.)… way more powerful than waving silks and card around, they LOOK like stage props.


I'm amazed though at how much junk people on the forum do seem to carry though, particularly TTs. Is there a layman over the age of ten on the planet left who doesn't know about TT???


Cheers,

Doug

I always have deck of cards and elastic invisible thread around my wrist.

On page 8 of Kneppers "Miracles of Suggestion" there is a great mental effect involving the concept that the mind works of more than one level. This item can be done with borrowed objects, a pencil and a piece of paper. Brad Henderson's Everlasting Pendulum Divination can also be accomplished with borrowed items including a borrowed deck of cards. The spectator finds their own card. The only pseudo-impromptu gimmick that I carry is a nail writer. I ask the individual to imagine a scene that includes me. I hold up X number of fingers...or pull X number of rabbits out of a hat, etc. (whatever seems appropriate under the circumstances). After asking them what number they saw, I prove that it was the same number that I projected to them as evidenced by the number that appears on my business card (or borrowed paper). These three totally floor people every time and the only thing I'm really carrying is the nailwriter. (When not in use, I carry it in a contact lense case with a spare in the second lense compartment). I also always carry Kolossal Killer. I just love these effects and get such strong reactions that, although not completely impromptu, it's still traveling pretty light.

princess card trick is essential

Thumb tip,cigarette through pound coin and mini thread reel.

In everyday life, I always have a deck of cards with me...in case I get asked to perform something or just to pratice in my spare time. I am also starting to carry some coins and a lighter....not bulky at all, and very useful for doing magic and interacting with people.

•Chinese folding nippers and string for chewing a string back together. It's a great visual of a trick, with no gaffs or gimmicks, and apparently nobody has EVER seen it performed. Good for one on one, and can be bumped up for a small crowd.

I've gotta tell everyone to REREAD Harry Murhpy's post on this subject! Excellent advice, sir!

Things I personally carry with me:

In the glove box of my truck I keep a small leather bag that contains an assortment of magical gimmicks. What I decide to take from the bag depends on where I'm going. Inside the bag are the following:
1. A deck of cards ready to perform Paul Harris' Overkill.
2. About 10 extra cards for doing setting up an impossible torn & restored card to anyplace chosen type of effect.
3. A jumbo coin.
4. Folding quarter (c'mon guys! NOBODY uses half-dollars anymore!...Let'em go!)
5. Color Monte.
6. Cards for Virginia City Shuffle.
7. Color-changing knives.
8. Spongeballs.
9. Extra thumbtip.
10. mini-wand made of clear plastic dowel with electrical tape at the ends.
11. dice.
12. I.T.

In my pockets when I'm just chillin', I carry the following:

1. A thumbtip
2. Coin purse with seven quarters, quarter shell, a couple of English coins about the size of a quarter, bent pennies, one silver dollar, a prediction for Paul Harris' Overkill.
3. A jumbo quarter in my back pocket.

With just the above mentioned items, you can almost perform an entire show!
Also, as was posted earlier, you should be able to just grab something off a table and DO SOMETHING right then and there!
Check out Greg Wilson's videos, Off the Cuff and On the Spot for some really amazing impromptu routines using stuff that's just normally available.

Take care,
Tony Ley

I always keep a TT just because a number of effects can be done with it. I also carry a deck of cards, sponge balls and a lighter(powerfull magnet in the back pocket.

I lways carry two TT, one loaded with a bill for a bill switch ant the outher for salt effects or any vanishing effect. I also carry an artificial (shell) eye for something geeky, I love chewing gum so I always bring "sticky situation" . two invisible elastic loops , and a deck of cards. oh, and a magic marker.

Coins
TT
watch

• Coins
• TT
• Nail writer
• Pen and paper for CT effects

I agree with Harry's thoughts earlier and I can do a few things with borrowed items but not as versatile, yet, as I want to be. But on the other hand, if asked to perform or if you find yourself in an impromptu situation, I don't see anything wrong with mixing it up. Maybe a trick or two with borrowed items intermixed with other effects utilizing cards, pins, dice, whatever you pull out of your pocket!

I can not leave home without having some things on me, I just can't. Even if I am only going out to put gas in the car or whatever, I always have to grab a few things! The stuff I am carrying these days are:

• Deck of cards
• Papermate pen
• Three quarters
• 1/2 dollar
• Pair of dice
• TT
• Bendover bills
• Pyro-perception gimmick
• X-pert
• Iraqi most wanted deck
• Wallet with packet tricks...
• P. Paige's three card trick
• Amazo B'Wave
• Kollosal Killer

That's about it.

GlenD

TT, The Animator hook-up and my mind. You would be suprised what you can accomplish with these items! However—your milage many vary!

Dennis

Mmm. My first post so thought this would be a good place to start:

1. Pack of cards
2. Pen, good for signing said cards or in more prosiac moments writing things down
   
3. Wallet gaffed for card to wallet and also handy for carrying money/business cards etc.
4. ESP cards for Mated, carried in above wallet. I put them there some months ago and the effect plays so well I can't break the habit of carrying them.

I can happily put together over an hour of magic with just the above. Besides day to day living makes other demands on my pockets.

A pack of cards, gaffed wallet, pen and a pocket full of change is enough to keep anyone happy. I keep a ball of wax on the end of my sun visor in the car and a couple of elastic bands in case I need to put a card on a ceiling. You know how it is, the urge just takes you sometimes...

In my wallet I carry a "beswitched" setup with a U.S. $1 bill and a Canadian $5 bill. Astounds them every time. I even booked a birthday party doing this one. Someone who had seen me approached with a group of her friends and asked, "Are you the magician at (soandso's) party? Can you show us a 'trick?'"

When I did beswitched another woman with her booked me for a party to be held the next month.

A regular deck and a stripper deck with the same back design, a 4C in my wallet, a 6D in my inside coat pocket (and sometimes a 7S in my sock) all matching back designs, a Sharpie, two 1/2" carriage bolts and six nuts, four half-dollars and an expanded shell. Chris Frings taught me "All Screwed Up", hence the bolts and nuts.

I already mentioned Princess Card, but I also only carry stuff that fits in my regular wallet and a deck of cards and a black Sharpie. In the wallet is a duplicate of any card for forcing and doing Card to Wallet, Princess Card trick and Twisted Sister.

The deck of cards is printed with my logo and made into a rising deck by Martini Magic in Delta, Pa. Every time I do the rising card I can leave the person with a signed business card (two birds, one stone). I also have one card prepped with a hole burned in it and a rubberband around it to do the old Bullet Hole card routine (my comes from Ginn's Children Laugh Louder). I can then used the ungaffed portion of the deck to do some regular card tricks. So it's just a regular wallet, a duplicate card, two-packet tricks and a gaffed deck with my printed logo...a wallet and a deck so to speak.