Are you inspired by things around you? I am … but only when I actually spend some time thinking about the things I see.
It’s a common misconception that inspiration for magic ideas will just jump into your head while you’re going about your daily business. For most people, this simply isn’t true. Instead, you need to think about and read into the things that inspire you. Here’s an idea that I’ve played around with in the past: use current affairs to inspire you. I’m not talking about creating topical effects, but by using headlines and ideas as inspiration for new effects.
As I’m writing this, I’ve randomly picked three headlines and buzzwords from recent news reports, newspapers and news websites. I have no preconceived ideas of what I’m going to write and will spend no more than ten minutes thinking about these ideas. Let’s go …
You could borrow a credit card and make coins appear from inside it by snapping them off the card. You could patter about shops not accepting credit cards for small purchases, so you can make your own withdrawal from the card instead of going to the ATM. This could essentially be a similar effect to the coin in pen cap trick, but with some more logical props.
Recession
The word “recession” reminds me of the word “Reset” (i.e. Resetession!). Recession is about using less, so you could perform Reset with less cards. Maybe you perform a two-card transposition, then with the Reset finale. Perhaps this would add to the clarity of the effect and make the two-card transposition plot more interesting.
Hijacked oil tanker
The idea of hijacking a magic trick sounds fun. Perhaps you could be halfway through a trick in a formal show and all of a sudden another magician bursts in and hijacks your trick. In fact, a repetitive trick like Six Card Repeat could benefit from this presentation with multiple magicians highjacking the trick and performing it in their own way.
Those truly were made up in the last couple of minutes. They’re not my best ever creations, but they’re a start. I often focus these sessions on creating tricks for certain situations. Right now, I’m working on some informal impromptu tricks and some MC bits (don’t ask!), so it turns out that the credit crunch and hijack tricks may actually be useful.
Now it’s your turn: what tricks can you create by using current affairs as a starting point? Do you have any ideas for the three headlines that I listed? Let’s turn the comments of this post into a session! Me, Tyler, Rich and Luke will be on hand to share our ideas too. Over to you!
great idea! I find sunday supplements are also really good for presentational ideas as they are full of interesting little stories.
as for the 3 articles – you could take the phrase ‘credit crunch’ literally and apply it to the Bitten and Restored coin trick. Or you could bite a chunk out of a credit card.
recession makes me think of regression as in getting younger and returning to your childhood. maybe performing the 1st trick you learnt as a kid could cause you to start acting like a kid.
hijacked: the first thing that springs is a pun-based ambitious card presentation about high-jacks, but that’s a bit smelly. maybe you could develop a routine using a set of jacks and the bouncy ball they come with.
it’s got my brain whirring! love it.
All really great ideas, Oliver. Thanks for sharing.
With the shrinking economy, etc, I could see some of the bill switches done backwards. Like Daniel Garcia’s Greed, only instead of increasing value, the bill gets smaller and smaller like your 401(k).
Personalize it about your own savings, etc and I think you could make it funny and timely.