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Selecting Material:
Do you want to do it?
Does the idea of doing it excite you?

“If you feel really comfortable about everything you are doing in stage, you look
more relaxed, and both you and the audience will enjoy your performance more.
If there is anything you are uncomfortable about, you will look worried, and that
worry will be transmitted to your audience.” – John Archer

Does it fit your Theme

Does it fit your Character
Is it easy to reset
Does it pack flat
Is it angle proof

“Stay within your ability and do the things you know very well.” - Johnny Weir
commenting on a figure skater that overreached at the Beijing Games 2022

The problem with props that look like props is that people assume the prop did the
magic.
Once that assumption is made wonder is damaged.
They may not know how the prop works but they know the prop did it and that is
enough

Title: Title of Routine – title will have more meaning for you than the
audience

Silent Script: A Bob Cassidy idea

For a discussion of effects see The Trick Brain by Dariel Fitzkee
Also see Derren Brown, Absolute Magic

You need to know what your “effect” is, but this must remain a
silent script in order to create wonder.

Psychic Phenomena – Supernatural occurrences that are most commonly

associated with the abilities of the well disciplined or highly developed natural
mind

Teleportation – the ability to pass matter through space by converting it to

energy and then reestablishing it at a terminal or predetermined point

Telekinesis or psychokinesis – the ability to move, disturb, heat, or

otherwise affect an object with the force of mental concentration
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Hypnotic control – to influence the actions or choices of another or others

via psychological suggestion

Sympathetic response – to be in sympathy is to be in agreement. This is

the ability to enter into another person’s mental state and thereby influence
their choices or actions such that the two operate in perfect unity. It is also
the basis of voodoo when one thing is in sympathy with another. Actions
taken to the one manifest in the other

Clairvoyance – to see that which is beyond the normal range of vision

Clairaudience – to hear that which is beyond the normal range of hearing

Precognition – the ability to accurately foresee a future outcome

I personally detest precognition. I find it unbelievable. I prefer to
see it as thought transference = the spectator is reading my mind

Telepathy – the ability to transfer thought from one mind to another, to

transmit or receive thought

Psychometry – the ability to obtain knowledge about an object or

about a person connected with an object through contact with the
object – the point is the reading not the ID of the person

Divination – to detect or to discover by intuitive means

Rapid Calculation – the computation of mathematical equations beyond

the normal range of human intelligence

Phenomenal Memory – to retain and recall a series or sequence

beyond the normal range of human intelligence

Biological Anomalies

Vivification – To bring to life or endow with life

Bio-feedback or biorhythmic control

Life Transfer – to transfer the life animating force from one host to
another or to project it through space, away from the body

Physical anomalies

Spiritualistic phenomena – The manifestation of spirit or alien entities

Apparitions – visual, auditory, olfactory

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Death Sense – the sense of a loss of someone

Spirit Animation – an outside spirit entity animates an otherwise

inanimate object

Synchronicity – “The coincidence of events in space and time as meaning

something more than mere chance,” – Carl Jung, the working together of
factors that we do not fully understand to produce a coincidence

Conventional Magic
Types of Supernatural Occurrences The following "effects" may be accomplished
in several ways. As well as a silent script for effect think also of a silent script for
how you want your audience to perceive the effect is being accomplished:

A. By deceptive means, that is, by manipulation of natural events so as to

create the illusion of a supernatural or metaphysical phenomena. This is
what is commonly referred to as modern magic.
B. By the power of the human mind. This is referred to as psychic
phenomena.
C. By the agency of a third party, supernatural being acting in conjunction
with or independent of a natural host.
D. By the manipulation or coercion of a third party, supernatural being by a
human being. This is referred to as witchcraft or black magic.

A. Instantaneous
1. Visible
2. Under cover or implied
B. Gradual
1. Visible
2. Under cover or implied

Productions or Creations
From not being to being

Vanish or Disappearance
From being to not being

Transformation
From one thing into something totally different in color, size, shape, design,
substance, constitutional nature, weight

Transposition
From being here to being there
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Defiance or Suspension of Natural Law

A. Anti-Gravity, Suspension or Levitation of an object or person in space

(similar to telekinesis except that movement may be effected by other
means than the human mind)
B. Animation as in the dancing handkerchief (similar to vivification)
C. Matter through matter, penetration of solid through solid
D. Restoration of matter
E. Invulnerability
F. Rapid Germination

Set up: The materials and set up you will need to work the routine
Know exactly what you need and how you will access it during the
effect and dispose of it or reset it after

Source Material: Inspiration and reference material

You need to know where your material originated and how it
evolved so that you can properly reference those whose material
you are using and so that you can understand the context for which
it was created.

Story/Anecdote/ Joke/Historical Reference:

The story you tell is more important than the magic because the
story is the connection between you and your audience

The story you tell provides the context and context provides
meaning

Until you have a story that is so strong it could stand alone as a

piece of engaging entertainment without the magic you aren’t
ready to present.

You must find the story that engages and thrills you or you won’t
engage your audience

“Enthusiasm is contagious. When you perform, think, ‘I would

rather be here doing this then anything else in the world.’” – Docc
Hilford

This is your opportunity to distinguish yourself, to make a large

production out of what ever material you have chosen

“A question is a sentence with a hook.” – Fritz Pearls

Questions are a great way to gain and hold attention.
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“You can bring your audience emotionally into your story by

asking, ‘Have you ever had this experience?’” – Docc Hilford

“The story or the conversation you create, should be interesting

without the magic.” – Docc Hilford

Take your time – do not rush

Routine:

In your routine, pay particular attention to when you do the

“work,” that is routine with misdirection in mind.
Applause and laughter provide natural moments of cover because
the audience isn’t watching.

Every movement must be logically motivated

Blocking – movements made before, during, and after must be

planned and rehearsed

Rehearse and then rehearse some more