Your Opening Patter

[professor808]

I just got done ranting about someone not know their style of magic and have become curious how many others here do know there style. I thought how could i ask people this question and realized i could just ask what there opening line is to introduce themselves. Its a great way to find out what there style is.

So what is your opening line and patter before you start any magic, and then what is your opening effect and how to do you present it.

It is very important that we as magicians do have a style that makes us different from each other. Because if your opening line is "Hello i am the house magician, can i show you a magic trick" and go right into an Ambitious Card Routine. then you will never get hired again, why? Because they don't have anything to remember you by. When people call and said to hire that magician, They can refer just any ol' magician since you have no defining quality that makes you different from all the other wanna be magicians out there.

[magick]

I just got done ranting about someone not know their style of magic and have become curious how many others here do know there style. I thought how could i ask people this question and realized i could just ask what there opening line is to introduce themselves. Its a great way to find out what there style is.

So what is your opening line and patter before you start any magic, and then what is your opening effect and how to do you present it.

It is very important that we as magicians do have a style that makes us different from each other. Because if your opening line is "Hello i am the house magician, can i show you a magic trick" and go right into an Ambitious Card Routine. then you will never get hired again, why? Because they don't have anything to remember you by. When people call and said to hire that magician, They can refer just any ol' magician since you have no defining quality that makes you different from all the other wanna be magicians out there.
maybe you should start by discribing your style, so the kids can see where you are coming from, and what you are looking for.

by the way, i like the idea of talking about this, and I am glad you brought it up....but i predict that very few will respond....

[professor808]

maybe you should start by discribing your style, so the kids can see where you are coming from, and what you are looking for.

by the way, i like the idea of talking about this, and I am glad you brought it up....but i predict that very few will respond....


Well just as easily you could have posted what yours is. =)

I usually start off by explaining what i do is not magic tricks. I work more with the human mind and body language. What we will do through out the rest of the night will be experiments and may or may not work.

A new thing i have been doing is my first effect, i play off more as a way to warm my brain up and i do the effect where you have someone name any two digit number and you create the 4 by 4 box and write numbers inside each box to where all across it equals their number, all down, it equals there number, each box of four equals their number. the center four boxes equal there number and the four going in an X equal their chosen number.

[StonerNick420]

"Hello, welcome.
I'm the Stoned Magician, thank you all for joining me this evening. You won't be sorry you did, for I'm going to ensure that each and every one of you watching today a truly memorable experience you may never forget.

Now, half of what you will see is fake. Pure illusion, slight of hand, trickery & deception. The other half however, is real. Really real and really dangerous.
With that being said, shall we begin?"

Okay that's pretty much how i open my FULL show, give or take some improv if i feel it necessary.

So, ... professor808, you say you can tell what a magicians style is by what his or her opening patter is. So tell me my friend. What would my style be?

[professor808]

So, ... professor808, you say you can tell what a magicians style is by what his or her opening patter is. So tell me my friend. What would my style be?

Well first of all i never ment it as a challenge, i was only saying you can tell a lot of someones style by hearing how they introduce themselves.

Its a great way to find out what there style is.

I also wanted to know what trick you start your show off with and how you introduce it.

[Hoax]

ehm.. "hi, im espen.. *espen does some wicked flourishing, spectator is amazed* as you can see, im very good with my hands, do you mind if I show you something?"


lol.. osunds a bit boring but it works:) and I couldnt careless what to say, im just trying to be polite..

[professor808]

lol.. osunds a bit boring but it works:) and I couldnt careless what to say, im just trying to be polite..

Would you say you have a style, something that makes you... you.

[Hoax]

ehm.. I dunno.. maybe a bit of mentalism? honestly, i have no idea..

[StonerNick420]

Well first of all i never ment it as a challenge, i was only saying you can tell a lot of someones style by hearing how they introduce themselves.

I also wanted to know what trick you start your show off with and how you introduce it.

i wasn't trying to make it a challenge, or be rude. i dont really know what my "style" is or would be called.... gimme a lil bit ta type ur answers up

ehm.. "hi, im espen.. *espen does some wicked flourishing, spectator is amazed* as you can see, im very good with my hands, do you mind if I show you something?"

lol.. osunds a bit boring but it works:) and I couldnt careless what to say, im just trying to be polite..

No thats great, point out that your good with your hands. the ladies love a guy whoes good with his hands:D lol. i dont care what anyone says okay maigic does get girls ;)

[Hoax]

Nicholas, that's very true. Magic DOES attract girls. I get like all the 8th and 9th graders around me if I take up my deck of cards. Im sitting on a chair with a table infront of me and i can barely move. Its that crowded. lol.. and I dont use any approaches then. I only perform. lol.. and sometimes, some idiots wants to ruin the trick and reveal it. Then I just gather the cards and place them in my pocket and i just leave. That person that tried to ruin my trick, he got flamed and pushed around..LOOOL!! RESPECT MAN!!

[professor808]

ehm.. I dunno.. maybe a bit of mentalism? honestly, i have no idea..

Well its okay to not know your style, like i said it took me a long time to find mine.

But if you are becoming more interested with mentalism, i suggest dropping all flourishes. When you present yourself as a mentalism you do not want them to think you are good with cards.

I had to teach myself to stop doing fancy cuts and shuffles and just messing with the deck as i talked.

You will also want to cut out all magic tricks and only perform mentalism tricks. But this is only if you are interested in getting into mentalism otherwise you can forget my advice.

[Hoax]

Lol.. I wont be doing only mentalism. Just some.. I like all kind of card tricks. And I dont flourish while performing. If it isnt for my school mates or friends.. Out in the public, I only flourish to get their attention:)

[magick]

Well its okay to not know your style, like i said it took me a long time to find mine.

But if you are becoming more interested with mentalism, i suggest dropping all flourishes. When you present yourself as a mentalism you do not want them to think you are good with cards.

I had to teach myself to stop doing fancy cuts and shuffles and just messing with the deck as i talked.

You will also want to cut out all magic tricks and only perform mentalism tricks. But this is only if you are interested in getting into mentalism otherwise you can forget my advice.

that is so true......if your into mentalism, bizarre magic, hypnosis, esp....any of that....you really have to play the part 24/7 to be taken seriously....

and you really have to do some research.....you have to be able to talk the talk...

[StonerNick420]

Ok... now where i left off from:

"Hello, welcome.
I'm the Stoned Magician, thank you all for joining me this evening. You won't be sorry you did, for I'm going to ensure that each and every one of you watching today a truly memorable experience you may perhaps, never forget.

Now, half of what you will see is fake. Pure illusion, slight of hand, trickery & deception. The other half however, is real. Really real and really dangerous.
With that being said, shall we begin?"

Now please forgive me, I know this is very un-professional. But I'm just famished, haven't eaten all day. I could have grabbed a sandwich on my way but i was really kind of craving a hot meal (I light a fire torch).

Now... i spoke earlier of danger (twirling the torch), well fire is dangerous, as we all know. So , because of this there are spotters trained in fire safety and equipped with fire blankets and good ole H2O positioned around the stage. This is for both your safety as well as my own.

Okay, now, my insurance agency has informed me that just in case something doesn't work out as expected, and you catch on fire to "Stop, Drop, & Roll" so the people with the water and fire blankets can quickly put you out as fast as humanly possible (I'll extinguish the torch with my hand). If you fail to heed this warning and run around screaming it will only make it incredibly harder to catch you and put you out. (at this point if inside i'll announce the location of the exits)
But don't be alarmed, i have and excellent safety record, this is merely precaution. So if everyone can remain where you are, we'll begin."

And I bring out 2 more torches making 3, and go about lighting them and eating them, doing different fire eating tricks.

then a lil light magic maybe with money or coins, cig manipulation and floating cig, brain floss, blockhead, Walking on broken glass that on fire, regurgitate, and i end with the sword swallow.

I dont really have a "style". I usually preform for between 10 to 30-40 people. i do both walk around and parlor type magic. but no style that i can think of.

[redspade200]

I do comedy magic, so me and my partner fool around as we talk. So I walk out and start like this:

"Hey everyone, how are we today?"
good
"That is good. Today me and my assistant Evan are going to try and make this as fun as possible, so if you would like to come up and help with trick if I ask, dont hesitate."
while I am talking, My partner is filling a bucket with water.
"And now that we have that through, lets begin!"
he runs up with the bucket and goes to splash me, and I duck, and what do you know, confetti comes out and goes into the crowd. Then I say I want a quick drink, the water wont come out, which then leads me to flow, and I begin from there.

[professor808]

I do comedy magic, so me and my partner fool around as we talk.

That sounds good, very few duel magician teams out there.

[tadiko]

At the moment I don't do any party gigs or anything like that I just perform on the street. So when I come up to someone I say:
Hello, I'm Tadas(They automatically tell their name too)... Can I have a couple of minutes of your time? Yes? Great! By the way do you like magic? (I think it's more a rhetorical question,because everyone likes magic). Then I get my deck out of my pocket and do some tricks... To be honest I still don't know if I catched my style yet.

[Paco Iglacias]

Me and Sancho start out with a huge lie to make all the subsequent ones(you know, the actual tricks) a bit more plausable.Opens up our whole comedy bit, but to be honest its not a ridged set lines. Theres a general idea and then we ad lib it to fit the frame. Helps keep the banter fresh each time.