This blog is going to be quite controversial and I am fully expecting negative feedback from magicians but this needs to be said.
Card tricks can be REALLY boring.
Now let me be clear there are some fabulous magicians that just work with playing cards. Paul Gordon is a very successful close up magician and just uses a pack of cards. However the problem is, other than a few exceptions, if you hire a magician who just works with a pack of cards then it will get boring quickly.
You are probably wondering why! Below are the main reasons why just hiring a card magician is not a great idea
Variety is the spice of life! There are only so many cards tricks you can watch before they become repetitive. Once the magician has made the card appear and change and jump somewhere you weren’t expecting then there is nothing else to see. If you have booked a magician for a couple of hours it won’t take long for people to lose interest no matter how good the performer is.
It’s hard for an audience member to relate to a playing card. Let’s be honest if you are getting emotionally attached to a playing card then you are a little weird. Even though everyone has at some point owned a pack or cards very few people carry them around with them. Cards are difficult to relate to. There are so many better tricks that people can more easily relate to. For example tricks with borrowed finger rings, borrowed phones or even money. Turning a borrowing £5 note into a £50 note will always get a better reaction than finding a playing card.
Generally as a rule tricks with props other than playing cards are more interactive. The beautiful thing about close up magic is that is happens in the spectators hands. Whilst there are some card tricks that happen in the spectators hands there are more powerful and interactive routines that don’t use playing cards. Tricks will balls, coins and borrowed items will always be more interactive than even the best card trick.
Just doing card tricks limits the performers options. A great example of this is mentalism or mind reading as it is more commonly called. If you perform exclusively with playing cards the best mind reading you can do is to get a spectator to think of a card and then tell them the card they are thinking of. Now this sounds impressive. However it’s not as impressive as telling someone you have never met the name of the person they first kissed. Or bending a borrowed fork in the hand of the spectator. See why I mean!
5. Playing cards have been around for thousands of years. Now that’s not a problem other than it does t really allow much scope for being ‘current’. For example a good non card magician can do routines with borrowed phones. It’s called digital magic and the possibilities are limitless. My favourite routine is to open up Instagram on a spectators phone and visually pull something out their Instagram feed and make it become real. Now THAT is magic
6. The ‘souvenirs’ are a lot more magical. Many card magicians will give a spectator a signed playing card at the end of a routine. They expect that person to keep it forever as a memento of the magic. In reality the card will be thrown away within a day. Now imagine holding a coin in your hand. You feel your hand starting to burn and then when you open your hand YOUR coin is bent in half. Wouldn’t you want to keep that coin forever and tell everyone about it? Of course you would.
Again, to be clear, I’m are not saying that all cards tricks are terrible. Every member of Slightly Unusual performs cards tricks. All I saying is if you have hired a magician that just does card tricks it’s not going to be as good as if you hire a magician with more variety.
My advise would be to do a little research. When watching performance videos are playing cards exclusively being used? If you have met a magician live (at a wedding fayre or an event) are they just doing card tricks. A good thing to do is ask the magician what type of tricks they do and do they do tricks with things other than cards.
As I mentioned at the beginning I expect certain magicians to be unhappy with this blog. I know there are going to be people that disagree. However I truly believe that this is an important consideration when hiring a magician for your next event.
If you would like to speak to us about performing at your next event I can promise that we won’t do just card tricks! In fact a lot of the routines we perform are exclusive to us and can’t be seen anywhere else.
CLICK HERE to visit our contact form. Fill it in and we will get back to you within the hour with a no obligation consultation and quote.
Finally if you would like to find out five ways to ensure your next event is awesome CLICK HERE.
