A Deck Full of Burgers

Free Magic - Stone Cold Magic Magazine - Eugene Burger Idea“Here’s a deck of cards. Show me something.” We’ve all heard that line before. In fact – if nothing else – I think I’ve opened at least one or two past articles with that very phrase. So question number one is do you have a quick trick or two with a deck of cards that you could bust out? Would they be entertaining? Would they astonish your audience? Would they want you to continue?

Some time ago back in 2009 I attended Eugene Burger’s lecture. He mentioned a sort-of fantasy that he has. It goes something like this:

  • He Gets a Gig in another city that requires a flight
  • He packs no luggage
  • He flies into the city
  • At the airport gift shop in the gig city he buys a deck of cards
  • He goes to the gig and performs using only the deck of cards
  • He leaves the cards behind as a souvenir
  • He flies home

That’s a beautiful fantasy if you ask me.

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: An awesome arsenal of effects. The bottom line for this month’s root is to get you thinking seriously about the quality of your effects. In order to pull of the Burger Fantasy, you’d have to have one heck of a card trick arsenal.

They’d have to be darn good effects. Not only would the effects have to kick arse, but your confidence level would have to be through the roof as well. Imagine walking into a corporate board room full of 20 stuffed shirts (one of whom cut you a check for 2 grand to be here) and you break out your deck of cards . . . cricket . . . chirp . . . chirp . . . and nothing else.

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. The intellectual exercise for this month is to give it a shot. For a 45 – 60 minute show you’ll need between 10 and 15 card effects/routines. Do you have that many card tricks you can do back to back without boring your audience to death? I don’t know if I do. I’ve been working on a list that I would put together, but I’m not there yet.

Keep in mind that there would have to be some rules. For example, you don’t want 15 pick-a-card-and-I’ll-find-it routines. You’ll need texture (thank you Eugene Burger). Some comedy, mystery, silliness, seriousness, intense moments, relaxed moments. What would you put in your corporate-card-only routine? Post it below. Let’s talk about different options.

Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

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