Encore

Encore
By Jeff Stone

In August, we discussed openers, closers and middle effects. At any given period in my career, I have about 5 or 6 effects at my fingertips that I consider openers, about 5 or 6 at my fingertips that are closers and about 15 or 20 that are considered middle effects.  I just pick an opener, do a couple of middle effects, then pick a closer.

I also have a handful of effects that I do occasionally at a table that I’ve already performed for that night.

Root:
Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root is encores, the who, what, when, where, why and how of encores. Encores have been around as long as entertainment has been around. It’s always good to end a show leaving the audience happy and satisfied, yet still wanting more. It reminds me a bit of George from Seinfeld wanting to leave the room on a “high.”

If he did something clever or witty and people appreciated it he would leave. Coming back in the room would only be valuable if he could “one-up” the last thing he said/did. When you have a good solid closer, people will be happy and satisfied, but they’ll want more, so before reading on, make sure you’ve studied the August article regarding closers.

Assuming you’ve nailed them with a good closer, you can plant the seed for the encore right away. I do two types of encores. One is when I tell them that I’ll be back, and I prepare them for my return. The other is where I come back and hope that they call me over to the table.

I’ll Be Back:
The first type of encore is the one where I plant the seed after my closer. I let them know that I might be back. I do only one effect for this encore. I do Jay Sankey’s Memory Lapse. Let me first explain the basic effect. You show the spectator four symbols/shapes on your business card. You then proceed to cause them to forget one of the symbols. The other members of the audience saw the card as well, so they know when the spectator has forgotten. The fact that they remember all of the shapes is evidence that the spectator forgot one of them.

This is one of the most powerful pieces I do. Thank you Jay. By the way, you can get this effect on his DVD, 22 Blows to The Head. Here’s how I set it up. First I only do this with a group that I’ve had a good time with, and they are truly enjoying, not just the magic, but me as well. I do my closer, and assuming it hits the way it should, I thank them and tell them that if I have time, I may come back. Here’s an approximate script of what I say:

You guys have been a lot of fun. Thanks for taking a few minutes to suspend your disbelief and play along. I had a great time. If I have time, I’ll be back. I’ve actually got a new concept I’ve been working on that I might try with you guys. Are you guys going to be here for a while?

Great. While I’m working a few other tables, be thinking about this: Have you ever walked into a room and forgot why you where there? We all have. Well I’ve been able to begin to understand what causes that to happen, and I’ve actually been able to recreate it a few times. I’ve actually been able to cause people to forget a thought.

If I have time to come back, I’ll show you. Meanwhile, be thinking who among you would be the most susceptible to a brief memory lapse.

I leave it at that. When I come back, I go into my performance of memory lapse. This gives me a couple advantages. First of all, memory lapse is stronger than my closer. It’s an opener and closer rolled into one. You cannot follow it. It’s perfect for an encore.

Secondly, it’s a much more serious effect. My usual stuff is comedic and goofy. So to go immediately from Mr. goofy to Mr. serious doesn’t work so well. However, if I “warn” them ahead of time and sell it as an “experimental idea” that I’ve been working on, I can play it a bit more seriously, and get a way with it. The “set up” and the more serious presentation and the time lapse between my closer and my encore all work together to create a true moment of astonishment.

I Hope They Call Me Over:
This, believe it or not, can be soooooo much more powerful than the first type of encore. In this case, you don’t tell them that you’ll be back. However, it does help if they ask if you will come back. If they do, your response is, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to. I’d love to, but I’ve got a lot of people to cover tonight.” If they don’t ask, that’s ok too.

The basic premise is simple. You pick out a few of your best tables from the night, and walk by the table hoping they’ll ask you to come over and perform “one more trick.” So what’s the big deal about being called over to do one more trick? Well, if you know they’re going to call you, you can do all kinds of crazy stuff that they would never suspect. Think of Max Malini and his ice block production.

How sweet would it be to walk past a table, and they call you over to do one last thing, and you produce a freakin’ huge block of ice. In their mind, you were just walking by and they called you over, but of course, you were expecting them to call you over, so 3 minutes ago, you loaded up with a 10 pound ice block in your underwear.

Here are few ideas on what you could do with this:

1. Before you left the table the first time, you secretly stuck a playing card to bottom of the table. When you walk by and they pull you over, you force a dup of the card under the table. Then magically press it through the table. The kicker is that your hands never went below the table the whole time you were there.
2. You can have a raven gimick or some sort of pull gimick loaded up and ready to go.
3. Why not produce an ice cube. Sankey has a cool idea on his DVD Real Work on Restaurants and Bars that’s similar to this.

Branch:
Let’s build our branches. I don’t want to give you too many ideas. If I do, to quote Jim Carrey as The Riddle in Batman Forever, “You won’t learn nothin’.” The whole point, as I’ve said before, of this column is to give you the root and let you build your own branches based on that root.

Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to create your own encores. Think of tricks that require a heavy duty set up that you can have ready as you casually walk by a table you’ve already performed for. Or think of effects that are just super powerful that can be used as stand alone effects. The former are for the casual walk-by. The latter are for times when you want to set the audience up for the astonishment to come.

Go through the stuff you already know, or find that one trick you read in that book years ago that you’ve always wanted to add to your repertoire, but thought would be a lot of work. Think of the possibilities. Maybe just before you walked by the table (hoping they would call you), you put a glass of whatever soda they person was drinking in your back pocket covered by your coat.

Maybe you just loaded a 5 foot pole into a hole in your shirt pocket that goes down behind your shirt and into your pants. You walk by, and suddenly you can produce a huge solid pole.

I’m done giving you ideas. It’s your turn. Think of the possibilities. Now go study the classics, and go discover your true magical self.

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