Not that anybody really cares, but here's the set I did (but I *DO* think my Phantoma routine is novel so at least check that out):
I started off by "apologizing" to my nephew and telling him I forgot to get him a birthday card this year. Then I whipped-out my "magic printer" (4-D Printer), showed the empty cards and loaded them into the apparatus. I then set the printer on a ledge behind me so that it was plainly visible for the remainder of the show...
Then I moved-on to a routine I created by combining Phantoma with Ghost Lamp. I've seen a LOT of Phantoma -> Ghost Pet but never Ghost Lamp. I think this was by far the crowd pleaser, and an awesome routine. I do Phantoma, and after making the ghost go into the hanky and dance around a bit I go straight into Ghost Lamp since it requires a hanky anyway. I have a spectator choose the card, introduce the light bulb and make the "ghost" find the spectator's card. The spectator can even hold the hanky without fear of exposure since the corners are all bunched-up at the top and the spectator is holding it further down. After the card is found I turn the lamp off with the scissors and then "toss" the ghost back into the Phantoma house. The combination of these two tricks was seamless, to me hey just feel like they were meant to go together. If you have those two tricks I highly recommend at least TRYING them together...
After that I did Balloon Illusion cuz hey, it was a birthday party! I told my nephew I was going to make him a balloon animal. He could choose any animal as long as it was a snake or a worm (trollface!). I then did the trick without actually popping the balloon (but held it REALLY far-out pretending to be afraid it was going to pop at any second). Here's a really blurry photo of that trick taken by my sister-in-law (apparently with a potato):
As you can see, the dog was really into that trick...
And finally, I did The Third Eye, saying that since it was my nephew's birthday he had special powers for one day only. I let a spectator choose a card and gave him the eye. He was able to find the card but being only 7, he was REALLY confused by the whole thing. That was the "weakest" trick despite me being really excited and hopeful to perform it. I'll have to try it on friends, I think it will go over better with an older crowd...
And of course for the finale I pulled the now-printed cards out of the 4-D printer that had been in plain view the whole time. I did the "Happy Birthday" presentation that comes with the trick and I taped an iTunes card to the last/blank card. You can see it sitting on the ledge in the photo above. I know people say that 4-D Printer is a bad trick (mostly because it's made of cardboard) but honestly I got asked THE MOST about that trick after the show by the adults. Everyone wanted to know how it was done! I think leaving the whole thing visible throughout the show and then pulling the cards out at the end gave it more impact than the standard performance.
All in all it was a good performance, and a TON of fun!
Happy to hear how creative you are by combining tenyo props become a whole magic act. Good opening, good routine, good ending !!
