Red Hot Mama

It’s been almost a month since the last posting. These have been pretty busy times with holiday travel, midterm exams and church activities. When school started back, the first magic Friday was January 8th. I’m writing 18 days behind myself. At this point, I am still working on three nice routines. All of which happen to come from Dai Vernon. Two of them come from “The Vernon Chronicles” and one from “The Dai Vernon Book of Magic”. I don’t know what I would be doing without these two incredibly rich books! (More on these routines later). For magic Friday January 8th I performed an old standard. The “Take Five” of card magic. “The Chicago Opener” aka: "Red Hot Mama". Conceived by Frank Everhart and popularized by Jim Ryan. At conventions in years past I have seen magicians lecture and perform the “Opener” with a card to wallet or pocket finish. A powerful ending to be sure. “My signed card was in his wallet the whole time”! The problem is, (As Patrick Page points out) the audience tends to forget the first part of the routine and only remembers the climax. As a result, one effect is lost.
My quest (the reason for this blog) is to refine older sleight of hand effects I already know, learn new sleights and routines, and perform all this with a polished and professional level quality. A new routine must be perfected and performed each week for six different audiences for 36 weeks. At the end of 36 weeks I will have time off from teaching. I will use this time to try my hand at a little busking, some open mike type stuff and even seek steady work a couple nights a week doing close up at one of the nicer restaurants in town. My skills and creativity seem to be on track. (Though practice time is short and precious). It’s my confidence, presentation and professionalism that will be the real test. I digress. The point is, I can’t afford to combine effects that are strong enough to stand on their own. So, as tempted as I am, I will keep “Chicago Opener” and “Card to Wallet” as two separate, stand alone effects.
The “Chicago Opener” played extremely well with my students. Using a cheap trinket, I framed the routine as a “scientific” phenomenon. When the second card was turned over to reveal the first spectator’s card, roars of joyous disbelief were raised. Timing is everything, isn’t it? However, my first period class usually has a less enthusiastic response to my effects. I’m not sure if this is because it is a smaller group, too early in the morning, or if they are just more laid back. But the common denominator is me. I must assume it is something I am doing or not doing. The most likely cause I suppose, is that since it is my first performance of the day, perhaps I’m just not in the zone yet. Maybe I’m coming off as too cautious or unconfident. It could be that I’m just not properly building or selling the effect on the first go. I know there is a valuable thing to learn here. I must pay closer attention to my presentations and create the same level of enthusiasm in this group that I have achieved with the others.