Best opening card effect

[Valentini]

The best is to begin with a trick that everybody will think that you missed your shot... but actually no. Always a good starter !!

[benfrancismagic]

Invisible deck, it's incredibly quick and incredibly hard hitting. Perfect for street magic.

[ChristopherT]

The best is to begin with a trick that everybody will think that you missed your shot... but actually no. Always a good starter !!

Not always. It depends on the character.

[RealityOne]

i am looking for best effective opening effect you can do with cards, so has to be short, quite visual, not too much explaining/talking - basically attention grabbing

I disagree with the criteria you are setting. Why not use something that has some substance and plot to it? Something that draws the audience in. Something that has the feel of a conversation rather than a pick up line. Something that tells them about your style and your personality rather the merely focusing on what your props can do? Why not engage their intellect and emotions rather than provide some visual look-at-me trick?

The best is to begin with a trick that everybody will think that you missed your shot... but actually no. Always a good starter !!

Probably the worst idea. You should be building credibility with your audience, not acting as if you screwed up. Doing a magician in trouble effect as an opener risks the audience walking away saying "you suck" before you correct it. If they do stay and you correct your alleged mistake, the audience feels that you suckered them.

This is what the audience probably is thinking: "a guy with cards, ok, I'll go along with this, yeah I get it every card is different, pick a card how cliche, stick it in the deck - I can see where this is going, ok he's doing all these fancy cuts it looks like he spent years sitting in his bedroom playing with cards rather than developing basic social skills, what a loser, wait he is taking out one of the cards, nope not my card, what a tool, now what is he doing?, oh look it changed in to my card, I guess his screw up was planned, he probably thinks he pulled one over on me, oh crap now he's going to do another card trick, somebody make him stop..."

[TheatreHead]

I disagree with the criteria you are setting. Why not use something that has some substance and plot to it? Something that draws the audience in. Something that has the feel of a conversation rather than a pick up line. Something that tells them about your style and your personality rather the merely focusing on what your props can do? Why not engage their intellect and emotions rather than provide some visual look-at-me trick?

I agree with your second point, but...

You need a certain amount of prestige or ethos to pull that kind of opening off. If they haven't perceived you as a person that's worth giving time and attention to, they generally won't give you the time and attention needed for a properly substantial trick that involves their intellect and emotions. (This is assuming that you haven't already built rapport with the set).

[RealityOne]

You need a certain amount of prestige or ethos to pull that kind of opening off. If they haven't perceived you as a person that's worth giving time and attention to, they generally won't give you the time and attention needed for a properly substantial trick that involves their intellect and emotions. (This is assuming that you haven't already built rapport with the set).

I agree... to an extent. You have to believe in your ability to draw them in an entertain them and then project that confidence to them through your introduction. By the time you pull out the cards, you already have their attention.

But, honestly, if you need anything more then your words to grab spectators attention, you're doing it wrong.

Once you have that attention, I think you need to engage them on multiple levels and build rapport with YOU rather than your props. You need to be interesting, engaging and entertaining while showing strong magic. I'm not talking about a long and drawn out story or a 21 card like plot that takes an hour before they see the magic, but something more exciting and involved than pick a card then find a card (or pretending that you can do mind reading). You want them to think "this guy is really entertaining and is doing some really cool stuff" not just "that was a cool trick." You use the first effect to build the rapport with your spectators.

To answer the question, I would use John Bannon's Counterpunch / Four Faces North / Watching the Detectives / New Jax / Full Circle routine from Six.Impossible.Things. Within the first phase, it has a little confusion, humor and a surprise, then it hits harder with a triumph like effect, then a mind blowing searchers turned sandwich effect, a find a card turned sandwich effect and then a closing that brings it, well... full circle. The various phases and garden path construction engage the audience intellectually.

[TheatreHead]

I agree... to an extent. You have to believe in your ability to draw them in an entertain them and then project that confidence to them through your introduction. By the time you pull out the cards, you already have their attention.

What kind of time constraints are being assumed?

You are describing the ideal situation, but sometimes, depending on the audience and the venue, (and the varying states of sobriety), you will not actually have enough time with your introduction, regardless of your ability.

[RealityOne]

What kind of time constraints are being assumed?

You are describing the ideal situation, but sometimes, depending on the audience and the venue, (and the varying states of sobriety), you will not actually have enough time with your introduction, regardless of your ability.

I'm assuming a walk around environment or even a street magic approach. In a walk around environment, you have the prestige of being the hired magician... So you must be worth paying attention to. In a street environment, you need to establish credibility through your appearance and demeanor before you say a word. In both of those situations the introduction shouldn't take more than a minute or two.

My opinion is that if you don't have time to do a proper introduction, then don't perform. I think that you need to be able to control the performance environment -- including the pacing of your performance-- from the beginning.

With that said, I recognize that certain environments such as loud bars and clubs aren't conducive to that approach. In those cases the magic needs to be adapted to account for the environment and needs to be more visual, simpler and fast paced simply because the spectators can't hear you and there are numerous distractions.