Housing My Repertoire: Part One

Last week I wrote about the steps to building a repertoire.

Those steps were pretty straightforward, but one of the concepts I wanted to introduce with that post is that every trick in your repertoire should have a “home.”

Every trick should be kept in a place where it can be deployed somewhat seamlessly on your end.

You should be like an irresponsible gun owner who leaves a loaded gun in his end table. If an intruder comes in, you just open the drawer and unload on him. Yes, responsible gun ownership involves keeping your gun in a locked gun-safe high up in your bedroom closet, so your kid doesn’t blow his head off. Which is great, so long as you get a five-minute heads up from your home invaders that they’re on their way. But I get it, it’s what you have to do for the sake of safety.

With magic we don’t have to worry about safety.

If your tricks aren’t “staged” somewhere, ready to be performed, then you’ll always be performing in some awkward manner where you’re excusing yourself to go get something from the other room so you can show them a trick. There’s no sense of casually rolling into a performance because all your tricks start with you digging through your drawer of magic props in your den.

Here are some homes you might consider populating with tricks.

Ungimmicked Tricks

Ungimmicked tricks tend to “live” within the object that’s used in the trick. A regular deck of cards is a home for about 30-40 tricks within in my repertoire. A pile of change is home for a few tricks. Rubber bands and finger rings also house a couple of tricks for me.

The only consideration with ungimmicked tricks is if these objects are things you encounter enough in your everyday life. If not, then you have to ask yourself if the trick means enough for you to be willing to populate your life with these items in some way.

For example, when I worked in an office, I knew a couple of tricks that used a stapler. A stapler was a common object for me to interact with in an office. I no longer do those tricks because I don’t encounter a bunch of staplers in my day-to-day life, so I would never naturally flow into such a trick. So that trick dropped from my repertoire.

Displays

[See the Wonder Room and the E.D.A.S. concept.]

I have two different displays in my house that are used for magic purposes. One is a small display of “interesting” decks that’s on a shelf with other cards and games.

The other is a small shelf on which I store some unusual objects.

For example, Andy Nyman’s Three Skulls on a Spike (or Three Skulls on a Stick, as Tannen’s URL suggests) sits on that shelf.

So sometimes people ask what it is. Other times I “notice” it myself and say, “Oh yeah, I wanted to try this with you.”

Because that trick has a place where it “lives,” I’m able to flow into the trick in a natural way. I never have to say, “Hold on. I’m going to go get something.” And then go into another room and come back with my special magic prop.

Bookshelf

I have a few book tests that use gimmicked books. These live on a bookshelf with my other regular books.

Wallet

I keep a couple of tricks (three at most) in my wallet.

Keychain

Your keychain can house a couple of effects. More than that though and you become the guy who does tricks with his keys. And instead of people thinking of you as a guy who can do strange and magical things with whatever’s around, people think, “Oh, I guess they make trick keys or something.”

The nice thing about key magic is people don’t really suspect keys. They don’t have an obvious connection to magic in people’s minds. Do a bunch of key tricks for people though, and that will change.

Brain

Certainly, my entire repertoire is in my brain. But more specifically, my brain is where my propless repertoire lives.

Phone

There is always a chunk of my repertoire which lives in my phone. I try not to go overboard with this. It would be pretty easy to make a lot of my repertoire phone tricks, given how easy and convenient most are to perform.

But I want the phone to feel somewhat ancillary to the tricks, and that can’t happen if you’re using it for everything you do.

Car Trunk

If I’m around children, it’s because I’m out somewhere at a party or an event, or at the very least, visiting someone’s house. So the few tricks I do that are explicitly kid-centric are stored in a small box in my car’s trunk. That way, the tricks are always there when I need them. Once I realize I’m at a place where there is a kid or kids, I can make sure to grab something specifically to show them.

These are just some of the houses I use for my repertoire. The idea isn’t that you need to use the same ones. The idea is that by giving thought to where the effects in your repertoire are staged, you will be much more ready to actually perform these things when the time comes. Meaning, you’re a much more flexible and dynamic performer than you are if all your tricks are in a box in the back of your closet.

Thursday I’ll finish up this subject with a couple final ideas.