Best Tricks for Table Hopping

[charleychacko]

Now personally I haven't worked in table hopping . I guess people just don't want to be disturbed when eating or what ever.) but I can give you my opinion as someone that appreciate magic on it's more "street" level. The fact is that for laymen, magic that is done with something of their own, that they know can't be magical or rigged in any way, can be far more impressive then magic you perform with your own deck of cards or even worse, a chop cup.

Now, I don't mean you have to go on Impromptu looking magic only; the magical apparatus you present together with your own presentation and patter are the things that state yourself as a professional rather then an uncle that is going to pull a coin out of their ear.


So it's nice to start with a good presentation, and a nice warm-up trick, that is easy for you but is strong enough to convince them that you are not a heck. It can be any thing, but at that point a card trick CAN be good because it is less invasive. After one or two short but powerful tricks you can put the deck aside, because once you got their trust you can move into much more impressive magic, with things that are laying on their table or in their bag.

Now I don't say go and ask for a 10 dollar bill on the second trick, trust is a thing that needs to be built, but things like cut and restored napkin (or if the place you work for agree you can even do a burned and restored napkin, that is more impressive),
Do a magic tricks with rigging a packet of sugar and planting it on the table with the other sugar packets (just make sure to come before they order tea... or just have it in your pocket and palm it).
You can even do a spoon or fork banding routine (but make sure to replace the spoon, and take the bent one and un-bent it so you won't have to use a new spoon every performance, also check with the place if it's ok with them).
You can use a TT for hundreds of uses, from poring salt to your hand and make it disappear, to turn sugar from a packet to a sugar cube, to bill switches, and cigarette vanishes.
Magic with borrowed rings are also great because they also usually have sentimental value that turn them into even more personal items. (I remember seeing on one of Sankey's DVDs a routine he did with putting a ring on a spoon through the large side, and then taking it off through that side, and that is great, of course you need to give them an other spoon after that^^).
Magic with IT can be amazing (of course depending on the lighting and things that can hazard exposing or just cutting the IT), and you don't have to use a new one every show if you can anchor yourself on and off to tables with the same IT, and there is nothing more powerful than levitating someone's bill or ring right under their nose.
All those are short, easy to reset, yet powerful and entertaining magic, because of the fact they are not only done under the spectator nose, like all table hopping magic, but also because they are done with something that has been on their table all along, or something they brought from home.
Basically the idea is to involve the people, and their personal items into the magic, and that way to turn it into a lot more amazing and more relevant to them, don't be too intrusive of course, and don't forget the card deck. But don't relay on it for your whole show (unless 100% card is your thing). Why to carry a gimmicked decks with you and other apparatus and gimmicks, when you can put a 10-15 minutes show with a deck of cards, and a TT, and the rest just do with the things that are already on the table.