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both of this effect is powerful... but i found a difficulty in the way to act...
I'm afraid that my act is not natural please need help here...

I think you'll need to give us some more details on your presentation (making sure you don't expose the method) before anyone can help you my friend

ummmm.

I'm not sure i understand the question.

And I am reasonably sure others are in the same boat.

Do you do Russian Roulette, and Bank night in your existing act?
If so, are you asking for help on how to end the effects?

About the only way anyone can help you is to see footage of you working the material... in other words, you need a "Director" that can help you block out the act and hone your character on stage and how that entity presents each piece a.k.a. scripting.

These are some of the deeper secrets that make magic, magical and sadly, the things many tend to either forget or see as an inconvenience In your case it seems that you want to do your best so find someone in town that has a legitimate background in theater and get feed back from them... please don't go to other magicians first, they will focus on the trick vs. the magic...
... think about that

Hi GioNova. Do you mean you feel your performances are not convincing enough ? If so then perhaps looking into acting or psycology may help (both of which are extremely helpfull in a magic performance). My appoligies if this is not what you meant

jim

Ps. Craig has some good points, by the time id written my post he had already posted, so i never noticed till afterwards. I really must learn to type faster

thx to Mr. Jim, yup sorry for my bad language... every time when i do the RR the spec seems feel pretty sure that if the play it with me then nothing bad will happen, even i all ready put all of my efforts on the act...


@mr craig my character is a romantic mentalist, i do create the script with my own and with help of my Mental consultant, and when he show it i do feel the fear, but how i create the fear in romantic way?

It is difficult to pull off a classical Russian Roulette because it has been seen before and people have faith that it will work out right in the end. That is why Smash and Stab became popular; but now that has been seen a lot, and people have faith in that. I use pyro-flashes for my Russian Roulette, and one spectator holds one throughout. They are fired by batteries, one of which is dead. The spectator hopes to draw the dead battery for the flash he is holding. Because it is non-standard I can keep the tension up. Look at your performance and see where you can deviate from the standard performance.
As for Bank Night, the problem is that you appear to be a smart-ass, the only one who ends up winning. It can turn an audience off you. Richard Osterlind had a solution (one envelope contains lottery tickets for everyone). It worked for him, but not for me. Now I have comic fortunes in each of the envelopes, so the spectators get a chance to open and read their fortunes, and become the centre of attention for a moment. My fortune reveals that I am about to come into a huge sum of money. I turn it over to reveal one euro. Since I didn't win a vast sum I am not the smart ass, and everyone has a laugh. Now it works for me.
In summery you need to eliminate the predictability from Russian Roulette, and the smugness from Bank Night, then both routines will play well.

I thought Osterlind just put a dollar in each envelope or something. That was essentially my idea of the prize they all got and would make the performer look like less of an ass.

i do agree with you Mr. Tony, i think i should change the presentation with something unusual. your idea with flasher is a great idea, thx

On the Nothing DVD, Max Maven discusses various bank night styles. He mentions "soft" endings like Osterlind's, where the magician wins enough goodies to share with all the players. It comes down to personal style, and if your style is soft and sweet enough to carry off that sort of ending. (After all, if everybody's going to share, why play a gambling game at all?)

I love Max's version, played up like a razzle-dazzle game show. The spectators all win junk prizes (orange peel, empty Coke can, etc.) and Max wins the valuable prize -- but he keeps the fun and enthusiasm high by talking up the junk prizes as though they were all equally valuable and as good as what he eventually wins. "Ooh, a Coke can! You can use that as a drink container, or you can take it to the recycling centre and get money for it, so really it's like a cash prize!"

theatrically, you don’t create fear in a romantic situation..
you createtension, and Jeopardy.

this could be done in a number of ways.
One that springs to mind, is to have the gun pointed at somebody else, someone who is romanticaly linked to the performer.
And the marksman.. is a 3rd party.

The romance then comes into play, because the mentalist has to accuratly predict the live bullet... or his partner dies.

Now ive typed this, i feel that i should type this.....

DONT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE OF THE METHOD, BECAUSE IF IT WERE TO GO WRONG, YOU WOULD NEVER GET OVER IT!!


However, think about it.This senario has taken the dramatic premise of the rusian roulette, and added an extra layer.

why?

well, in a normal r.r routine, the audience kind of know it works out ok, because.. you have done it before and survived.

having an assistant, takes this away.. you could of shot hundreds of girls, and still survived.

now, I suspect that your really talking about a smash and stab routine, rather than Rusian Roulette.

my sugestion would be to remove the spike.
replace it with a painted china egg.. something that your intending to give away as a gift to a pretty girl from the audience..

and at teh end, it survives, and you give it away.

This is not my idea.. It came from Johnathon Pendragon years ago..

As to Bank Night... check out Paul Stockman's "Hands Off Bank Night" on his CONNECTED DVD... You might find it more fitting to how you want things to work out.

As to the idea of being a "Romantic Mentalist"... well, in my book that sounds more akin to a magician doing an act... very ... but that's just how I'm envisioning such a thing.

Romance... creating that Valentino or type feel comes through YOU as an actor first and foremost and has nothing to do with the effects. My suggestion being that you get some formal training as an actor along side literal experience playing the sort of role you have in mind. There are three reasons I say this;

a.) We work in a craft that states boldly that "We are but actors playing the part of..." and yet NO WHERE in 99% of magic-based literature does one find a single reference to proper theater let alone the a true thespian. So either we're hypocrites when it comes to this claim or simply overly obsessed with the tricks vs. the trick of becoming a magickle entity.

b.) By stepping up to the plate and investing in the time and discipline required of you within the Actor's Craft you will be gaining an edge that will be seen in your future work as a conjurer that very, very few of your contemporaries can/will match due to the aforementioned lethargy/ hypocrisy.

c.) The experience you gain by actually ACTING and taking on those roles that echo your idea and vision of who you are as a performing Mentalist will stick with you and embellish the over-all illusion of self; let me explain this a bit...

I have an extensive background in my that is tied to the New Age/Pagan Revival sub-cultures as well as , Religion in general, alternative healing techniques, etc. I likewise have a family history that lends itself exceptionally well to the idea of things surreal, bizarre, macabre and of course Paranormal & Psychic. The culmination of these "unrelated" aspects (not directly connected to my role as an entertainer) add to the general idea as to who and what I am in the mind of the laity; most of whom see me as being part Enigma and part ... my work in the New Age subculture as a Reader, Speaker and Teacher sustains my work on stage due to similarity and association. At first I didn't realize this but over time I started seeing quite clearly where it was a practical PR advantage.

With your case, taking on "Leading Man" roles in a theatrical setting... even one man plays in which all you do is a kind of dramatic recitation (Check out Joshua Kane -- http://www.joshuakane.com/ as a positive example). It is the repetitive association that will allow the public to "assume" and thus, impose the idea of the Romantic persona onto most everything you do.

Because this can be a difficult role to pull off I'd suggest you take steps to refine yourself so as to fit the highest definition as to what it means to be a "Gentleman" but more directly, a man of Mystery... which is what psychologically triggers the subtext idea of being "Romantic"...
... go back and read "The Count of " and study the style of characters like James Bond and you can see how it is their mystery that attracts along side the confidence and class they project.

This is, in my opinion, the sort of thing that is going to allow you to reach both, your comfort zone as a performer as well as that rather high level of persona you've set for yourself; it has little to nothing to do with the effect you have chosen.

Mr. craig thx alot... you have waken me up, i do realized that i still need to learn many, from the way i act, the way to create the sensation and ect...

thx, i would like to know what book did you write, i need to learn more from your book and your thought thx alot Mr. Craig

Never saw the point in Russian Roulette. It's what? 1 in 6?