I agree with him to some degree. You definitely must respect your audience. And True – nobody cares about your magic shop experience. However, if he thinks that people want to pay “big bucks” to watch some guy for an entire hour trying to get out of shackles (exactly what Houdini’s show was), then he’s crazy. I also don’t think people want to Robert Houdin pulling rabbits out of his silk top hat.

I’m pretty sure that people don’t wanna pay big bucks to hear me say, “that’s how I got it” when a get my sharpie back from the audience.

Nobody out there cares how much you practiced or how much you spent at the magic shop.

@Phil – I’m a big fan of that effect as well. I’ve been doing Paul Wilson’s version, Gypsy Monte. It’s awesome. Also, my friend Dan Paulus uses an Ace a Queen and the $14.00 card from Color Monte. He said that out of all the variations he’s done, that one got the best response.

One of the tricks in my repertoire that always (repeat ALWAYS) gets an outstanding reaction in my strolling routine is Color Monte. I usually do it with two aces and a Joker rather than the marketed version but it is the one effect that gets them screaming.

Yes, it’s a simple trick. Yes, magicians might scoff at using an ‘old as the hills’ packet trick. But the reaction it gets is fantastic.