# Dark Magic Show / Yard Haunt



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Hey all, as some of you probably already know or remember, I've been entertaining the notion of doing some sort of dark show as opposed to just a yard display. And before anyone says anything, no I'm not change themes - we're pirates this year - settled and sticking to it. I'm actually thinking ahead to 2010. 

What I'm thinkin is spending some time studying magic and illusions and turning my display next year in to a dark magic show kinda thing. I usually avoid the gore and stuff as well as the traditional cliche display items so things like guilatines and sawing the woman in half trick are kinda ruled out. Instead I'm leaning more towards Criss Angel type dark illussion - you know, mess with the head kinda stuff. Now I know I'll never be as good as Criss Angel in that little time if at all so I plan to keep it simple. I understand the basics like palming and misdirection just not super great at em. Works on my 6 year old but not adults.

I'd really like to do something like a short 15-20 minute show that I can perform several times during the night. Maybe interact with some animated props that could probably be used for misdirection techniques. The idea would be that I would be a necromancer performing some necromantic illusions (I'm a sucker for necromancers and having just finished reading "Dresden Files: Dead Beat" I'm fired up on the topic again).

The performance would be kinda Cirque Du Soleil like in that it's performed with minimum talking and set to music.

Looking for tips and suggestion on how to integrate the set and props into the whole show. Or hell, any ideas on the whole subject matter in general.

I think this could be really super cool if pulled off right.


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

That sounds like a really cool idea! I don't have any suggestions for you right now, but I'll think about it....


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

LMAO - I just announced the concept to my daughter... Her response "Cool Daddy, can we cut a person in half?"


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Terrormaster, pm me what kind of stuff you are looking for. I'm in the process of selling off a bunch of magic stuff on Ebay. Depending on what you want, I can maybe hook you up...


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## Don Givens (Dec 2, 2008)

Sounds like a great idea. Bet you'll have a lot of fun and get a good response too.


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## Kaoru (May 6, 2009)

You know T, after thinking about it for a bit, you have to give yourself time for the magic performance since your thinking something that will intrigue the kids but also at least the adults too.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

The more I think on this the more I'm leaning towards doing illusions using lights - kinda a manipulating spirits and energies. Anyone know a good resource for doing those sorts of illusions?


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Lost me on that one.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

More stuff like this: http://www.marvinsmagic.com/Default.asp/Page/Product/Product/65


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

These guys have some great stuff to, but the tricks are sold individually and can be quiet expensive...

http://www.ellusionist.com

I'm really curious about the M5 kit and how it actually works. It seems like it's gear towards a more advance illusionist though than beginners.

http://www.ellusionist.com/tricks/s...sm/m5-pk-magic-kit-micro5-psycho-kinetic.html


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

After viewing the M5 thing, it looks like it's just a magnet hidden in ones shirt cuff. The items to made to move are prepped with metal to make them jump. Changing a penny into a dime, the dime is covered with a penny shell that is removed by passing the magnet over it revealing the dime. The professional thing comes into play when when the shell must be removed using misdirection, and ordinary items swapped for the prepped ones.

I do NOT own this nor have I seen the system, this is just my own guess on how it works.


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## Dark Lord (Jul 25, 2007)

I have the M5 & love it ! Been doing magic on & off since i was a kid,of course now i'm older i can afford the expensive stuff. I deal with Ellusionist 
( near me ) & also have another one called "electric touch" with these 2 & an ITR (invisible thread) during Halloween especially,
i show "evidence" that the spirits are restless..... These are a little on the expensive side, but for the reactions i get,sooooooo worth it !!
Hey Morbius, not too shabby........ ya got a good grasp on that......lets just say there is no misdirection & it's not your normal mag system,
I love doing a witch doctor one using a "haunted" chicken bones to stand up & move around as if cursed by the evil spirits


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

I just realized I spoiled the effect, violating the magicians code...good thing I'm not a magician! Sorry about that though. Magic shows suck for me because I can usually figure out how things are done, even if I've never seen the trick before. I have a bad habit of ruining it for others too...for that I apologize.


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## Dark Lord (Jul 25, 2007)

Oh,so your one of "those" people in the crowd...LOL,not to worry, this stuff is exposed be young kids on youtube 5 min after they get it....... It is easy to figure most of this out,especially us Halloween prop builders......LOL Funny thing is that even though most people would love to know HOW "it's" done, they more enjoy the performance of a magician or illusionist & actually like to "guess" on how it was done..... It is the kids that buy & expose this stuff trying to be BMOC with his peers & opposite sex..... there are a few sites run by teens that do nothing but buy the trick just to see how it works & they perform & expose the secret on youtube or they're magic sites.Really kills it when i do something to entertain & someone yells out how it is done cause they saw it on exposed youtube.... Really does tick off those of us that do this stuff either for fun or a profession.
& seeing as your not a magican,you didn't really break "the code"...LOL
Most adults & some kids,that have basic knowledge of physics can figure a lot of this stuff out,it's all in how the magician presents & handles it......
Now get back to work building props & "expose" your props building secrets.....i don't think we have a -do not reveal- code here.....LOL


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

DL you are so correct about youtube. I learned both Sinful and the coin in the bottle trick from youtube - both presented by 11-13 year olds. Which while cool tricks I don't want to perform these for Halloween because probably every kid knows it - especially Criss Angel's Sinful trick (not sure why its called that - for the uninitiated its the force the marked coin into sealed drink can trick).

As for M5 I kind of figured it involved magnets but was looking for details on how it worked (hence the M in M5 I'm certain). I definitely dont want to expose anything here so any help via PM would be great.

This is the other reason why I want to do more performance illusion type instead of street magic type stuff. On that note Andrew Mayne has a few good ones I'm looking at investing in including Chain Reaction, Bisection, and Gut Buster. I also want to get the lights to do some light magic. 

Here's one of my ideas (I'm sure may have been done), do a Penn & Teller type setup where I would be more like the silent Teller component and a talking prop or two would be more the Penn component talking, explaining the setup, and providing some basic misdirection (as much as an animatronic can anyways).


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

Look into getting a itr, Invisible thread real. The ones with Kevlar are the best. It will allow to you levitate small object including small light sources like "D light". There is a book I would love to have on Lulu called the Bigger Book Of Boo. It is about theatrical seance. It contains lots of spooky illusions. ther is a book of stage illusions aimed at halloween the name of which I cannot remember. I know how to show a freestanding doorway that is attached to a simple platform with wheels. The door is wheeled out and the door opened. Inside is a curtain. The magician pushes it aside showing the doorway to be empty. The curtain is returned, the door closed. Immediately there is a knock and the door is opened to show a zombie. This was done once for presenting a CEO at a large stockholders meeting. In that case the zombie was the CEO. It is actually easy to do after you build the prop.


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## Warrant2000 (Oct 8, 2008)

Your show could be a story. Something like a dark version of Mickey Mouse and the Sorcerers Hat.

You, as an apprentice Necro, find a tome of necro-something, and proceed to cast spells from it that eventually get out of hand, here comes the giant demon, quick, cast the final control spell spell! phew, just in time!

Various animated props or hidden assistants can help move thing on your stage/ area.

Smoke machine funneled into a podium of skulls so smoke comes out the eyes and mouth . Get some basic mixing chemicals that make smoke of foam when mixed (nothing toxic of course). 

Cast a spell which summons an animatronic, you don't like it, so you dismiss it and try for something larger.

Have actors hidden around the audience in scary zombie stuff to add depth to your animatronics.

Have a child actor blend in with the audience, pretending to be a regular TOT, and hypnotize, levitate, teleport, and/or possess him/her.


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## Dark Lord (Jul 25, 2007)

Aquayne said:


> Look into getting a itr, Invisible thread real. The ones with Kevlar are the best. It will allow to you levitate small object including small light sources like "D light". There is a book I would love to have on Lulu called the Bigger Book Of Boo. It is about theatrical seance. It contains lots of spooky illusions. ther is a book of stage illusions aimed at halloween the name of which I cannot remember. I know how to show a freestanding doorway that is attached to a simple platform with wheels. The door is wheeled out and the door opened. Inside is a curtain. The magician pushes it aside showing the doorway to be empty. The curtain is returned, the door closed. Immediately there is a knock and the door is opened to show a zombie. This was done once for presenting a CEO at a large stockholders meeting. In that case the zombie was the CEO. It is actually easy to do after you build the prop.


Kevlar is best for strenght & flourescent lighting, "reg" / non kevlar is actually better in semi daylight/shaded areas. The book on stage magic for halloween type effect is getting harder to find & expensive.


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## Dark Lord (Jul 25, 2007)

Terrormaster said:


> Here's one of my ideas (I'm sure may have been done), do a Penn & Teller type setup where I would be more like the silent Teller component and a talking prop or two would be more the Penn component talking, explaining the setup, and providing some basic misdirection (as much as an animatronic can anyways).


Now doesn't this just "scream out" for a 3 axis skull(s) type Penn & teller routine........  Would even better with real time system....... 1 or 2 Borris talking skulls with persons off to the side with the mikes to interact with you in a graveyard or mortuary type scene.............


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## spong8 (Jun 15, 2007)

As a magician who bases himself around everything dark and macabre, there are plenty of things you could do for a dark magic show. First off, you need gore; if you stop to think about every illusion out there, it either involves mutilation, torture, bondage, or a mild death theme. Sawing someone in half, 



gorrified.

Also there was an Aussie fellow doing a very dark looking magic show.

http://www.magickmacabre.com/

maybe his website will give food for thought


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Spong - the Magick Macabre is precisely the direction I'm leaning in - a dark story set in my created dark fantasy world. 

Thanks big time for that link, it has been VERY inspirational.


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## spong8 (Jun 15, 2007)

Terrormaster said:


> Spong - the Magick Macabre is precisely the direction I'm leaning in - a dark story set in my created dark fantasy world.
> 
> Thanks big time for that link, it has been VERY inspirational.


Its my pleasure.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Okies, thinking of doing the Walking Through Mirror illusion as my opener. I don't like the David Copperfield version, feels kinda lame and is pretty obvious how it's done. I do like the Devil's Reflection version but no way am I gonna dish out $3k for that thing when I know I can build it for far less that myself.

However I want to combine the illusion somehow with Mirror, Mirror from Imagineerieing. I need to think that through but first I need to figure out how Devil's Reflection works.

I'll probably follow this up with the Dancing Cane illusion.

-TM


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

I really like this prop, from the same guy who make's Devil's Reflection above. It called Relic of the Revenant.






At first I thought IT but that'd be over complicated. My other thought is something the lines of M5 but controlled remotely with maybe some sort of microcontroller. This one I'm CERTAIN I could build providing I could figure out the mechanics behind it.

-TM


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## HibLaGrande (Sep 25, 2005)

ever seen the light up thumb trick? it's a fake thumb that fits over your real thumb with an LED inside you turn on by applying pressure. with two of them it can look like you are passing a light back and forth,kind of a cool effect in low light areas and could be incorporated into a spooky spirit type of show.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Yup, I have one that I bought at a local magic shop so I could play with it. Has to be dark to really use it effectively as most people can see the fake thumb.

The idea I had in mind was to have this mojo bag that I pull spirits out of (using the thumb light) then throwing it in the direction of a prop in time to a sequence and making it look like I was bringing them to life. This would obviously be at the beginning of the show.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I believe an ITR with magicians wax is a simpler answer.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

Get the video "who's afraid of invisible thread?"

I think Penguine magic has it.


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## BadTable Manor (Apr 16, 2008)

Love the Chris Angel idea. My daughter learned a whole bunch of card tricks just looking around online. Real mind-trick stuff. I'm sure you can find some as well. Keep us posted, and have fun!


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## Nephilim (Sep 15, 2006)

One easy thing to do is to do black light puppetry, and it goes well with the 'done to music / no talking' style. If you have some helpers who can dress all in black, you can do a lot of fun tricks. It's especially good if you have kids that want to help or have younger audiences.

To see some samples of what we did, check out our "Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour" shows:

http://homepage.mac.com/nephilim/imagineerieing/2006/parlour2006.html
http://homepage.mac.com/nephilim/imagineerieing/2005/parlour.html

You can also see other cool effects by googling "black light puppetry".


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I found this link. I think the illusions will work well for your theme.

http://www.hauntworld.com/JPfeiffers_HowTos/index.html


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

This is a great resourse for lots of ideas. Many are magical in nature.

http://www.hauntedwisconsin.com/information/links/diy/


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