For more than a decade, I have written on projects for TV magicians.
Few magic shows were made during the pandemic, which led to the founding of this newsletter and consulting work on non-TV projects for the first time.
Some magicians had cleverly pivoted to virtual shows and made more money in the pandemic than ever before. Large companies booked those magicians to perform Zoom magic shows for hundreds of their teams. I, too, was now providing my services via online 1:1 consultancy calls, rather than in person.
TV magic still existed in the form of talent shows due to their stable foundations. An early consulting client was Savio Joseph. He booked a call to get advice on his application and story for Got Talent. We worked together on every act as he got onto the show and even reached the finals. I'm particularly proud of his first audition's story-driven performance.
Since then, I've worked with many performers who primarily perform at corporate events. One question repeatedly arises: What's the perfect opener?
The challenge of finding the perfect answer to this question began to take hold last year, when I first wrote about the topic for One Ahead.
A question as simple as this would have a universal solution when working on television projects. Every TV magic consultant would give the same answer to something as consistently necessary as this–a perfect opener. Why was there no obvious answer for the non-TV scenario?
Again and again, the performers I worked with did not have a unanimous answer. So I decided (well, it bugged me enough that I felt I had no choice) to try to solve the question: what is the perfect magic trick opener? The goal was to come up with something that ticks all the boxes to be a universal opener for any magician.
The Requirements
A challenge is not a challenge without some strict definitions. An opener will be qualified as the first trick a magician performs on stage. We are going to focus on "stage" performances in circumstances under which the audience is unfamiliar with the performer. Perhaps they booked tickets to the event you're performing at, but not to a show explicitly billed as yours. You might be performing at a corporate party or awards show, or maybe you are competing in a local talent contest.
