Unless you find some way of reading other people's minds, it is fairly difficult to impress or amaze them without using props. Even effects like the Balducci Levitation or Meir Yedid's Finger Fantasies have props in that portions of the magician's anatomy are involved.
The trick here is to make magic using borrowed and familiar objects. This will create a props free impression in the minds of the spectators. Many magicians aren't comfortable performing tricks unless they're using equipment supplied by a magic dealer. There is no reason for this other than the often false confidence that the prop will somehow do the trick for them.
Becoming adept with the basics of sleight of hand and directing the spectators' attention during performance allows you to subject just about any object to magical manipulation. There are also routines such as the Cups And Balls and One In The Hand Two In The Pocket that can easily be done impromptu with borrowed objects. Too often magicians wait until they see someone like David Blaine turn the mundane into the marvelous before they suddenly think of doing the same.
What's amusing about much of this is that many classic magic tricks started out being impromptu, borrowed object effects. But soon magicians were having the objects used gold plated or spun out of brass and painted to look the original object. In some cases today's magic props, such as the die box or ball vase, were originally familiar objects ... a hundred years ago or so.
While the best way to impress your friends is to entertain them rather than fool them, there more likely to be both if you borrow a pen or coin or cap or piece of paper and use that to create the illusion of magic. Yours Magically Solomon Interested to learn magic for fun or profit? Would you like to hire a magician, hypnotist or an emcee for your event? Visit www.themagicofsolomon.com for more info..
