I found this discussion fascinating. There are a ton of ideas for coming up with patter for the card trick "Red Hot Mama", and some disagreement about whether or not there should be a story patter. Whether or not you use the ideas in here, hopefully it will stir up your thoughts.
By: Scott K.
One of my favorite magic tricks to perform is Red Hot Mama. However,
I am getting bored of using "descriptive patter" for all of my
tricks...
I am trying to invent some "creative patter," but I am having trouble coming up with ideas for Red Hot Mama.
Can anyone here give me some ideas/suggestions?
By: Chris K
Personally, I feel the Bluefield Debut version of Red Hot Mama lends
itself to creative patter a little bit more than the regular Chicago
Opener version of Red Hot Mama. After that, I think that the patter
would be really, REALLY easy to come by. E-mail me if you have any
specific questions.
By: Talisman
Red Hot Mamma is my favorit table hopping opener.
I will describe the ideas and the few gags I throw in shortly. I begine by explaining that every one can do magic with cards, but poeple think its hard because they are trying to run before they know how to crawl, and by that I mean start with one card before you go to the whole deck. for example, take any card you like and we'll start with it. now we'll loose it in the deck and you have to find it without looking at the cards. you see, its easy, there are 51 cards here that arent yours and one that is, try to wave your hand over the deck and FEEL your card. now there are 2 options :
1. he says he feel it and you make a joke like "oh you feel it ? (glance worried at the other poeple), in a short while the poeple in white will come here to take you..."
2. he says he feel nothing so say : "I would be afraid if you had". now tell him to order HIS card to reveal itself. if he says that aloud ("reveal yourself !") I say in a concern voice : "man. you are talking to a deck of cards. is everything o.k. at home ?".
then I jump and say in excited voice : "wow ! did you feel it ?", whatever he answers I take the deck and complete the first phase. now I go to the person sitting next to him and say that he knows what to do, lets see if he's got it. I do the second phase and then go looking for the new red card but ofcaurse I dont find it (I spread the deck in a bow around the "first seclection", I "whisper" to the first spec : "you were much better than him...(puase) unless... no ! it cant be ! sometimes poeple are better magicians than they think" and very dramaticly I turn over the red card in the middle.
the patter wasnt what led me to that presentation, my main goal was to "teach" them how to do magic and make the magic happens (almost) in thier hands. sometimes they really try to feel thier card (I do it very seriously) and wave thier hand over the deck for half a minute before they are satysfied. this effect is great for kids too (I usually do it to a kid and than to his parent).
By: Ren
About a week ago, there was a question here regarding Red Hot
Mama. This got me to thinking and here is what I've come up with but
I've hit a stumbling block.
You can talk about how cards are easily affected by direct light. (Have card selected and returned to the deck). If I was to leave these cards out in the sun, it would be possible for one of the cards to get sunburned. (use an alternative light source (pocket flashlight) and flash it on the cards). Spread the deck on the table and show that one of the cards has actually been sunburned because of exposure to the light. Remove the card and place it aside.
This is pretty much where I left off. Where can I go from here. I thought about repeating the trick with the Queen selected and talking about applying sunscreen to the Queen but haven't figured out how to explain the switch. Maybe the Queen has a really low tolerance to sunlight. Maybe the other card ran for cover and switched places with the Queen. This is where I need help and I knew that all of the great minds here at MT could help me find a logical ending to this story/patter.
By: bob h.
The premise doesn't seem right -- why would shining the light on the top of the deck sunburn a card that's down in the middle of the deck [and therefore "protected" by the cards above it]? And why would the selected card be the one that get's sunburned? Perhaps this is why you're having trouble finding a suitable ending.
By: Ricky B
You could talk about how the card they selected is the fairest in the
land and can be sunburned even through a cover (the back of the
card). You turn the card over and there she is, all sunburned, the QH.
I'm responding to your query with a suggestion, but I personally don't like it! What makes the effect really strong is the second surprise, where the discard turns out to be the selected card, and this suggestion of mine gives that away.
Why do you have to have a prop or a theory (other than it's magic) as to why they turn color?
By: Ren
: Why do you have to have a prop or a theory (other than : it's magic)
as to why they turn color?
Magic is always more interesting when there is a story to go along with it. So far I've done mostly descriptive magic. ie: "I'll return the card to the middle of the deck, give it a little shake and it magically returns to the top of the deck." This is fine, but I want to make my magic more entertaining.
But your story got me to thinking. If I had the spectator shine the light himself on the selected queen, then return it to the deck. It wouldn't matter if the queen wasn't found in the deck as the sunburned Queen would be where the previous discard is.
Any other suggestions gang? I want to make this my contribution to part II of the MT video so I really want to nail this patter down.
By: Jason Tang
I think that unless you find a good story to base your patter around,
I mean a really good one, often times stories end up sounding
extremely cheesy and phoney.
Don't give up though, you may hit on something.
By: Scott K.
Maybe talk about, how the Queen watched you burn the selected card
with your flashlight; so, to avoid being burned herself, she escaped
from the crowd and decided to hide out on the table (away from
everyone else)... because after observing you perform this trick many
times, she knew that you would shine the light on them again...
A laser pen-light would be even better!
By: Scott K.
If you use the laser pen, then get rid of the whole sunburn
concept... talk about radiation burns instead!
By: Ricky B
I dunno. You might want to keep the theme light and happy. Radiation
burns are not a light and happy topic (particularly if anyone in the
audience has had radiation therapy for cancer).
By: Ren
No but I could turn it into a mad scientist routine where he mixed
some chemicals and the chemicals caused people to turn red when
exposed to sunlight. There are many ways to work around this.
By: Scott K.
Exactly...
I don't think anyone is going to believe that flashlights can cause
sunburn... Unless you are using a UV lightbulb!!!
By: Ren
I'm a grade 6 teacher. Kids will believe anything. They even believe
that I'm a magician. Imagine that.
Maybe I should use a UV bulb. The glow will blind people and distract them from the fact that I'm not as good a magician as I actually pretend to be.
By: Scott K.
UV bulbs? nahh, too dangerous, unless you want to risk dermal dysplasia.
Try a flourescent bulb, and just say it is UV.
By: Olde Rabbit
How about if your Mad Scientist tried to come up with a sunscreen, but
it went in reverse, creating a sunburn with infinitely small amounts
of light, like a flashlight thru a pack of cards?
By: Ren
Okay,
I've taken all of these suggestions into account and here's the patter I seem to have come up with.
There once was a mad scientist from New York (sorry Steve) who invented a drug which when exposed to light, could inflict sunburns on people. In his first experiment, he selected a group of 52 people. He chose one victim. (spec picks a card) and fed him his sunburn drug. Card is lost in the deck.
He took out a regular pocket flashlight and flashed it in the direction of the group of 52 people. Amazingly, only one person of this group of 52 got affected and turned red. (reveal chosen card and place it aside). Of course, people who are sunburned like to move into the shade (maybe place card under napkin or closeup mat).
Of course, no test is complete without a second trial so he tried the experiment again. He had another person chosen from the 51 that were left (forced Queen). Once again, this person was fed the sunburn inducing drug. (card is lost in the deck. Light is flashed towards the deck once more. Deck is spread to reveal the sunburned victim, but alas, no one seems to have been affected. But wait... one thing that the scientist hadn't considered was that the sunburn drug might also work in the shade. (reveal the Queen under closeup mat). Of course, this just proves that being in the shade is no protection from mad scientists.
-------------
Okay gang,
This is what I've managed to come up with from your suggestions. The finale is a bit weak. I wouldn't mind a one-liner to kind of finish the story. (kinda like... the moral of this story is....). It might give the trick some added pizzazz.
Your thoughts, suggestions, comments and criticisms are always welcome. Hopefully, this patter won't offend anyone.
By: Olde Rabbit
Nothing worse than someone spouting platitudes following a joke. The
patter is cute, and works with the effect. Just leave it that way. If
you are performing this for your kids, they won't pay attention to
anything you say after they see the visual punchline anyway. Nor will
the adults. Just let them have a good snicker.
By: Ren
I wasn't so much looking for a moral as I was for a funny looking
punchline at the end. I just think the ending might be a tad weak. The
visual punch will be good but it seems as though it would be better if
I had something to back it up with patter wise. Then again... maybe
I'm just grasping at straws. I'll have to try it out on a few people
to get a feel for it and try to modify it.
By: MAGIGAL
Maybe placing a tiny bandaid on the other queens noses ...
or show all queens having their protective bandaid on their tiny noses
( and have 1 non-bandaided EXTRA queen that isn't shown).....when you
pick up the deck, let a used bandid flutter down from your palm behind
the deck to the table in full view , seem a little concerned and then
show what happens without the bandaid.....
By: Charlie
Maybe you could steal a white band aid from your pocket as they look
at the queen and place it over your nose ( just like the tourists in
the tropics.) As they look up you could say "watch out you could be
next"
By: Ren
LOL. That's a really funny idea. The misdirection would be
perfect. Thanks.
By: Scott K.
Your getting there...
But you need to come up with a reason why their chosen card is affected by the light, and the other 51 cards are not...
Here is a suggestion... Patter about this new protective sunscreen... have card selected, and passed around, and returned to deck...
Then patter about, "Whether you were aware of it or not, all of that touching & handling of your card actually wiped off all of the protective sunscreen. And now, your selected card is unprotected from the damaging rays of light. Let me demonstrate what I mean..." Do your little flashlight/laser demo and take it from there...
By: Shuja
Nice story. If I were doing it, the scientest would be (so you can
refer to him by name, and for the story's effectiveness) my brother or
cousin or something. But he's kind of crazy. I don't know why,
craziness doesn't run in my family! (good gag, they always start
joking about it. Even if Copperfield said it, they'd laugh like mad)
And then you have to have a reason to know this story. Maybe he hired you as his lab assistant.
I'd talk about the cards as if they are victims (or vice versa) would you please pick a victim, any victim. Shuffle the victims.
When I read this, I wondered why the mad scientest would want to make a lotion that gives you sunburn. I'm sure they have better things to do. How about something like he was making an easy way to make dinner, but he wasn't sure if it would work. Hey, he's crazy....he decided to test it on people. (how deliciously morbid!) He advertised everywhere, but all he could get were some wierdos and a bunch of numbers.
The first victim (10c) was only finished on one side! It ran away in fear when it was still medium rare! It hid, and started to cool down. He found another specimen.
This specimen did nothing! Perhaps it ran away, into my pocket! Pull the blue 10c out of your pocket, look puzzled, and find the second victim where the 10c used to be.
You can run (turn over card) but you can't hide! (I think that would be a nice closer, dramatic if you turn over the card fancily, and pause well)
I wouldn't think you'd use all of that, I just wrote down everything the instant I thought of it. I hope you use something from it.
By: Elliot aka MagicGuy
Red Hot Mama is one of my favourite tricks.. I have been performing it
on a regular bases for about two years now..
I use a presentation that looks much like Ammar's.. I would never ever do a story type of presentation for this trick..
I believe that a story under these circumstances most likely will seem pretty stupid.. Or rather.. Very stupid..
This is my personal opinion.. And this kinda presentation might suit your personality better than it would mine..
Is there any performer you respect that performers their tricks in this manner? Have you used story type presentations for this type of effects before?
Cards are cards.. and should be presented like cards.. I agree with Ortiz's thoughts in Strong Magic on this matter..
By: Ren
Some card tricks are well suited for a descriptive patter. Other
tricks just lend themselves to a better story line. I think it all
depends the way you look at it.
By: Bob K
: Is there any performer you respect that performers their tricks
in this manner?
I can't think of any performer that does all their tricks in that manner, but I can think of many do do some tricks that way. A few come to mind immediately (although I'm going by memory so may be thinking of the wrong name in some cases)- Don Alan did it for some tricks, Eugene Burger, Ammar, Bill Malone, John Bannon, Mike Close, Dan Fleshman, and Paul Harris.
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