Catch Phra­ses for Scripts

Scrip­ting is very important for magic. It is an art for its­elf and depends lar­gely on good ideas and novel slants story wise.

When wri­ting a script for a magic trick, it is some­ti­mes not so easy to find an effec­tive intro line. Some­ti­mes a ques­ti­ons can be used, some­ti­mes a state­ment, some­ti­mes a little joke. What to use depends on the trick in question.

Here is a little hack, which could be useful. I dis­co­vered this many years ago when sit­ting in front of the blank paper at the begin­ning of the script.

Here is a sug­ges­tion. Try to start your wri­ting with the ‘The trick that …’ or ‘The most …’ tech­ni­que. This could sparkle even­tually an enter­tai­ning pre­sen­ta­tion. It goes along these lines:

• The trick that never worked.
• The trick that I couldn’t mas­ter to this day.
• The trick that made me famous in (name any small village).
• The trick that nobody was inte­res­ted in.
• The most bor­ing trick in the world.
• The most dif­fi­cult trick in the world.
• The most expen­sive trick in the world.
• The che­a­pest trick in the world.
• The trick that needs no words.
• The trick that is the most fun to do.
• The trick that is no fun to do.
• The lon­gest trick in the world.
• The shor­test trick in the world.
• The oldest trick in the world.
• The trick that isn’t one.
• The trick no one can buy with money.
• The trick I stole/​borrowed/​learned from …
• The trick that was forgotten.
• The trick that no one is allo­wed to talk of.
• The trick that rui­ned XY …
• The trick that was given from one gene­ra­tion to another.
• The trick that ever­y­body could do if he only wan­ted to.
• The trick that XY con­side­red her/​his favorite.
• The trick that ever­y­body is doing.
• The trick that nobody could bring to an end.
• The trick that is done backwards.
• The trick that nobody ever has tried.
• The trick that split the world.
• The trick at the end of the rainbow.
• The trick that was stolen/​lost/​rediscovered.
• The trick that got lost.
• The trick XY held back for years.
• The trick that was cursed.
• Find your own …

You will find that many of these lines imme­dia­tely get your brain working in the right direc­tion. Com­bine this with some inte­res­t­ing cha­rac­ter in your script. Tell a story. Find a moral of the story. Find the under­ly­ing plot (moti­va­tion, emotion).

Many times inser­ting a pro­mi­nent per­son into the line gives you new ideas for amusing and inte­res­t­ing patter.

“I would now like to show a very spe­cial trick. It is the trick that David Cop­per­field always wan­ted to know and learn, but I did­n’t let him in on the secret.”

“This is the only trick that Donald Trump ever mas­te­red: vanis­hing money.”

“I am going to show a very dan­ge­rous trick now, and the reason for Jay Leno not put­ting me on his talk show.”

“The Trick That Foo­led Hou­dini” is an exam­ple for an intro­duc­tion to Vernon’s mini ambi­tious card trick (with which he foo­led Hou­dini indeed).

I am sure you got the idea.