Magic Routine For A Blind Magician

[haroldross]

After researching the 'Spike' effect, an idea came to mind. Why not put together a magic routine that can be done blindfolded. I have a number of ideas for patter like talking about 'blind cuts' and 'blind shuffles' and such. There are a number of card tricks that I can do blindfolded and a few other effects. Wanna be my apple stand for my knife throwing routine?

Anybody have any ideas? Anyone know of any blind magicians?

My intent is not to make fun of the blind but to come up with a unique routine. I have several relative who are blind and it would be neat to teach them a few tricks to do in my show.

[Misjief]

Morgan Stebler's Taste Conditions was developed because he has a blind relative he wanted to share magic with...

(Thanks Lyle for introducing me to Morgan's work!)

Check it out!

Taste Conditions by Morgan Strebler (e-book)

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Also I suspect the blind make excellent hypnotic subjects but have never tested the theory. There are a quite a few cool tricks you could do for them if you want to go that route, although it is NOT strictly magic per say.

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Are you trying to do tricks the blind can enjoy.... Or come up with tricks the blind can preform? Two entirely different different tasks!

I had a blind friend in my karate school who we used to spar with the lights out... It was us against him and he'd kick your ass! We finally learned that we couldn't attack him in mass because we clobber ourselves trying and to go one on one. We still lost but did a little better. He was a madman in weapons training - very precise and detailed, fun to watch.

I am not sure what a blind magi could do for a sighted audience. I mean technically they could do anything a sighted magi could do if he was truly blindfolded. Any precision repetitious physical movement they tend to excel at because they are not visually distracted. My buddy could do kata's better then I could because I kept trying to rely on my sight to do them and that was an inferior method as to doing them versus physical touch and feel.

If I were going to teach a blind man to do magic I would go with mentalism - I bet they'd take to muscle reading like a kid does roller skates! Sound reading would probably be great for them too.

-misj-

[haroldross]

Thanks. I will check out the eBook.

As I stated I want to do a routine while being blindfolded and teach a few tricks to blind individuals for a show for sighted people.

Just imagine having a marked deck in Braille. Think of the possibilities there. I don't think the tricks would have to be limited to mentalism effects.

I am working on closing my smash and stab routine being blindfolded. I'll use clear Solo cups so people can see the spike but I can't.

[Misjief]

SO for clarity's sake you want to do both...
Preform Magic for the blind... AND Teach a blind person to do magic.
That is a tall order! Again, I suggest you tackle them separately!

I love the clear glass idea!

The braille deck would be neat but I suspect it would be a real bugger to learn! And if you were blind I would suspect you were using it... so you'd have to find a better way of presenting it.

Oh! Hay I recently learned a trick where they 'soaped' THE EDGES of a card in a pattern that marked it. Don't remember the exact details but it was sneaky and the blind could use it.

-misj-

[haroldross]

It would be fairly easy to teach a svengali deck, tapered deck, short card, or clipped card routine to a blind person.

My main focus for now is putting together a routine together to do blindfolded that will conclude with the smash and stab effect- with or without clear cups. For the cleat cups to really work, people have to be convinced that you cannot see through the blindfold. Perhaps I could leave the choice up to the audience.