Spice up your act with variety
We have all heard the saying variety is the spice of life and one of the best bits advice I picked up from an Oliver Graham lecture was, if you have a skill other than magic try and put it in your act.
The advice has precedent in the fact that entertainment used to come in the form of 'variety shows' in vaudeville theatres. You may think variety was just to ensure there was something for everyone and to a degree you would be right, but it also provided peaks and troughs, highs and lows of energy so the audience had that 'rollercoaster' ride.
I'm not saying for an act to be successful and have mass appeal it can't just be magic, fortunately magic is very broad, but a bit of spice is a good thing. If I remember correctly Oliver does some stuff with a long steel ladder as a nice interlude to having volunteers on stage and 'magic'. Paul Martin popped into the shop recently and showed off his skills with Hoop and Glass, which dates back to the vaudeville era but is very seldom seen today, it is a perfect example of skill trick.
I'm guessing this is how Rubik’s Cube magic popular, one magician taking a second skill he had and putting it in his act. So it doesn't have to be one of the traditional cross-over skills like escapology, balloon modelling or juggling. You can look to the past, whatever happened to frying pan rolling? or just take an existing interest you have and try if you can squeeze a performance from it. I for one have a few 'party tricks' which can be forced out of me after heavy persuasion. If you've got it, flaunt it!
This philosophy doesn't just apply to stage either, I've been inspired by the close-up contact juggling of Myles Thornton and Brendan Rodrigues (who also does a bit of bar flair.)
Perhaps it is just nice to flaunt a skill since in magic the clever stuff is clandestine and who knows it may become the thing you are 'known' for.
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