I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…

Making magic your own > making your own magic.

Laypeople will not know or care if your trick is a version of something that already exists. They will notice if a trick feels unique to you. Avoid all that risk that comes with inventing new magic and spend your time making great magic your own.

Justin Flom is one of the kings of this, alongside Justin Willman.

As a consultant, magicians will often tell you they want to perform a variation of a shop-bought trick. They likely love the trick, realise that it is tried and tested, and may even already perform it. Now they want to perform it in their original way.

An example of this was when Dynamo asked us to create a unique version of French Kiss by Wayne Houchin. We only made a tiny tweak to the trick, but our only goal was for D to perform an individual variation. Some might view it as an unnecessary addition, but I think being able to show the card a second time right before it goes into his mouth is rather neat.