There are tons of magicians that hate it when people show the magic tricks. Honestly I’m not sure why they’d dislike it. When you watch a trick you are encouraging someone that’s into magic on some level. You are also not being a jerk. I understand that there’s a common magic trick that people show … Continue reading “Magic From Non-Magicians…”
There are tons of magicians that hate it when people show the magic tricks. Honestly I’m not sure why they’d dislike it. When you watch a trick you are encouraging someone that’s into magic on some level. You are also not being a jerk.
I understand that there’s a common magic trick that people show us and it’s a horrible trick and quite often the person fails to find the card because they don’t practice enough. However you never know when you are going to see something interesting.
Here’s a bartender that saw Chris Beason and I jamming magic tricks and offered to show us a trick:
While the trick was a math based trick, it was something I think I had read as a kid, but had never seen anyone do it. It was an interesting trick and while not the greatest trick in the world, it was worth watching 10 bad tricks to get to one that was fun!
Whenever I book a gig at a banquet I always mention that I do not perform while people are eating. The booker 95% of the time is OK with that and the 5% that aren’t OK are gigs I pass on. However of the ones that book, I would say a good half of them … Continue reading “Magic and Dinner…”
Whenever I book a gig at a banquet I always mention that I do not perform while people are eating. The booker 95% of the time is OK with that and the 5% that aren’t OK are gigs I pass on. However of the ones that book, I would say a good half of them I end up performing while people are eating.
There are a few reasons for this, the most common one is that people don’t consider desert part of the meal. I consider desert part of the meal or at least part of “eating” and it has the same problems that the main meal has for the show.
Those problems are that when people are eating, they aren’t engaged in the show. They can’t laugh and clap like they normally would when not eating. Then once they get used to responding by not responding, they will not respond once they are done eating.
Unfortunately when you get to the gig and people are eating and you’re told to go on, there are really two things you can do:
1: Start the show 2. Don’t start the show.
Both have pluses and minuses you need to consider. Starting the show may affect the reception of your show. Not starting the show may affect your relationship with the booker. Also due to time restraints on the venue, it may not be possible to delay the show, so your option would be to actually not do the show.
In most situations I start the show and plow through it. However you need to do what’s right for you!
Doing a stage show in a room that’s not designed for a show can be rough on the performer. Last night I did a show in a very echoy venue. It’s hard to perform in places like that. I really need to slow down my rate of speech for venues where there is an echo. … Continue reading “Echo…Echo…”
Doing a stage show in a room that’s not designed for a show can be rough on the performer. Last night I did a show in a very echoy venue. It’s hard to perform in places like that. I really need to slow down my rate of speech for venues where there is an echo.
One of the things that I need to remember is to keep my rate of speech slow and take a lot of pauses at the periods and commas. That will help what I’m saying not step on the echo, and let the whole audience get what I’m saying and have time to process it before I talk again.
One helpful thing I did was walk around the venue while I was mic’d to hear what I sounded like. Sound does change a lot once you have a room full of people, however it gave me a feel for how the audio might sound.
The key is to be aware of the situation and not to complain. The event can’t remove the echo from the room, so you’ve got to be a pro and deal with it.
When I was a teenager there was a trick that came out called Diminishing Returns by Mike Powers. This is a great trick where someone picks a card and the whole deck shrinks except for their card. Then the whole deck grows and their card shrinks. For the finale their card visually grows back to … Continue reading “The Shrinking Card…”
When I was a teenager there was a trick that came out called Diminishing Returns by Mike Powers. This is a great trick where someone picks a card and the whole deck shrinks except for their card. Then the whole deck grows and their card shrinks. For the finale their card visually grows back to full size. It’s a great action packed trick.
Here’s the video of the Diminishing Returns trick:
It’s a great trick and I did it for quite a while. Recently I was messing around with some cards and ended up playing with a similar gaff and here’s what I came up with:
This is a fun little sequence for the shrinking of a card. There’s not much to it, and I might write it up for Vanish Magazine in the future.
One of the things that I don’t really do is perform as a character. What I mean by character is dressing up like a cowboy and being a “cowboy magician”. Some people perform as a popular movie character, or celebrity. The main reason I don’t do this is that I can’t character act, and most … Continue reading “”
One of the things that I don’t really do is perform as a character. What I mean by character is dressing up like a cowboy and being a “cowboy magician”. Some people perform as a popular movie character, or celebrity.
The main reason I don’t do this is that I can’t character act, and most magicians can’t either. Many think they can, without any acting training, and these are probably the same people that get upset when an actor learns a magic trick and people think that trick is amazing.
Doing a character is more that just a costume. For example here’s someone that performs “as Sponge Bob:
Unfortunately they don’t do a voice, they don’t do the trick that Sponge Bob would do. It’s a guy wearing a cheap outfit doing a normal show. This in my opinion is a cash grab, someone trying to make a buck and not giving a sh!t. I don’t know his life circumstance, maybe he really needs the money, but this is a very short sighted way to get it.
A better way would be to take some acting classes, learn whatever character you are going to be doing, select material that fits it. Here’s a good example of doing it right:
This performer is doing a Captain Jack Sparrow style character, however the costume is correct to the character. It’s not a halloween costume. Also look at the material selection, he’s using swords and it looks like a sword basket in the background. This is a show that makes sense with the character.
If you do a character, do it right. If you care, audiences will care.
One thing I’m trying to do is make things play larger, so it’s easier to see them from the back of the theater. I think this is something that’s really overlooked by many magicians. Sometimes you can’t make something larger, like when you are doing Miser’s dream, the coins size will max out to a … Continue reading “Make it Bigger!”
One thing I’m trying to do is make things play larger, so it’s easier to see them from the back of the theater. I think this is something that’s really overlooked by many magicians. Sometimes you can’t make something larger, like when you are doing Miser’s dream, the coins size will max out to a point when they are no longer believable as a coin.
One trick that I love is the Coin in Bottle, however it does play fairly small. The nice thing is that the trick has an audio component to it. The audience can hear it rattling around inside the bottle. I really liked the idea of creating an impossible object that I could give away. My idea was to do a tennis ball in bottle:
The use of the topit worked great in a live setting, but not so well in a video. The other method I used a sponge tennis ball that I had cut in half and hallowed out. I would just smash the bottle onto it, collapsing it under the bottle as the other real tennis ball popped into view. Both methods had advantages and disadvantages.
I no longer do this trick in the show as I’m lazy and putting the tennis balls into the bottles was a pain in the butt and not worth the pay off. For me the thing is to keep thinking bigger and actually trying to make it play bigger!
Yesterday I went to Luche Libre Taco Shop in San Diego, CA. This is a Mexican Wrestling themed restuarant. One thing is that they go all out with the theme. It’s not just a picture on the wall, it’s all the pictures on the wall, it’s the graffiitti in the bathroom, it’s the toys in … Continue reading “Themed Show?”
Yesterday I went to Luche Libre Taco Shop in San Diego, CA. This is a Mexican Wrestling themed restuarant. One thing is that they go all out with the theme. It’s not just a picture on the wall, it’s all the pictures on the wall, it’s the graffiitti in the bathroom, it’s the toys in the vending machines. It’s 100% themed.
Another place I went a few days ago was Hodads in downtown San Diego. It’s also themed out. It’s a rocker/skater/surfer themed, that had a late 80’s feel to it. Once again it was 100% themed.
These were two of my favorite places we ate at this week. Why? Simple, they were fun. They did the theme right. You felt like you were a part of something.
This got me thinking about people who do themed shows. People use themed props, themed costume, or themed patter, however not many people use all three. Typically you’ll have someone that uses two themed things, but not all three.
I think you need to jump in and do a full on themed show if you are going to do one. This is something that really brings the audience into your world.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how to be more creative. My method for creativity isn’t very formal. It’s more of when I see something I think, “wouldn’t it be cool if…” then I try to figure out a way to do that. I’m trying to come up with a better way. One idea was to … Continue reading “Creativity Tools…”
Lately I’ve been thinking about how to be more creative. My method for creativity isn’t very formal. It’s more of when I see something I think, “wouldn’t it be cool if…” then I try to figure out a way to do that. I’m trying to come up with a better way.
One idea was to have cards with all of the effects in magic. For example one card would says, “appear” and another would say, “penetration”. Then I’d have another set of cards that would have a list of object. They could be objects that are common in magic like a card, or ball, but then a bunch of less common magic items like a toothbrush. There would be an optional third set of cards that would have items that must be used in the method, like thread or a magnet.
I was thinking of getting an app made for my phone that would randomly pick the effect and objects. This would make it more convenient than having three sets of physical cards, and make it easier to add objects.
I think having a system in place for creativity will help me churn out ideas. The key to creativity is volume, the more ideas you have, the more bad ideas you have. Getting the bad ideas out of the way, to get to the one out of a hundred idea that’s good, hopefully is an efficient manner!
One of the things I noticed while watching Shawn Farquhar’s show the other day was his use of production value in the show. It’s something that a lot of magicians, especially ones who come out of the comedy world don’t use enough of. It’s also something that adds a lot to the show. For example … Continue reading “Production Value and You”
One of the things I noticed while watching Shawn Farquhar’s show the other day was his use of production value in the show. It’s something that a lot of magicians, especially ones who come out of the comedy world don’t use enough of. It’s also something that adds a lot to the show.
For example he uses different lighting for different parts of the show, not just a general wash. This adds texture to the show, however it’s something that you can’t do in most non-theater venues. Some higher end corporate events or conventions in ballrooms will have lighting options. I’ve only encountered this a few times in hotel ballrooms.
My opinion is to design a show that works both ways. So it piece will work and play with a general wash, however when you have the option for lights, you can use it.
I keep a thumb drive with everything a theater could want on it in my case. This has all of my cues from lighting, video to audio, as well as the audio files. I always have it, so if I have someone to run the lights, I’m good to go!
The tend in magic is the choreographed sleight of hand to music, like what Shin Lim did on America’s Got Talent. It’s style that’s been around for a long time, it’s just popular right now. I think of it as something that was a “magic convention act” in the past, and now is a mainstream … Continue reading “Not So Close Up…”
The tend in magic is the choreographed sleight of hand to music, like what Shin Lim did on America’s Got Talent. It’s style that’s been around for a long time, it’s just popular right now. I think of it as something that was a “magic convention act” in the past, and now is a mainstream act.
A couple of nights ago I was lucky enough to see Shawn Farquhar do his “shape of my heart” card routine at a show. It was really great. It hit all the musical beats, it had good visual magic, and overall it’s a great routine.
This kinda proves the theory that I’ve written about before that this style of close up when put on camera is the new stage manipulation act. I think audiences are getting better with watching a live show on a screen. Personally I’d rather watch it without the screen, however to the general public this is an acceptable way to view a show.
Over the last few months I’ve started to think about what I could do for this style of performing. It’s really not what I do, so I don’t know if I’ll ever come up with anything.
