July 2019 – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

That Was Unexpected…

Within magic (and most variety arts) it’s difficult to keep people from stealing material. Simply because there’s really not a lot you can do. Sure you can claim copyright…but that can’t be enforced until it’s registered. Registering a copyright takes time and money, and it’s no guarantee that it will be enforceable.

So what do you do?

Earlier today a magician went on a TV show and did a couple of stolen bits from some well known magicians. One of the magicians called him out and magicians from around the world rallied. They gave him bad reviews on his facebook business page, dropping his rating from a 4.8 to a 1.5.

It also turns out the guy that was stealing material is at the IBM convention when this all went down, and many of the people he swiped material from are there. I predict things like this will start happening when someone steals material from high profile people.

Make Them Come To You…

This week I’m doing a lot of local gigs and it’s nice to be home. In the summer I do many summer day camps for kids. Usually I’m doing them for school age kids, but this week I’ve been doing mostly younger kids in the 3-5 age range. This is a smidge younger than my demographic, however the shows are doing fine.

One thing that I consciously don’t do in my show is any standard kids show material. No break away wands or anything like that. I want do make them come up a level. This isn’t something that’s easy to do. Making the wand break is easy, making counting pieces of string entertaining to a kid is hard. I’m purposely taking a harder route, but in doing that it makes me a better performer.

Challenging the kids to be more sophisticated separates me from most other kid shows. It also teaches the kids to be better audiences, and that listening is an important part of watching a show, and more important than screaming. Many kid shows are simply getting the kids amped up, and that’s it. They have one gear. I have some slower parts to the show, and some more high energy parts. Having texture in your show is important, even when performing for kids.

Cards Across…

One of the new tricks that I’m working on is the Cards Across trick. This is a trick I had to do as an “emergency” when I thought I had set up a trick, but hadn’t and didn’t realize it until I already had people onstage. When this happened, I went into my mental toolbox of magic and did Cards Across.

Cards Across is a great trick, however it’s a very common trick. How do I jazz it up and give it my own twist. My thought was doing it with 7 red backed cards and 10 blue backed cards. Then having the packets switch places, not just the number of cards. So it’s a transposition, not a transportation. This is a small change, but one that I like, and makes the trick a little bit more unique to me.

I’ve done this trick three times, twice on Sunday and once yesterday. I’ve learned a lot about doing it in those three shows. First of all, I need to mention the two different color backs at the beginning and not really mention it again until I’ve done the pile displacement. I need to focus on the numbers of the cards, and the transposition is a bonus.

Camera Work…

Good video footage of your act is very valuable these days. It can be used for promo, social media or simply just to get better. With 4K video cameras being fairly inexpensive, you really have no excuse to not have a decent promo video.

I try to record most shows, and that footage can be used however I need to. Normally I do this with the camera on a tripod. If I’m in the same place for a while, I can put the camera in different places and get different looking shots. With different angles of the same venue, in theory I can cut them together and make it look like a multi camera shot.

Sometimes I’ll give the camera to a magician to record. It’s interesting what most magicians tend to focus on. They focus on the trick, not the the bigger picture, or the reaction to the trick. Personally I want a tight shot of the me and the person on stage. This is the beauty of using a 4K camera, you can crop it to the trick, or the reaction, or leave it as is.

Figure It Out…

It’s rare to get an indoor show at a fair, however that’s what I have this week. It’s great to not be out cooking in the sun, and having an audience that’s also not getting heat stroke. With all of the bonuses of being indoors, I’ve been struggling through my shows, and not quite sure why.

Then yesterday morning I was reviewing video of my show and to work on a routine and noticed something. In the video I couldn’t understand what what I was saying. What the mic on the camera (which is never crystal clear) was recording was a lot of echo. To confirm it wasn’t just the camera’s placement I put my small digital recorder in the audience and recorded my first show. The audio from the audience was also very hard to understand.

I narrowed it down to the sound guy blasting the music louder than my voice. And my voice he had very loud, so it just bounced around this and the audience couldn’t make out what I was saying. I asked him to lower my volume and recorded the next show. It sounded the exact same. My conclusion was that he didn’t lower the volume, or not very much.

Here’s how I fixed it. I did my show on the floor in front of the stage. Now I could control of the volume of the music because I was in front of the speakers and could hear how loud it was in the room. This is where running your music with a remote control is helpful. Also standing on the floor he couldn’t have my voice too loud because I’d feedback. So that fixed the problem of me being understood. It worked out great, and I have my first rockin’ show of the week.

The moral of the story is that if your show isn’t working, don’t just chalk it up bad audiences. Yes, something audiences are bad, however if you are struggling multiple shows, it’s probably something you are doing.

Unique Visuals…

One of the things that I try to do with my show is to give it unique visuals. I think I’m starting to really achieve that in my show. It’s a lot of work, and commitment, but in the long run it’s the way to go. When someone describes my show to another magician, I want the magician to know it’s me by the description.

Sure a card trick looks like a card trick, however there are some ways to make them look different. For example the Card Stab trick. In my main show I use a Rat Trap, this is a less common version of the trick. I also do a unique card stab using a dinosaur costume!

In my local market, if someone describes either of these version of the card stab to a magician, they will know it’s me. I wouldn’t say either is my “signature” trick, but both are associated with me locally.

What tricks are associated with you? Are they tricks that no one else can buy? That’s the goal with the dinosaur card stab, it’s something I created, you can’t buy it, it’s 100% mine.

Learn To Play With Others…

It’s rare that I work on the fair circuit with an act that I’ve at least never heard of, however this week that happened. They act is a superhero character, and while there’s a lot wrong with his show, the thing that bugs me the most is that he doesn’t know how to work with other acts. being able to share a stage is a skill that will take you far in show biz.

When I arrived at the venue, I introduced myself to him and asked him how long his show was. He told me 45 minutes, and I mentioned that after his show we’ll need to turn the stage, as my show starts 15 mins after his ends. He said he had no gear to move off stage, and I’d have pretty much the full 15 mins to set up.

Well, that’s not what happened. His “crew” put away the front half of chairs. When I noticed this was happening, I mentioned that we need to get them back because I can’t crowd build without them there. They said no problem. This is the point when I realized this guy has never worked a fair, or with another act. The actual content of his show will be it’s own blog post, however I should mention that he didn’t need the space he cleared up by putting away half of the chairs.

His show ran way over his time…by way over, I mean he did 56 minutes and he was going to keep going until I told he girlfriend she needed to get him to wrap up.

This gave me 4 minutes to set up my show if it was going to start on time. Plus they still needed to put the chairs back. This guy burnt my set up time, and crowd build time. I had to start my show with zero audience because of him, normally even if I have 5 minutes to do a crowd build I can make something happen. However, I can’t do crowd building while they are putting out chairs and I’m setting my gear onto the stage.

The moral of the story is that when working with other acts you: Do your time

When you go over time, it really can effect the other shows. If the booker walks by at my start time and sees no audience, due to the other act running super long, it can effect whether I get booked back.

Finding the Right Gaff…

In my hotel room last night I made a ton of color changing card gaffs. I made them with latex and with elastic. I made them flip vertically and horizontally. Here’s what I learned, I prefer using the ones with the seam the goes across the length of the card. I also prefer them to … Continue reading “Finding the Right Gaff…”

How to make gimmicked cards for magic tricks

I think trying a lot of different ways to make the gimmick will let you know for sure which is right for you. Sometimes what’s available to buy isn’t quite right for what you are doing. For example my hands prefer the gimmick to be latex and with the flap’s seam going across the short sideof the card. However how the gimmick is used an elastic thread gimmick with the seam running the long way visually looks better.

It’s important to know why you use a gimmick over another one or variation of it. If I stuck to what feels good in my hand, what actually looks better to the audience would be lost. In theory, it’s all for the audience!

On The Road…

This morning I’m at the airport heading to California for a week of shows. I packed my mobile gimmick making kit and am hoping to get some work in on a couple of gimmicks that I want to use for a more formal close up set. One of my goals this summer is to get some sort of a close up show in the works.

My mobile gimmick making kit consists of two zip lock bags with variety of items that can be used for making gaffed cards and general magic gimmicks. Here’s some of what’s in there:

Dental Dam
Elastic Thread
Rubber cement
Hobby knife
Cutting mat
Magnets
Double stick tape

That’s not a comprehensive list, but gives you an idea of what I travel with to make gimmicks while I’m on the road. Being able to make or repair gimmick while travelling has saved me a ton of headaches over the years!

More Thoughts On Shin Lim…

After having a day to think about the Shin Lim show I saw in Vancouver, I’ve got a few more thoughts. I’m still disappointed that the majority of the show wasn’t him, Colin Cloud (who did the majority of the show) is great and I think he’ll end up with his own big show out of this. However I was buying a Shin Lim ticket, not a Colin Cloud ticket.

First of all, I think one of the amazing things that he did was do close up and actually perform for the camera! Previously magicians had simply done their act, and it just happened to be on camera. While a small shift, what Shin did was perform to the camera, not the audience or people sitting at the table. This makes it soo much more fun to watch.

Playing to the camera is a subtle shift, but will change how magic is done on projection. Just like how David Blaine changed how magic on TV is performed. Blaine turned the camera to the audience and made it about their reaction, this also made it more fun to watch.

Shin performing to the camera feels like he’s performing for you, not that you are watching a performance for other people. I like this, and something that I need to consider as I thing more about putting together a formal close up set.