February 2020 – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Keep Learning…

Yesterday I was at a class on making silicone molds and using them to cast things in resin. Personally, besides learning the skill, I’m always watching for ideas that I can use during my performance. I noticed a couple of things that confirm my current thoughts on audio and video during a show.

The first thing that while we were in a fairly small and quiet room and there were only 25 of us, it was hard to hear the presenter. They should have been mic’d up. This goes for pretty much anything that’s not a close up gig, you need to wear a mic!

The second thing was their use of video. They had a straight down show from directly above the table with the screen directly behind the presenter.

This is the way to do it. In all of the shows I’ve seen when the action is on a sidewall, your attention is torn between the screen and the presenter. With the action on the screen behind you, it really lets you watch both the same time as both are in your field of vision. This is the way to got for projection.

As a bonus to confirming my theories on audio and video during a show, I also learned to make molds and cast things in resin!

Economy of Motion…

Recently I added the Silk in Light Bulb trick to my show. Essentially a silk that has disappeared reappears inside a light bulb. To do this or similar “in light bulb” type of tricks I’ve always used glass light bulbs. I hollowed out real glass light bulbs and used those. These look great and work … Continue reading “Economy of Motion…”

Recently I added the Silk in Light Bulb trick to my show. Essentially a silk that has disappeared reappears inside a light bulb. To do this or similar “in light bulb” type of tricks I’ve always used glass light bulbs. I hollowed out real glass light bulbs and used those. These look great and work great, but travelling with them is a pain as they are fragile.

About a week ago I was talking to another magician and he mentioned he started using plastic light bulbs. These have the metal base that unscrews giving you access to the inside. I ordered some and they showed up a couple days later. They look great, and I’m glad I ordered them, it’s going to make travelling much easier.

One problem with this style light bulb is how long it takes to unscrew it. There’s too much threading on the base:

I took my Dremel and sanded off some of the threading:

Now it unscrews in less than one twist. That speeds up the moment from when the audience realizes it’s the silk in the light bulb to when you are displaying it.

Look at your show and figure out where there’s wasted procedural motion. Once you find that, try to figure out ways to eliminate it. That will tighten up your show.

Is It Good Enough…

When is good enough good enough and when do small details matter? I was thinking about the mis-made bill trick and how the serial numbers don’t match. It’s a small thing, but it’s one that someone who want to try to bust you can catch on to, and they do.

For 99% of the times you do the trick, no one examines the bill, but that 1% it can lead to an awkward moment. It’s an easy fix, but one that takes time. For someone like me, that gives away the bill at the end, the time to make the serial numbers match adds up to a lot of time!

When do you take the extra step and add little things like that? I’d say for bigger gigs, or ones where you want to make sure you leave an impression. For example having a set of bills set up for someone that you want to book you. Whether or not they closely examine them doesn’t matter, you have the insurance if they do.

Keep Tweaking…

It’s fun playing around with magic tricks. A couple days ago I wrote about tweaking the card trick A Case For Premonition by Roberto Giobbi. This is a card trick where someone names a card, it disappears and it’s in your pocket. I jammed the card trick with a buddy and showed him another way … Continue reading “Keep Tweaking…”

It’s fun playing around with magic tricks. A couple days ago I wrote about tweaking the card trick A Case For Premonition by Roberto Giobbi. This is a card trick where someone names a card, it disappears and it’s in your pocket. I jammed the card trick with a buddy and showed him another way of doing it that I had thought of, which I like a bit more.

In the original method you need to count out 51 cards, it’s boring and time consuming. What I’m doing instead is using a deck that’s marked and in a memorized order. They call out a card and you spread the deck to about where the card is, locate it and get a pinkie break under it. I do this as I say, “You could have named any card…” then I square up the deck. I then side jog the card, and ribbon spread the deck face up on the table. This will hide the selection. Be sure to not be selfish and ribbon spread the cards so that they indices aren’t upside down to the audience. I then run my finger across the cards looking for their card, and it’s gone! I finish by doing Bob Farmer’s Bammo Move as I pick up the deck, palm the card and produce it from my pocket.

It’s not a huge change, but I think it really streamlines the process of making the card disappear. It’s also technically a lot easier than Giobbi’s version that uses a Double Deal and a Cull Palm. If you used an edge marked deck, you’d eliminate the need for the estimation and spread, you could just look for the mark and get a break.

Follow The Crowd…

In any art form you are taught to be different, and as far as your show goes that’s what I think about magic. Marketing is a bit different. Recently someone in a Facebook group for magicians wanted advice on getting an agent to get them shows around the country. In my career, every agent that consistently gets me work has seen me perform and approached me. Sure, there are more ways to do it than my route, that’s just my experience.

One thing about agents is they’ve come into my life when I was ready for the kind of gigs they book. One of my agents has told me I’m “starting to level up” and I need my promo to reflect that. I’m currently working on taking my promo to the next level. That’s the thing, if you promo isn’t at the level you expected for where you want to work, then you’ll have a hell of a time getting any agent to take you seriously.

Here’s a good example, my core market is performing at fairs. I want to work indoors more, and the first thing I did was look at the websites of people who were doing the gigs that I wanted to do. If you look at a lot of them, you’ll start to see things repeating. Not tricks, but things all of their promo has in common. Things like the length and style of their promo videos. Are they one trick, a sizzle reel, or a combination of the two? Are their headshots studio or something else? There’s a reason they are common things in promo, that’s because that’s what the industry expects.

Now you need to take a moment and look at your promo, what can you do to take you to the next level?

Easy Magic Content Generator…

Today is Valentines Day and an easy day to generate social media content for. Think of a trick using a paper heart, a flower, or a valentine and you’ve got good content for you social sites. You aren’t limited to Valentines Day, you can do this for any of the wacky national holidays. You can find a list at: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/

In the past I’ve done tricks for things like National Light Bulb Day. If you simply visit the list once a month and look for days the next month you’ll have plenty of chances for an idea for a trick. I just took a peek at March and here’s some ideas:

National Pig Day: Get 4 small toy pigs and do a Coins Across
National Cheese Doodle Day: Broken and restored cheese doodle
National Cold Cuts Day: Card to sandwich
National Oreo Day: Do Bizarro’s Over Stuft trick

Those are just a few ides, and I didn’t go deep into the month. Take a peek and start generating ideas!

App Free…

In the past I’ve written about my dislike for magic apps, and my fascination with them. I think they are interesting, but the main problem is that the majority of them either rely on an internet connection or using your phone. In my opinion there’s no way around having to use the internet for apps that work that way, and that makes them not as reliable as I’d like. As for using your phone, well, you just need to justify it.

I just started playing with an idea that uses my phone to take a picture for a prediction. The idea of using a picture that you are taking in the moment makes more sense that a random pic in your gallery that’s been there for months.

Here’s what the rough idea looks like:

This is a trick that I don’t think really has a place in a formal show, but as an informal trick, I think it’s great. The nice thing about it is they can pick any of the items and they can pick up the phone to reveal the prediction. It’s pretty hands off once you take the pictures.

Premonition…

One of the card magic plots going around right now is a “Card To Pocket” that’s done in the style of Eddie Joeseph’s Premonition. Right now Max Maven’s Pocket Nightmare and the Other Brother’s Card To Pocket are just coming out. The trick is a card is selected, the cards are gone through and there … Continue reading “Premonition…”

One of the card magic plots going around right now is a “Card To Pocket” that’s done in the style of Eddie Joeseph’s Premonition. Right now Max Maven’s Pocket Nightmare and the Other Brother’s Card To Pocket are just coming out. The trick is a card is selected, the cards are gone through and there are only 51 cards, their card is missing. It’s then produced from your pocket.

Last night I was reading the book Concertos for Pasteboards and there’s a Card to Pocket by Roberto Giobbi called A Case For Premonition. This one uses one normal deck, which is a huge advantage for me than the two marketed ones. The disadvantage is that I need to deal the cards instead of letting a spectator go through the cards. Personally I think the condition of the audience dealing is a that impresses magicians more than non-magicians (in most cases).

After working through the one in the book, I did a couple of tweaks. There’s a moment where you need to spread through the cards to find selected card that had just disappeared. I didn’t like that, so in the dealing process I deal them a bit sloppy and side jog the card before the selected card, which lets me find it without spreading the cards. The other thing I changed was the need for a cull palm. Instead as I pick up the deck I do the pass that’s used in Bob Farmer’s Bammo Card Walloper to bring the card to the top and simply palm it.

I’m excited to try this out on real people to see how it plays. I think this will be one of the tricks that I do as part of an informal card set. I always like reading a trick and immediately know that if I change a couple of things it will work with my body vocabulary.

Bouncing Ideas…

In the past I’ve mentioned that jamming with other magicians is an important part of the creative process. This has benefits beyond just coming up with ideas, you can also learn new techniques by hanging out with other magicians. Here’s a magic jam from yesterday: In the video you may have noticed the Coin in … Continue reading “Bouncing Ideas…”

In the video you may have noticed the Coin in Chapstick that I’ve been messing with. It’s an interesting idea, and it was fun two work out some of the finer details with these magicians. I think the trick got better after getting some good feedback!