March 2020 – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

COVID and Cancellations…

Currently the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) is going around and people are freaking out. I know of a lot of events that are getting postponed or cancelled, and a lot of performers who are losing shows. Some of these cancellations are justified and some aren’t.

Over the last few days I’ve done a lot of thinking and talked to a lot of people who run event venues and produce shows. I’m trying to figure out what is the artist’s responsibility in regards to cancelling shows. Many times the artist has no choice and the decision is made by the venue, booker or producer. However sometimes the artist has a choice, generally in a contract this is called a Force Majeure clause. This allows one or both parties to the contract to cancel for reasons beyond their control. This is slightly different than and “act of god” clause, which covers things like weather. A Force Majeure clause covers a few more things like riots, or virus outbreaks.

**NOTE** I’m not a lawyer, find an actual lawyer for legal advice.

In show business there’s the old saying, “The show must go on” and sometimes it should, and sometimes it shouldn’t. I’ve seen or performed in plenty of shows where things have happened that should have stopped the show. I’ve personally seen fights break out, had someone die of a heart attack at a show, and famously in the Seattle area a comedian was assaulted with a baseball bat and almost killed onstage. All three of those instances the show didn’t go on, it stopped.

All three of the examples are pretty extreme, let’s move to an example that happened early in my career. I was schedule to perform at an assisted living facility for senior citizens and they called me the day before to cancel because the flu was going through their facility. I agreed to cancel, and this was a point in time where the money really meant a lot to me, I was living gig to gig. I understood that spreading the flu was potentially deadly to the seniors, and I didn’t want to get the flu and agreed to the cancellation. If you look into the current Coronavirus situation most of the deaths happened at an assisted living facility and they think it was spread during a Mardi Gras party there.

You can read about it here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8084659/Germ-fest-Mardi-Gras-party-Washington-care-home-sparked-deadly-coronavirus-outbreak.html

What Can You Do?

Losing gigs sucks, and losing them out of an “abundance of caution” and not something that’s currently happening isn’t fun and it’s stressful. Here’s what you can do to prepare. Build up some savings, so you can ride out the cancellations. I think the common advice is to have three months of what you need to pay your bills saved up. I know a lot of people are stressing out about losing a gig or a dozen gigs. I’ve been there, it’s not fun, however it’s your duty as a business owner to have some money put away in case you can’t perform. I’ve had to perform sick, or with a broken arm to pay the bills, it’s not fun. Save some money.

Another thing you can do is not to post how many gigs you are losing. I think it makes people who wouldn’t otherwise cancel a gig start to think about it. If I’m a corporate gig and I have you booked, and look at your facebook page and see you’ve have 5 gigs cancel this week, it’s going to put it on my radar that maybe we should postpone our monthly meeting that we have you booked at. I know those posts get comments and interactions, but it’s for the wrong reasons. You can’t complain about the hysteria when you are feeding it. If you’re going for social media content, post about the gigs you are doing, post video of magic trick from your office, or post some video of you at a show last month.

Let’s wrap this up:

I’ve come to the conclusion that for my personal ethics I need to keep my audience safe. How do I do that when I also personally believe it’s still safe to go see shows, especially if you’re not in an “at risk group” for the Coronavirus? I’m going by what the health department in city or county the venue recommends. Sometimes there are outright bans on things, and sometimes there are just recommendations. The health department is (in theory) smarter than me about things like this. I’m following their recommendations, and I think ethically as a performer that is your duty to provide a minimum level of safety to your audience.

Have Fun!

One of my favorite things is chatting with other performers. I enjoy swapping stories, and just hanging out. Performing as a full time job is something that not a lot of people can relate to, so love hearing others peoples triumphs and tragedies.

Last week I worked with a sideshow duo and they mentioned that onstage they are just trying to make the other guy laugh. They do that to have fun in the show and that’s why in my opinion their show is soo good. They are having fun and that carries over to the audience.

One of the bigger notes that I would the newer performers was that they didn’t look like they were having fun. They looked like they were working, and watching some who doesn’t look engaged isn’t as fun as watching someone who is into what they do. Living in the moment and trying new things or whatever you do to keep the show fresh is important. You don’t want to look like a robot or factory worker when you are onstage.

Support Your Art!

This weekend I got to perform at a sideshow festival in New Orleans. I think that performing at or attending festivals is something that very important for performers today. You are supporting innovation in your art form.

When you go to these festivals or conventions as an attendee, you get to see the top performers. This keeps you informed of what level you are at and who your peers are. Knowing what level your show or act is act keeps your helps with pricing and what sort of venues you can be performing at. The acts you see keep you updated with the trends in the industry. What tricks or styles are
common, and once you know the trends you can embrace or avoid the trends.

performing at festivals is a good place to “level up” your show. When other people see what you do and how you do it, you can become the trendsetter. I know the old argument is that people don’t want other people to steal their material. It’s a lame excuse because as a performer you need to do your art where other people will see it. You’ll never know who is seeing it no matter where you do it. Do it for industry and establish it for yourself.

Try Another Way

There’s a classic beginner’s card trick where a card is selected and returned to the deck. You then drop the deck onto the table and their card appears on top of the deck. The working is simple, you control the card to the top of the deck, sidejog it and drop the deck onto the table from about a foot up. The air hitting the sidejogged card will flip it over as it falls. It’s a great trick.

My problem with the trick is that I’ve never had more than about a 50% success rate with it. I’m not sure what I’m doing right or wrong. The other day I was killing time between shows and figured out a way to get a 100% success rate with the trick.

Here’s what I came up with:

Doing the trick this way is a lot harder, but works every time. What I’m doing is a one handed top palm as the cards are dropped to the table. The palm is something I could already do, so adding it to the trick was no big deal. If I didn’t already do the palm, I probably wouldn’t learn it for this trick…however I would recommend learning that and I consider it something every magician who does card tricks should be able to do.

If you’ve got a trick that doesn’t work (technically) for you, start to explore other ways to do the trick. I’m pretty sure someone has to have come up with my solution to the flip over card trick before, however it solved a problem for me.

Topical Magic

Right now it a time for topical magic with the current hysteria about the COVID-19 virius. Stores are sold out of face masks and hand sanitizer. Here’s a couple of ideas for someone to run with:Paper tear to face mask (surgicial style): Make like a traditional hat tear Homemade Hand Sanitizer: put ingredients into a … Continue reading “Topical Magic”

Right now it a time for topical magic with the current hysteria about the COVID-19 virius. Stores are sold out of face masks and hand sanitizer.

Here’s a couple of ideas for someone to run with:
Paper tear to face mask (surgicial style): Make like a traditional hat tear

Homemade Hand Sanitizer: put ingredients into a dove pan and out comes a bottle of hand sanitizer

Homemade Hand Sanitizer 2: Pour ingredients into a cup and out comes a bottle of hand sanitizer. Use slush powder.

Would be easy to do…and probably get you some instagram heat. I’d do it, but no where in my town has masks or sanitizer in stock.

Gig To Gig…

When I was first starting out performing full time, I would have to hustle every gig individually. That’s a lot of work. One way my business has changed is that I book the majority of my gigs at showcases and trade shows and this is my preferred way to book.

If you don’t know what a showcase is, it’s where you do a short bit of your show for people who can book you. The goal is after they see your show, they’ll book you. The nice thing about the booker actually seeing your show is that they will have a better idea of whether or not your show will be right for their event.

The other way I love booking shows in trade shows. What I like is that I can talk about their event, but also do a short demo if needed. Also there’s a ton of people that can book, and you book a lot of shows in a short amount of time. Another bonus of booking this way is that you can do all of the office work (contracts, etc) in one sitting, instead of spread out over time.

I want to be clear that I do book single shows that come in, however the majority of what I book are at showcases or trade shows. Having multiple ways that shows come in is a good thing.

Found Time…

One of the things that I try to do is use any “found time” that I have during my day. This is time when you’re just waiting. Here’s an example, over the weekended I did three shows at a church. There was about a 20 minute service, my show, then 40 minutes before the next … Continue reading “Found Time…”

One of the things that I try to do is use any “found time” that I have during my day. This is time when you’re just waiting. Here’s an example, over the weekended I did three shows at a church. There was about a 20 minute service, my show, then 40 minutes before the next service started. That gave me a lot of gaps in my day that’s bonus stuff to get done.

I packed my laptop and got some work done after my show and before the next service had started.

Essentially that gave me about half an hour between shows to get work done, which is great! That’s time I would have had to find elsewhere in my life. Then after the service started, while I was waiting for my show, I stood in the back of the room and worked on a card sleight. That’s also practice time that I’d have to find somewhere else in the day.

Being a good steward of your time is something that I think is important. Yes, it’s okay to waste time and just chill out, that’s important, however if I can use some time during gaps in my day to get things done, I’m happy to do it!

Little Interuptions…

Over the weekend I performed at a church camp for kids that were probably 10-12 years old. When you take kids out of their normal routine, they push a lot of boundaries that they probably wouldn’t push if they were at home, school, or their normal church. They are figuring out the rules, and the way a kid figures out the rules is to figure out how far they can go.

When the preshow started I had one kid doing yelling out things. If they are going to do that, that’s the time do it, not once we hit the body of the show. Also my preshow has good tricks and one of the reasons it’s there is to get the kid who is yelling out things to shut up.

The kid who was yelling things wasn’t being “malicious”, he was being a kid that didn’t know the rules, or lacked attention at home and needed to find a way to get it. When I was younger I used to be very confrontational with these kids. It worked, but it’s not the person I am any more. Currently, simply ignoring it and doing strong magic, that tends to work in most instances.

See A Show!

I love going to see a magic shows, and recently I drove almost four hours (due to traffic) to see Jason Andrews and Neils Dunker perform in Hoquiam, WA. I’m really surprised more magicians don’t go out and support live magic shows. For $20 the show was an amazing deal! One of the things that … Continue reading “See A Show!”

One of the things that I liked was that they show was two performers who basically did their own solo stuff, however they did interact onstage. That’s the hardest part of two people touring together. You can do it as a two act show with an opener and a closer, or you can intertwine them a little bit.

Jason and Niels did a couple of bits where they both were on stage and that really gives a feeling of a show, and not two people doing their separate acts. There’s not a right or wrong way to do it. Stand up comedy and bands use the two separate act formula and it works. However in this show in a theater it made it “gel” a bit better.

It was a fun show, you should check it out if it’s in your town.

Make It Yourself…

One of the things that I try to do in my show is not to use props that other people use. It could be the same prop, but mine looks different. Usually the reason mine looks different is because I made it myself (or had it made for me). I read a long time ago in an SH Sharpe book on magic theory that when you make the prop the pride your have from making it will show in your performance and that’s something that’s stuck in my head.

Recently I searched for a set of large walnuts to make my own set for the three shell game. I finally found some in the Ukraine had them shipped to me. I altered one of them a little bit and made a mold of it, and then cast my own set of shell game shells in resin.

These shells are larger than most shells, but not too large. I’ve used them in a couple of gigs and they’re working out great. The next step is to learn to reduce the tiny air bubbles in them.