The coin routine that I started yesterday started with a penny turning into two silver dollars. One silver dollar repeated traveled from the pocket to the hand and for a finish one of the silver dollars turned clear. It’s a decent routine, however after playing with it, I added a couple more conditions (I’ll write about the conditions tomorrow) and here’s what the routine changed into:
The first big difference is the routine is about 17 seconds shorter. I took the coin going from the pocket to the hand, that I felt was pretty redundant after I did it more than twice. It doesn’t feel as impossible with a coin as it does with a ball. It’s interesting that the routine started with a billiard ball manipulation premise, however moved away from that.
The ending with both coins turning clear makes more sense than just one of them doing and the final display of one in each hand is better.
A bit ago I noticed some coins on my desk, and figured I’d start playing with putting together a quick coin routine. To start the routine I gave myself a few conditions that it had to adhere to and I’ll get to those in a future blog post. Here’s what I put together:
When I started playing with the coins one thing that I quickly realized is that I could almost do a billiard ball manipulation routine with them. Once you have the initial change from a penny to two silver dollars, the routine is essentially Percy Abbott’s Perpetual Ball routine.
Next up the routine needed an ending. I don’t think that producing 4 or 5 silver dollars would have the same impact as producing 5 billiard balls. Luckily a clear coin caught my eye and I threw that into the mix. I think it gives it an ending.
A few months ago festival artists Louie Foxx and Matt Baker started recording a podcast for the Moisture Festival featuring interviews with some of the festival’s performers, producers and people behind the scenes that help make the festival awesome!
Originally this was intended to help kick off the Moisture Festival, however due to the COVID closure of events, the festival was postponed. You can help support the festival by donating here: https://moisturefestival.org/donate/
In the first episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we have René Bibaud in studio to chat about her life as a professional jump roper!!!
With almost every performer out of work right now. The federal government expanding unemployment to cover “gig workers” and performers are the original gig workers. My state a few days ago opened up their unemployment benefits to self employed people…people who traditionally don’t qualify for it. I applied the first night it was open and was granted benefits.
As a result of me being one of the first variety performers that I’m aware of to actually get the benefits, I’ve ended up being a consultant as to how to get the unemployment benefits from the state. I don’t mind helping people, however I’m quickly learning that people need to be grown ups and help themselves before a crisis.
When people contact me and ask for help to fill out the forms, I ask them if they’ve paid state taxes. About half of them have. Well guess what…how to you prove to the state that you’re a business if you didn’t pay them? All that work under the counter to save a couple of bucks is going to cost people thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars when they need it!
My unemployment claim was easy to file and quickly approved because it’s correct. Keep your books legit now and it will help you in the future!
Recently word started going around that Norm Nielsen had passed. I wonder how much about him younger magicians know, aside from wrongfully assuming he invented the latex bottle. Here’s him doing the act:
I remember Tina Lenert telling us about how much work it took to make the violin bow at the end of the act, then about a year later seeing the act in person. The little details make a huge difference. If the violin just came out, it’s good. When it comes out and bows, it’s great!
Over the years I got to chat with Norm a couple of times one the phone, but never really knew him. He was always generous with his time and I’m thankful of that. I think at that what makes people miss him when he’s gone is not that he was an amazing act, but a cool person. What are you doing to be a cool person?
A few days ago I posted about a gimmicked envelope that was designed for use during a virtual show. At it’s core it’s an named card to envelope. Here’s the basic routine:
In the video above I do the routine with a gag card in the envelope. Personally I think the gag card makes the trick a little bit dirtier. This helps it avoid the Too Perfect Theory. My thinking was that the 52 on 1 card puts more time between the load and the reveal.
One trick that I’ve been interested in for a while is the Light and Heavy Box premise. This was originally done with a box that someone could lift, or couldn’t at the will of the magician. This is a trick that I’ve used in my stage show during a couple school assembly tours. It’s a great trick and gets good reactions.
About a dozen years ago I published a version that was close up that used a coin:
The Linking Ring, September 2008
A couple of days ago I saw that Wayne Fox was offering a discount on a download of his Light / Heavy Project. This is an interesting idea, and it was a great purchase. Personally, I don’t think it will make it into my core close up set, however I do think it’s something that I’d do for a group that I’m really connecting with.
If you like the light and heavy premise this download is worth checking out!
We’re now just over a month into the “Shelter in Place” on the West Coast and it’s interesting to have seen the boom and bust of virtual shows. I hesitate to call it a bust, because there was no real way of making any significant money from them…initially.
The amount of people that were putting out daily content has slowed to a trickle. The amount of time it takes to do that is much more than I think most people thought it would. It’s more than just turning on a webcam and talking into it.
This video sums up the virtual magic show situation about a week or two into us all being stuck at home:
The nice thing right now is that we’ve hit a point where creativity is king! I think people are running out of tricks that they can do, or buy. People who can do a lot with a little are crushing it! However, that will start to slow down and people need to start making money. I’m noticing more and more “ticketed” virtual shows. I think this is the way to do it. Treat it like a live show, there’s as start time and an end time and the show is only available to watch then.
If you read this blog or follow me on social media, you know I’m not the Three Shell Game. I’ve come up with several original takes on the classic trick, which is great for a routine that’s basically been unchanged decades. I just built an ending for the shell game that I think is pretty cool.
Before I tell you what I did, let me tell you the two types of tricks that I think are usually the most lazy ways of being creative with magic. They are items that are hollow and turn solid and items that turn into glass (or clear plastic). Yes, there are execptions, like when Jerry Andrus and Danny Korem first did the Omni Deck. If you take a marker an turn it clear…great, but unless you have a really original take on the switch, it’s just a color change and no different from turning the marker from red to black.
So now, let’s get back to the shell game. Personally I’ve never done the ending where the shells turn solid. Why? I don’t think it makes sense. It’s a kicker ending that’s not really logical and doesn’t really move the ending forward. It’s too different from what has happened the whole time. It’s a “what?” moment because it thinking of the audience has to shift a lot from what was happening the whole routine. It’s almost like it’s the beginning of a new routine.
How did I fix the solid shells? I took it a step further. I used it as the starting point for another effect. Here’s how the routine plays. You do a few shell sequences, then cover a shell and pea with a shot glass. They are mixed around and guess where the pea is. When they lift the shot glass, then the shell, they see no pea, and then they discover the shell is solid. Now it’s a mystery they just discovered. They will turn over the other two shells to check them, and they are solid as well. Having them discover the solid shell is soo much better than you revealing it.
Now for the new ending:
When they look at the shotglass that’s sitting on the table, they see the pea under it. When they pick up the shotglass, they realize the shotglass is solid! The pea is embedded in the solid shotglass!
This is a solid (pun intended) ending for the solid shell game. It takes the routine one step forward to an ending that’s more logical than just the solid shells.
I’m going to try to put together some sort of a routine with the gimmicked envelope that was in yesterday’s blog post. Essentially this is an envelope that you can load things into while it’s closed. There’s not much to the envelope, basically it has a hidden trapdoor that allows you to load it thru the bottom. This post isn’t really concerned with the mechanics, it’s more concerned with what to do with it.
My first idea was for a trick over Zoom. What happens is you show the envelope and have someone name a card and it’s in the envelope. How I’m doing it is having someone off camera load the card into the envelope what the bottom of the envelope is off screen for a second. I’ve done this a couple of times and it works.
My second idea is to expose the camera edge with a fake explanation. You show a side view of the trick and what happens off camera is a “Rube Goldberg” sort of way to find the card and put it into the envelope. I think this is a fun blow off and gives you more time out of the trick. However the trick needs a kicker of some sort to so that it has an ending instead of just a blow off.
