Louie – Page 162 – MagicShow.Tips

Good vs Not Good

I love meeting magicians. When I travel, I make it a point to visit the local magic club, or try to meet up with magicians. Yesterday there was a magician that I hadn’t met yet at conference I was at. He clearly crashed the conference as he didn’t have a badge. I don’t judge too harsh, as I’ve crashed conventions before.

I met him during a slow time for me and asked him to show me a trick. He then proceeded to explain how he normally does the trick as he was doing the trick. “I normally have the person take a card…” Someone who knows what they are doing will just do the trick as they normally do it.

The other thing that surprised me was how sloppy his sleight of hand was. He was trying something fairly technical, but flashed every part of it. I wonder if no one had ever told him he flashed a lot, and big time. This was someone trying to get some professional work and the level he was performing at was at a fairly poor level and nowhere near what it should have been.

It was probably good for him to see the level of the performers in the industry he was trying to get into, however I don’t think he was aware that he had a long way to go. The biggest tip to growing as a performer is to be realistic about your ability.

How to Stand Out…

This week I’m at another conference where I’m showcasing. This week I’m doing close up magic. There are a lot of close up magicians at this conference, so how do I stand out? I have two ways, first is a unusual trick and there other is by making myself desirable to other magicians.

Everyone here does card and coin tricks, and probably some sort of cup and ball(s) type trick. What I do is add an additional trick that’s no one else will (probably) be doing. For me that’s usually the Linking Pins. It’s a trick where the right gimmicks haven’t been available in decades, so not many people do it.

The second thing I do is that I talk to other magicians. When bookers see other magicians seeking me out to talk to or to jam with, that shows them that I’m good and respected by other magicians. It also shows that I’m easy to get along with and that I can get along with other acts.

So be unusual and be friendly!

Give it Context….

A friend of mine created a really interested trick where you bite the head off of a cinnamon bear and restore it. It’s a good trick, but one that really doesn’t have a place in a show…unless you can figure out how to give a cinnamon bear context in your show. I found a way … Continue reading “Give it Context….”

A friend of mine created a really interested trick where you bite the head off of a cinnamon bear and restore it. It’s a good trick, but one that really doesn’t have a place in a show…unless you can figure out how to give a cinnamon bear context in your show.

I found a way to use the trick in a social media video and with a little bit of context, so it’s not just a “here’s a magic trick” sort of video.

For me that’s the challenge is to get away from doing tricks as demos and framing them a little bit. With social media, you don’t have much time to frame them, but putting a little bit on it helps.

Memory = Creativity

One of the books I’m reading is Moonwalking With Einstein, which is a book about memory competitions. It’s a great book and really breaks down memory systems and why they work. It doesn’t really teach memory systems, but it’s a great overview of different techniques. In the book in there’s a mention of creativity and … Continue reading “Memory = Creativity”

In the book in there’s a mention of creativity and how people with good memories tend to be more creative. Then it basically breaks down how creativity works in less than a sentence. I’m paraphrasing, but the book says, “creativity is to be able to connect two unrelated ideas”.

I totally agree with this. The better you are at connecting two ideas the more creative you are. That’s what makes a joke work, connecting a set up an punchline. That’s what makes a magic trick work, connecting a prop with an effect. Of course there’s also the craft part of it, where you turn the two ideas into a workable chunk of material.

The better your mental file cabinet is, the more ideas you’ll have.

Best Show I’ve Seen…

After all of these years, I’ve finally seen Esther’s Follies in Austin TX. I’ve heard about it for years, and a friend of mine was the variety act in the show early on. This show has been running for 40 years, and there’s a simple secret to it’s long run…aside from talented performers and that secret is that the show is stays fresh!

The show is full of jokes and sketches around current events. After the show I was chatting with Ray Anderson who is the magician in the show. He mentioned that every week they have a scheduled writing meeting.

The show keeps changing, and this goes against the “advice” I as given when I was a kid, which was to put together a show/act that you can do the rest of your life. I think that doing one thing and not changing it, is very antiquated advice. Times change and what was once edgy material eventually becomes either cheesy or offensive.

I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with the times, but I’m always evaluating my show looking for things to cut.

Easy Way To Be Creative…

One of the easiest ways to be creative is to make tricks based on an upcoming holiday. If there’s not a big holiday like Thanksgiving on the horizon, look up the different “national days”. These are things like, National Hotdog Day. Once you have a theme, it’s much easier to come up with tricks. Here’s … Continue reading “Easy Way To Be Creative…”

One of the easiest ways to be creative is to make tricks based on an upcoming holiday. If there’s not a big holiday like Thanksgiving on the horizon, look up the different “national days”. These are things like, National Hotdog Day. Once you have a theme, it’s much easier to come up with tricks.

Here’s a trick I did for Thanksgiving a few years ago:

This is a trick I read in a Jim Steinmeyer book that used your hand. I found it lent itself to using a turkey hand really well. This makes it a great themed trick for Thanksgiving.

Here’s one that I did for for National Light Bulb Day a long time ago:

Putting a box around creating makes it so much easier to come up with ideas. Trying to come up with ideas without any parameters is incredibly difficult!

Be a Student…

When I was a teenager right around Thanksgiving the annual TV show The World’s Greatest Magic would be on. This would be my chance to see acts I’d only ever read about in magic magazines. It was a chance to see how great (or not) things actually were.

Back then I’d record on VHS these magic shows and you’d really study the acts. Not to sound like an old man, but kid’s nowadays don’t study acts on video. I knew every move of Jeff McBride’s card act and could do it. This gets you inside the performer’s head, and you start to understand their choices.

With all of the acts you can watch on YouTube, it’s hard to pick a few acts to study. The amount of content is overwhelming. I think kids now should pick a performer or two and really study their work. Not copy it, but study it, try to figure out why they do what they do.

Have an Out!!!

Last week I performed at Jeff McBride’s Wonderground in Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun. In my show I take a couple of risks, and usually they pay out HUGE. Let me back up a minute, I went to Wonderground with some friends who had been showcasing at the same conferences as me for the last two weeks, so there were very familiar with my act. When something went wrong, they all noticed it.

In my show someone from the audience guesses what card another person from the audience picked. It’s a great trick and because I’m lazy, the card is always the same card. Yes, when I do gigs with multiple shows at the same venue on the same or adjacent days, I mix up the card. However I don’t when the gigs are in different states. When I did the show at Wonderground the person guessed the wrong card!

When the person said the Five of Hearts instead of the Two of Diamonds, all of my friends knew something was wrong. After the show they told me that they all got worried for me. However one guy, who is a magician that I’ve toured with told them all to calm down and that I was a pro and would handle it.

Guess what happened?

I had a plan, it’s my way back up plan, and in about a year, I’ve only needed to use it once, but it’s always there and ready. I produce the card from elsewhere. It took all of my friends by surprise. Having a back up plan for anything that can go wrong is the way to go…even if you only need it once a year!

Laughs Per Minute…

In my trek through all of the Greater Magic Videos on MagicFlix, I recently watched Tom Mullica‘s video. This is an interesting video, because it’s a huge change from what was before in magic. Tom is funny, and good. I mean all of the tricks are good…and he’s technically amazing on the video! The video … Continue reading “Laughs Per Minute…”

In my trek through all of the Greater Magic Videos on MagicFlix, I recently watched Tom Mullica‘s video. This is an interesting video, because it’s a huge change from what was before in magic. Tom is funny, and good. I mean all of the tricks are good…and he’s technically amazing on the video!

The video before Tom was Charlie Miller. Charlie is a slice of a different era, where people performed comedy magic differently. I’m also aware that the video of Charlie recorded when he was older, so he was probably past his prime.

The huge difference was that Charlie did more “classic” magic tricks, where what Tom did felt fresh. It’s not that the root effect was new, but the way he did them was new. Tom wasn’t relying on things that worked, he took a path that forwarded his character. Watch Charlie, then watch Tom and you’ll see where magic made a turn.

Ummmm….

My current reading is Ken Weber’s book Maximum Entertainment 2.0. This is the expanded version of the original book. It’s something every magician should have. It’ll make you think about your show, and hopefully make some changes. In one part of the book Ken writes about performers saying “ummm…” and how it’s a bad thing. … Continue reading “Ummmm….”

My current reading is Ken Weber’s book Maximum Entertainment 2.0. This is the expanded version of the original book. It’s something every magician should have. It’ll make you think about your show, and hopefully make some changes.

In one part of the book Ken writes about performers saying “ummm…” and how it’s a bad thing. I’ve been hyper aware of it, and a ton of performers say it a lot! I went back and reviewed some video and I say it a lot in my newer routines. I need to go back and work on my learning my scripts

Go watch video of yourself performing and listen for the “Ummms“, I was really surprised when I heard them!