Let There Be Light!

When you’re doing virtual shows, a lot goes into them. More than just the tricks. Someone recently posted their “promo video” for virtual shows. There are some good elements to this, like the people reacting, then some bad elements, like everything else.

Here’s the video:

The big problem with the video is the guy’s lighting is horrible! Yes, I understand that some of the effects he’s doing require special lighting, but he’s not even doing that right, you can light the effect correctly and make it not look like you’re performing in a closet.

Here’s a screenshot from the above video:

Does that look like something you’d pay money to watch?

Not me.

Does that mean it’s a bad show?

Not necessarily.

Right now we all need to learn about lighting, video production, etc and we all need to learn the basics about all of it.

Virtual MCing!

Today, you can check me out doing some virtual stage hosting for the Coconino County Fair on their facebook page! I’ll be introducing their bands and doing some magic tricks.

When I was a teenager I remember in all of the Karrell Fox boxs there being tons of magic tricks that he used to introduce act. Things like a piece of rope ends up shaped like an acts name, or the chalk magically writes the acts name on a chalkboard. I remember thinking how that was very dated feeling. What I mean by that, is that it doesn’t (to me) feel modern in a live variety show.

Now that I’m doing some of this virtual hosting, things like that kinda make sense. In a virtual video, the trick can happen, then the bands video starts. There’s not lag between me leaving the stage, and the band walking on and getting ready. I’ve gone back and reread a lot of Karrell’s stuff and while the props need to be modernized, the ideas are solid!

Prop Making…

This week I’m MCing a virtual event, well really just doing introductions for bands at an event. It’s three bands, and all I really need to do is read the words that the event producer gave me, however I want to add a little something. One of the things that I want to do is make a corndog appear and disappear. As far as I know, no one makes a vanishing corn dog.

I started out to fabricate a corn dog. The first step is to make a silicone mold of a corn dog. The first surprise was that a corndog floated in the silicone, so I had to hold it down with some toothpicks. Once the silicone mold had cured, I pulled out the real corndog and used urethane to make the fake corndog.

I added some pigment to the urethane, the color, isn’t exactly right, but I’m going to give it a little bit of paint and I’ll be good to go. I only need this for one show, so the paint doesn’t need to last.

I’m excited to do record this! We’ll see how it turns out!

Recharging Your Battery…

Last summer I started using rechargeable batteries in my show. I fought using them for a long time because in the past they weren’t very good. I finally listened to Steve Trash and Eric Haines about getting them. While I’m not performing a lot this summer (due to COVID restrictions) they are still getting used.

I bought double the batteries to run my show. When I’m out performing, I have another set in the charger and switch the batteries when I get home. Initially it took a little while to get into the rhythm of using them, but now it’s second nature. I also keep a full set of regular batteries for my show in the trunk of my car as a back up.

The rechargeable batteries paid for themselves within a month or two last summer. Having them this summer is nice because not having a battery bill is adding to my profits, which is really helpful this year. If you’re not using rechargeable batteries, it’s totally worth investing in, I wish I did a few year earlier!

Taking a Pea…

three shell game peas

One of the silver linings about having the entertainment industry shut down during the COVID pandemic is that I’m getting play around with making a lot more props. One thing that I’ve wanted to make for a while are peas for the three shell game.

I had some time some the other day and made some molds for the peas. Then I picked up some urethane and made them. The urethane I used was a 40A on the Shore Hardness Scale.

three shell game pea hardness

They have a little bit of give, but are pretty firm. I like them so far!

Still Working On It…

Months ago I started working on my version of Goshman’s Cards Thru Newspaper trick. My version ended up taking out everything I didn’t like about the trick, which are the cards and the newspaper. I ended up replacing them with Polaroid pictures and an envelope. It’s still a work in progress.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to be a guest at a magic club meeting that took place over zoom. One thing they did was allow people to perform and get critique from Patrick Martin, who also did a presentation during the meeting.

Only a handful of people took the club up. I volunteered to do something if they had space and wouldn’t get in the way of club member’s having the chance to be critiqued. They had plenty of space, so I did my trick with Polaroid pictures.

There was some great feedback, mostly with how bad my pictures were and how they showed up on the screen. They are 100% correct, here’s a screenshot:

magic trick

The reflection from my ring light made the picture hard to see. There are a couple of solutions for this:

  • Spray them with matte spray to dull the gloss
  • Have the camera behind the ring light and bring the pics past the ring light
  • Have more contrast between the animal and background in the actual picture
  • Remake the picture so that it’s not glossy (i.e. fake Polaroid)

I think the final solution will be a combination of all of the above.

Catalog vs Reality…

When I was a kid there used to be an ad in magic magazines for a catalog of illusion plans. They were by Goswick’s Illusions. I remember writing him to get the catalog and based on the one picture of the illusion and the catalog description it was amazing. Somehow 20+ years l stumbled upon his website and he’s still selling his illusion plans.

It was a very interesting watching his demo videos, he has a lot of creative ideas…unfortunately they are poorly executed ideas.

Here’s one of them:

I 100% give him credit for creating his own method and ideas. However magically most of them fall very short of being good ideas. It’s one thing to have an original effect or method, but you need to understand what makes a trick good. Not everything should be sold, have a free plans workbook that’s the bad ideas, or contribute them to a magazine…charging people for them is something that I personally don’t agree with.

Three Ball Routine Props…

A long time ago I wrote a blog post about the three ball routine that I do called Sankey’s Balls. This is a three ball routine that uses two balls, and a third one for the finale. This is the opener for my family shows.

The hard thing about doing a three ball routine is finding suitable small balls. I have a set that I like, but they aren’t made anymore. I needed one more set for one of my cases. I’m trying to have each case have all the props needed for the show in it. So no props move from case to case.

To get another set of balls, I had to make some. This set is fresh out of the mold, I need to trim the fill spots and then they’re good to go.

Three ball routine

I made these out of polyurethane and they handle really well.

Being A Good Guest…

A while ago I was doing a video hangout with some friends and somehow the idea of having my daughter as a guest on one of their livestream shows. Well, we made it happen a bit ago and it was a lot of fun.

Here’s the thing, it wasn’t easy and that’s the problem, so many people think they are interesting and that’s enough. Here’s the truth, you aren’t interesting, you need to make yourself interesting.

How do you do that?

Simple, write out a few stories and have them ready to tell. Watch some of the previous shows and try to anticipate what the host will ask you and then write some jokes or stories as answers. You may never need them, but the act of preparing puts you a step ahead.

Then something unplanned happens, like on the show last week, there was no audio for the first 10 minutes. The first thing we did was look at what we had prepared that was visual that we could do. We had a few things, and we also played with it.

Having the mindset of having to work to be interesting and fun, instead of thinking we were interesting definitely gave us an advantage!

Here’s the whole interview (keep in mind there’s no audio for the first about 10 minutes): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/704662019

Magic Conventions…

One of the silver linings to the entertainment industry being closed due to COVID is that I can go to different magic conventions. I’ve always been curious about KIDabra, which is for family entertainers. This year they are having a virtual convention, and I’m lecturing at it!

I’ve got some fun stuff to share with the group, including the full version of my Spoon Stunt which has never been taught before!

Louie Foxx KIDabra 2020 from Mark Daniel on Vimeo.

The line up looks great, if you’re a family performer, you should check it out!