Tag: arizona

Stock Lines in your Show

About a week ago when I was performing in Southern Arizona I went on the Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee, AZ. This is a decommissioned mine that is not a tourist attraction.

My tour guide was a Neale who worked in the mine in the 1970’s. One of the things that struck me was the amount of “stock lines” that he used that are very common with magicians. This should be a wake up call to magicians who use these lines to stop using them. If a retired miner is using lines you use in your show, you should probably cut them and write new lines.

One of the lines he used was at the end was, “If you liked the tour my name is Neale, if you didn’t my name is ______”. I’ve never liked this line when magicians use it. There are two reasons that I dislike it. The first is while it is in a joke, you are implying that the audience may not like your show, and that’s the last impression you give them, not a thank you for spending time with me or something more meaningful. The other reason is that you are leaving your audience on someone else’s name, you should leave on your name!

That’s all, go out there and be better than a retired miner!

-Louie

Learning to Perform in Spanish

Recently I’ve been and will be working a lot in Arizona and California. There’s huge Hispanic population down here and I’ve been trying to work on doing parts of my show in Spanish. I’m not good at it, but showing that I’m trying goes a long way endear myself to audiences that may not speak English well.

It’s not a bad idea to learn bits of your show in another language, it makes you a lot more versatile if you’re a talking act. I’m getting to the point where I can communicate ideas in Spanish, not really do the full routines, but can get the point across.

It’s also fun when I say things wrong or when the audience corrects my pronunciation. It shows that what’s happening is real and opens the show up to some unexpected moments.

Awhile ago a juggler friend of mine said, “If you don’t know two languages, you’re lazy” and I agree with him. It’s soo easy to learn a little bit of a second language and you don’t need much to start putting bits into your show!

-Louie

Amazing Package!

Unique acts are something that I always love seeing. They can be good, bad, or whatever, if it’s something I’ve never seen before, I’m in! Earlier this week I performed with the Marshall Shore the Hip Historian. He does an act based on Arizona’s history, and it’s run like a game show. His show has … Continue reading “Amazing Package!”

Unique acts are something that I always love seeing. They can be good, bad, or whatever, if it’s something I’ve never seen before, I’m in! Earlier this week I performed with the Marshall Shore the Hip Historian. He does an act based on Arizona’s history, and it’s run like a game show.
His show has amazing “curb appeal”. The look of the show looks fun and exciting.

Let’s start with his costume. He wears boots with the Arizona flag on them, and his jacket also has the Arizona flag on the back of it. He’s looks like a cool version of Colonel Sanders. One of his props is a chicken bucket with his face in place of the Colonel’s face.


His show is a game show where people try to be the first to correctly answer Arizona trivia. I think this is something that could be expanded into a much bigger show. He could use some video elements, and different types of games, not just head to head trivia. This is something that would play really well in a hipster bar or black box theater. I also think this is something that if he packaged it right, he could get a ton of bookings in middle and high schools!