A while ago I had a gig at a casino and a few days before the show I got an email from the head of security there asking me a lot of questions about my show. This was a very unusual request. I’ve performed in a lot of casinos over the years as an act within a show and as the whole show and have never had security reach out.
The questions ranged from things like logical ones like “is anyone from the audience going backstage” to strange ones like “are you bringing a trap door that any could fall through“.
My immediate thing I offered was to add them as an additional insured to my insurance, but due to the them contacting me a few days before the gig I needed and answer that day, by the end of the business day, which was about an hour after he sent them email to me.
I think this did a couple of things, it put the ball in his court it was time sensitive and I did this in writing, so there’s a record of me telling him. It also said that I was a professional performer.
He got back to me the next day and wanted to set up a phone call for later that day. When we chatted on the phone, I got the feeling that the casino had had a performer in the past who was a “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” type of performer or non-professional performer and something of the casino’s got damaged.
The other interesting thing of note is that I’m doing this gig with a buddy of mine who is a music act and they didn’t get contacted by security.
Anyway after the phone call he cleared me do my show.
-Louie
Tag: casino magic show
Who Books That??
In stand up comedy circles there’s an inside joke that when someone does something cool, people say, “Who books that?” Typically newer comics or comics that are plateauing are asking comics moving up how they got a cool gig. Or really what they’re asking is how they can get a gig without putting in the work to get the gig.
In reality, it’s really easy to find out who books a gig, you simply call the gig and ask!
Recently I did a casino, which was a tribal casino in the middle of nowhere:
I posted that picture of my picture on their sign on social media and had four magicians contact me asking for the bookers information. These were magicians that I know, but I’m not really close with. If they were a close friend or someone I frequently trade referrals with, it’s not a big deal. But when it’s someone that I chat with twice a decade, the request feels gross.
Don’t be the person taking the lazy way out, do the work!
-Louie
Adding Effects to Sizzle Reel
I’m playing with adding some visual effects to sizzle reels, or social media videos. Here’s two versions of a sizzle reel, one without effects and one with some visual effects.
Here’s the one without:
And here’s the one with:
The goal is to not use the visual effects simply because I can, but to hopefully use them to enhance what you’re watching. I don’t want to be like soo many of the videos in the early days of consumer level video editing where every transition was a a huge deal, with star wipes or whatever.
Let me know which you think is better!
-Louie