magic show tips – Page 12

Get the Event Flow Schedule!

Here’s a huge tip when performing a events, always try to see the event flow schedule and take a picture of it! Here’s event flow that I from the banquet staff at the hotel:

I took the picture right after I arrived at 4pm and I was supposed to rove for an hour at 5pm and do an 30 min show after dinner at approx. 7pm. If you look at the schedule, that’s not what’s on the schedule.

For starters, I was scheduled to rove from 5pm to 6pm, but the event didn’t start till 5:30pm. Shifting the roving 30 mins isn’t a big deal as I there was going to be a gap between that and the show. However they had the show listed as 90 minutes and I don’t do a show that long for a holiday party. This was quick to clear up with the booker, and they confirmed they were only expecting me to do 30 mins.

The shift from a 7pm show to an 8:30pm show could be a challenge if I had a late night gig after that one. One thing I was doing this year was only one show on each Saturday in December, so they were buying out my night. This is great for the client, so they don’t have to worry about the show running late and me having to leave. I confirmed the 8:30pm start time and said “no problem“.

I did leave the client a business card with my cellphone number on it and told them that with a gap that long I’m not hanging out in the banquet room, but they can text me and the show can start in 15 minutes.

Lucky me, I got a text at about 7:15pm and the show started at 7:30pm! As a super bonus, they were a great audience!

The takeaway lesson from this year is having companies buyout my Saturdays nights is the way to go. It’s less stress free for me and the client. They can throw almost whatever at me and I can say, “no problem” and mean it! Everyone wins!

-Louie

Sponge Peeps – 2nd Attempt

Yesterday I wrote about a failed attempt at making sponge bunnies that look like Marshmallow Peeps (read about it here). I made a second attempt, and this one turned out much better. Instead of using actual Marshmallow Peeps to create the mold, I sculpted them out of clay.

My mold is one full size bunny and then two smaller ones. My thinking is that I can get a full set out of two castings in the mold. I can make additional molds if this is something I want to make a lot of.

I used foam in the mold as I already had that at home, so it was easy to make a test with.

They came out with a workable density, I think that I would like them to be a little bit softer, so I’ll have to explore some other densities of foam. The next step will be to play with adding pigment to them so that they’re yellow.

-Louie

Sponge Bunnies

Last year around easter I had the idea to make sponge bunnies out that look like the Marshmallow Peeps.

I bought this pack of them last year and I just got around to trying to make a set. The first step was to make a mold of them.

I started to make the mold using actual Peep’s, but unfortunately it was a failure. I think the sugar or some ingredient of the Peep didn’t play well with the mold material.

I’m going to give it another try, but I think I’ll have to make the Peep’s out of clay and then make a mold of that. Hopefully it will be sooner than another year before I make another attempt!

-Louie

Money Paddle Idea

One prop I don’t really like, but spend way too much time thinking about is the Money Paddle. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be.

Is it an olde tyme drink stirrer?

And if it is, how do you give it context for a modern audience?

One thing that it reminds me of is a strop for sharpening blades.

The strop pictured above is probably 18 -24 inches long, where a money paddle is about 6 inches. That’s a small point to give it context. A knife and a strop belong together, so the props are connected.

I glued some black and white paper to my money paddle and now the next thing is to try to figure out a routine to do with them.

Also on a side note, the only reason I own a money paddle is that some were made out of wood from Houdini’s house in New York. I thought that was a fun thing to own, but since it see it everyday, I want to figure out something to do with it!

-Louie

Changing Card Tricks

Inspired by Vitaly Beckman’s An Evening of Wonders show, I’m trying to think of ways to eliminate playing cards from my show. Not taking the card tricks out, but trying to figure out other things to use and use them in a context that makes sense. One of the tricks that I do is essentially a card prediction done with jumbo cards and the premise of the bit is the choices that I make in life. I think the trick would work with postcards, and could keep the theme of making choices. With travel postcards from different countries, there is a lot of visual contrast between the cards.

These cards are 4X6 inches which is a little smaller than jumbo playing cards. I needed to commit and buy five sets of them to make the gimmick set of cards or the trick.

Hopefully it works!

-Louie

NW Ring of Fire Magic Club

On Thursday night I made it out to the NW Ring of Fire magic club in Lynnwood, WA. There were about 15 magicians there. It’s been years since I’ve visited this club as it’s over an hour drive (without traffic) for me to get there .

The club president Tony Blei kept things fun, positive and moving along!

While I was there, I won the raffle and my prize were two magic VHS tapes

I don’t have a VHS player, but I discovered a long time ago that the tape can be removed from VHS tapes and they work as hat coils!

It was a fun night and if you’re not going out and meeting other magicians in your area you should! They are a good source of ideas, referrals, and people to cover gigs if you get sick.

-Louie

Visual Obstacles

A couple of days I wrote about the podium struggle at a gig, but that’s not the only challenge at the gig. After I had set up, the event planner filled the front of the stage with prizes.

These were to be raffled off after my show. These create a huge visual distraction and barrier between the audience and me. Also, I was standing when I took the picture, so if you were sitting, you’d be looking up at them and they obscure more of performing area.

Not being able to see the whole performer does make a difference. Bob Fitch once told me “Acting is in the feet“, and while I’m not exactly acting, seeing as much of me helps. This is also why you want to try to avoid doing a low show. If you were sitting on stage left, anything I did that was below my belly button wouldn’t be seen.

You can read a post about removing stage monitors I wrote a while ago here.

During the opening of my show, I do something at events like this that no one thinks of. I ask the audience to turn their chairs so they are facing the stage. You’d think that would be instinct if your chair wasn’t facing the presenter, but hardly anyone does that until you mention it. While there’s that minute of shifting chairs, I looked at someone whose view was blocked and asked if they could see. I pretended to hear them say they couldn’t and I told them I’d fix it and started setting prizes on the floor.

Also I have verbal bits I do while people are moving chairs, so the show has started and was able to do them while moving the prizes.

Ultimately you need to know what you need for the show to work and for it to succeed and do your best to create those conditions. There’s nothing worse than a bad show that’s due to conditions that aren’t your fault.

-Louie
PS the show went great!

Magic Mondays in Seattle

In Seattle there’s a monthly magic show called Magic Mondays. It’s been running for a couple of decades (probably longer) that takes place at a bookstore. This show is basically an open mic for magicians. I always try to do the show if I’m available on the night the show happens. It’s a great place to work on new material for a friendly audience.

alakasam, master payne, eric stevens and louie foxx

Normally the show is hosted by Jim Earnshaw, but he had a family emergency, so I stepped in and hosted the show!

The fun thing about last night’s show was the variety in styles of magic that was performed. This show is the best deal magic show deal in Seattle as it’s FREE! You never know who you’ll see, from beginners, to magician on tour that happen to be in Seattle and have a night off and everything in between!

This show happens the 2nd monday of the month at 6:30pm! It’s totally worth checking out if you’re in Seattle!

-Louie

Podium Struggles

Holiday parties are a wild west of show set ups. Many times you have some who isn’t an event planner running things and it’s their first time running an event. I did an event last week where I came in and got set up on the stage.

My first challenge was to get the ballroom staff to move the podium off the stage. As you can see from the picture above, I was unsuccessful. I asked if they requested the podium and was told “no, but everyone wants one“. I told them I can’t do the the with the podium in the middle of the stage. They said they could move it. I told them, “great, so you’ll have staff ready to move it when I’m introduced?” They told me that they didn’t have someone to do that, so I then explained that I can’t start until it’s moved, and the show has a firm end time, so any time hunting down staff cuts into the show and the value the client gets.
That led to the compromise of putting it on the corner of the stage.

In case you’re wondering, no one used the podium.

Why didn’t I move it?

Simple, it’s not mine. I don’t want people moving my gear, and I extend that same courtesy to equipment that’s not mine. Also there is someone on staff whose job it is to move the podium and sometimes there are union issues where I’m 100% not supposed to move it.

This is a case where I can see a potential headache for my show and speedbump for the event. Sure, moving a podium isn’t a huge deal…if there’s someone to move it. When I presented why simply finding staff to move it which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but actually is potentially a big deal.

I guess the moral of the story is explaining why after the initial NO answer can help them see the problem.

-Louie

Putting the Fun in Functional

I was at a gig and another act forgot their stand for their cellphone. They needed a way to prop up their phone so they could see their timer. This was the solution that I came up with for them

Sure I probably could have used a coffee cup or something like that, but this was way more fun! This actually helped the act stay in “in the moment” because it made them laugh whenever they looked at it. It made them have fun within their show.

It’s important to have fun on stage and sometimes little things will help put you in the moment.
-Louie