There’s a common street performer “trick” to unite the audience and it’s call and response. If you’re not familiar with what that is, it’s typically used when the performer says something like, “Would you like to see another trick…say YES!” then the audience responds by saying YES.
This an effective technique uniting the audience, they’re doing something together and it helps them start to become an audience and not just a bunch of individuals. This is especially important for an outdoor show where you may have a transient audience. Another thing it does is forces the audience to invest energy into the show. The more they are invested in the show, the more they will stay and watch the show…and like it!
I like the technique, but I personally don’t like how most people do it, they’re doing it simply because it’s effective. There’s no real purpose besides filling a hole in the show because you don’t have a segue to the next routine.
When I use it in my show, I give it a bit of meaning. In my Drawing in Ball of Yarn routine, I do it to have the audience vote on whether I should buy the person’s drawing. It accomplishes the same thing and just telling the audience to say “yes”, in fact it actually moves the show forward!
With a little bit of thought, you can find ways to use this technique to move the show forward, instead of a hack bit.
-Louie
Tag: magic show tips
Tom Foolery – Preview Party Invitation
I’m a big fan of Tom Mullica a while ago I came across an invitation to the opening of the Tom Foolery bar in Atlanta. Then recently I found a handful of Tom Foolery playing cards, so I went out and had them framed together.
This is a cool bit of magic memorabilia that I’m happy to have displayed in my office!
-Louie
Rope Magic Routine
One of the tricks that I’ve been working on this month is Four Nightmares, which is a rope trick.
Here’s the rope routine that I’m doing:
-Show long and short rope
I have a long piece of rope and a….Albino worm. I’ll do four tricks, and I’ve given each a cool name.
-Ropes become the same size
I call this the equalizer! I had a lady tell me she didn’t like that because it made her feel stupid.
-tie the two equal ropes together
If you don’t know how a trick works, that means I’m doing my job. I don’t understand how an airplane flies, but when we land I clap for the pilot!
-move knot to one side of the rope, untie it to reveal the short rope
I call trick number two, the de-wormer!
-put away the small rope.
Trick number three…
-tie the double knot
a double knot…
-slide the knot off the rope to reveal the circle of rope
I call that OOhhh whaaat?!
-put the loop onto the rope
Trick number four, I call it…the end
-reveal the loop become part of the single rope
This particular trick is doing a trick for the sake of doing a magic trick. There’s not really anything about me, my life or a point of view in the trick. I think that sometimes you need that stuff in the show, just a fun trick.
This routine is still in its very early stages for me, so we’ll see what happens with it in the future.
-Louie
Don’t Feel Stupid
During a show recently someone mentioned that they didn’t like a trick because they “felt stupid” because they didn’t know how the trick worked. Here’s what my reply was:
“If you don’t know how a trick works, that means that I’m doing my job. I don’t understand how an airplane works, but I still clap for the pilot when we land!
I’ve started to work this into my show at the beginning with the rope trick I’ve been opening the show with. I think it’s an interesting thing to address in the show, that if someone doesn’t understand why a trick works, they aren’t dumb, it’s what’s supposed to happen and that’s totally OK.
-Louie
Magic Audio Cassette Tapes!
When my summer season ended a few weeks ago, I had a 14 hour drive home. During my travels over the summer I found some magic audio cassette tapes, so I bought a cheap tape player and listened to magic on the drive home!
It was really interesting to listen to two different Dai Vernon lectures without being able to see anything. I was kinda amazed that I was mostly able to follow what what he was explaining. It did help that I was familiar with his books from when I was a teenager and had worked through most of the stuff decades ago.
The Radio Magic tape by Steve Shaw (Banachek) and Scott Wells has a lot of great information that still applies today! It’s solid advice for doing a radio or podcast spot and a lot of that applies to doing things like TV morning shows or news spots.
I barely got into the Kreskin and Dunniger tapes. The Kreskin ones were audio of a TV show. It’s interesting to listen to them, they’re from 1972 and the material he’s doing is still solid material! Kreskin was ahead of his time!
Just because something is on an old, outdated medium doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it!
-Louie
Yeah, Don’t Punch Me
Last month when I was performing roving magic at a fair, I had an interesting interaction with a family. A guy approaches me and asks me if I would show his family a magic trick. Of course I said YES, then he said, “I’m not going to watch because I’ll probably get frustrated and punch you.” Then he looked away and his family had a great time watching some close up magic.
I personally thought it was really cool of him to give his family a moment to see a magic trick. I should add that the guy looked like he’d punched a few people in his lifetime. I’m glad he knew his personal limitations and didn’t put himself in a position where he would punch me!
I mentioned this to another performer who was shocked at how “violent” and inappropriate this guy was. I look at this like someone who had a problem with alcohol not wanting to see me do a show at a bar. This guy wanted his family to have fun, even if it was something he wasn’t into. Did he need to tell my why he wasn’t watching? Probably not, but I would have wondered why he asked, then didn’t watch…and probably would have tried to engage him (and gotten punched!)
-Louie
Why I Don’t Do Halloween Shows
Halloween is a busy time for magicians, there’s soo much work out there, everyone could be performing and there’d still be gigs leftover. That said, I don’t normally perform on Halloween anymore. Here’s why:
Halloween shows usually suck!
When you put audiences (kids or adult) in a costume they act really strange. The will play up their character which isn’t what I want in my show. I want them to be themselves, not Darth Vadar. Also when in costume, you can’t always see people’s faces clearly, which makes it harder for an audience and you to connect with them. The amount of times I’ve picked someone from the audience to help who wasn’t wearing a mask, then as they got up to walk onstage they put a mask on is remarkably high.
Then you have people’s costumes that interfere with basic functions that you don’t anticipate. Some costumes will have sleeves that will make it harder to do things like hold a prop the the audience can see it, or make it difficult for people to move.
I’m not saying that I will never do a Halloween show again in my life. Sometimes the pay is insane or there’s something I want to buy, so the show will finance it. However I very much dislike them and do my best to avoid them.
-Louie
Shell Game Set (Homemade?)
I just added a new shell game set to my collection:
I’m pretty sure this was a home made set, as they look like nothing I’ve ever seen. The look like they started as candle snuffers, and someone took the stick off of them and glued a bearing over the hole. I like their weight, but don’t like how tall they are. The height and strange shape makes working with them a bit awkward.
They’re a great addition to the collection, but won’t replace my working set!
-Louie
Show Introduction
When I perform at showcases, my agent has me use a preshow video. There’s a great reason for this, usually the MC sucks and the video sets the vibe for what they are about to see! I also use this for shows that have video as an option. It’s simple to keep it on a flash drive and give it to the tech crew where ever you’re performing.
Recently I was at a hockey game and realized that all sports do this.
It really hypes up the crowd. After watching the Seattle Kraken’s introduction production, it really highlighted how important this is. I was trying to imagine watching the game without it and how strange of transition from nothing to the game would be.
Go out and watch a sporting event and see how their preshow sets the mood for the game. There’s a lot that can be learned from sports that can be applied to your show. For example all of the transition music bits, and bits with people in the stands when there isn’t play happening.
Watch a game in person and imagine it without music. It’d be really strange and the energy level would constantly be going down. In my show I fill they gaps between routines with joke or music, which is essentially what happens at arenas, just on much bigger scale.
Go out and see a game and you’ll learn a lot!
-Louie
Applause Please Available Soon!
Woo hoo! I just got a text from Brian at Magic Crafter that a batch of the boxes for my Applause Please trick are finished!
I still need to add the electronics and a couple other things to them before they’re ready for sale. The bad news is that I’m out of town for a few weeks, so I won’t be able to work on them for a little while. I’m hoping to have them done by Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t seen the trick, here’s the promo video:
These will be available at Hocus-Pocus.com when they’re completed.
-Louie