magic show – Page 29 – MagicShow.Tips

Be a Student…

When I was a teenager right around Thanksgiving the annual TV show The World’s Greatest Magic would be on. This would be my chance to see acts I’d only ever read about in magic magazines. It was a chance to see how great (or not) things actually were.

Back then I’d record on VHS these magic shows and you’d really study the acts. Not to sound like an old man, but kid’s nowadays don’t study acts on video. I knew every move of Jeff McBride’s card act and could do it. This gets you inside the performer’s head, and you start to understand their choices.

With all of the acts you can watch on YouTube, it’s hard to pick a few acts to study. The amount of content is overwhelming. I think kids now should pick a performer or two and really study their work. Not copy it, but study it, try to figure out why they do what they do.

Have an Out!!!

Last week I performed at Jeff McBride’s Wonderground in Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun. In my show I take a couple of risks, and usually they pay out HUGE. Let me back up a minute, I went to Wonderground with some friends who had been showcasing at the same conferences as me for the last two weeks, so there were very familiar with my act. When something went wrong, they all noticed it.

In my show someone from the audience guesses what card another person from the audience picked. It’s a great trick and because I’m lazy, the card is always the same card. Yes, when I do gigs with multiple shows at the same venue on the same or adjacent days, I mix up the card. However I don’t when the gigs are in different states. When I did the show at Wonderground the person guessed the wrong card!

When the person said the Five of Hearts instead of the Two of Diamonds, all of my friends knew something was wrong. After the show they told me that they all got worried for me. However one guy, who is a magician that I’ve toured with told them all to calm down and that I was a pro and would handle it.

Guess what happened?

I had a plan, it’s my way back up plan, and in about a year, I’ve only needed to use it once, but it’s always there and ready. I produce the card from elsewhere. It took all of my friends by surprise. Having a back up plan for anything that can go wrong is the way to go…even if you only need it once a year!

Ummmm….

My current reading is Ken Weber’s book Maximum Entertainment 2.0. This is the expanded version of the original book. It’s something every magician should have. It’ll make you think about your show, and hopefully make some changes. In one part of the book Ken writes about performers saying “ummm…” and how it’s a bad thing. … Continue reading “Ummmm….”

My current reading is Ken Weber’s book Maximum Entertainment 2.0. This is the expanded version of the original book. It’s something every magician should have. It’ll make you think about your show, and hopefully make some changes.

In one part of the book Ken writes about performers saying “ummm…” and how it’s a bad thing. I’ve been hyper aware of it, and a ton of performers say it a lot! I went back and reviewed some video and I say it a lot in my newer routines. I need to go back and work on my learning my scripts

Go watch video of yourself performing and listen for the “Ummms“, I was really surprised when I heard them!

Little Things…

With a magic trick, all of the little things matter and they matter a lot! There’s a trick that I do in the show that when I started doing it, it used three thumb thumb tips. At one point I had to remove something from one of them, and put it into a different thumb tip!

After really thinking about how the trick flowed, I managed to figure out a way to do it with only two thumb tips. One of the tips is a XXL thumb tip, and that solved the the problem of having to move something from one thumb tip to another, and it also meant one less time that I need to go to the bin on my table.

The next problem was prop management. On my table, there’s a bin. In that bin are my props, and the thumb tips used to just lay on the bottom of the bin. The problem is that they roll around, especially if my table is carried out, and not preset. I solved this by 3D printing this holder:

The foot on the holder is to provide a more steady base, so that it can’t tip over. Hopefully the thumb tips will stay upright!

Playing Bigger…

Making the tricks that I currently do play bigger is something I’m always working on. There are a lot of ways to do this, however one challenge has always been card tricks. I don’t do a lot of them in the show, but those that I do are generally limited to poker sized cards.

One trick that I do uses cards in a holder on a pole. This is one of the rare instances where I can use jumbo cards, but haven’t. Last night I 3D printed out a new holder for the trick that will take jumbo cards.

My concern is that the pole won’t be able to hold the larger cards. When the cards on the end, the weight will make the pole bend. I do have a shorter pole than I normally use, and that would help with the bending a little bit.

Larger cards will help solve the problem of cards being visible from a distance.

Get To It!

A couple of the showcase acts I saw recently did a lot of talking before anything happened. By anything, I mean anything, no jokes, no tricks, nothing. They did do a very straight forward autobiography of themselves. It really didn’t move the ball forward.

Yes, the goal is to let people get to know you, and to relate to you, however you need to do that in an entertaining way. Telling jokes about yourself upfront makes it palatable for an audience. Saying you’re 28 years old and from Missouri doesn’t. Telling them about you in the context of what you do is the goal.

Personally I don’t believe you need a quick trick, but you do need to get to what you do to set the tone for the rest of your show. This is even more important when you showcase set is only 12 minutes long!

Three Step Process…

In the last 10 days I’ve been at two booking conferences and I’ve seen a ton of acts! Some I’ve seen more than once, but for the most part I got to see a huge variety of what’s out there. One thing I’ve noticed with newer performers is that they don’t know how to sell a trick or stunt.

It’s a simple three step process. First you tell them what you are going to do. Next you do what you just told them you were going to do. Finally you tell them what you just did.

I know one of the classic rules of magic is that you aren’t supposed to tell people what you are going to do before you do it, so that they can’t “catch you”. This is totally BS, it’s good advice is the trick is bad, but not for doing the trick.

A great example is when David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

When he did this, we all knew what was going to happen. That allowed the trick to have much greater impact than if he just raised the curtain without context and dropped it and the statue was gone.

Just remember the three step formula and you’re good to go!

Be Honest…

Something that’s important is to have a realistic view of your show. A good example is when you’ve just done a show that’s a disaster and you can’t admit it. Owning it is the first step to getting better.

I’ve done a million shows where I know exactly what I could do better and I tell other performers that. It’s not that I’m hard on myself, I’m realistic with myself. There’s an important difference between the two. One is saying, that you top palm wasn’t perfect and the other is pretending you didn’t drop a palmed card when talking about your show afterwards.

Knowing where you can improve and being honest with it is something HUGE you can do to improve your show. Writing this blog has really helped me!

Worst Case Scenario

Oh man, tonight I saw an act that had a really rough time…and by really rough, I mean it was probably the worst case scenario of their show. Seeing an what happened to this act, really made me think about what are the worst things that could happen to my show. We’re talking possible career ending things that could happen to you as a result of your show. It’s not a fun thought, but something we all should think of.

The act that I watched was a circus act. The act started with them having sound issues. It began with someone’s mic pack off, however in diagnosing the problem, they adjusted their levels, so when the mic pack came on, their audio started feeding back. Once they solved that, they were off their game. They kept missing juggling tricks, which further knocked them off their game. They ending with one guy on stilts and someone standing on their shoulders…and that’s where the worst case scenario happened. They fell over and they fell hard!

That was probably their worst case scenario. I’ve had people fall off the stage, trip on the way up, get stung by a bee, I even tore my rotator cuff during a show. It’s how you deal with them that makes you a pro.

What’s your worst case scenario, and how would you deal with it?

A Showcase Tip…

This week I’m at another booking conference and saw a ton of acts. I saw good acts and bad acts. For me personally one of the things that separated them was tightness. I know it’s hard doing a showcase set instead of your regular show. A showcase set is generally somewhere between 10 and 20 mins, and in a variety show type format, with multiple acts.

One of the challenges with these showcases is that they aren’t always scheduled in an order that compliments the acts. Sometimes there will be low energy acts following high energy bands, or similar acts back to back. These are things that aren’t an issue if you are doing a full show as there’s usually a gap between shows, or you have more time to have the switch gears to what you do.

One thing you can do to help in this situation is have walk up music that sets the tone for your show. You can also try to do original material, so that you don’t have to worry about overlap with other acts. While those won’t completely help out an act that super low key, following a high energy act, they do help a little bit.