magic show – Page 41 – MagicShow.Tips

Nothing Worse Than a Sloppy Start

Having been at a conference where I got to see a lot of different acts of differing levels of experience perform, one thing that I really noticed was the opening. Not so much their opening trick/song/etc, but how they walked on to the stage. People talk about about your opening trick, but the few seconds before you get to your opening trick is often overlooked.

Here’s an example of a band I saw. They were introduced, they walked onto the stage, plugged in their instruments, and then started to play. Here’s another example of another band the same night. They were introduced, a video started to play to the bands music. It was a 30 second sizzle reel, then the signer walks on to the stage as the lights comes up singing a continuation of the song that was in the sizzle reel with the band onstage already playing.

Guess who got a lot more work?

Give up? It was the second band.

The second band didn’t waste anytime, they were professional, it felt like a stadium act! How do you enter the stage? I do it with energy, and it’s part of the bit, there’s not fumbling while I try to figure out my first trick. I walk out, greet the audience and it’s on!

You need to put as much thought into how you get from the wings of the stage to your opening trick as you put into your opening trick. You can lose the audience on your walk to the microphone.

Do It Right!

Over the weekend I got to watch many performers showcase their acts to a room full of people who book entertainment. I got to watch one magician, who I’ve known for years and he did everything right when doing the cups and balls on stage!

Here’s the problem with the cups and balls, it’s not a stage trick. It’s a close up trick that takes up a lot of space. This makes a lot of performers think they can do it on a stage. Unfortunately, you cannot just put it on stage and have it work for 300 people without solving a couple of problems.

The first problem is the table top. If you are on a raised stage, the audience’s vision of the table top can be blocked because they have to look up at this. Years ago when I used to do the cups and balls in my show, I solved this by having my table sit at an angle, this is the same solution that I saw over the weekend. As a bonus it puts motion into the balls when you lift the cups and they roll, making the trick play a little bit larger.

The second problem with doing cups on stage is the balls most magicians use are very small, and usually a dull color. The ones with the crocheted covers don’t reflect light, this makes them appear smaller onstage. If they were glossy, they’d appear slightly larger as they reflect light. The magician I saw used glossy, bright red balls that were very big, at least an inch in diameter. You could see them from the back of the large banquet hall.

Take a look at your show, how can you make it play bigger, especially if you are moving from close up to stage.

Video Rehearsal…

Currently I’m working on something for a show and an article for a magazine for magicians. This is something that I’ll probably only do a couple of times. One of the tools that I’m using to get it show ready is video. I record the trick, takes notes while I watch the video and rehearse some more. Then I repeat the whole thing.

One of the things that I’ve noticed in watching my video is that when I do a certain move that takes a little bit of brain power, I stop smiling and look like I’m doing something. This is just my face. If I cropped the video and you just saw my face and I asked you when I did the move, you’d be able to!

This is the value of video, you can see things that you can’t see in a mirror. When the move happens I need to visually see something, so I can’t see my face in the mirror. I wouldn’t have known my face was giving me away!

TLDR: Video is a helpful tool for rehearsal!

Keep Learning…

Right now I’m learning a fair amount of things that are pretty much new to me. By new, I mean they are things that I don’t really have a solid base skill in. Learning is fun, however there are taking some work.

The first thing I’m learning to do is a “zombie” style floating effect. I’ve played with this principle when I was in highschool, so while it’s not 100% new to me, I really don’t have much experience in it. I’m learning a lot, and Tommy Wonder writing on it and Al Schneider’s books are a lot of help. This is a trick I’ve always wanted to do, and I recently came up with my angle on the trick which makes it semi unique to me.

The next thing I’m working on is a fancy cut (cardistry). I was around when the whole cardistry thing started to boom, but only learned one cut. I’ve wanted to learn some cool cuts for a while, but never really knew where to start. Now that I’ve watched a tutorial, I think it’s fairly easy to be taught. For the most part they have a few base moves that your cut is built off of. If you know the base for your cut already, it’s easy to learn. I need to practice my base!

The final thing I’m working on is learning to rip a deck of cards in half. This being purely a strength thing, is something that will probably take me a year or more to be able to do. I was hanging out with a buddy that’s a “strongman” and he gave me some pointers. Right now I’m able to rip 17 cards and every sunday I add a card to what I’m trying to rip! I anticipate there will be some weeks where I’ll add a card and will stall out for a week or two, so the goal is to be able to rip a deck in 2020.

What are you learning?

Learning new things, whether the go into the show or not will keep you from becoming a dinosaur!

Make It About You…

When I was a kid starting out performing one of the people that gave me advice, and someone that I still respect now would always ask me, “why are you doing that?”. My answer was simply something like, “I’m doing a magic show, I have to do something.”

It took me years to realize what he was actually trying to get me to answer. The questions wasn’t “why are you doing it“, it was “why should the audience care?” Sometimes the answer can simply be “because I’m doing a magic show”, however the majority of the time it needs to be more.

Once you figure out why the audience should care, you’re 90% ahead of most magicians who simply do tricks. You become a person that’s doing tricks!

TLDR: Make them care about you.

My Office Today…

On social media there’s a thing where performers post pictures of where they are performing and caption it “My Office Today.” What cracks me up is once you are performing long enough you tend to know how often people are actually working and in what kind of venue they are normally working. I’m not sure … Continue reading “My Office Today…”

On social media there’s a thing where performers post pictures of where they are performing and caption it “My Office Today.” What cracks me up is once you are performing long enough you tend to know how often people are actually working and in what kind of venue they are normally working.

I’m not sure why people who barely do shows feel compelled to post the one event they do a year in a cool place and try to make it feel like that’s what they do every week. I have a buddy who opens for a fairly big name music act and he rarely posts these, and he’s in cool theaters every week.

I think it comes down to hype, they want people to think they are working. There’s nothing wrong with only doing a few gigs a year and there’s nothing wrong with posting pictures of cool places. However I think there is something wrong with people trying to play it off like that’s the type of venue they frequently perform at.

If someone only posts pics of cool venues in December, that means they don’t do them very often.

TLDR: Be better than the hype!

The Value of a Magic Jam…

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like … Continue reading “The Value of a Magic Jam…”

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like not wanting their material stolen. I’ve found that 90% of the people who are worried about their material being stolen, are the people who really shouldn’t worry about it.

When you get together with other magicians there is a lot of learning that can happen. It’s the “jamming” aspect of it that’s the greatest value. You see someone do something and you play off of it. Will the majority of stuff that comes out of these every see a real audience? Probably not. Flexing your creative muscles will help you out!

Here’s some video from last night:

Some interesting things happened, and most of all you are building a community of magicians!

See Shows!

If you know me, you know I frequently go out to see performers. I think it’s important to support variety acts, and it’s always inspiring to see good acts. I performed at an arts festival earlier this week and I went out and watched a bunch of the shows and had a blast!

I found it interesting that I didn’t see any other acts out seeing shows. This festival was an all day festivals, so there was plenty of time to catch shows. To me the value of these festivals isn’t the paycheck, but seeing, and networking with other performers.

Towards the end of the festival, I had one of the board members pull me aside and mention they the whole board noticed me at shows all day. They thought it was great that I wasn’t just there for my show, but to be part of the whole festival.

I think to grow as a performer you need to be exposed to other acts. Not just magic act, but all variety acts!

Modern Kid Show…

Recently I was performing on the East Coast and had a great time watching John Swomley perform his show for a room full of kids and their families at an arts festival. What I really liked about the show is that it wasn’t based on “look don’t see” type of tricks, where the kids scream … Continue reading “Modern Kid Show…”

Recently I was performing on the East Coast and had a great time watching John Swomley perform his show for a room full of kids and their families at an arts festival.

What I really liked about the show is that it wasn’t based on “look don’t see” type of tricks, where the kids scream and get out of control. That’s one of the things that I don’t like about most kid shows, they are living in the 1980’s where screaming is considered a good reaction.

His show had the kids laughing, not screaming. All of the magic was good, and it makes me happy to see someone doing kids magic correctly! There’s an old saying for kids performers, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.” What that means is how you get to the end of the trick is more important that the trick.

I totally disagree.

The trick has to be good. If the trick isn’t good, then the journey isn’t worth it. For example, if you drive to Disneyland, have a fun and exciting drive, pull into the parking lot, then turn around and go home without ever entering the parks, its’ a bad trip. Same with a kid show the trick has to be good. John’s tricks were good, and the journey was fun.

You may recognize John’s name, he makes a microphone holder called the Gim Crack:

This mic holder is awesome. Personally I don’t use a handheld mic often, but I always have a handheld mic nearby in case something goes wrong with my headset mic. I also always have a Gim-Crack within reach for when I have to use the handheld mic. It’s saved many shows! If you don’t have one, you need to have one in your case!

TLDR: Do a good kid show, and buy a Gim-Crack

Be Easy To Work With…

One of the things I started doing this years is not letting other acts take advantage of me. What I mean by that is when I’m sharing a stage with another act, I’m very flexible…until they get demanding.

In the past when I would share a stage with another act, I would assume we’re all professionals and you wouldn’t ask for things not necessary. I just worked in a show with an act where we both were doing three shows each alternating every hour, with 15 mins change over time.

I asked if I could keep my gear off stage in a small wing unseen by the audience and in a space they weren’t using. They said, “NO”. That’s fine with me if you need that space, I have no problem keeping my gear in a less convenient place. This particular stage has stairs across the entire front of the stage. They started laying out props on the stairs. I asked if they were going to strike them between their shows. They said, “NO”. I told them they would have to as I use the stairs and I don’t want to dodge their props, and have to worry about stepping on them. They said they didn’t have time to move them, and I told them that “it’s not my problem“.

Now could I have dodged their props as I used the stairs? Yes. Should I have to? NO. In a show like this one I’m entitled to backstage space to store my gear, and in a space that was vacant the whole show. By them not being easy to work with, I instantly became less flexible, while still within what my show was entitled. I didn’t ask for anything more, I simply took what I needed.

Guess what, my show was better than it would have been with me or someone from the audience tripping on their props in the dark. They learned a lesson, that when you are working with other acts, you need to be able to do a full strike in between shows unless you’ve discussed it before with the other act.

It’s being a professional

The moral of the story is be flexible, but don’t let anyone take advantage of you.