magician – MagicShow.Tips

Magic Monday in Seattle!

I was up in Seattle on Monday last week, so went and performed at Magic Monday! This show happens on the second Monday of the month and has been running for something like 25 years!

Before the show I met up with Chris Beason for a quick drink at Teddy’s. This bar was one of the places where Cliff Gustafson used to perform when I was a teenager (and not old enough to get in to see him)

The performers were Jim, Evan, Payne and me.

Sorry Jim, somehow I didn’t get a picture of you.

It’s not just the show, a lot of magic happens, like Ruben doing some close up magic for the audience after the show.

I look at this show like a magic open mic. It’s a place to try new stuff for a great audience! It’s also like a magic club meeting as we all get together in the pub downstairs and hang out after the show.

If you’re ever in Seattle on the second monday of the month you should come out to the show!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Cassandra Ruiz

On this episode we welcome in singer, magician and actor Cassandra Ruiz. We learn about her beginnings in singing and how her theatre background influences her show today . She tells us about her chance encounter with a famous magician that became her first exposure to magic.

We talk about her run performing as a ninja magician at a Ninja themed restaurant and how her and how she balances all the different types of performing she does. We also discuss how she creates routines and how her personal experiences inform those routines. A long overdue conversation with a wonderful person and performer.

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The Moisture Festival Podcast – Ran’d Shine

On this episode we welcome in Ran’D Shine. We learn about how Ran’D came across magic and how that led him to a career performing all over the world. We talk about the benefits of coming into his art form later than most and how he was able to apply aspects of academia into his craft.

Ran’D also gives tips on the best way to become a professional performer and how making connections makes all the difference. A wonderful conversation with a performer who will be making their first appearance at this year’s festival (2025)

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Linking Pins on Stage

In my close up set I do the linking safety pins and I love the trick. I’ve even gimmicked a larger set of about 5 inch pins to do the trick with. The 5 inch pins are good for about 30 people, there’s too small for a real stage show.

I found these giant safety pins and I think they’d be great for using on stage!

The challenge now is figuring out context to do them and getting more than a couple of minutes out of them. In my close up routine I use someone from the audience. Since I’m bringing someone onstage I really need to get at least 4-5 minutes out of the routine to make it worth the time it takes to get someone onstage.

In my writing this morning I had the idea of combining the linking pins with the thumb tie. The idea is the beginning phases will be my normal linking pin routine, then I’ll have my thumbs tied to “eliminate sleight of hand” and then the pins will end up going on and off my arms. That’s the idea, we’ll see how it plays when I get a chance to try it out!

-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

What an Entertainment Showcase Looks Like

Yesterday I mentioned that I liked booking shows through showcases. Here’s some of the other acts that I recently showcased with:

There were a couple of jugglers, a few magicians, some animal acts and some bands. It’s rough to stand out when you’re doing these and you need to bring your A game and have your showcase set TIGHT!

When I watch these showcases, I can always tell who took it seriously and showed up to get work. Their shows are tight and they have zero wasted moments.

-Louie

Doing Media

Frequently I have to perform for news or morning shows to promote my shows at public gigs. They can be challenging. The last fair I was at they had me do two morning news shows at the same time! I didn’t know about the second one until I got on site at 6am!

One of the things that makes these challenging is that you don’t know how much material you’re doing until you’re there. I ended up doing 3 three minute bits and 4 one minute bits. While that doesn’t sound like a lot of material, it all had to be different and something that I could wrap up at any point due to time.

The thing with doing media that’s not is a studio is that you don’t know how you’re doing timewise. A bit could run long…or a producer could cut your bit short and you don’t know until you’re cut short in the middle of the routine!

When I do media, I like to do the routine for the host off camera so they know what’s going to happen. That way they know whether they need to cue me to wrap up, or if I’m already close to the end. That little bit of pre-planning makes a huge difference!

-Louie

Pop Up Banner to the Rescue!

This week I’m sharing a stage with a show that has a large structure for puppets.

This structure can’t move between shows, so I have to perform in front of it. I don’t like having other acts stuff behind me while I perform and normally I will make the other act move their stuff to the side during my show. However that’s not an option this week. Luckily I had my pop up banner with me that I use at library shows.

This was a decent solution to covering up their puppet structure. The bonus is that it also has my name onstage behind me while I’m performing.

-Louie

ReLearning a Magic Show

Last week I did a run of school assemblies that were sponsored by a library system to promote their summer reading programs. The show I was doing my my Incredible Idioms school assembly show, which I wrote for a 6 week school assembly tour in January/February of this year.

The challenge remembering the show as the last time I did the show was mid February, so about 3 months ago. What works for me to relearn a show is to listen to audio recordings of the show. This is also why it’s important to record your shows. It’s not hard to do, simply use the voice recorder on your phone.

The week before I had these shows I listened to the audio of the show while I drove in the car or on headphones as I worked around the house. For me passively listening really helps my brain bring back the “mental muscle memory” of the show. This is something that also helps for learning a new show or routine. I record myself doing the script and listen to it over and over while doing other things.

Hope you remember this tip when you need to relearn a show!

-Louie

Street Performer in New Orleans

In the French Quarter in New Orleans I ran into a street performer. He was doing standard stuff in a pretty standard way. It wasn’t bad, but for me it was just “meh”.

He closed with the cups and balls. If you look at the picture above, you can see the table top. The above picture was taken with the camera held above my head.

I also took a picture of with the camera at my eye level:

I was in the 3rd row and couldn’t see a thing. The busker had trouble building past the second row, and that’s because you couldn’t see what he was doing.

I know I write about this a lot on this blog, but most magicians would learn a lot about what’s visible if they saw a picture of their show from the audience’s eyeline.

Have a friend take a picture of your show and check out your audience’s sight lines, it’s eye opening!

-Louie