I’ve been fascinated by the Any Card at Any Number trick since I was a teenager. I’ve developed and published several methods of doing it. I was going through an old notebook and found this version that I was doing in the early 2000’s This version has a few interesting things going for it, … Continue reading “Dusting Off Tricks”
I’ve been fascinated by the Any Card at Any Number trick since I was a teenager. I’ve developed and published several methods of doing it. I was going through an old notebook and found this version that I was doing in the early 2000’s
This version has a few interesting things going for it, like the imaginary deck premise and that’s it’s pretty easy to do. It also have a few things not going for it, like having to use the “magician’s choice” force for the suit selection, the deck can’t be handled by the spectator and it’s uses for another trick and very limited (but not impossible).
This version I call the Imaginary Card at Any Number and will be published in an upcoming issue of Vanish Magazine. Hopefully someone will use the trick as a jumping off point for their version of the trick. For me the method for this trick had me work to eliminate the weaknesses and come up with a better versions. My current version doesn’t have the weaknesses of this trick.
Last night I did a corporate gig that I wrote a post about packing for a couple of days ago (Click here to read the post). The gist of the post was that I had a feeling the venue for the gig that I was flying to wouldn’t have a PA, so I packed my … Continue reading “I Saved the Show!”
Last night I did a corporate gig that I wrote a post about packing for a couple of days ago (Click here to read the post). The gist of the post was that I had a feeling the venue for the gig that I was flying to wouldn’t have a PA, so I packed my street show PA just in case.
Much to my surprise the venue had a PA and a sound board! Then I plugged my audio into it and learned that the sound board didn’t work. The venue’s PA only had one XLR input and I need 3 channels. So I used my street show PA as a mixer and monitor:
Please take note that the jumble of wires on the floor is mostly the venue’s cords, not mine. I simply ran the audio out from my Roland Street Cube EX into the XLR input in the venue’s sound system and I was good to go!
One thing I’ve learned as a full time performer is your ability to be problem solver will make your very valuable to your clients. The booker of the event was in the room when I was trying to figure out why the sound board wasn’t working, and when had the audio up and running. She complimented me on my ability to find a solution.
We live in a very exciting time to be a magician. Right now it’s super easy to get custom made props cheaply. This means your show doesn’t have to look exactly like someone else’s. For example the Evaporation trick…don’t want it in orange Sunny D? Easy, I can make it in almost any other bottle … Continue reading “Custom Built Props…”
We live in a very exciting time to be a magician. Right now it’s super easy to get custom made props cheaply. This means your show doesn’t have to look exactly like someone else’s. For example the Evaporation trick…don’t want it in orange Sunny D? Easy, I can make it in almost any other bottle for not much more than the stock version.
This goes with pretty much any prop, you can print out decals on your home inkjet printer and add them to props. Then you could customize off the shelf props that use generic product names to have “brand names”.
Here’s an example from my show. I do a soap bubble act and all of the props were made from “found materials”, thing that I repurposed to use as props. The props don’t remotely match is color or general look. I spend about 45 minutes one day designing them to print on my 3d printer.
I printed them out and got a set of props that not only looks better than what I was using before, but works better than what I was using before. If you don’t have a 3d printer, there are plenty of services that will print out your projects for you, there are even libraries that have 3d printers you can use!
Basically in 2018, there’s no real reason to have props that are cobbled together (unless that’s the look you are going for).
Today is Halloween and also National Magic Day, it’s also my least favorite day to do magic shows. The main reason for this is costumes. If you read my post from yesterday (click here to read it) then you know I don’t wear a “costume” upon request. If my show worked better with me dressed … Continue reading “National Magic Day…”
Today is Halloween and also National Magic Day, it’s also my least favorite day to do magic shows. The main reason for this is costumes. If you read my post from yesterday (click here to read it) then you know I don’t wear a “costume” upon request. If my show worked better with me dressed as Dracula, I’d do it year round.
However, I’m not talking about my costume, but costumes people wear. People act strange when you put them in costumes.
First of all if you are performing for people wearing masks, it makes it very hard for them to see…or talk. you can’t hear them laugh, they have tunnel vision and can’t hear people around them laugh. So they are in their own little world. It makes it very hard to unite the crowd if they are all in their own little world.
Next, people tend to try to act out their character. This makes doing a show rough, because it’s hard to connect with someone pretending to be Catwoman. That also creates a situation that’s hard for the audience to relate to.
All of that said, I have one gig today, it’s an afternoon gig. For me this is key, kids are still in “daytime mode” and the adults shouldn’t be drunk. This is my preferred type of show today.
When you’ve been performing long enough, you will get requests for things outside of your normal show. These can be simple things like “can you use the CEO in a trick” to more complex things like can you write a whole show on a specific theme/topic. I’m not going to really talk about the … Continue reading “Special Requests at a Gig…”
When you’ve been performing long enough, you will get requests for things outside of your normal show. These can be simple things like “can you use the CEO in a trick” to more complex things like can you write a whole show on a specific theme/topic.
I’m not going to really talk about the writing a whole show, as that’s really a specialized thing and either you do it or you don’t. I don’t.
I’m going to talk about smaller requests. Recently I had an request at a corporate gig where they asked me to make a small gift appear and give it to someone. I could do that, however I talked them out of it.
Why?
Simple, the gift will have more meaning from someone the recipient knows than from me. I could make the gift appear while doing a trick with the event organizer, then present it to the recipient, which would have a lot more meaning. However that ends up being the end of the show, I don’t want to follow that.
I want the show to end strong, not on something I really have no control over. If the person who is helping me with the trick where the gift appears is a clunker on stage, then it drags my ending down.
The way I see it, for a corporate gig I’m hired to do the show I’ve done a thousand times (and my pricing reflects that), not to do a something I’ve never done before. I just don’t get enough of these requests to make it worthwhile to having as a part of my show.
Probably the number one request I get has to do with costuming. The organizer will call and say, “our event is yellow themed, can you wear all yellow?” My response is to explain to them that, “I wear certain things because it makes things more visible, so if I use a yellow handkerchief in the show, you won’t be able to see it if I wear yellow.” However I ‘ll gladly wear it, if they provide the clothes (the must meet certain requirements like pocket space, etc), the tailoring, and I must have them a month before the gig so that I can practice in them. Also there additional practice time is billable, and if something doesn’t work with the provided clothes (like yellow on yellow) then we can either drop it from the show (shortening the show) or they can pay for a new prop in a different color.
I’ve never had anyone agree to the paragraph above, however if they did, I would gladly make it work. I think that people who aren’t performers don’t realize how much effort goes into something as simple as wearing a different pair of pants. If a pocket is too narrow, or the cut wrong, I can’t sneak something into or out of my pocket smoothly. Then I may stumble on it, drop it and people think I’m not a good magician, when the reality is that it’s not me, it’s the costume.
So the moral of this post is: Do your show the best you can!
A week or two ago magicians started noticing that the Walgreens Drug Stores in the USA stared selling Jumbo Bicycle Decks of cards. They also started buying a ton of them when they were on sale as a “buy one get one free” deal. Then came the realization that the cards were the new … Continue reading “Magician’s Love a Deal…”
A week or two ago magicians started noticing that the Walgreens Drug Stores in the USA stared selling Jumbo Bicycle Decks of cards. They also started buying a ton of them when they were on sale as a “buy one get one free” deal.
Then came the realization that the cards were the new thinner stock jumbo cards. By “new” I mean the stock they changed to a decade ago. This thinner stock is harder to use than the old stock which was at least twice as thick as the new stock. The same magicians that were hoarding the cards were complaining about how they were useless.
These cards have tons of ways to use them.
Practice with them and you’ll be able to handle them like the old stock. I’ve been using the new stock for years.
Make a “double deck” where you essentially have two decks in one.
Make a pop eyed popper deck
Think outside the box. The advantage of the thinner stock is you can make some interesting gimmicks without having to “split” the cards. Here’s one of the things that I made:
This is a flap card and my design was based on FLAP by Hondo. In the future I want to make a card that has two changes, so shows a total of three cards if you include the card it starts one. My plan would be to use this for a reveal of the cards for the classic “Tossed Out Deck” trick.
Oh, I’m starting a newsletter with some tricks, tips, etc. You can sign up for it below:
Last night I performed a show at an outdoor Halloween event. It was a beautiful day out until I started to drive to the show, when it started dumping rain. Luckily they managed to get a large tent over the stage by the time I got there. Unluckily the stage was put where water pooled, … Continue reading “Make the Best of the Situation…”
Last night I performed a show at an outdoor Halloween event. It was a beautiful day out until I started to drive to the show, when it started dumping rain. Luckily they managed to get a large tent over the stage by the time I got there. Unluckily the stage was put where water pooled, so the ground had about an inch of standing water. Oh and as a bonus the tent was leaky, and somehow the leak always managed to follow where I put my case, so all of my gear got wet…and the show hadn’t even started!
I know many acts that when their gear got wet would have called it a day and pack up. Here’s my thinking, it’s already wet, so let’s do the show. We managed to fill up the tent, I don’t know if people wanted to see my show or they just wanted to be a bit dryer?
When doing gigs like this, one of the first things you need to do is address the “elephant in the room” which was we’re all soaked and standing in a pond. So I made a joke about people sitting in front…Oh, I forgot to mention that there were no chairs, so the audience was standing (not ideal for a show).
By addressing these things I won the audience over and we had a blast. However I think if I went up and did my show normally, it wouldn’t have played as well. When something happens and you just ignore it, the audience senses you aren’t confident with what’s going on. When you call it out, it makes you more relatable and gets them on your side quicker.
I’m frequently asked about why the Evaporation’s standard version is orange liquid. The reason for this is simple, it’s easy to be seen. Rarely will you have an orange background that you are performing in front of, so the color won’t disappear into whatever is behind you. Using things like cola, which is a … Continue reading “Your Tricks Gotta Be Seen!”
I’m frequently asked about why the Evaporation’s standard version is orange liquid. The reason for this is simple, it’s easy to be seen. Rarely will you have an orange background that you are performing in front of, so the color won’t disappear into whatever is behind you.
Using things like cola, which is a dark brown be hard to see with a dark background, or using milk in an elementary school gym against a white wall make seeing the trick difficult. That’s why I settled on Orange.
You need to think about this stuff with all of your magic. For example I love the idea of cups and balls, more specifically cup and ball(s). So a chop cup would fall in this category. My marketed trick Cee-Lo (Available from www.hocus-pocus.com) which uses 3 dice and a cup has some clever work on the final loads.
Here’s a video of Cee-Lo:
The problem is that the action happens on the table top, and if you are are a raised stage the audience is looking up at the bottom of the table and can’t see what’s happening.
There are a couple of solutions to this:
Build your table at an angle, so the front edge is lower than the back.
Use video projection onto a screen.
Create a routine where none of the action happens on a table top.
The first two are pretty simple solutions, however how practical they are will depend on the venues you perform in. The third one is the one that interests me. You are now walking into fairly uncharted waters. Aside from Ball and Cone, the only other cup and ball type trick that happens in the hands is Axel Hecklau’s Just a Cup.
Axel’s routine is great, but I want to come up with my own take on an in the hands cup and ball routine. So my starting point was a baseball cap, which hand a brim that I can hold on to and a large ball, that’s an inch and a half in diameter. All of the action now happens at chest level and it plays much larger due to the bigger props.
This routine is still in its early phases, hopefully it’ll work out. Once it’s closer to being finished, I’ll start sharing some video of it.
The point of this post is simple: Look at the tricks you do and think you about what the audience can actually see!
Recently I did a gig where I MC’d a bar comedy show. Normally I’m the feature or headline act. It was fun, however as the first act, it’s really had to “crush it”. There are a few reasons for this. First, as host, it’s not your show. It’s your show, but it’s not your … Continue reading “The Curse of the Opening Act…”
Recently I did a gig where I MC’d a bar comedy show. Normally I’m the feature or headline act. It was fun, however as the first act, it’s really had to “crush it”. There are a few reasons for this.
First, as host, it’s not your show. It’s your show, but it’s not your show. Second, the audience is COLD and you need to really get them to switch from hang out mode to show mode. This is made harder by the fact that the room doesn’t change into show mode (i.e. lights don’t dim, etc). The final thing is that everyone is still eating, so it’s harder to get them to laugh with food in their mouths.
Add the normal first act in a bar show challenges to the place having a PA set up horribly and the stage in the darkest spot of the room. All of this made it a challenging room.
I opened with a verbal bit that’s goal it to unite the room, it did it OK, then moved on. This is one of those gigs where as the first act you really have to just keep moving forward until they finish their dinner. That’s what I did. And about minute 11 of 15 I finally got them warmed up and they were a great audience for the next two acts.
I guess the lesson here is don’t bail on your audience, always give it 100%. Eventually they’ll come around…
rganizer, then present it to the recipient, which would have a lot more meaning. However that ends up being the end of the show, I don’t want to follow that.