Should You…

Not too long ago I was chatting with a magician who mentioned they were still doing in person shows. I’m not judging them on that, sometimes you’ve gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills. They mentioned they were doing sponge balls at kids shows and the kids had no problems holding them in their hands, and this is what I have an issue with.

First of all, I’m betting they aren’t cleaning the sponge balls. That’s a problem, besides any COVID transmission, there’s tons of other germs on them…they’re sponge, germs love them.

Next, kids will hold anything you tell them to. You’re the adult, they’ll just do it in most instances. So kids being willing to hold them doesn’t really mean much.

Finally, just because you can…should you? Is the health risk worth it for a dopey magic trick?

Here’s how I see it, we’ve had over 10 months to figure out other magic we can do where people don’t hold a prop in their hands. Why are we still doing sponge balls? Don’t give me the, “they get a reaction“, because so does kicking someone in the nuts. Very few people have taken sponge balls beyond the effect and made it into something that moves the plot forward.

Let’s try to innovate and move forward and not live in the past.

End of a Week Off

It’s been a fun week of no gigs, however that’s coming to an end tomorrow. I’m back on the road heading to Arizona in the morning. That means I get to pack up my show and do a lot of prop repairs today…this is the glamorous part of show biz! Yesterday I got to hang … Continue reading “End of a Week Off”

It’s been a fun week of no gigs, however that’s coming to an end tomorrow. I’m back on the road heading to Arizona in the morning. That means I get to pack up my show and do a lot of prop repairs today…this is the glamorous part of show biz!


Yesterday I got to hang out with magicians and jam and socialize! The cool thing about socializing is that when we’re riffing with ideas, fun things pop up. After yesterday I have three “action items” that I can get to work on and start playing around with.


It’s good to have new stuff to do, and that’s what I live for. In my close up set there’s the meat of it which never really changes. Then there’s the fun experimental stuff. This is the stuff that I love to do. Lately I haven’t had any new stuff in my close up set, and honestly close up isn’t as much fun without it.

This week’s shows I’m doing a stage magic and close up magic, so I’ll get to try out some of these new ideas!



Work It Out…

One of the things I do when I buy a magic book, is that I try to work through everything that’s reasonable to work through.  What I mean by that is that I I’m not going to build an illusion if it’s in the book, but I will build simpler project. I try work through … Continue reading “Work It Out…”

One of the things I do when I buy a magic book, is that I try to work through everything that’s reasonable to work through.  What I mean by that is that I I’m not going to build an illusion if it’s in the book, but I will build simpler project. I try work through every trick that doesn’t require a crazy gimmick I don’t have.


I think this makes me a better magic creator and performer.  It allows me to improvise much better as I’ve already done something a few times, it makes it easier to recreate when the moment occurs.  It also makes you look at props differently.

When I travel, I try to make little videos of magic tricks with things found in my hotel room, or in today’s case my state room as I’m performing on a cruise ship this week.  This morning when I was brushing my teeth, I noticed the cups in the bathroom were big enough to hold a deck of cards.  That then led me to thinking about the trick Everywhere and Nowhere by Hofzinser that uses a glass to isolate a deck of cards.  That led me to wondering if a “flap card” would work in a glass.  Turns out a flap card works great in a glass, and I like the isolation that the glass adds to the change of the card. 




Now it’s got me thinking about how I can use this in a show. In a cabaret show, or a stage show where you have video projection, it would be a great reveal for a tossed out deck.  You start with one card in glass as your prediction.   The three cards are selected and the prediction changes to three different cards.  If they saw their card they sit down.  This moves the flap card from essentially a close up trick to something bigger. 

Maybe I’ll start to write a tossed out deck routine using the flap card as the premise/ending.

Hot New Tricks…

As I get older and more experience as a magician and performer, I’ve realized that 99% of advice given by magician to other magicians with crap. I’ve written about this before, and some advice I saw given out on an internet group recently got me thinking about it. Someone was asking about where they could … Continue reading “Hot New Tricks…”

As I get older and more experience as a magician and performer, I’ve realized that 99% of advice given by magician to other magicians with crap. I’ve written about this before, and some advice I saw given out on an internet group recently got me thinking about it.


Someone was asking about where they could buy a trick they saw someone do on TV. Someone chimed in and said something like, “why would you want to do that, someone’s already done it...” I think this is good advice, however it comes from one of the people that preach, “stick with the classics, they are classics for a reason…“, which is horrible advice.


There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing the new, hot trick. That’s how classics, they have to start out as a new trick. There are many cases where someone has created a method for a trick way better than what you’ve come up with, or had the gimmick manufactured better.


At the end of the day, the person giving the advice is usually someone that in 10 years will be in the same place as a magician as they are now. Looking back at the local magicians that gave me advice when I was a younger magician, I think only a few are people whose advice I’d still consider.


TLDR: Don’t listen to bad advice.