At a recent gig they requested I do a trick with a donor’s check. I decided to do a Bank Nite type of trick where the check was put into an envelope and mixed with other envelopes. One envelope was selected and the rest were shredded and the selected envelope had the check.
Pretty standard in effect, but I didn’t want to deal with an electric shredder, so I used a manual shredder.
The shredder above says is has a capacity of 2 sheets, however it worked just fine with and envelope with a check sized piece of paper in it. It played fine, and the manual shredder is a great prop to have around. I think this premise is an easy way to customize a trick for an event.
Thanksgiving was a few months ago, but I want to say that I’m thankful for this this thing to come into my life!
It’s a wireless HDMI system. This allows me to not have to run a cord from my camera onstage to where ever their HDMI input is. I’ve used it a lot since I got it and I just upgraded it. Before it had to be plugged into power, but I bought the batteries for it, so now I don’t need a power outlet. My video is pretty much 100% self contained now, I just have the output wires from the camera to the wireless HDMI. It’s soo much more mobile now and setting up so soo quick!
Another batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore will be ready soon! This is the prop that I use for the object in light bulb effect. Traditionally this effect uses a lamp onstage, but I’ve changed that lamp to an applause sign!
I don’t have these in stock all the time as the outer applause box I don’t make, Phil over at Ackerly Builds currently makes them for me. That means that I get them in batches of about a dozen and those are then all gimmicked at the same time and offered for sale at the same time and usually sell out pretty quickly.
A few weeks ago we went to see a silent movie with the music played by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. This show was sold out and it was a ton of fun.
When watching the movie one of the things that surprised me was the length of time that the title/dialog cards were shown for. It felt like they were either shown way too long or not long enough to read them.
When I was a kid in a high school journalism class we were told that you were supposed time yourself reading the words and add two seconds and that was how long you displayed them.
What does this mean for magic?
Well when you talk, especially telling jokes you need to make sure the whole (or most of) audience has caught up to the end of the set up before you do the punchline. For a magic effect, you need to display at the end long enough for the whole audience to realize what happened and process the magic effect.
When I travel I hand carry my audio/electronic stuff box. I’m paranoid about losing this, so I put an Apple AirTag in it. I set this AirTag to alert me if I leave it somewhere. So if I walk away from the audio case, my phone will let me know!
While I’m mentioning travel tips, I don’t use luggage tags on my bags. Instead I write my name and phone number on my luggage with a marker!
Now there’s no luggage tag to get ripped off, my info is on my luggage permanently!
When you perform and there’s a stage, use it! It took me a while to learn this, and I’m glad I figured it out a long time ago. Before I go further, there are times and reasons to be in front of the stage, or in the audience, so this isn’t a hard rule.
Here’s an example, I was watching a performer do the cups and balls and they’re performing on the floor in front of the stage. Here’s what I could see sitting in the back:
The lady standing was moving to the back to where she could stand to see. Don’t worry about her, she’s not what this is about. It’s about the cups and balls on the table and about waist height to the performer.
What does this picture tell you?
It tells me that if I’m on the same level as the audience (the floor), anything held below my shoulders can’t be seen six rows back.
So how do you do the cups and balls onstage?
That’s the challenge because if your tabletop is flat, then the people in the front rows can’t see as the bottom of the table is blocking their view.
You could move the table further upstage and that will help a bit. What I did when I used to do cups and balls was put a “rake” to my table, so the front end was lower than the back end. My table also had a small lip that would stop the balls from rolling off. It was a workable solution and an option.
One thing that’s helpful is to watch magic shows from different seats in the audience and pay attention to when you can’t see things. Not just when they’re performing, but if a magician walks into the audience, how much of them can you see? You can use this information to help you decide to go into the audience and if you do, how to do it so that things can be seen.
I was looking at my magic tables and they’re getting beat up. Two of them it’s just the the top fabric was getting worn out, but the third one was straight up beat to crap!
This is my stage table, and things sit on the top of it, so you don’t see the surface of it. As long as I was recovering my two tables that I work on, I might as well do this one.
Here’s all three tables with their new surfaces. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, it only took about 30 is mins to do all three of them and it’s not hard. I have a self adhesive surface I use.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when your props are getting worn out as it happens slowly and gradually. Every now and then you really need to give your stuff a good once over !
A couple of weeks ago I performed at the All American Magic Theater in Portland, OR. One of the nice things is that the backstage TV that shows what’s happening onstage has a show run order.
This is nice with a show with multiple performers. You don’t have to remember who you are following, you just look up! It also shows how long the show is running and how much time is left during intermission!
The current book that I’m reading is Professional Secrets by Geoffrey Durham. This book has been mentioned a lot in online magic forums, and I’m glad to have finally gotten a copy of it at a reasonable price!
I’m about 50 pages into the book and one of the things that I like about it is that it’s more than just the tricks. It’s his thinking on performing. One of the tricks he explains is his opener that is really just a handflash device. However he goes on for several pages about his thoughts on opening tricks and opening your show before he gets into the handflash device.
I like that!
Here’s one of my favorite quotes in the book so far:
I 100% agree with this! Those three adjectives; interesting, attractive and unique are very important. I always tell people that it takes work to be interesting onstage. It also takes work to be unique in a relatable way!
So far I’m liking this book and if you can track down this book you’ll probably like it as well!
