One thing is that my show and everything in it are always a work in progress. While I do have A material, I still am looking for ways to improve them.
The other day I was thinking about my Straight Suit routine which is a comedy escape. You can watch it below:
I had an idea to simplify the wiring which would eliminate about 4 feet of cords inside of the suit! While this isn’t a huge thing, it definitely is an small improvement. Usually the simpler solution the better!
I just made a new straight suit with the new wiring and am going to take it out on the road to see if it works!
Something I try to do in my show is have my show visually different from most other magic shows. Right now I’m closing my show with my Straight Suit comedy escape routine. The headline band at the fair was Midland and they were at my show yesterday.
Doing an unconventional show like mine is a much harder way to go than simply taking a standard path with standard tricks like most magician. However I feel taking a nontraditional road is worth the extra effort.
Here’s the highlight reel of my shows at a fair last week!
You’ll notice the peeling off the center of a card trick in there. I’m really liking the trick and starting to think that I don’t necessarily need to custom print anything, and that I can use what currently exists to do the trick. One of the cool things about doing roving at a fair, you can do a trick hundreds of times in a short amount of time. You learn if something works or not very quickly!
Here’s the sizzle from my show at the theater the other day:
I was messing around with more “epic” music. I’m not sure I like it, but it sure gives the video a different tone from what I normally use. It’s crazy how much the music can change the feel of the video!
Think about that when using music in your show, song selection can dramatically change the feel of the trick you’re doing.
In the past I’ve written about trying to make little sizzle reels for events that I’m performing at. I really started doing this with virtual shows as it’s really easy to as it’s already being done for a camera. Most of the ones I’ve been doing recently are videos of me doing close up magic. This is my first one of the stage show that I do for fairs.
Now that I have a template of what to show, it’s shouldn’t be too hard for me to do them for future fairs. I know the things to show, and can spend more energy on the look out for more spontaneous things that get caught on video.
One my way to the airport in Fresno yesterday, I swung by Hocus Pocus to hang out a bit and dig around their bins of magic. I had a great time chatting with Max, and Kyle Elder happened to be there, so it was fun to chat ACAAN with him!
Hocus Pocus is is the only place to get the magic tricks that I make (other than directly from me). They usually have all of my products in stock!
When I travel it’s important for me to support the remaining magic shops. If we don’t support them, they’re won’t be any to run into when you need something! -Louie
I don’t really do escapes in my show, except for my Straight Suit routine. Years ago I did a 100 foot chain escape, and I recently did it again at a street show at a fair.
This routine really builds a huge crowd. The nice thing about it is that it’s easy to understand what’s happening if you just walk up. You see someone being wrapped up in a lot of chain, you know they are going to get out.
My routine starts with a wrist restraint and ends with me getting out of it that restraint. The reason for that is I have a lot more control of how long the routine lasts and what the ending looks like than with just the chain. Also the starting position with my wrists secured and held out in front of my body allows me to more naturally hold the chain up, if gravity starts to loosen it too quickly before the escape starts.
It’s been probably 5 years since I’ve done the chain escape and I think I may be done with it. I might have aged out out it…or more realistically I’m too fat to do it. I can still escape from the chain, but it’s not believable when someone over weight does physical escapes. If I drop about 20 pounds, I think it would work better in the show and I’d reconsider doing it.
