January 2019 – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Do It Backwards!

When I was about 15 years old, I saw John Carney lecture in Minneapolis. One of the things he talked about was doing the pass. He said the best way to create a new pass was to do an existing one backwards. For example a Herman Pass is essentially a Classic Pass Backwards.

Occasionally when I’m jamming with magicians I’ll start to play with a move or an idea backwards and it will yield interesting results. Recently I was talking to a mentalist and the subject of spoon bending came up. I asked him if anyone had done it backwards. What I mean by that is bending the spoon towards the bowl, instead of away from it.

He mentioned that a lot of the optical illusion parts of bends may not work. He then demonstrated the spoon bends that he does, and he was right about them not working with the bend going the opposite direction. However, this playing around with flipping the bend backwards led me to come up with what I think is a new spoon bend!

TLDR: Try doing it backwards!

Always Be Amazing…

Last year at the Southern Sideshow Hootenanny in New Orleans, I saw legendary showman Aye Jaye speak. Aye Jaye has been around circuses and carnivals his whole life and is a fun guy to hang around! He always has a trick on him, and he’s always ready to do it. He has a name for … Continue reading “Always Be Amazing…”

Last year at the Southern Sideshow Hootenanny in New Orleans, I saw legendary showman Aye Jaye speak. Aye Jaye has been around circuses and carnivals his whole life and is a fun guy to hang around!

He always has a trick on him, and he’s always ready to do it. He has a name for this, which I don’t remember, but it’s essentially a “gift” he gives people. For the longest time I hated the idea of always having a trick on me. I used to think there was no good reason for it, besides “dancing” like a trained monkey.

As I’ve gotten older, I have had many doors open and opportunities present themselves simple because I could do a magic trick. I don’t force magic tricks on people, but having something you can do is frequently beneficial!

A good example of this was I as having a drink with some performers after a trade show. We ended up chatting with a group that was in a position to book a couple of us performers. Of the magicians I was the only one that could do a trick on the spot. I did my three trick set that lives in my wallet.

Guess what?

I got the gig. I’m not saying that to brag, but when you are in a formal networking situation you 100% should have a trick ready to go. This goes for informal networking, which is pretty much all day, every day.

Think about it, let’s say you randomly meet someone and they learn you are a magician and they mention they need a magician for an event. What do you think will leave a bigger impression, if you hand them your card, or do a trick, then hand them your card?

TLDR: Always be ready to do a magic trick

Coming Full Circle…

The first paid gig I ever did when I was a teenager was an event where I did close up magic lane to lane at a bowling alley. It was a rough gig, and even and a kid after doing it, I knew it sucked. It was a bad show because the event planner was trying to put an activity into an an activity. No one wanted to watch the tricks, I did, they were busy bowling and I as interrupting them.

Over the years I’ve gotten requests to do gigs at bowling alleys and I’ve turned them down. However over 20 years later I finally accepted a roving magic gig at a bowling alley.

Why did I take this gig? I wanted to try it again, and see if I could conquer it. I’m happy to report that last night the show went wonderfully!

What did I do differently 20 years later?

A lot of things have changed. First of all there’s the “David Blaine Factor”, which is that his TV shows have made people aware of what close up magic is. When I was a kid, people didn’t know what close up magic was, and they thought it’d be lame tricks that your uncle Jimmy Does.

This time around I also had over twenty years of performing experience. My close up set was short tricks, nothing too long and drawn out. It gave me a chance to leave if I noticed they were more interested in bowling. Add that to being a much stronger performer than I was as a teenager.

My advice is if you’ve had a rough performing situation in the past that you swore you’d never do again…maybe try it again. I’m glad I did!

Fantastic Information!

If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of comedy magician Nick Lewin. He was one of the magicians that I saw as a teenager and his style shaped how I perform. He’s someone that had pretty much done it all as a magician. Recently he was on the The Variety Artist Podcast … Continue reading “Fantastic Information!”

If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of comedy magician Nick Lewin. He was one of the magicians that I saw as a teenager and his style shaped how I perform. He’s someone that had pretty much done it all as a magician.

Recently he was on the The Variety Artist Podcast and it’s a great interview!

He gives a ton of great advice on all aspects of your show. One of the things that I really liked is he mentioned that comedians and comedy magicians have a different definition of what performing “comedy” means.

Most comedy magicians thing performing comedy in a comedy club means being dirty. That’s couldn’t be further from the truth. Performing comedy in a comedy club should mean you have original material. Jokes that move a plot forward. Yes, you can have limited success doing store bought tricks, but at some point to really progress you need to write material!

TLDR: Listen to Nick Lewin’s interveiw

Collecting Magic…

Do you collect magic? Many magicians are hoarders and have boxes of stuff that they buy and almost immediately gets put away. Personally I actively try to not have too much magic kicking around. This is partially because of space, and partially because when I die, it simply becomes garbage. I do collect things, however … Continue reading “Collecting Magic…”

Do you collect magic? Many magicians are hoarders and have boxes of stuff that they buy and almost immediately gets put away. Personally I actively try to not have too much magic kicking around. This is partially because of space, and partially because when I die, it simply becomes garbage.

I do collect things, however it’s a little different than “hoarding” as it’s fairly specific. I collect three shell game sets. Here’s the current collection:

You’ll notice in the bottom center there is a space with no shells. That’s the shell game set that use when I’m out performing. I use Leo Smester’s shell game, and I highly recommend it. The only thing I changed was I don’t use his peas, I use the Perfect Pea made by School For Scoundrels.

Personally I prefer the “bowl” type sets. I had been doing the shells for a little while and found some little bowls in Chinatown when I was a teenager and started doing the shell game with them. Those bowls broke a long time ago, however ever since then I’ve preferred the bowl style.

Suspension of Disbelief…

Performing magic requires the audience stop believing what they know. A magic show is a world where anything can happen…but there are limits. If they can see the ball palmed in your hand, you break that suspension. If an effect lasts too long and give them time to leave the magical world and into an analytical world, you’ve also lost the suspension of disbelief.

Here’s an example, let’s say you are floating a lady and she just levitates for a minute. Just static in the air without moving, and nothing else happens. The audience gets over the shock of them floating and no shifts to why is she floating mode. Odds are within the remaining 40 seconds they’ll figure it out. That’s why you add things like motion. She floats up or around you. You pass a hoop over her. These things keep your mind from becoming bored and stop suspending disbelief.

The suspension of disbelief goes beyond magic, it goes into puppetry, physical comedy, story telling, and even juggling. The audience doesn’t really believe it’s the juggler’s first time doing a trick, or that you and the puppet are having a spontaneous conversation. You need to keep adding things to prolong the suspension of disbelief, like the juggler dropping on his first attempt.

With your magic, how are you keeping people’s minds in your world?

Be Presentable…

Last week I was chatting with my agent about acts that she wouldn’t represent. One of the things that help make her decision is how the person looks. Unfortunately it is a factor. It’s more that just what you look like as a human, but what does your “look” say.

If you have a wrinkled shirt and a haven’t shaved in a week, she’s not going to put you on her roster. It’s not to say you need to constantly be combing your hair and wear a tuxedo, but your look must look like something / someone a client wants to book.

Magicians love to give David Blaine and Criss Angel a hard time over how they dress. Both of those guys have a much more defined look than 90% of all magicians. You may not care for their style, but they have a style and it’s been thought out.

TLDR: Your look is more than just wearing a tie!

Sometimes You Need To Take the Long Road…

Magicians love to take short cuts and be lazy. Here’s an example, I’m doing a trick where loose rubber bands turn into a rubber band ball. The easy way would simply be to do a shuttle pass during a hand to hand transfer. However I had some conditions that I wanted for the trick: 1: The … Continue reading “Sometimes You Need To Take the Long Road…”

Magicians love to take short cuts and be lazy. Here’s an example, I’m doing a trick where loose rubber bands turn into a rubber band ball. The easy way would simply be to do a shuttle pass during a hand to hand transfer. However I had some conditions that I wanted for the trick:

1: The change had to feel like it was a visual change
2: I needed to end with my hands empty
3: The trick needed to be able to happen at anytime in my show
4: The ball had to be able to bounce

The first and second conditions made something simple like a shuttle pass not the solution for me.

Ending clean made things a bit more complicated. An early idea was to use a gimmicked rubber band ball that was similar to a Silk to Ball Gimmick. However making one that could bounce and not look strange is something I have yet to figure out.

Here’s what I ended up coming up with:

What I ended up doing from a “method” standpoint was a lot more complicated than a shuttle pass, but I think it fulfilled my artistic vision better than a shuttle pass would have.

P.S. The method for this will be in an upcoming issue of Vanish Magazine

Not Everything Is Easy…

Every time I hear magicians complain that tricks are too hard, it drives me nuts. Why wouldn’t you try to learn something difficult? If you are an artist, you should be pushing yourself to learn to do difficult techniques. Here’s what Kennedy thinks about it: A great example is I’ve been working on a false … Continue reading “Not Everything Is Easy…”

A great example is I’ve been working on a false shuffle for about a year now. It’s not quite right, and I’m still practicing it. Should I give up?

No, and here’s why: It’s the best looking false shuffle I have ever seen. Sure I could stick to something that looks good enough, and that’s fine, but why wouldn’t I go all the way, make my art the best it can be? I do it because that’s what separates me from 80% of other magicians, and I do it because I take pride in my work.

Go out and learn to do something difficult!

Nothing Worse Than a Sloppy Start

Having been at a conference where I got to see a lot of different acts of differing levels of experience perform, one thing that I really noticed was the opening. Not so much their opening trick/song/etc, but how they walked on to the stage. People talk about about your opening trick, but the few seconds before you get to your opening trick is often overlooked.

Here’s an example of a band I saw. They were introduced, they walked onto the stage, plugged in their instruments, and then started to play. Here’s another example of another band the same night. They were introduced, a video started to play to the bands music. It was a 30 second sizzle reel, then the signer walks on to the stage as the lights comes up singing a continuation of the song that was in the sizzle reel with the band onstage already playing.

Guess who got a lot more work?

Give up? It was the second band.

The second band didn’t waste anytime, they were professional, it felt like a stadium act! How do you enter the stage? I do it with energy, and it’s part of the bit, there’s not fumbling while I try to figure out my first trick. I walk out, greet the audience and it’s on!

You need to put as much thought into how you get from the wings of the stage to your opening trick as you put into your opening trick. You can lose the audience on your walk to the microphone.