I’m playing with a little card sequence where I reveal a selected card three times. The first uses two hands, the second time one hand and the third time is no hands. Here’s an early test version of the current version:
I need to figure out a slightly less clunky way to get into the third card reveal (haunted deck). I’m not sure if there’s going to be a streamlined way due to using the method along with the other two card productions (Piet Forton Pop Out and Daryl’s Hot Shot Cut).
One idea I had was to do this as a multiple selection, however from a method standpoint, I can’t really do the final phase with the card in the deck the whole time. I’d need to take it out.
…well, if I put each selection back into the deck after the reveal, I could switch the second card for the third card, and could set up the Haunted Deck at that point. The drawback is that I visually like the cards staying on the table after each reveal.
I’m trying to carry less stuff with me when I’m on the road with my show. I used to carry a powerbank, USB micro cord, lightning cord and a USB wall adapter. I use this to plug in the show’s iphone that I run my music off of.
Recently someone showed me a powerbank that has the wall adapter and cords built in!
The nice thing is everything folds into the power bank, so I’ve eliminated carrying two cord and a wall adapter. I’m a fan of this, simplifying what I carry to it’s more direct to set up and strike the show. Sure eliminating two cords and a wall adapter isn’t much…but it’s less to haul.
For years I’ve been quietly hoarding the old stock Bicycle 8082 Jumbo Cards. These are about twice as thick as what bicycle currently makes. The cards are amazing and super durable, unfortunately the boxes aren’t. I’ve been stockpiling the decks for the boxes, more than for the cards.
In the past Billy Diamond had made a box that you cut out from a giant sheet of plastic that held the Bicycle 8082 Jumbo Cards, and that was an OK solution. However he now makes a fully assembled plastic box for 8082 cards and they’re amazing!
These are a bit price at about $40 a box, but they’re much more durable than the old stock boxes that you’ll pay $40 a deck for. It’s a much better deal to have a box that will last longer and will stay looking sharp!
A couple of days ago I wrote a couple of posts about a vanishing and reappearing match trick idea and method. It’s a decent idea for 20 or more years ago when matches were common. Bars don’t give away matches anymore and most smokers have lighters now and not matches, so it’s a trick that missed it’s time.
I wrote out a little script for the trick to try to make it relevant for our current time.
Here’s the routine:
Start with match box in left hand under cover of a handkerchief
“This is the most dangerous trick that I’ve ever done. It’s soo dangerous, I was kicked out of my third grade talent show for doing it when I was 13 years old!
More dangerous than running with scissors or putting honey on my chest to try to breast feed murder hornets…it’s playing with matches!”
Pull the handkerchief off your hand to show the matches.
“I thought I’d be the hottest act”
Strike match and put it into handkerchief covered fist (and into thumb tip)
“but my show went up in smoke”
Squeeze the tip to make a puff of smoke come out.
“Luckily the trick didn’t leave a mark on my permanent record”
Open handkerchief to show the match is gone and not damaged
“The crowd was fired up”
Reproduce the match from the handkerchief
“To this day I can still taste the excitement”
Put the match out on your tongue.
It’s got a little bit of a presentational hook and a couple of chuckles and justifies using the match. I don’t know if I’ll ever do it, but it was fun making the routine.
On this episode of the podcast we welcome in (from Germany) the hilarious Tom Murphy.
We learn about how being a gymnast led to being an acrobatic skier and how the combination of those two led him into physical comedy. Tom tells us about his unlikely friendship with Patrick Dempsey and how that led to a role in one of Matt’s favorite movies. A fun interview across international borders with a moisture festival is great. You are going to love it.
Yesterday I posted a video of my vanishing and reappearing lit match. There’s not too much to the gimmick, you just need a thumb tip, match pull and some glue.
I used Yigal Mesika’s Perfect Lite match pull, but I’m going to assume that pretty much any one would work.
Glue the match pull to the back of the thumb tip and the rest should be self explanatory.
A long time ago I wrote an idea in a notebook, and it’s something I’ll never do, but even those ideas are important to write down. It needs a gimmick that I don’t have and have fallen out of fashion. A few weeks ago I was digging through the bins of broken and incomplete magic at Hocus-Pocus and found the needed gimmick to make the gimmick for my idea!
Here’s the trick (my idea is at the end):
I don’t think anyone has really used a match pull for a reproduction of the match after the vanish in a thumb tip. Usually they are used simply for the production of a lit match, then used to light flash paper/string in a stage manipulation act.
Unfortunately I think this trick is 50 years too late as magic with matches is really out of fashion with there being virtually no venues that allow smoking and with fire getting more and more difficult to insure. Had I thought of this in the 1970’s I would have a sure fire hit!
I’m trying to find a solution for a way to reveal a card that’s been selected by the audience. Essentially this is a free choice, so I need multiple outs. In the past I’ve used several ideas, like limiting the choice, or things like an invisible deck. I’m not sure I like the previous things that I’ve tried. I remembered that Marc Oberon put out a “Any Card in Wallet” trick called Bang On a while ago and found one.
I was aware of the method and I think this may work for me. The big problem is that it uses a poker size playing card, so it’s small. I think the trick needs projection to work on stage, and there’s really not a way to make it physically larger as the card needs to fit in a wallet.
I’m going to play with this a bit, as it may get me a bit closer to the solution that I’m looking for.
About a month ago I was part of an online presentation that Nick Lewin did called NOTHING. It had to do with what happens when your show doesn’t show up.
In the past I’ve written about having a three trick set on me in my wallet all the time. In my part I talk about what’s always in my backpack (which I always have on me) that allows me to flesh out more of a show, with only two packs of cards and that will play on a stage!
In addition to me, you hear from other great magicians and at $9.95, it’s a hell of a deal!
Walking around the area where the cruise ships dock in Sydney, Australia, there are a good amount of street performers. Lots of ambient, music acts and a couple of them were cultural acts. I’ll talk a bit more about the acts in a bit, however the thing I noticed was all the acts with amplified sound used the Roland Street Cube EX. That’s the same one I use for my street show PA, so I guess I’m part of the “cool kids”.
One of the first acts we came across was this kid who was playing guitar. The sign he has in his case says that he’s deaf and he’s actually playing.
I’m not a guitar player, but to my untrained eye, his hands didn’t really match up with the sound. I could totally be wrong, but if I’m right, it’s a solid hustle!
Then there was this guy with the drum.
For the little while we watched him, he didn’t really do anything remarkable. I’m sure that he’s great, and that’s simply based on his sign boating about how many social media followers he has.
That’s the take away, signage is a lot more important now to busking than it was when I was a teenager and did it for money.
Then there were two cultural acts. The first one was just guy singing and making music.
It was really an ambient act with no engagement with people (that I saw).
However the second one was a group and the guy had some showman ship flair!
Of all the acts I saw, he was the only one that built a crowd. He did little talks and call and response things, like “we call this a ____…everyone say ____” and talked to the audience.
With a big cruise ship in town and it unloading and loading passengers, doing something cultural is smart. Ship passengers want to feel like they’re learning about where they’re visiting, and I think this was the act that connect with the audience the most because of that.
Also, while I’m not knocking the other cultural act that was using a percussion instrument, I’d bet 90% of the tourists want to see the digeridoo. Sure there’s a lot more to aboriginal culture, but honestly are you busking to teach people or make money? Yes, you can still teach people and if that’s in your heart, you absolutely should do what’s authentic to yourself and goals. However if you’re going to try to convince people to give you money, you need to figure out how to deliver that message in a way that will reach them (and their wallets).
