August 2023 – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Dealing With Interruptions

Last weekend I had to deal with a crazy interruption during my show. It’s something I’ve never really had to deal with during a show. Independent of the fair that I was performing at was an airshow….and my show was the same time as the Blue Angels!

There’s really not much that I can do, the planes are loud and let’s face it, way more exciting than my show. I made a few jokes about, and stopped the show while they were performing, that’s really all that I could do.

“That’s the most expensive opening act I’ve ever had!“

It was only two days of an eight day gig, so there were plenty more shows to do without conflicting with the air show!

-Louie

Anverdi Color Match…UGH!

Well, I had the Anverdi Color Match fail at every show yesterday, and one show all five of the pens didn’t work! The show where they didn’t work, I got a constant 5 buzz on the receiver. I’m lucky that I have an out for this trick that I can use as the method and can instantly switch to my out as the main method in an instant.

That really saved my butt!!!

That also inspired me to actually put the second set of transmitters into one set of pens.

In my hotel room right now they are working at about the same time. As is, they don’t trigger at the exact same time, like a promystic set does, they’re a little bit off. I think I need to designate a primary receiver and if I’m not happy with what that is sending me or need to verify it, then I pay attention to the second one.

We’ll see how this works…

-Louie

The Pole!

One of the things that’s a challenge when performing at fairs is when there’s a visual obstruction right in front of the stage. A couple of weeks ago the fair I was performing at had a tent that the stage and audience seating was under, but it had a support pole directly in front of the stage.

Before I go any further, I will say that I will take an audience with shade and a visual obstruction over an audience in the sun with a clear view every day!

The challenge with the pole in front of the stage is that no matter what, someone’s view is going to be blocked. In my morning shows, which are slower, I pack everyone to one side of the audience and that solves the problem. Later in the day when it’s busier, that’s not really an option.

After years of trying to come up with ways to deal with this, I think I’ve finally figured out what to do with it. My solution is to accept that it’s there and simply do my show as if it’s not there. That’s really the only thing you can do. Once I mentally decide that the pole is part of my life for 45 minutes, it’s much easier for me to not pay attention to it and just do my show.

If you have a solution that works for you, let me know, I’d love to hear what you do!

-Louie

Using Time Wisely!

When I’m out performing at fairs in the summer, I can have a lot of down time in between shows. I try to be productive during those times. Last week I bought a ton of clocks and spent some time between shows gimmicking them!

I ended up being a photo opp for all the other performers as it looked like I had a little sweat shop going!

Using that bonus time I have during the day frees me up later in the day to do other things!

-Louie

Improvised Storage!

This week the stage I’m performing on has a dressing area off to the side of it. I’ve been using it as storage for my show props overnight. I don’t just leave my props set up overnight because the dressing area is a tent. I pack the show back up, but leave the cases in the dressing area.

Since the fair is still open after I’m finished for the day, and no one is really patrolling the dressing area when the fair is closed, I lock up my gear.

I’m using a bicycle cable to lock my gear to one of the tent posts. Sure, someone could probably cut the cables or locks, but I’m guessing the average person doesn’t bring cable cutters to the fair!

This gives me a bit of peace of mind and keeps me from having to lug my gear across the fairground at the beginning and end of day.

-Louie

Getting Better With Anverdi Color Match

Well, it looks like a few things are starting to come together with using the Anverdi Color Match! The last few days I’ve had 100% success rate with all the pens giving me a signal.

One of the things that I have changed is what I tell the person from the audience to get them to exaggerate their initial motion with the pen. I tell the to, “Take a pen, hold it up and show it to the audience“. That seems to get them to make a larger motion that’s more reliably triggering the pen.

I do need to rewatch the instructional video, I seem to remember seeing something about the receiver being able to tell you if a pen is low on batteries. I could be remembering wrong, but hope that’s a feature that exists!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Kermet Apio

Today’s guest on the Moisture fest podcast is hilarious comedian Kermet Apio. We discuss how he got into comedy, what his kids think of his career and how he ended up winning one of the most prestigious, comedy competitions in all of North America.

We also discuss how a comedian might prepare for performing at the Moisture Festival and the differences between it and a comedy club audience. A great conversation with one of the great comedians in the northwest.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Always Talk After the Show

Whenever possible I try to chat with people after the show. There are some performers who disappear when they finish, and sometimes you have to do that because of time or whatever. As a general rule, I will chat with anyone after the show.

In the past I’ve met an old lady who was at the theater that Blackstone Sr had to evacuate because there was a fire next door. I’ve met numerous famous magician’s families and once I met an old gambler who taught me the basics of the tabled faro shuffle!

Last week I ran into Gene Haaheim, who is an old school pitchman!

I’d run into Gene before, about two years ago in California. We had a great time chatting about pitching Svengali decks!

Always chat after the show!

-Louie

Anverdi Success Rate…

The Anverdi Color Match set is something I’m still trying to make work. I’m still at about 70% failure rate, where at least one pen doesn’t send a signal. This isn’t the end of the world, as I can still figure out what they colored where, but definitely not the ideal situation.

There seems to be no consistency as to when color fails. If it was only one color failing, that’s not a huge deal as I can make an educated guess. Right now I can’t, as it seems pretty random.

In an attempt to make this work, I bought a second Anverdi Color Match set. The idea will be to put two sets of the gimmicks into each pen. I probably can’t use the pens that come with the set, however I bought a refill pen set to see if I can alter the ink cartridge a little bit to make room for a second gimmick.

Having some redundancy will give me some piece of mind…if it works!

-Louie

Notes From a Fellow Traveller by Derren Brown

A while ago I ordered Derren Brown‘s book Notes From a Fellow Traveller and its finally shipped!

derren brown notes from a fellow traveller

I’m super excited to get this book, I’m a huge fan of Derren’s and from what I’ve heard from people who have already gotten their books, it that it’s a great book.

-Louie