February 2024 – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Linking Pins on Stage

In my close up set I do the linking safety pins and I love the trick. I’ve even gimmicked a larger set of about 5 inch pins to do the trick with. The 5 inch pins are good for about 30 people, there’s too small for a real stage show.

I found these giant safety pins and I think they’d be great for using on stage!

The challenge now is figuring out context to do them and getting more than a couple of minutes out of them. In my close up routine I use someone from the audience. Since I’m bringing someone onstage I really need to get at least 4-5 minutes out of the routine to make it worth the time it takes to get someone onstage.

In my writing this morning I had the idea of combining the linking pins with the thumb tie. The idea is the beginning phases will be my normal linking pin routine, then I’ll have my thumbs tied to “eliminate sleight of hand” and then the pins will end up going on and off my arms. That’s the idea, we’ll see how it plays when I get a chance to try it out!

-Louie

Part of the Team!

One of my favorite types of show are shows were there are a lot of other performers. It ultimately feels like more of a team effort and you’re not out there working alone. Sure, my time on stage I’m alone, but before show and after show it feels like a group effort!

That said, you can check me out on 3/16/24 at the Hermosa Community Theater in California. This should be a fun show as I don’t know any of the magicians that I’m on the bill with, so I’ll get to meet some new people and see some new acts!

-Louie

Visiting Hocus Pocus!

I started my first long run of the year this week. It’s a 10 day gig in Indio, CA. I flew into Fresno, CA, rented a car and then drove 5 hours to Indio. The nice thing about flying into Fresno is that I got to swing by Hocus Pocus and dig through the boxes of magic there!

I’m also always on the hunt for old Cincinnati stock cards from the US Playing Card Company, and found a ton of them

One of the things I picked up is this shell game set (maker unknown) and it will make a great addition to my three shell game collection!

They had some oddities (mostly gaffs) there and that’s something that I’m into! Here are a couple that are for sale on their website:

While I was there I put a two things for my collection. The first is a “snapping turtle” which is an alligator in a turtle shell:

And the other is what a side show would call a mummified devil or mummified alien.

If you’re ever in Fresno, there’s a ton of magic there (and some oddities!) and it’s totally with the trip!

-Louie

100 Mile Rule

There’s a rule that you’re not supposed to badmouth a gig until you’re one hundred miles away from it. The theory is that once you get 100 miles away, there’s no one connected to the gig that can overhear you say anything bad about it.

On this blog, or social media I try to use a 100 day rule. I try to get 100 days away from a gig before I either complain about it or post something funny/interesting to me, but may not be positive for the event.

That just makes it hard for anyone to backtrack to where you were. This is good if you’re giving non-specific info about the gig. There are plenty of bad gigs that I would return to, if it made sense and I don’t normally want to burn the bridge. Sure there are times when you need to burn it down, but that’s the 1% of bad gigs.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Amy Funbuttons

In this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast, we are thrilled to have the extraordinary Ariel artist, Amy Funbuttons, joining us. Amy takes us behind the scenes, sharing the ins and outs of what it truly means to be a professional Ariel performer.

We learn about the challenges that come with the territory and delve into the daily experiences of a variety artist hard at work. We discuss her creative process as we uncover the mysteries and joys that accompany her journey. We also take a stab at an unsolved mystery from Amy’s own life. It’s a captivating interview with a remarkable performer that you won’t want to miss!

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How To Show Them What You Do!

Five Simple Steps to Making a Sizzle Reel

Let’s start out with what a sizzle reel is, they are typically a short, fast paced promotional video. In variety entertainment they are usually some between one and three minutes long. The goal is to give a buyer a feel for you and what you do.

Here’s how to make sizzle reel for your show:

Step 1: Go to the movies and watch the trailers for upcoming movies. These are longer than a variety act’s sizzle reel, but they are a good reference for what you are going for. Notice that the movie trailers don’t show whole scenes of the movie. The goal is to give you the vibe of what the movie is about and this is the goal of your sizzle reel, to give the vibe of what your show is.

Step 2: Go through video footage and audio and pick the best clips. I’m assuming you have a bunch of video because you’re regularly recording your show. You should be doing this to work on your show to make your show better. Also, you’ll notice that I mentioned audio, your audio should be recorded separately from your camera. You want clear audio of your voice if you use it in your sizzle reel.

Step 3: Edit out most or all of the set ups to your tricks and just show the magic. An agent explained it to me this way when he said, “I don’t want to see your rope trick, I want to see that you do a rope trick.”

Step 4: Find music that fits the feeling of your show and put your video clips to that music. I use Envato Elements for mine. It’s a subscription service that you get the license to use the music for web purposes. This eliminates any YouTube or whatever copyright claims.

Step 5: Upload it to YouTube or wherever you host your streaming videos. In addition to YouTube I use JWplayer. I pay annually for this service, because there are no ads or suggested videos at the end of your video. This gives you more control over what the potential client sees and you don’t have to worry about YouTube suggesting another act after your video.

One thing I should mention, when you’re compiling the clips, you need to think about the flow and what you want your target audience to think about. For example, I just made a sizzle real for my Incredible Idioms school assembly show, and I want to show the fun vibe of my show, but I also needed to show that there is educational content in the show, it’s not just a magic show.

-Louie

P.S. Here’s the sizzle reel for the Incredible Idioms show:

Doing a Bar Gig

I don’t do a lot of bar gigs anymore, I’m not opposed to them, but they don’t normally make sense with my schedule. Last week I headlined a comedy show at a speakeasy. It was a fun gig!

One of the skills you need for these gigs is to be able to follow any act. The act before me was a comic that was fairly blue, and I do a “TV clean” show, so there’s contrast and the audience has to shift mental gears from his style to mine. There’s nothing wrong with what he was doing, that’s his art. When there’s contrast like that, you need to come onstage with confidence, you’re bringing the audience into your world.

Before the show I always try to do some close up magic, that will have people in the audience already on your side!

The “green room” was in a back corner of the bar and the cool thing was I could watch the show on the TV!

Also I don’t normally have merch to sell at bar gigs, but I took some of my faux children’s books C is for Conspiracy: The ABC’s of Conspiracy Theories and pitched them from the stage.

They sold well after the show, so that was a bonus!!

Bar gigs have a lot of challenges, like sight lines, rowdy crowds, challenging stages, however I find them very rewarding as a performer. Because they are typically smaller venues you can connect with people a lot more than in a larger venue.

-Louie

Sometimes You Gotta Take a Leap of Faith!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about Busker Organs and mine finally showed up…after about a month in transit from Europe! This was a crazy transaction, the guy who made it only takes wire transfer which has no buyer protection and these organs aren’t cheap! I don’t know the guy or have any mutual friends with him, so it was a total leap of faith and I half expected the Busker Organ to never show up.

Well, as of Saturday I have it!

The wooden box it was shipped in was damaged in transit. It looked like it had been dropped, then was dragged across a warehouse! The top and bottom were taped on!

Getting it home to check it out, I got to check out the condition.

Opening the crate, my heart sank when I say most of the pipes were knocked out of place, and it look s like someone tried to put them back (incorrectly). The clips the hold the lid on and the decorative wood pieces on the front were broken off and there were gouges in the wood.

Luckily I had a picture of the organ before it was shipped an was able to use that as a reference to begin to replace the pipes.

While it’s disappointing that the decorative pieces had broken off, it’s a pretty easy fix to glue them back on.

Then I had the task to tuning the organ, and I got to give it a crank!

It worked and sounded great! I just booked a gig for tonight at Magic Mondays in Seattle for an idea I have with it. It’s not magic, but should be fun, and thanks in advance to the Magic Monday’s crew for letting me try this!

-Louie

You Can Say Something Nice!

Recently a booker of a gig send me a screenshot from a magician inquiring about performing at an event that I was already booked at.

This is where the magician who was trying to get a gig could have let it the conversation drop, asked for the gig next year, or talked bad about me, but here’s his reponse:

The guy called me a “legend” and that I was “top rank”. That was really cool of him to do! When everyone is out there being awesome and a good experience for bookers, it’s good for everyone!

-Louie

The Unconquered Card!

When I was a teenager I had bought The Unconquered Card by Mike Rogers. This is a three card monte routine that’s similar to Michael Skinner‘s three card monte routine, and there’s some debate as to who was doing it first. The cards for the routine are long gone, but recently I came across the book with the set of cards that was pretty beat up.

The cards were unusable, however I have a few decks of FAKO Cards and other packs that are full of different gaffs. I was able to find the needed cards for the trick!

I’m having fun relearning the trick and I think that I’m going to record a couple of phases and use it in my preshow video.

-Louie