magic show tips – Page 137

Closure…

Material cycles in and out of my show fairly frequently. One trick that has been out of the show for a while is my Applause Please trick. This is my version of milk in lightbulb that uses an applause sign instead of a lamp. I took this out of my show a bit after I … Continue reading “Closure…”

Material cycles in and out of my show fairly frequently. One trick that has been out of the show for a while is my Applause Please trick. This is my version of milk in lightbulb that uses an applause sign instead of a lamp. I took this out of my show a bit after I started selling it to magicians.

Currently I have a need for the trick in the show. In my color changing handkerchief routine at the end when the original handkerchief is gone, the audience is left missing some closure to the trick. What I’m doing is using the applause sign throughout the show, then when it comes to the end of the color changing handkerchief routine the silk reappears from the lightbulb.

I’m hoping the reappearance of the silk will be a better end of the routine for the audience. Always look at your show and try to find things that don’t feel right and try to fix them, don’t settle for just OK.

Hiding a Case…

When I perform, I work out of a case that sits on the floor. One of my agents said he doesn’t like the way a road case looks on stage. When it comes down to efficiency, it’s hard to beat a road case on the floor. I can look down and see everything. My solution … Continue reading “Hiding a Case…”

When I perform, I work out of a case that sits on the floor. One of my agents said he doesn’t like the way a road case looks on stage. When it comes down to efficiency, it’s hard to beat a road case on the floor. I can look down and see everything.

My solution to not having a road case, but having a road case was to make a drape for the front of the case. You can see it in picture below:

Recently I recorded a few bits for a TV show and when I told them I work out of a case of the floor, they told me that’s not allowed. From a visual standpoint they don’t like that look. I showed them my draped case and it was immediately approved.

Thinking outside the box just a little to work around the problem really helped me out. The cloth takes up a virtually no space or weight for travelling, so it was a great solution!

Fight For What You Need…

The way I get a lot of work is by doing showcases. These are things where a lot of acts perform 15ish mins and buyers watch them to decided whether or not to book them. Here’s how today’s showcase wanted to run our music: They wouldn’t let us plug into the board. I had to … Continue reading “Fight For What You Need…”

They wouldn’t let us plug into the board. I had to argue for about an hour with people all up the chain of command to get them to allow us to plug in. The organization thought holding a microphone up to your phone was a viable way to run sound for a show. Doing it that way is your Plan B, not your “professional set up” that’s provided initially.

Finally I convinced them that that was an unacceptable set up. We pay a lot of money to perform in front of these buyers, and the least they could provide us with was to be able to plug into the board. I finally got all of the showcase acts to tell the organization about why the sound won’t work. What changed their mind is when we all joined together to tell them why that set up was unprofessional.

I think I burnt a few bridges with people to get the sound right, but it was the right thing to do. If anyone insists that running sound that way is professional, I’m OK burning the bridge as I never want to work for them.

Connections…

Connecting with an audience is something that is important to do. It’s one of the things that can take some time, and to really do it you need to open yourself up. Sure you can get by on the strength of the trick alone and have that carry the show, but that’s not how I want to present my art.

I’ve always hated called what I do “art”, as I feel it sounds pretentious. However the more I’m out seeing other people perform, the more I’m realizing what I do is art. I still dislike calling it that, but I think what I do is finally becoming art.

Ideally in my show people learn a little bit about me and my journey. I want them to know how I got to be standing in front of them. It helps them decide why they should care about what I’m doing. Am I just a dude doing tricks, or am a person that’s had an amazing journey to share these tricks with them?

Take a Risk!

This morning finds me back at the airport after being home for about 30 hours. It was great being home for a bit and my family had tickets to see Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live last night and it was a blast. Joel Hodgson the show’s creator is also a magician and did one of the funniest self levitation tricks on Saturday Night Live a long time ago when he was a cast member.

The audience came to see a show that they loved, and he gave them a show that they loved. One thing that really surprised me was the amount of work that went into the show. It looks like they change up the movie a lot, so they aren’t just presenting the same show over and over again. This says a lot about the performers, that they are frequently doing something new and taking some risks.

I don’t think performers take enough risks. They do their act or show and once it’s good, they stop trying things. I know it’s scary to put yourself out there to fall on your face in front of an audience. Personally I think taking risks is what performing is all about !

On my flight home yesterday I started reading an ebook called Building An Act by Tommy Wonder that you can get on Tom Stone’s Website. I had bought this ebook a long time ago and hadn’t read it. I’m only about a dozen pages into the book, but so far it’s great! One of the … Continue reading “”

On my flight home yesterday I started reading an ebook called Building An Act by Tommy Wonder that you can get on Tom Stone’s Website. I had bought this ebook a long time ago and hadn’t read it. I’m only about a dozen pages into the book, but so far it’s great!

One of the things that he mentions, that you build up enthusiasm for what you are creating and that enthusiasm carries you, but also inspires others to help you. Thinking back on things that I’ve created, and the help I’ve gotten from essentially strangers. I’ve gone into industrial shops tell them what I’m trying to do and they go out of their way to help me or teach me how to make something, usually for free. I always offer to pay, it’s amazing how many are fine with just me buying the few bucks in materials.

Another thing he does is puts a time limit on it. This is something I don’t do, however when I’m creating something new that I’m passionate about, I tend to get in done within the time limit that Tommy Wonder mentions in the book. I really like the idea of imposing a time limit to get at least a basic, version of the trick done.

I fly again tomorrow, and I’ll finish up reading it on the plane.

What’s Wrong With That Act…

Recently I saw an act that is everything I dislike about how people perform magic. They lacked technical skill, knowledge of the trick and presentation. For me it was a trifecta of what I don’t like.

This act did the “Sands of the Desert” trick. This is a trick where you have a bowl of water and you swirl your hand in it and the water turns black. then you dump different colored sand into the bowl and swirl it up. Then you reach into the bowl and pull out handfuls of dried sand that’s all the same color. For the finale the water in the bowl turns clear.

First of all, the performer couldn’t do the trick. It’s not a hard trick to do, and they lacked the technical skill to do it. It was pretty crazy to watch. You really should practice it before you do it in a show. You not only need to know the “sleight of hand” but how and why the props work like they do. That’s super important, knowing why something is shaped the way it is, or how to hold it.

As far as their presentation goes, it felt like they were trying way to hard to put meaning to something. They tried to use the trick as an analogy for the universe. That’s fine, but it lacked conviction and authenticity. It felt like they asked someone to write a script and they read the script. If you watch Jeff McBride do his stuff, you feel that he believes it and he’s trying to open your eyes to something, not just saying big words. He puts his heart into it, but that’s also Jeff, and a piece of who he is.

Put yourself into your tricks, put your heart into it and put your time into it. Dive into the props, the sleights, learn the history of the trick, learn as much as you can about and the story you’re telling. That will come through in your show.

Tech Sheets…

One thing I think every performer should do is learn to write a tech / cue sheet for their show. I know that not everyone performs in theaters, has someone else run their music, or does a stage act. Learning to do it before you need one will save you some stress.

A tech sheet basically tells the production crew what to expect and what they need to do. I’m not an “expert” at writing tech sheets, but can convey my needs to the crew. Basically this is going to tell the crew what you are going to do and what you’ll need from them.

They’ll need the name of the routine, lighting needs, audio needs, and anything else you may need from them. It’s pretty simple, however if this is sprung on you at the last minute and you’ve never done it before, it can add a lot of stress coming into a gig.

Take a minute write out a sheet for your whole show. Once you’ve got that, it’s easy to alter at the last minute as your show has changed.

Two Methods…

One of the nice things about the magic scene in Seattle is that we have a monthly magic show called Magic Monday. Essentially it’s a “magic open mic” and a great place to work on new material. Most areas don’t have a venue specifically for magicians to work on new things, or give newer performers … Continue reading “Two Methods…”

One of the nice things about the magic scene in Seattle is that we have a monthly magic show called Magic Monday. Essentially it’s a “magic open mic” and a great place to work on new material. Most areas don’t have a venue specifically for magicians to work on new things, or give newer performers a place to work out materials.

A couple of nights ago I performed at Magic Monday to practice some routines that I hadn’t done in a while. One of the routines uses some technology, and it failed during the show. That’s the importance of having an “out”. When doing a trick that relies on technology, that frequently means you need to run two methods for the trick at the same time.

While running two methods to accomplish one trick is a bit of a pain, but if you use tech, it’s worth it. It’s good that for the trick I was relearning, the worst possible scenario happened, that let me practice that scenario. That’s a good lesson, you need to not just plan for the worst, but practice for it!

It’s The Little Things…

When I’m doing roving magic, one of the tricks that I frequently do is the Mismade Bill. I have two versions that I do, in the most basic I borrow a dollar, rip it in half, and restore backwards. The other version is my marketed “Splitting Image” trick. In this version I take a picture … Continue reading “It’s The Little Things…”

When I’m doing roving magic, one of the tricks that I frequently do is the Mismade Bill. I have two versions that I do, in the most basic I borrow a dollar, rip it in half, and restore backwards. The other version is my marketed “Splitting Image” trick. In this version I take a picture with a spectator’s phone of them holding the bill, then I tear it, restore it backwards, and make the picture change from a normal bill to the mismade bill.

In the basic version, I let the person keep the bill, in the second the keep the picture on their phone. Occasionally I’ll have someone try way to hard to figure it out. They’ll track me down an hour later at the gig to tell me the bills serial numbers are different. If they are going to look at the bill that closely, they’ll also notice the bill doesn’t exactly line up.

Normally I don’t care if they notice something like that after an hour of examining the bill. However, I’ve got a TV spot coming up and with the super high def TV’s, I don’t want people to be able to freeze the show and check numbers. The odds of anyone checking are very slim, but wanted to have that covered.

Here’s my bills:

It’s a small touch that took me 10 mins to do, so it wasn’t a huge undertaking. It’s the small touches that will make the experience for that one guy who tries to check the serial numbers more “magical”!