magic show tips – Page 144

Be Honest…

Something that’s important is to have a realistic view of your show. A good example is when you’ve just done a show that’s a disaster and you can’t admit it. Owning it is the first step to getting better.

I’ve done a million shows where I know exactly what I could do better and I tell other performers that. It’s not that I’m hard on myself, I’m realistic with myself. There’s an important difference between the two. One is saying, that you top palm wasn’t perfect and the other is pretending you didn’t drop a palmed card when talking about your show afterwards.

Knowing where you can improve and being honest with it is something HUGE you can do to improve your show. Writing this blog has really helped me!

Worst Case Scenario

Oh man, tonight I saw an act that had a really rough time…and by really rough, I mean it was probably the worst case scenario of their show. Seeing an what happened to this act, really made me think about what are the worst things that could happen to my show. We’re talking possible career ending things that could happen to you as a result of your show. It’s not a fun thought, but something we all should think of.

The act that I watched was a circus act. The act started with them having sound issues. It began with someone’s mic pack off, however in diagnosing the problem, they adjusted their levels, so when the mic pack came on, their audio started feeding back. Once they solved that, they were off their game. They kept missing juggling tricks, which further knocked them off their game. They ending with one guy on stilts and someone standing on their shoulders…and that’s where the worst case scenario happened. They fell over and they fell hard!

That was probably their worst case scenario. I’ve had people fall off the stage, trip on the way up, get stung by a bee, I even tore my rotator cuff during a show. It’s how you deal with them that makes you a pro.

What’s your worst case scenario, and how would you deal with it?

A Showcase Tip…

This week I’m at another booking conference and saw a ton of acts. I saw good acts and bad acts. For me personally one of the things that separated them was tightness. I know it’s hard doing a showcase set instead of your regular show. A showcase set is generally somewhere between 10 and 20 mins, and in a variety show type format, with multiple acts.

One of the challenges with these showcases is that they aren’t always scheduled in an order that compliments the acts. Sometimes there will be low energy acts following high energy bands, or similar acts back to back. These are things that aren’t an issue if you are doing a full show as there’s usually a gap between shows, or you have more time to have the switch gears to what you do.

One thing you can do to help in this situation is have walk up music that sets the tone for your show. You can also try to do original material, so that you don’t have to worry about overlap with other acts. While those won’t completely help out an act that super low key, following a high energy act, they do help a little bit.

Being Heard Again…

It’s funny that yesterday’s post was about being heard, and then today’s post is also going to be about that. However today’s post is about not being heard in a different context. Last night I did roving magic at an event for a conference, and the music all night was super loud, I really couldn’t be heard from a few feet away.

This problem is common, especially as we get into Holiday Party Season. The DJ was playing the music loud during the first half and playing even louder the second half. The problem was that this isn’t a gig at a wedding, and we weren’t at “da club”, so no one was dancing. In fact, the dance floor was empty and all of the people were on the opposite side of the room, where it was slightly quieter.

So how do you fix this?

There’s really no way to do it. I guess you can talk to the event planner and ask them to have the DJ turn it down, This may or may not have some effect, but odds are they won’t turn it down to an ambient level. It will still be at a “performance level”.

I adjusted my set, it was a few quick visual things and that’s about it. I also seeked out places that were slightly quieter, and there were a couple which was nice.

Let Them Hear You…

In Seattle we’re very lucky to have what is essentially a magic open mic. It’s a once a month thing, and usually has three to four performers and they all do somewhere between five and fifteen minutes. There’s good acts, there’s back acts, new acts and old acts. Last night at the show it was … Continue reading “Let Them Hear You…”

In Seattle we’re very lucky to have what is essentially a magic open mic. It’s a once a month thing, and usually has three to four performers and they all do somewhere between five and fifteen minutes. There’s good acts, there’s back acts, new acts and old acts.

Last night at the show it was fun. My one piece of advice to the majority of the performers there is to learn to project their voices. In the space that the show in is, you really can’t hear them clearly from about halfway back in the audience. Another reason to be loud is that people in the audience may have hearing issues and if you’re barely loud enough for the audience, you won’t be heard by people with poor hearing.

Being heard is soo important, especially if you’re a talking act.

Pet Peeve #731

Something that drives me nuts and I see it all the time in magicians promo and shows is when they say they “Aren’t like other magic shows”. Then they proceed to do the same magic tricks, the only difference is that they aren’t wearing a tailcoat and top hat. They are trying to break a stereotype that changed in the late 1990’s when David Blaine came on the scene.

The amount of magicians that are the stereotype are very few. What really drives me nuts is when they have to keep telling me about it in the show. Really, I can see that you’re not wearing a top hat, I can see that you aren’t making a rabbit appear. Show me with your content and not your words.

I think the space where you tell me things I can’t see or that I will figure out could be used more effectively in a show. Instead tell me how you got into magic…or better yet, tell me how you fought with your first magic teacher over how you dressed or performed. Then I’ll get some insight into you.

Ending of a Show…

The other night I went out to Hales Palladium to check out Billy Kidd’s magic show. I’m always amazed at the lack of magicians that go out and support these things. There were a few magicians there, but nowhere near how many should have been out.

The show was good, and the particular show I was at, I felt like there was an ending that was supposed to happen, but didn’t. I’m not sure what the ending would have been, or if there was something more planned, but it felt like there should have been something.

There are times in my show when something goes wrong and you know it, and you cut the big ending. Or you hit the end of your time and you just need to wrap it up. I’m curious and would like to see the show again to see if there was something that wasn’t done.

Magic Prop Problems…

There are many magic props that are a pain to use. Mostly because of either they wear our or need to be maintained. For example, you may have a prop that has a flimsy hinge or a string that rubs against something. Those are things that you need to keep an eye on. On thing … Continue reading “Magic Prop Problems…”

There are many magic props that are a pain to use. Mostly because of either they wear our or need to be maintained. For example, you may have a prop that has a flimsy hinge or a string that rubs against something. Those are things that you need to keep an eye on.

On thing that I use in my show is a remote control to run my audio. I’ve heard stories of people breaking the belt clip on it. While not a huge deal, it’s a pain the butt to not have one while you are waiting for a replacement to arrive, or trying to figure out how to make a makeshift belt clip.

I was working on another prop and had some leftover silicone, so I made a mold of the remote control’s belt clip and made a couple belt clips.

These fit perfectly onto the remote control. The are going to live in the bottom of my audio case for when I need them, or am working with with someone cool who might need one.

Be Conversational…

A friend of mine was headlining a local comedy club for the first time, and a bunch of us went out to see her. Her show was great. She came out and was instantly in charge of the audience, she smiled and her act was version conversational feel. I didn’t feel like she was doing lines.

Personally it’s always interesting to see the difference between the opener, feature and headliner. This difference shows how much experience and stage time really matters. It’s more than just the quality of a joke. It’s the pacing, it’s smiling, it’s reacting to the audience and their reaction to the joke.

While you are doing jokes and working off a script, you also need to be able to be in the moment. You need to react to how people react, and be in the moment. Magic works the same way, if you feel like you are doing lines, there’s a disconnect.

The Vanishing Bird Cage is one of the hardest tricks I’ve ever worked on. It seems like every problem I solve, another problem pops up. In the recent past when I did the cage, the plan wasn’t for it to stay in the show for very long. Because of this, I didn’t put a ton … Continue reading “”

The Vanishing Bird Cage is one of the hardest tricks I’ve ever worked on. It seems like every problem I solve, another problem pops up. In the recent past when I did the cage, the plan wasn’t for it to stay in the show for very long. Because of this, I didn’t put a ton of time into it.

Now that I think this is something that’s going to be in the show for a little while, I’m putting more time into it. I want to do the vanish of the bird cage faster than the “slow motion” vanish. I’m having a frequent problem with the cage hanging up on my sleeve at the exact same spot. I think it has to do with the coat more than the cage. Material seems to bunch about 3 inches inside my sleeve and the cage gets stuck about 20% of the time.

My solution was to have it not run up the sleeve. I’m having it run across my hand. This gives me a more unusual grip of the cage, the cage sits on the palm of my hand. It’s similar to the one handed grip that John Carney uses in the CARNEY 2013 video on the Vanishing Bird Cage.

The main difference Carney’s grip and mine is that my hand is completely palm up. The cage can be displayed with no support from either hand, aside from my right palm as a base.

Adjusting my grip has reduced the cage hanging up to less than 5%. This is good, but still a long way to go!