magic show tips – Page 147

Seal It Up!!!!

One of the two new routines I’m working on this week is my cracker routine. It’s a card trick with a cracker and it’s got a long way to go, but made some huge strides. Basically it’s card trick with saltine crackers. One of the things that it’s lacked is an ending.

The other day I was having breakfast with some other performers at the fair and we were brainstorming and one of them suggested that at the end the signed cracker reappear inside a sealed cracker packet. I liked the idea, but didn’t think I’d be able to come up with a loading system that would work using the limited tools and materials I have with me.

Luckily I kept my eyes open and saw a pie lid that worked perfectly for what I wanted to do. I built a cracker packet loading device and I’m happy to report that the loader is working great!!!

Keep on Tweakin’

One of the new bits that I added to the show this week was a fishing pole that the reel popped off when someone tried to turn it. It began as an accident when a kid broke my fishing pole, and I decided to turn it into a bit.

What I did was epoxy magnets to the reel and pole, so when the kid cranked them, they came apart. It was a quick and dirty fix and lasted several days, but last night a kid dropped the reel when it came apart and the magnet popped off. I liked the simplicity of a magnet to make it work, but I didn’t like that the reel didn’t turn at all.

Right now I’ve got the glue drying on the second version of the reel. This one is going to be attached by a snap. I went to the local Walmart and picked up a the biggest snap I could find and epoxy’d it in place. Hopefully the snap will allow the reel to turn a couple times before it pops off . We’ll see how this turns out…

Results of the Tax…

This one new thing a day for the show is a lot of work. Yesterday’s bit where after I give the kid a dollar bill and then give them a tax form to fill out played great and is a keeper. It also makes the trick more magically sound. It gives me a reason to reach into my case, where before I was just fiddling in my case.

Today’s bit is a joke. I have a kid draw a picture of me. A joke from the other day was that I show a picture of the last one that was drawn, and it’s a stick figure wearing a dress. That gets a laugh. Today’s addition to that bit is a verbal joke. I’m going to say, “this is like in that movie titanic. Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your french girls”. I’m thinking that will get a laugh.

All in all the routine is making progress, and I’m happy with how it’s grown in 6 days. It’s amazing when you put in the work how much a show can grow, and how quickly it can happen. It just takes a little bit of focus…and a lot shows!

Taxing Them…

I’m not even halfway through the run here at this two week fair and my challenge of getting a new joke or bit each day is already getting pretty hard. Today is the fifth day, and I’ve got an idea for today, but pretty much dried up with ideas as of right now for the rest of the run.

Today’s idea is going to be with my Object in Ball of Yarn magic trick. I’m going to ask the kid to sign a W-9 tax form to get the dollar bill. I’m also going to try doing a torn and restored bill, instead of just folding to get to the mismade bill. What I’m planning to do is that in lieu of the kid signing the W-9, I have to do some tax withholding. I’ll then tear the bill, and eventually restore it.

Ideally if I end up doing a torn and restored bill in the Object in Ball of Yarn trick, that frees up my mismade bill routine to be used in a different show. That will help me build up my second show.

Another Day, Another New Bit!

Today is the start of the fourth day of coming up with a new bit each day for the show. This is an ambitious goal, coming up with 13 new bits over the next two weeks. The value of doing a ton of shows in a short amount of time is creating material.

Yesterday’s bit was my break apart fishing pole. It worked great, it’s a small moment in the longer bit, but a good moment. Right now the two parts are just held together with magnets. I think I’m going to switch the magnets out for large snaps. Snaps will hold better and the person can’t just stick it back on.

Today’s new bit is something simple, but I think it will help out with a struggle I’m having with part of a trick. In the trick I have someone draw a picture of me. The speed bump I’m hitting is people are worried the drawing has to be good. I’m going to have drawing in my case that’s a bad stick drawing. When the person is worried about being able to draw, I’ll show them the “drawing from the last show“. I could tag it with, “and the person that drew it was only four…ty years old“.

Hopefully the that will get a laugh and speed up that moment of the show.

Finding the Silver Lining…

While working on the Object in Ball of Yarn, recently I 3D printed a fishing reel to reel in the yarn. Every time I used it for the first few shows I worked the reel. Yesterday I decided to let a kid reel in the reel. Guess what happened? Within two cranks, the kid snapped the reel off the fishing pole!

When that happened, I was bummed out, however I’m also smart enough to see the “silver lining” in the situation. When the kid broke the reel, it was funny. My thinking then shifted to, how can I make that happen every time?

This solution was pretty simple. I just epoxy’d a magnet on the pole and the reel. When someone goes to crank it, they come apart. It’s a simple , and effective solution. The bonus is that’s today’s new bit I’m working on for Day 3 of a new bit in the show every day.

New Bits Day One

Well, I’m one day into 14 days of hopefully getting one new joke or bit per day from my show. I gained one, but lost one. First of all, I had a thing I said, that’s not really a joke, but wanted to turn it into a joke. It’s about gluten allergies being imaginary. It’s really not me, and wasn’t funny (at this point). I’m all for poking fun at the government, education, or big business, but not someone’s health. Cutting it was the right thing.

The new bit I added yesterday worked great. It’s for my cracker card trick. I say, “I’m going catch your cracker like a seagull at the pier“, then I make my best attempt at a seagull noise. I’m tagging it with a the old kids joke, “Do you know why they call a seagull a seagull? If they flew over the bay, they’d be baygulls (bagels).” I’m then following that with another kid joke that I wrote. “I read that on a Laffy Taffy when I was a kid. The highlight of my life when I was 16 years old is that I wrote a joke that Laffy Taffy used. You want to hear it? How does a pilot take their bagel? Plain (plane)“.

While not exactly high brow comedy, it all fits, I’m not just telling a stupid joke for no reason. It fits the theme, tells them a little bit about me and allows me to get out of my comfort zone making the seagull noise. Standing in front of an audience and sqauking isn’t something I’m comfortable doing. I’m going to call yesterday WIN as I got three new laughs yesterday!

Today is my first day of the two week fair that I’m performing at. In the next two weeks I’ll be doing 58 shows! I’ll be doing four shows a day, plus a couple of volunteer things. That’s going to give me a lot of chances to work on new material. If I set a goal of coming up with one new joke or bit a day for my show, that will give me 14 new bits, that’s a lot.

Hopefully this goal isn’t too ambitious. That’s a lot of writing that will have to happen in a day that’s already pretty full. I think I’m going to do my best to record (either audio or video) every show. Unfortunately the stage I’m on isn’t the best set up for video recording my shows. Video is the best way to learn and critique your show.

There’s a lot to be learned through audio recording. One thing you’ll really notice are dead spots. These can be harder to spot when you watch your show on video as there may be an action happening that makes the dead spot less obvious. So there is a lot of different information that can be learned from just audio.

Let’s see how today goes…

Another Bonus Trick…

About a month ago I wrote about getting bonus tricks out of the tricks you are already doing (you can read the post here). These are little things that frequently happen and when they do, you can take advantage of them. The example I used was having a card selected, top change it, and have it signed. Most people don’t process that the card has changed, and they remember signing the card they picked, not that the one the one you switched it for.

Using this an idea that was inspired by a trick in the book Be More Funny by Christopher Barnes, I came up with this trick. Someone picks a card (5 of spades) and signs it. You could do a quick ambitious card sequence, then have a card selected from another deck. You say both cards will match, but they don’t, the second card is the 4 of spades. You rip out the middle spade of the 5 of spades to turn it into the 4 of spades. The audience is then amazed that the signed 5 of spades actually turns into a 4 of spades (still signed)

So how do we do this?

I have two methods. The first is simply to top change the card. The second is to use a gimmicked card, this card would be a five of spades, but the corners show the four of spades:

The gimmicked card is better if you want to do a trick with the card before you rip out the center pip and it will reinforce the idea that the card is still a 5 for a lot longer. You’ll have a hard time passing of a 4 as a 5 if they keep seeing the face.

I’m going to try to make up a few gimmicked cards this week and try them out!

Probably more ideas pop for magic tricks into my head while driving than anywhere else. One thing that fascinates me is magic that uses liquid. The main reason is that liquid has a set of rules it has to play by, and the audience understands that. Those rules also make it a challenge, which is why there aren’t a ton of tricks put out that use liquid.

The idea that popped into my head was to have a small set of Gozinta Boxes. These are a nested set of boxes where the outer box will fit inside the inner box. The trick is that boxes are opened and there’s a shot glass inside. You reassemble the boxes in the opposite order (inner box on the outside), then open the boxes again and there’s another shot glass. Both shot glasses fill up the interior of the boxes. You reassemble the boxes with the original outer box on the outside and for the finale, you open the boxes and it’s filled with whiskey, that you pour into the two shot glasses filling them!

As far as method goes, there’s a natural off beat after the second shot glass production that would be perfect for adding the liquid. I was thinking about several ways to seal a load to add into the box, however I think the best and most reliable way would be to simply switch one of the boxes. In theory all of the attention will be on the second shot glass, the production of the liquid is the topper to the trick.

I just ordered a few of the small Gozinta Boxes and will try it out soon!