Category: magic show tips

Your Tricks Gotta Be Seen!

I’m frequently asked about why the Evaporation’s standard version is orange liquid. The reason for this is simple, it’s easy to be seen. Rarely will you have an orange background that you are performing in front of, so the color won’t disappear into whatever is behind you.   Using things like cola, which is a … Continue reading “Your Tricks Gotta Be Seen!”

I’m frequently asked about why the Evaporation’s standard version is orange liquid. The reason for this is simple, it’s easy to be seen. Rarely will you have an orange background that you are performing in front of, so the color won’t disappear into whatever is behind you.

 

Using things like cola, which is a dark brown be hard to see with a dark background, or using milk in an elementary school gym against a white wall make seeing the trick difficult. That’s why I settled on Orange.

 

You need to think about this stuff with all of your magic.  For example I love the idea of cups and balls, more specifically cup and ball(s).  So a chop cup would fall in this category.  My marketed trick Cee-Lo (Available from www.hocus-pocus.com) which uses 3 dice and a cup has some clever work on the final loads.

 

Here’s a video of Cee-Lo:
The problem is that the action happens on the table top, and if you are are a raised stage the audience is looking up at the bottom of the table and can’t see what’s happening.

 

There are a couple of solutions to this:

  1. Build your table at an angle, so the front edge is lower than the back.
  2. Use video projection onto a screen.
  3. Create a routine where none of the action happens on a table top.

The first two are pretty simple solutions, however how practical they are will depend on the venues you perform in.  The third one is the one that interests me.  You are now walking into fairly uncharted waters.  Aside from Ball and Cone, the only other cup and ball type trick that happens in the hands is Axel Hecklau’s Just a Cup.

 

Axel’s routine is great, but I want to come up with my own take on an in the hands cup and ball routine.  So my starting point was a baseball cap, which hand a brim that I can hold on to and a large ball, that’s an inch and a half in diameter.  All of the action now happens at chest level and it plays much larger due to the bigger props.

 

This routine is still in its early phases, hopefully it’ll work out.  Once it’s closer to being finished, I’ll start sharing some video of it.

 

The point of this post is simple:  Look at the tricks you do and think you about what the audience can actually see!

 

Louie

A Tale of Two Rooms

The last two nights I worked as an act in bar comedy shows.  The two rooms couldn’t have been more different.  One room was poorly laid out, had no light on the stage and a bad sound system. The other room had great sound, all of the audience was directly in front of me and … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Rooms”

The last two nights I worked as an act in bar comedy shows.  The two rooms couldn’t have been more different.  One room was poorly laid out, had no light on the stage and a bad sound system. The other room had great sound, all of the audience was directly in front of me and the performing area was lit.  One show went better than the other…can you guess with it was?

 

I was the second it one, that had good light, sound and layout.

 

It’s all the little things that go into making the show easier for audience to watch.  When a show is easy to watch, it’s soo much easier for the audience to enjoy.  They don’t have to work to hear or see  you.  It can be tiring watching a show that you have to concentrate to enjoy.

 

So how to you fix a bad set up?

 

The first thing you’ll hear magicians on the internet say is “make your contract say ____”.  Sure you can write that, but the reality of what you consider good sound and what the venue does can be two different things.  One thing is you can try to get to the venue early and do your best to adjust what you can. That plus having a solid show and moving forward definately does help.

 

Is it the venue’s fault?

 

No.

 

Lots of times they don’t know better.  They may be used to an acoustic guitar player in the corner doing ambient entertainment and not a show.  You can educate them after, like mentioning they need speaker stands, or whatever to make it easier for the next show that comes in.

 

Hope that give you some perspective,

 

Louie

The Curse of the Opening Act…

Recently I did a gig where I MC’d a bar comedy show.  Normally I’m the feature or headline act.  It was fun, however as the first act, it’s really had to “crush it”.  There are a few reasons for this.   First, as host, it’s not your show.  It’s your show, but it’s not your … Continue reading “The Curse of the Opening Act…”

Recently I did a gig where I MC’d a bar comedy show.  Normally I’m the feature or headline act.  It was fun, however as the first act, it’s really had to “crush it”.  There are a few reasons for this.

 

First, as host, it’s not your show.  It’s your show, but it’s not your show.  Second, the audience is COLD and you need to really get them to switch from hang out mode to show mode.  This is made harder by the fact that the room doesn’t change into show mode (i.e. lights don’t dim, etc).  The final thing is that everyone is still eating, so it’s harder to get them to laugh with food in their mouths.

 

Add the normal first act in a bar show challenges to the place having a PA set up horribly and the stage in the darkest spot of the room.  All of this made it a challenging room.

 

I opened with a verbal bit that’s goal it to unite the room, it did it OK, then moved on. This is one of those gigs where as the first act you really have to just keep moving forward until they finish their dinner.  That’s what I did.  And about minute 11 of 15 I finally got them warmed up and they were a great audience for the next two acts.

I guess the lesson here is don’t bail on your audience, always give it 100%.  Eventually they’ll come around…

 

Louie