Right now, the only trick left in the school assembly that I didn’t really create is Jeff McBride’s BEKOS (Smiley Face Version). It’s the closing trick for the show, and it hasn’t been hitting all week, and I was going to cut it.
I rewrote the routine and took it from a different direction from the previous script, and it worked really well yesterday! The routine before was stuck with the theme and a loose “goodbye,” and I rewrote it as a heartfelt message. It isn’t a BS message that’s written to get a reaction; it’s something I truly believe in.
In one of the first shows that I did, the kids were seated in bleachers, and at the end of the trick, about 25 kids spontaneously stood up and cheered! It got an unprompted standing ovation from elementary school-aged kids!
I’m a fan of BEKOS (smiley face version)!
-Louie
Category: patter
Portland Magic Jam – Day 1
The first day of the Portland Magic Jam started with the registration and dealer room being open. Then, a bit later David Kaye did a pre-lecture about what to look for in the show he was going to do the next day, which then would be followed by a post show breakdown of what we just saw.
I think that’s a great format if you’re going to do a show and then talk about it. One thing that I noticed is how much David knows about comedy. He’s a kid show guy, but all of the principles he talked about are for any age group!
Next was John Shyrock who also did a show/lecture. He did a 20 min close up show and then talked about it.
John does some really strong magic, and there’s a lot to learn from his use of music (even in a close up show). He brings a lot of bigger theatrical techniques to close up magic!
Then it was the evening show which was just three acts. I was the MC and did a spot along with Paul Draper and Richard Turner.
It’s had to do an MC spot on a small stage with no curtain, where a lot of equipment is being moved around. The spot I did was kind of a hybrid MC filling time and a scheduled spot.
The closing spot was Richard Turner doing close up tabled card magic.
To be 100% honest, I’m not sure how I felt about Richard Turner’s show. The card magic is great, but to me (this is my opinion), he really came off as a dirty old man the way he interacted with the two people onstage. The card magic was amazing, but his patter is from a different era, that’s not a modern style, especially for a town like Portland.
After the show, it was hang out time!
The late-night stuff is where all of the fun, weird, amazing magic happens! Also with this convention taking place at an airport hotel, there were some people who missed a connection at the airport and ended seeing some crazy magic tricks! I think it made their delay much more fun!
-Louie
Chinese Laundry Ticket
I found a stack of Chinese Laundry Ticket papers in a box of old magic from the early 1960s. This is a torn and restored paper effect with a strip of paper. The theme of this trick is a ticket from a Chinese laundry that’s torn and restored, and this routine is typically filled with offensive (racist) patter lines. A better themed version would be Arnold Furst’s Fresh Fish paper tear.
Anyway, I have these Chinese laundry ticket papers, and I was curious what they actually said, so I ran them through Google Translate and here’s what they say:
This is one of the things that’s problematic with these older magic tricks, is that what’s actually written on them isn’t what it’s supposed to be in the trick. This trick, if it actually had numbers on it instead of talking about rice, would be slightly less offensive. The simple fact that the trick is taking something from another culture, but not taking the most basic step of making sure it’s correct, is just one of the reasons I dislike this trick.
Go out there and be a better human.
-Louie
The Hoop and Knots Trick
Yesterday, I posted about the Chefalo Knot and that I created a routine for it. Here’s the routine and a walkthrough of the knots you need to know:
It was fun to put this together and figure out how it all works!
-Louie
Vintage Magic Trick from Glen!
My buddy Glen knows that I love old magic tricks. He brought one to show me in Reno, so here’s The Farmer’s Daughter:
It’s a great little packet trick with a story that’s consistent with the time it was created. Thanks Glen for sharing it with me!
-Louie
What’s Wrong With Magicians?
A magician posted these pictures of himself performing as a Chinese person.
Here’s my response to the picture, which I replied to in a private magician’s group, and not on his public, personal FB page:
I really dislike that magicians still think this is an acceptable way to perform. Performing in “yellow face” has a long history in magic and one that needs to end.
Here’s Jack Chanin (I think, and if I’m wrong, let me know) performing in Yellowface (yellowmask?):
These “characters” are outdated stereotypes. Part of the history of yellowface was to portray the Chinese as monsters and to give them frightening physical features. The long mustaches and fingernails, the bright yellow skin color were to make Chinese people look less human.
Why would any performer who knew its history want to continue doing that?
In my opinion, it’s lazy creativity. In both pictures above, the performer is using the Chinese sticks prop; however, that trick isn’t from China! Instead of putting the energy into creating a unique routine, the performer does something that they’ve seen done before. The thinking is that if someone else has done it, then that’s the way to do it.
I’ve personally walked out of several shows when a performer did stereotype material. There is an exception to this, does the performer have a point of view with what they are doing. Is it social commentary, relating an actual experience, or something like that? In all of the exceptions to this that I have seen, the person never put on a costume.
The moral of the story is don’t do stuff like this.
-Louie
Stock Magic Jokes and Gags
Social media has created lazy performers. They crowdsource their research without doing the most basic research first, or worst they crowdsource their show!
Here’s an example of a post recently in a magic group:
First of all…pulling a condom from the ear????? Without context that wouldn’t fly in the USA.
Now let’s get to the meat of what they are saying, they want to put together a list of bits that magicians use. Here’s what’s wrong with that, most of the bits magicians consider “stock” are simply lines that have been stolen over and over again and no one thought to look for the joke originator for permission.
Here’s a publicly posted video from the magician that made that post’s FB page:
Do you think he wrote that joke?
No, he heard someone else say it and he put it into his act. I know the defense is that “it’s so old, no one knows who came up with it“. That’s not true, with a little bit of research the history of that specific joke can be found, it’s a little murky as it has evolved, but some of the history is out there.
That’s all for today, I’ll get off my soapbox.
-Louie
Sign Language Interpreter For Magic Shows
All of my shows at the Ohio State Fair had a sign language interpreter. It’s a really cool thing to have and there were a lot of deaf people in my audience because of this. It was great to have my show, which is very verbal to reach people who probably wouldn’t normally watch it.
There were 4 or 5 interpreters who cycled through the 24 shows that I did over 12 days and they got to know my show pretty well. At one point my show got off track and I was trying to bring the routine back so we could wrap up and I totally forgot where I was in the show. I asked the interpreter and she told me what the next part of the routine was!
Everyone from the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities did a great job, and I even learned to tell a joke in sign language, and I have the sign language interpreter verbally tell it on the mic while I signed it. Not only that, but I learned a lot about sign language!
I really wish more events would offer this, and it does open the show up to more people!
-Louie
Wasn’t it Houdini?
I was performing at an event and they had an exhibit about robots. Part of the exhibit was a timeline of robots on film. The list 1927’s Metropolis as the first robot to appear on film.
I always thought the fun magic fact was that it was Houdini put the first robot in a movie in his The Master Mystery which came out in 1919.
There could be some technicality about this as to why Houdini wasn’t listed. His robot was called an “automaton” and had a brain inside, so more of a cyborg than pure robot and at the end is revealed to not be a robot.
You can see the robot at the end of this clip:
You can find the whole movie in parts on YouTube.
-Louie
How to be Introduced
A bit ago I was at a gig and before the show the MC told me the introduction there were going to use for me. It don’t remember the exact wording, but it essentially said that I was “slumming it” to perform for that audience.
Personally I don’t like putting down the audience before I even start. You don’t know about the audience, for some people it could be their big night out for the month or year. I don’t want to do that. I’ll put myself down all day in the show, but not the audience, and especially not before I’ve taken the stage. The audience doesn’t know me or my vibe.
An introduction should build up the performer or inform the audience about what they’re going to see. Not put down the audience.
I politely asked the MC to use the prepared introduction.
Don’t be afraid to tell an MC or show host exactly how you want to be introduced. There are times when I’m the MC and an act insists that I use something that I know is wrong. Like when they hand me four paragraphs to read. I’ll ask if I can shorten it, but if they insist, I read what they gave me.
-Louie