Category: Pictures

Stopping Looking Off Camera…

Lately I’ve had a bunch of virtual MC work I’ve been doing. I feel like people’s introductions are getting longer and longer. Gone are the days of three bullet points and a name. I’m having a need for a teleprompter, so that I’m not reading off of a sheet of paper. Someone suggested I look into Padcaster:

Padcaster

This goes onto the front of your camera which looks through the hole in the back. Then you use your smartphone to make the text on the glass. The idea is you can read off the teleprompter while you look directly into the camera.

The camera I use is a Sony Handycam and it’s got a big front around the lens. I was worried I’d spend $100 and have a teleprompter that didn’t fit. I decided to give making my own a try. A quick google search led me to some premade 3d templates for teleprompters, but none was quite want I wanted. I custom designed the one below for my specific camera and cellphone:

3d print teleprompter

The top part that goes on the camera has printed and it fits great! The tray to hold the phone is printing right now, and I need to go to the store to get some glass. I’m hoping this will work!!!

Magical Mixology…

In a few days I’ll be performing at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians annual convention which will take place online. When they contacted me,I wanted to do something a little bit different. I pitched them having me teach how to make a cocktail. Basically it’s a magical mixology class.

When I sat down to write up the ingredient list and recipe for the cocktail, I decided I wanted to create that like an old magic magazine ad for a magic trick.

I think it turned out well. I worked way too hard on making this, however I think it adds some fun to the whole thing. My starting point was visiting Ask Alexander going through old magic magazines and looking at the ads. I kinda had an idea in my head as to what I was looking for, it was just a matter of finding an ad to use as a template.


Here’s the ad that was my starting point:


Sometimes the little bit extra is what makes the trick work. I’m hoping the ad gets people excited about the mixology.

See This Show…

A while ago I almost flew to New York on a day I had off between a couple of contracts to see In & Of Itself. Unfortunately, with the flights and the show that I could get tickets to, if my plane was a little bit late, I would have missed the show. I didn’t go.


The show is streaming right now at the IFC Center’s website. You save $3 with the coupon code: ROADTRIP

After watching it, I’m regretting not taking the chance on seeing it in person. The show was AMAZING! That’s just seeing it streamed, I can’t imagine the energy seeing it live.

There’s a lot that makes the show work. First of all it’s now a “magic show” but a show that has magic elements. I think about five tricks in 90 minutes, so not a lot of magic, but what’s there is great!

One of the things that makes the show work is that Derek Delgaudio is a normal guy. He doesn’t have shellac’d hair, dancers, or exaggerated applause poses. He’s an honest guy sharing his life. Sure there are theatrical things that happen, like lighting, or music, but they aren’t overbearing like the how a 1990’s Las Vegas illusionist finishes a trick.

Watching the show, I cried twice. Derek knows how to connect with people in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in another show. This style of show is something that other magicians are going to be chasing for years. Derek is soo far ahead of the pack, and it’s such a unique show and venue. You can’t really break in this sort of material at the gravel company’s holiday party.

Do yourself a favor and watch the show. It will inspire you to be better!




The Moisture Festival Podcast – Tim Furst

Moisture Festival founder, Tim Furst, joins the Moisture Festival Podcast. Tim talks about how being a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam led him to learn to juggle and, subsequently, perform in the famous juggling troupe the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

Tim Furst Juggler

We hear some great stories about Tim’s tours with the Flying Karamazov Brothers across the world, appearing in the movie Jewel of The Nile, and how the Russian government thought they were agents of chaos. Tim also talks about what separates the Moisture Festival from other festivals and why it has been so successful.

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Flea Circus Book!

There was a fun surprise waiting for me in my email this morning. A while ago Xavi Puk contacted me asking to use a couple of pictures of my flea circus for an upcoming book about flea circuses. Well, it looks like the Spanish Edition it out and available on Amazon.com !

flea circus book

Unfortunately I don’t read Spanish, so I’ll have to wait for the English version to happen. I did run the pages that I’m mention in through Google Translate and I’m used as an example in marketing your flea circus. Specifically how I embrace social media and how I pose / stage pictures.

If you’re into flea circuses and can read spanish, you should check it out. It appears to be a pretty thorough book!

Character Building…

A couple of nights ago my local magic club hosted a lecture by Fred Blanco (Wildcat Jackson) who talked about character development. I’d seen this lecture before at another magic club and when I had the chance to bring him in to the Emerald City Wizards magic club, I took him up on it.

wildcat jackson

What I like about Fred’s talk is that he breaks character down pretty well. It’s a something you don’t need a theater degree to understand. He does a great job of teaching beginner level character, that’s accessible to everyone.

magic club

It was a fun night, and Fred also has a ton of cool props!!!

Chicago Magic Lounge

Last week I ended up with a ticket to the Chicago Magic Lounge’s Virtual Happy Hour. I’ve never been in person to the venue, and on video it looks like a cool place. I think tickets are $15 and we had four magicians, a mixologist and a host. All of the performers were performing live at the venue except for one that was in another country.

I didn’t get a picture of the host Benjamin Barnes, however he did a great job introducing the acts. Personally, I would have liked to see him do a set in there somewhere.

All of the acts used audience participation, with the helper on screen. They were in engaging, and the audience was fairly active in the chat.

One interesting thing that happened during the show was at one point when someone was picked to help out onscreen the guy said something like, “I thought this was all fake…“. What he meant was that he thought everyone helping was a stooge.

That comment raises an interesting question:
Do most audience members think these shows use stooges?
I don’t know if there’s a way to keep people from thinking that. People have the same thought at in person shows, so it’s not unique to a zoom show. This is more of a concern for a ticketed show than it is for a corporate zoom show.

Back to the Chicago Magic Lounge, for $15 it’s a solid show and worth checking out online. I think the overall run time was about 2 hours.

Staycation!

Recently I started doing a torn and restored card with a postcard. When I started doing it I was using a old promo postcard that had my picture on it. Right now I’m using the idea of a “staycation” for the theme of the trick, so I had my daughter make me a postcard to use for the trick.

One of the things about this postcard that I learned from watching video of the old promo postcard is that the glossy coating makes it hard to see, it’s just a lot of glare. The current batch of postcards have a matte finish, that solves the glare problem.

The thing with creating tricks is that it’s fixing a lot of small problems really adds up to make the bigger picture better!

James Randi…

A few days ago The Amazing Randi passed. I remember as a teenager reading his books. I never expected to run into him. I was probably 20-ish years old and ran into him at a magic shops. We chatted a bit and ended up hanging out while he was in Seattle doing a TV show.

From the stories he told, he’s a guy that’s lived the life of twenty people. He’s pretty much seen and done it all. From touring with Alice Cooper to speaking at huge scientific conferences and he had great stories about them all!

He’s the first person that really turned me onto altering money for magic. Mentioned I should play with putting Scotch Guard on bills. I think I published the trick I came up with using Scotch Guard in a Linking Ring magazine.

From my limited experience hanging out with Randi, he was a cool guy who knew how live life!