Pictures – Page 121 – MagicShow.Tips

Travelling…

Newer performers frequently ask me about how I travel with my show on an airplane. People are worried about lost luggage. Unfortunately the only thing you can really do about that is to either carry everything on, or accept that can happen. I guess there’s a third option and that is having a show where you can find all of your props in your destination city. Then there’s combinations of the three.

Unfortunately for my show, I can’t do it all in my carry on. Some of the items I use can’t be taken in the cabin of the plane and can’t be sourced locally, so I’m stuck checking at least some of my show. Since I have to check a bunch of stuff already, I check almost everything.

Currently here’s what I carry onto the plane in my backpack:

The white tube has my vanishing birdcage. If that wasn’t so easy to break by someone who examining it, I’d check it. In the zipper compartment is my cage pull, a thumb tip, mismade bills and a thumb drive with everything the people running the theater would need (cue sheets, video, music, intro, etc). Then in the yellow case is my audio gear (mics, mic packs, audio ape, etc). Everything else in the backpack is my personal stuff, so books, my laptop, etc.

I’ve had my luggage “lost” by the airline once, and they had it delivered to me within six hours. I also have had TSA screen my bags and forget to put a couple of things back into it, luckily after weeks of phone calls I tracked down my props!

What do I do if my luggage gets lost?

I’m lucky that I can do a lot with simple stuff and in the past I’ve done a lot of standard magic, so I can source a show locally. It’s not the ideal situation, however I can go to the Walmart in any city and pick up a two deck of cards, rope, scissors, yarn, pad of paper, duct tape, a couple of handkerchiefs and some markers and I’m good to go. This isn’t the show that I want to present, but I can do a decent show with that.

ACAAN???

One trend in magic that I’ve noticed lately is that whenever someone puts out a new gimmick, or principle one of the routines they come up for it is an Any Card At Any Number. The problem with this is that none of these are truly an ACAAN. as there’s a limitation at some point. … Continue reading “ACAAN???”

One trend in magic that I’ve noticed lately is that whenever someone puts out a new gimmick, or principle one of the routines they come up for it is an Any Card At Any Number. The problem with this is that none of these are truly an ACAAN. as there’s a limitation at some point.

A good example is the Mental Dice that just came out. You are using the dice to get information, but unfortunately with 3 dice you can’t make any number between one and fifty two. You could use one die for the tens place and the other for the ones place, but that still won’t get you all the numbers from one to fifty two.

In the book Body Mentalism, which teaches a really cool technique for forcing a person, one of the effects is an ACAAN. Unfortunately it’s really an Any Card at Number, there’s not a free choice of number. It’s very limited, in this method. I’m all for brainstorming ideas and including them, but people need to stop passing off a Card at a Position as an Any Card At Any Number.

I may be a bit biased as I’m a fan of the ACAAN trick, and have done it on TV, my live show and published several variation of the trick. It’s one of those things that in my opinion have a very specific set of rules for it to be an ACAAN.

Don’t Be a D*ck

If you want your magic show to stay relevant, you need to stay on top of what society say is “politically correct“. Yes, there is a place to push the envelope and be edgy, but for 98% of us we aren’t. Of that 2% that do probably less than a quarter of them do it … Continue reading “Don’t Be a D*ck”

If you want your magic show to stay relevant, you need to stay on top of what society say is “politically correct“. Yes, there is a place to push the envelope and be edgy, but for 98% of us we aren’t. Of that 2% that do probably less than a quarter of them do it in a way that has a purpose, the rest are just a-holes.

Last week I was in Washington DC and went to one of the Smithsonian Museums and saw this beloved Muppet’s character:

The Swedish Chef has been around longer than I’ve been alive, however it might be time to retire part of his humor. His imitation of the Swedish language borders on not being what’s acceptable in today’s world. If I saw someone doing a Chinese character and they spoke saying things like, “Ching chong, chin chang…” I would walk out of the show. There’s no reason that the Swedish Chef can’t speak actual Swedish. Part of the humor is making fun of a group of people’s language. If you took that out, would it still be as funny?

I get in 1975, it was a bit harder to just learn a language, but now it’s super easy to actually learn a language now. Here’s an example. I wanted to use the Khoisan language in my show, this is the one that has all of the mouth clicks in it. All I needed to do was count to three. I could have faked it and just made random clicking noises, but wanted to do it respectfully and the least I could do was learn to actually do it. It was really easy, and using the actual language was much funnier as it had a sense of build to it.

When something breaks are you still using the offensive and hack line, “Must be made in China“? Here’s why that line is bad, it’s putting down an whole group of people for the laugh, and it’s outdated as the quality standards in China are frequently higher than in the USA. In my show I have a fishing pole that breaks, in 1983 the “made in China” line might have worked, but I want to be better than that. The line I use when it breaks is, “That’s the last time a buy a fishing pole on Tinder…should have gotten it on Plenty of Fish…“. This line puts the laugh(s) on me, and I guess on the fictional person who would sell a fishing pole on a dating website.

Take a look at your show, are there any bits that have aged out of it?

Raise Up Your Show

Sometimes you need to stick to your guns and do your show how you want it to, then there are other times when you need change it. I’m a huge advocate of pushing back if someone unreasonably wants you to change your show. An example of this is a booker wanting you to incorporate something into your show at the last minute. I’m frequently asked to magically make a prize or award appear. I almost always decline this.

There are times that you want to alter your show for the event. When I performed in Virginia a couple days ago, I saw an illusion act perform. They weren’t on a raised stage, which is something I’m very conscious of. Being an act that uses smaller props I’m very aware of how they can disappear if they are held too low when you aren’t on a raised stage. The act I saw did a Wakeling Sawing in Half, which is a great illusion. It’s a big prop, but the action happens low.

I’m standing in the back taking this picture, you probably wouldn’t notice the large box for the illusion in the picture. There’s a girl in the third row standing on someone’s lap to see. While it’s a big and visual prop, you can’t see it if it’s too low to the ground. This is a situation where a small handheld prop would have played a lot larger than the sawing in half.

In my opinion the show would have flowed better if they had cut out the sawing in half and filled the spot with something smaller, that could be held higher, or just run the show five minutes short. Removing the trick would have made the show much more enjoyable for me, as there wasn’t really any jokes, or story engage me once the visual was lost.

Be aware of the sight lines of people seated from the third row and back.

Great Book…

The other day a buddy of mine gave me the book A Magician Prepares and I started reading it on my flight yesterday. This book has some shortcomings, like the layout which makes it hard to read and the title isn’t that great, however the content is fantastic. The book is a bunch of short … Continue reading “Great Book…”

There’s a lot of great advice in this book, and I think it’d be a great book to read when you start to hit the semi-pro level. When you’ve begun to get an act and are out working it semi-regularly. I do think it’s worth a read no matter where you are in your career.

One thing that struck me was in one interview a guy mentions that people ask, “why do all cruise ship magicians do the same stuff?”. His answer was the limitations of the gig, you need to fit it all in a suitcase that’s less than 50 pounds.

Having worked on some ships, I get the challenge of the limitation, however I also think that it’s a shortsighted reason. The reason is laziness, they don’t want to create a something new. Sure something like color changing hanks plays big, packs small and there are plenty of routines for it. That’s a trick that’s in my show, however it’s not chosen because of the size of it. I do the trick because in my routine there’s a message that I want to convey with it. Also the way I do it, I use an additional prop that takes it out of the “packs small” category.

Dead Spots…

One thing that I try to do in my show is eliminate dead spots. Places where nothing really interesting is happening. This is something that’s important to me, it gives the show a tight feel. Personally I really dislike it when nothing is happening in a show.

Last week I saw went out to see a show that was a bunch of side show acts. One thing I noticed was that in many of the acts there was a lot of dead time. For example someone did a strait jacket escape and during the locking in procedure, not much happened.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if it’s your artistic choice to have spaces where nothing is going on. You could do it to build tension, or whatever. Whenever I find these dead spots, I try to add a joke, music or bit to fill the space. I think it really helps to move the show along.

Confidence…

One thing that carries a lot of shows is the performer being confidant. Standing tall and doing what they do with authority, even if what they are doing isn’t very good. Recently I saw an act where the performer’s confidence carried the show. He told some jokes and did some singing: His character was a … Continue reading “Confidence…”

His character was a space alien. He delivered his lines like they were the best lines ever, and people seemed to pay attention. In my opinion what carried the act was him selling the material like it was amazing, also a very friendly audience really helped.

However had he done his material with any doubt that it wouldn’t hit, the act really would have been rough. So go out there and portray confidence in your material!

On The Job Training…

One thing that’s been a staple of my close up work is the Three Shell Game. It’s been something I’ve done since I was a teenager. It’s a great trick, everyone knows what it is and how to play it. This week at my gig at the airport I added the Trade Show Shells. These … Continue reading “On The Job Training…”

One thing that’s been a staple of my close up work is the Three Shell Game. It’s been something I’ve done since I was a teenager. It’s a great trick, everyone knows what it is and how to play it.

This week at my gig at the airport I added the Trade Show Shells. These are a jumbo set of shells and they work differently than a standard set of shells.

I’ve owned a set of a long time, and never really had a place to use them. When I do stage work, it’s hard to make them play, as I’m usually on a raised stage with the audience below me. That makes it hard to see the pea or follow it.

What’s cool about doing this at the airport is that they want the people to win. We’re playing it for prizes, so it’s not a “magic routine“. What that means is that I get to practice handling the props and doing the manipulation. In each group, there’s one person that I use the gimmicks on and am working out a routine that way. Essentially I’m getting paid to work out a routine for the trick!!! It’s great!

Don’t Speak Up…

Whenever possible I try to go out and support magic shows. Last night I went out and saw a friend’s show. The show also had a musician and burlesque dancer in addition to my buddy’s magic show. It was a fun show. My main critique of the show was that lack of the use of … Continue reading “Don’t Speak Up…”

My main critique of the show was that lack of the use of a microphone. There was a handheld mic, but only the singer used it. Using a mic is an important thing to do, it makes the show so much easier to pay attention to. My hearing is reasonably good, but I’m always amazed at how much I have to strain to hear an unmic’d performer.

Using a mic in whatever form is pretty cheap right now, compared to 15 years ago. You can get a cheapo headset mic and wireless pack and be good to go for probably less than about a hundred bucks. Would it be the best mic…no. Would it be better than no mic…probably.

Connecting…

When I was in Austin last week I swung by the Museum of the Weird and saw the Black Scorpion perform. At the museum the sideshow acts do a lot of short shows all day. His show was good and it consisted of him talking about his Ectrodactyly, which people used to be called “Lobster … Continue reading “Connecting…”

When I was in Austin last week I swung by the Museum of the Weird and saw the Black Scorpion perform. At the museum the sideshow acts do a lot of short shows all day. His show was good and it consisted of him talking about his
Ectrodactyly, which people used to be called “Lobster Hands”, then he did glass walking.

My main dislike of his show was that it felt like he was talking at us and not talking to us. The best way to describe how he talks is like an 1980’s pro wrestler talking to the TV camera. I get that he has made a stylistic choice in how he delivers material, however for me it made it hard to connect with him.

Unfortunately due to my time restrictions when I was there, I really didn’t get to see the rest of the museum on this visit (or the next one). I guess I’ll have to get back to Austin another time.