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A Baby Step Forward…

One of the tricks that I started working on this week is my drawing and dollar routine. It’s been playing very well, and I think it’s something that’s going to stay in my show for a while. It’s a good piece where I get to interact with the audience.

The nice thing is that there aren’t a lot of props, but plays fairly large. It uses a small clipboard, marker, three thumbtips, a wine glass and ball of yarn. that sounds like a lot, but it’s packs smaller than most magician’s change bag routines. I can use a borrowed clear wine glass for this, so

So far I’ve done the routine five times, and yesterday I learned that I need to find a place for the wine glass that holds the ball of yarn to be in view, but away from me. Right now the table it too close to me, I want it somewhere where I’m not constantly reaching over it. This trip I packed my 3D printer with me, so I’m printing a stand that will fit on top of a straight microphone stand.

The picture above is upside down, the tube will fit over the shaft of the stand and the foot of the wine glass will slide into the cut out notch. The solid side of the holder will go towards where they are pulling the string from. I’m hoping that the weight in the base of the mic stand will be enough to keep the whole thing from falling over. I also foresee a redesign once I try out this initial design!

Always Be Tweaking…

Over the last year I’ve been working on a Take Up Reel of my own design. If you don’t know what a Take Up Reel is, it’s a complicated process to do something very simple. All it does all you to have a piece of string and shorten it. That’s it. It becomes very handy if you use a wrist to wrist pull and need freedom of movement before using the pull.

What I designed works great for me, however I designed it for how I use it, not how other people may use it. Recently I sent some out to other performers and am getting feedback. Based on that feedback, I’m working for it to hold a thicker gauge line.

Adding a thicker line is a small change, but it adds a bit of an engineering challenge to the device. Hopefully it’s not too hard, I’m working on the first adjustment now and we’ll see how it is once it’s done printing.

Being open to other people’s feedback is something that I think is very important, especially if it’s something that I want to bring to market.

How To Be a Good Guest…

Recently I was interviewed by The Variety Artist podcast and that interview comes out tomorrow! If you don’t listen to it, it’s got tons of tips from people way smarter than me. In my episode we talk about creating original material, and some fun stories from my life. One thing that’s important when being a … Continue reading “How To Be a Good Guest…”

One thing that’s important when being a guest on podcast, or at a TV spot is to plan what you are going to do. Don’t come in with and just “wing it”. One this. A few days before the show I wrote down things that I wanted to talk about and my responses to what I thought John would ask me. During the podcast I kept my notes nearby and referenced them during the podcast.

The key is having thought about what you’re going to say. This doesn’t guarantee you’ll talk about those things, but having thought about it makes you a stronger guest. The majority of things that I talk about on the podcast had a note of some sort written on a legal pad in my hotel room.

Preparation is 80% of the key of being a great guest!

It’s a Community…

I’m a frequent traveler around the United States and while I travel I try to meet up with local magicians. I usually do a Google search for the city and the word magician then contact whoever turns up. I’ve met some cool people while travelling.

Last week I was in Wyoming and I didn’t find any magicians on the internet. However while I was in a small town coffee shop, there was a business card board, and I glanced at it and saw a magician’s business card! I gave him a call and we met up.

It was a lot of fun jamming with him, swapping stories of legendary mentalist Bob Cassidy and talking shop!

If you’re a travelling act, look up some local magicians and hang out! It’s good for magic!

You Gotta Change…

In the last few weeks Holland America Line has implemented a ban on using balloons on their ships. This isn’t just for decorations, but also for use in shows. Here’s what’s making the rounds on social media: It’s interesting what magicians have to say about it. Most are asking questions about latex products. These magicians … Continue reading “You Gotta Change…”

It’s interesting what magicians have to say about it. Most are asking questions about latex products. These magicians are idiots, clearly this is specifically balloons, and not just latex balloons, but all balloons (so this includes mylar).

I perform on Holland America Line and I use a balloon in my show. I got this notice a few weeks ago, and I’ve dropped the trick that uses the balloon from my show, not just for that line, but all shows.

Why all shows?

Simple, it will keep my show tight. My muscle memory isn’t going to start doing that bit, then I have to back track.

Keeping up with the times is important, whether it’s using preferred pronouns, or not using a balloon. It also forces you to grow as a performer. People who cannot innovate will be left behind, where people who can will rise.

I Don’t Get It…

Frequently I’m befuddled about why magicians love to do “throwback” acts. Not period shows like at a Ren Faire or Civil War Reenactment, but recreating things like the medicine pitch, or the riverboat gambler. Most modern audience have no idea what they are. They may be aware of them from brief little scenes in movies, … Continue reading “I Don’t Get It…”

Over the years I’ve worked with many people that do a Medicine Show Pitch. I’ve never seen one that the audience was super into. I worked with one the other night, and while the act was fine, it didn’t resonate with the audience because they don’t know what it is. No one ever gives a historical background on it before they start doing the pitch.

That’s the problem with the Medicine Show Pitch, people have to figure out what it is. Also people don’t know that there really isn’t a payoff, it’s just a lot of unusual, olde tyme talk. A simple introduction about what it is would help a lot. Something like, “A hundred years ago, adoctor would roll into town on the back of a horse drawn wagon, or wood paneled station wagon. He’d be selling a medicine that would cure everything. It would cure the common cold, it would cure ricketts, it would cure social media addiction. By the time you realized that what he sold you didn’t work, he was long gone. This is the 1912 version of the guy on TV selling Sham-Wow’s“

Now there’s a little bit of context to what’s happening. The audience doesn’t have to figure out what the hell you are doing and it’s historical place. Context is KING!

Finding the Right Gaff…

In my hotel room last night I made a ton of color changing card gaffs. I made them with latex and with elastic. I made them flip vertically and horizontally. Here’s what I learned, I prefer using the ones with the seam the goes across the length of the card. I also prefer them to … Continue reading “Finding the Right Gaff…”

How to make gimmicked cards for magic tricks

I think trying a lot of different ways to make the gimmick will let you know for sure which is right for you. Sometimes what’s available to buy isn’t quite right for what you are doing. For example my hands prefer the gimmick to be latex and with the flap’s seam going across the short sideof the card. However how the gimmick is used an elastic thread gimmick with the seam running the long way visually looks better.

It’s important to know why you use a gimmick over another one or variation of it. If I stuck to what feels good in my hand, what actually looks better to the audience would be lost. In theory, it’s all for the audience!

Shin Lim’s Show…

shin lim magic — pic from www.shinlimmagic.com

It was a long day, I went to Canada and back to see Shin Lim’s show. This was the first stop of his tour. I’m going to be completely honest, the show was a bit of a let down. My ticket said “Shin Lim” but the show was Colin Cloud with Shin doing a few things here and there. Colin is great, but it was sold to me as a Shin Lim show and I really wanted to see what a Shin Lim show was.

Colin opened the show and carried it. Shin has a long way to go to carry a whole theater show by himself. Shin’s opening trick was the “love card trick” that Penn and Teller do, which is a good trick, but not an opener. The worst part was we got halfway through it and they Shin said that he “messed up the math” and told us to throw the cards on the floor. The family next to me was confused. At the end of the show, he also referenced messing up this trick. By that point in the show, we had forgotten about that, and he didn’t need to bring it back up.

Unfortunately every routine that Shin did had something that didn’t work. sometimes it was just a card peeking out that we shouldn’t see, to the Love Card Trick that just didn’t work at all. It was interesting leaving the theater, people were talking about how underwhelmed they were, and that his stuff looked better on TV.

Here’s my takeaway, if your name is on the ticket, you should be on the stage the most. And that simply putting a camera on close up magic doesn’t make it engaging for the audience. There still needs to be more. That’s why Colin Cloud stole the show. I have a ticket to the show for six months from now when it’s in Seattle and I’m excited to see the show, and hopefully what an awesome show in that time it’s grown to!

If You Build It, They Will Come…

There’s a place in McMinnville Oregon that I’ve always wanted to visit called the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. Every time I’ve driven by it, it’s either closed, or I don’t have time to stop. It’s in a town about an hour from Portland, kinda in the middle of nowhere. This is a huge museum … Continue reading “If You Build It, They Will Come…”

This is a huge museum with water park and people come from all over to visit. Why to do they travel so far to look at airplanes, or go down a water slide? Simple, they have a couple of pretty unique offerings. The museum has the Spruce Goose, which is the largest wood plane ever constructed. In addition to the Spruce Goose, the water park has a 747 that’s been converted to a water slide!

How does this relate to a magic show? Simple, if you create a product that people can’t get else where, they will come to you. This is more than just a unique personality, every air museum has a personality, this one has the SPRUCE GOOSE and that’s the only place in the world you can get that. What unique offering does your show have where you are the only place an audience can get it?

Tossed Out Invisible Deck

In the show yesterday I tried out my new idea for the invisible deck. You can read about the idea here. In a nutshell, the idea is to have multiple cards named and all of them are reversed in the deck. I don’t know if for the audience this is a better trick than the standard invisible deck with only one card, for me it’s an interesting challenge.

I did the trick once yesterday and it went well. All the named cards were reversed in the pack and the people in the audience seemed to not know how the trick worked. This is an important part of a new idea…having it actually work for an audience, now the next step is going to be tweaking the gimmick.

Roughing stick by vanishing in for card magic — image from www.VanishingIncMagic.com

I’m roughing the cards with a Roughing Stick that Vanishing Inc puts out. It works well, but I need to play around with how I apply it to the cards. Right now I’m doing it in the middle of the length of the card. I think I’m going to make another deck where it goes across the middle of the short edge of the deck and see how that works.

The cool thing about the Roughing Stick, is that it’s easy to apply, so I fairly quickly try it in different configurations and see what works best for me. I’m also thinking I need to use two different cards stocks for the trick. I’ll be doing some playing this week!