After long wait, I finally got some custom made gimmicks for my penny to keychain trick.
These were worth the wait and way better than what I had been using for the trick. Having been in magic and creating magic for a while, I’ve got a network of magic builders that I can reach out to for custom projects.
I had a few of these made, as the cost to make one is pretty high, but getting a dozen isn’t much more. I’m hoping to write up instructions for these and have a few of them for sale soon!
Here’s one of the problems with AI, it’s that you have to check it. Basically, you are doing the work anyway. A good example of that is from an event that I performed at. Despite having provided them with an introduction and one being available on my website, this event decided to have AI write it.
I worked as a street magician when I was in high school, but wouldn’t say I’ve worked as one in the last almost 30 years. I have never appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brian, which I’m assuming is just a misspelling of Conan O’Brien.
This is why AI isn’t useful, if I need to go back an “fact check” everything it’s more work than actually doing the research correctly, or simply asking someone for their intro.
The newest addition to my vanishing birdcage is also one of the most interesting to me. This one came from a Potter and Potter auction and there really wasn’t much bidding action on it. I got it for $150 (gavel price) and they simply listed it as from the 1920’s and German.
This cage has some very fine detail work on it. Like the super tiny sleeve guard, there were two, but one is missing. The screws that hold it on are very fine!
This cage is missing a bar and it appears to have been repaired at some point. I also don’t think that the ring that the pull attaches to is original.
Another fun this is that this cage has a perch and this perch is a spring! I guess that is a lot easier to attach than a wooden one, and more flexible!
I must be getting better! I did a show for middle school kids at 7:40am and it went great!
Middle school (grades 6-8) are notoriously one of the hardest age groups to perform for. They don’t really relate to silly humor that I’d use for younger kids or smarter humor that I’d used for older kids. It’s just a small age group that I find really hard to perform for. Then add in the 7:40am when they’re still waking up and it sounds like a rough gig.
The show went well. Whenever I perform for a group of kids I try to aim my material slightly older than younger than the group. I’ve found kids will “age up” much easier than down. If I do material that’s designed for younger kids it will turn them off quickly and they’ll dismiss the show as a “kid show”, which they’re above.
I opened the show with my Any Card at Any Number and that immediately had their attention. I know a lot of magicians think that ACAAN is a boring trick and many are, however for this group, if it was, they’d be asleep by the time we got to the card! ACAAN done correctly, I’m not talking about routine/patter, but method is an amazing and compelling trick. Once you start adding procedure into it like rolling dice or a calculator, then it becomes less amazing. Simply saying, “name a card, name a number” and that’s where their card it without any BS is a great trick!
The moral of the story is sometimes taking a show that you know will be a challenge will help you grow as a performer.
I love it when I’m performing in the San Francisco area and have a friday night off! Whenever I do, I swing by the Magic Garage and hang out!
One of the unusual tricks we ended playing with was an Eddie Fields card trick where a selected card is found by spelling the spectator’s name. It can be any name, and you don’t need to know it in advance, the best part is that it’s self working!
It’s a ton of fun and a great hangout with other magicians. There are people there with all sorts of skill levels and experiences in magic!
I’m using the Play-Duh props in my library and summer camp shows. The fair I was performing at last week I did the routine for some kids between shows.
Recently I came across a T. Nelson Downs throw out card! These were used as promo items by the magician, but this particular one was sponsored by Bicycle Playing Cards!
I’m not sure if this was something that would have been given out by Bicycle or just Downs.
I’ve thought about doing a batch of playing cards like this. Not functional cards, but as promotional items that I can autograph after shows. I think it’s cooler than a postcard, and smaller, so I can carry more for the same weight in my suitcase.
It’s a cool piece that’s a great addition to my collection!
A while ago I wrote a post about me having Trigger Finger, which is a tendon issue in my knuckle. I noticed that it was bad when it was raining, so that means I have an old man super power, my finger can predict the weather!
What can I do with that?
It got me thinking about doing a weather prediction effect. The idea of the trick will be that someone says the name of a city, and I write down what my finger thinks the weather in that city is.
I wanted the prediction to be bigger that something that could be accomplished with a nail writer. After some writing of different ideas, I hit upon using weather icons:
The flow of the effect is:
A city is chosen
The prediction is written down
The weather is the city is determined
The correct icon matching the weather is removed
The written prediction is shown to match the icon
That’s the flow.
I originally had a step earlier in the process that had me showing all the different possible icons. I decided that’s really dead time, and not needed, because we’re going to go through them later to find the correct one.
The method is really simple, I spent a lot of time writing more complex methods, but this was the most simple and direct method that I came up with.
I tried it for the first time a couple of days ago and it worked! Now to do it more and create a more complete routine.
Somehow I got into collecting dead magician’s tie bars! Recently I was visiting with Alan Sands and he gave me one of George Sands tie bars!
If you’re not familiar with George Sands, he created the Sandsational Rope Routine. Most modern cut and restored rope routines are built off of his routine.
Somewhere along the road I picked up the book Circus Rings Around Russia and recently started reading it. The book is a history of the circus in Russia.
It’s interesting to hear how political the circus was in Russia. Both state run and with views that were anti-government. Performers were essentially blackballed for how they express their political views through their performances.
It’s also interesting that the big pro-government circuses were flops with audiences. I think those shows took away the “heart” of the circus and left the audiences feeling cold.
The author of this book also relates how magicians and the side show are considered lower entertainment than traditional circus acts like trapeze or eve clowns. In the USA magic is a huge part of the circus!
