Well, after spending some time researching and asking around about different wireless systems, I settled on the Sennheiser AVX system.
Unfortunately Amazon couldn’t deliver to an Amazon Locker, so I’ll have to have it sent hope and it will be there when I get home in a few days.
Hopefully this system will work out for me!
-Louie
Well, after about a decade my Sennheiser EW 100 G3 mic packs stopped working properly. Over the last 10 years I have sent them back to Sennheiser to be repaired and repaired them once myself.
With the help of Mark (the sound tech at my stage this week) I managed to diagnose the problem, it’s my 1/8 audio input that needs to be replaced. If I send it to Sennheiser to be repaired, it’ll cost about $250 or more. I’m thinking that money would be better put into a new wireless system, than into a 10 year old system.
While at the event I luckily had a back up wireless set with me!
These aren’t as nice as the Sennheiser ones, but they are helping me get through the gig. I don’t normally carry a back up wireless set, but for some reason I threw them in with my gear for this gig. I can use a handheld to do my show in an emergency, but prefer not to.
-Louie
One of the things in magic that I collect are reels. Specifically locking reels, not so much plain reels like the Paul Diamond Reel or a P&L Fingertip Reel. I have those, but don’t actively hunt them down.
Recently Mike Caveney sent out an email and one of the things he was selling were some reels. It was a set to two reels, and I jumped on it!
I’m more interested in the locking reel on the left than the reel on the right. These reels were used more to reposition the cage after the vanish that for the actual vanish of a birdcage. I hope it looks a cool in person as it does in the pic!
-Louie
Yesterday I made it to Pier 39 in San Francisco and caught the tail end of Fred Anderson’s show.
He ended with card to mouth and what really stood out to me was how slowly he worked. It made me remember that I really need to slow down when I’m performing street style shows.
There’s always a ton you can learn by watching other performers, and I’m glad I got to see a little bit of Fred’s show (and hang out for a bit after).
-Louie
Last week I was in town for the Portland Society of American Magicians magic club meeting. It was a light turn out with only about 8 people there, but it was fun.
For me, I always love seeing the different styles of magic that people bring to a magic club. It’s not always their polished routines, but things that they are working on or things that they have and want to share. Personally, I’m more interested in things that you don’t do in your show, but interest you more than your A material. That’s the fun of magic clubs!
-Louie
A bit ago someone mentioned Giovanni Livera’s three shell game routine. I wasn’t aware of this routine, so I tracked down a his book Confessions of an Italian Magician where his Shell Shocked routine is written up.
His routine has an ending that’s unusual, it ends with three production items. The first two are dice and the third is a plastic P. I have all of the props except the plastic P, but that’s where my 3d printer came in handy.
Within about 15 minutes I had made a plastic letter P and had it printed and can now learn the routine!
I’ll get started working on it later today!
-Louie
Next month my daughter graduates from College. She had an opportunity pop up to work in a circus this summer where she’ll be doing a 4-7 min act. She’s done solo stuff in my show and she has two different escape acts that she can do. The circus will be fairs and festivals, so she’ll be typically doing three shows a day. We’re working on adding a third escape act so that she can do a different act each show. That will solve the problem of repeating the same act all day. She can do that if she wants, but she’ll have options.
One of the important things is that all of the escapes feel different. They all have a different texture, it’s not just three comedy “in and out” escapes or first she escapes from rope, then the next show chain and the final show handcuffs.
I just finished up making all of the props that she didn’t have her own dedicated set for.
Now the next step is rehearsing it and writing some new jokes.
– Louie
Once again my 3d printer saves me a big headache in getting something made! I need a holder for two Flic Buttons that someone from the audience will use to run a music cue for me during a comedy escape. I spent about 5 minutes designing a simple holder and then hit print!
Here’s what the finished prop looks like:
The piece on the left is the cover, however after putting the Flic Buttons into it, they pressure fit into it, so I don’t need the cover as they won’t fall out.
It’s really worth your time to learn to use basic 3d design software like TinkerCad even if you don’t have a 3d printer. You can design things and then email the file to someone else to print.
-Louie
One of my biggest regrets is not learning to speak Spanish when I was a teenager. I’m trying, I’m at day 500 on DuoLingo and I can communicate ideas, but not really conversational. I’m always looking for ways to speak it more, especially in the show to hopefully get more confident in speaking Spanish.
That’s where and Emerson and West packet trick comes in!
The trick is Larry West’s Gourmet Mouse. The concept is really simple, it uses three cards and in the trick, one turns blank and one changes. What makes this fun for practicing my Spanish is the trick involves and mouse eating cheese. I know all of those words, and can do the trick in horrible Spanish!
What makes it a great trick is that it shows that I’m trying when I perform close up magic for a Spanish speaking family. It’s really easy to start learning a new language with things like DuoLingo, and there’s no reason for a performer to not know a little bit of another language.
-Louie
I was procrastinating recently, so I made a couple of spirit hands!
I made a mold of a vintage spirit hand and make these out of resin.
These are ungimmicked, and if you’re interested in one and want to gimmick it yourself, or use it with an existing board you can get one at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/spirit-hand/
-Louie
