Why Agents Like Me

There are many reasons why the agents I work with like me, but this is the secret to get any agent to like you. It’s really easy, pay your commissions on time! By the time you get to the gig, the agent has done all of their work (unless there’s a problem) weeks or months ago. The agent is the last person to get paid, and has to wait the longest to get paid for their work.

The week before gigs when I’m sending out conformations for gigs, I also mail out any commission checks. These are sent out before the gig and the agent usually gets paid before I do the show.

magic show agency

This may seem like a small thing, and it really is as usually I have somewhere between two weeks and 30 days to mail the check. I know I like it when shows are prepaid, and I’m sure agents are the same. I also personally know a lot of agents and if you ask them how many of their acts are pay late, or how many acts have owed them money for years, it’s remarkably high.

This one little thing, being reliable with payment goes a long way!

-Louie

Linking Pins on Stage

In my close up set I do the linking safety pins and I love the trick. I’ve even gimmicked a larger set of about 5 inch pins to do the trick with. The 5 inch pins are good for about 30 people, there’s too small for a real stage show.

I found these giant safety pins and I think they’d be great for using on stage!

giant linking pins

The challenge now is figuring out context to do them and getting more than a couple of minutes out of them. In my close up routine I use someone from the audience. Since I’m bringing someone onstage I really need to get at least 4-5 minutes out of the routine to make it worth the time it takes to get someone onstage.

In my writing this morning I had the idea of combining the linking pins with the thumb tie. The idea is the beginning phases will be my normal linking pin routine, then I’ll have my thumbs tied to “eliminate sleight of hand” and then the pins will end up going on and off my arms. That’s the idea, we’ll see how it plays when I get a chance to try it out!

-Louie

Part of the Team!

One of my favorite types of show are shows were there are a lot of other performers. It ultimately feels like more of a team effort and you’re not out there working alone. Sure, my time on stage I’m alone, but before show and after show it feels like a group effort!

Poof Too! A magic Show

That said, you can check me out on 3/16/24 at the Hermosa Community Theater in California. This should be a fun show as I don’t know any of the magicians that I’m on the bill with, so I’ll get to meet some new people and see some new acts!

-Louie

Visiting Hocus Pocus!

I started my first long run of the year this week. It’s a 10 day gig in Indio, CA. I flew into Fresno, CA, rented a car and then drove 5 hours to Indio. The nice thing about flying into Fresno is that I got to swing by Hocus Pocus and dig through the boxes of magic there!

I’m also always on the hunt for old Cincinnati stock cards from the US Playing Card Company, and found a ton of them

old stock bicycle playing cards

One of the things I picked up is this shell game set (maker unknown) and it will make a great addition to my three shell game collection!

They had some oddities (mostly gaffs) there and that’s something that I’m into! Here are a couple that are for sale on their website:

While I was there I put a two things for my collection. The first is a “snapping turtle” which is an alligator in a turtle shell:

snapping turtle gaff

And the other is what a side show would call a mummified devil or mummified alien.

mummified devil

If you’re ever in Fresno, there’s a ton of magic there (and some oddities!) and it’s totally with the trip!

-Louie

Doing a Bar Gig

I don’t do a lot of bar gigs anymore, I’m not opposed to them, but they don’t normally make sense with my schedule. Last week I headlined a comedy show at a speakeasy. It was a fun gig!

One of the skills you need for these gigs is to be able to follow any act. The act before me was a comic that was fairly blue, and I do a “TV clean” show, so there’s contrast and the audience has to shift mental gears from his style to mine. There’s nothing wrong with what he was doing, that’s his art. When there’s contrast like that, you need to come onstage with confidence, you’re bringing the audience into your world.

Before the show I always try to do some close up magic, that will have people in the audience already on your side!

close up magic

The “green room” was in a back corner of the bar and the cool thing was I could watch the show on the TV!

comedy show

Also I don’t normally have merch to sell at bar gigs, but I took some of my faux children’s books C is for Conspiracy: The ABC’s of Conspiracy Theories and pitched them from the stage.

bar magic show

They sold well after the show, so that was a bonus!!

Bar gigs have a lot of challenges, like sight lines, rowdy crowds, challenging stages, however I find them very rewarding as a performer. Because they are typically smaller venues you can connect with people a lot more than in a larger venue.

-Louie

Sometimes You Gotta Take a Leap of Faith!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about Busker Organs and mine finally showed up…after about a month in transit from Europe! This was a crazy transaction, the guy who made it only takes wire transfer which has no buyer protection and these organs aren’t cheap! I don’t know the guy or have any mutual friends with him, so it was a total leap of faith and I half expected the Busker Organ to never show up.

Well, as of Saturday I have it!

The wooden box it was shipped in was damaged in transit. It looked like it had been dropped, then was dragged across a warehouse! The top and bottom were taped on!

Getting it home to check it out, I got to check out the condition.

Opening the crate, my heart sank when I say most of the pipes were knocked out of place, and it look s like someone tried to put them back (incorrectly). The clips the hold the lid on and the decorative wood pieces on the front were broken off and there were gouges in the wood.

Luckily I had a picture of the organ before it was shipped an was able to use that as a reference to begin to replace the pipes.

Busker Organ

While it’s disappointing that the decorative pieces had broken off, it’s a pretty easy fix to glue them back on.

Then I had the task to tuning the organ, and I got to give it a crank!

Busker street organ seattle

It worked and sounded great! I just booked a gig for tonight at Magic Mondays in Seattle for an idea I have with it. It’s not magic, but should be fun, and thanks in advance to the Magic Monday’s crew for letting me try this!

-Louie

You Can Say Something Nice!

Recently a booker of a gig send me a screenshot from a magician inquiring about performing at an event that I was already booked at.

Magic message

This is where the magician who was trying to get a gig could have let it the conversation drop, asked for the gig next year, or talked bad about me, but here’s his reponse:

Magic message

The guy called me a “legend” and that I was “top rank”. That was really cool of him to do! When everyone is out there being awesome and a good experience for bookers, it’s good for everyone!

-Louie

The Unconquered Card!

When I was a teenager I had bought The Unconquered Card by Mike Rogers. This is a three card monte routine that’s similar to Michael Skinner‘s three card monte routine, and there’s some debate as to who was doing it first. The cards for the routine are long gone, but recently I came across the book with the set of cards that was pretty beat up.

The Unconquered Card by Mike Rogers
The Unconquered Card by Mike Rogers

The cards were unusable, however I have a few decks of FAKO Cards and other packs that are full of different gaffs. I was able to find the needed cards for the trick!

The Unconquered Card by Mike Rogers

I’m having fun relearning the trick and I think that I’m going to record a couple of phases and use it in my preshow video.

-Louie

There’s No Plan B For Your A-Game

Awhile ago I was hosting a zoom meeting that was an informal Q & A about performing at senior communities. At one point we were talking about books and I think it was JR Russel who mentioned the book There’s No Plan B For Your A-Game.

One of the concepts in the book is write down a goal and then to work backwards from it identifying the challenges. It’s an interesting take and for me it makes it easier to map out what I need to do to make things happen. For some reason working forwards and identifying milestones is harder for me.

Another thing in the book is the idea of living like you’ve accomplished a goal. It doesn’t mean living beyond your means. It means living with the habits that you would have. It’s important to note that Bo is from the sports world, so working out like you’re in the NFL before you’re there is kinda the idea.

How does that apply to magic?

Simple, do you want to be more creative? What do creative people do? They create, so live like you’re creating every day. Block out 30 mins of creative time and spend that time doing nothing else but creating. Sure, maybe nothing will happen at first, but you’re establishing a habit. Once you have the habit, it’s much easier to sit down and create.

I’m about halfway into the book and I like it!

-Louie

The 10 Count

About a month ago I went to Disneyland with a bunch of entertainers after an event we were all at. While not everyone was specifically a magician, everyone there had a magic component in their show. Somehow the “10 Count” with sponge balls came up.

The 10 Count is a little thing where a sponge ball travels from one hand to the other while you count to ten. Each number has a physical action associated with it. It’s a great framing for a quick trick and isn’t limited to sponge balls. I first learned the 10 Count from a sponge ball book when I was a teenager, however it looks like it was probably created by Martin Gardner using matchsticks.

If you don’t know it, it’s worth looking up!

-Louie