The routine starts with a gag, where I ask to borrow 10 pennies from a person in the audience. When they don’t have them, I take out the tray and it get’s a laugh.
I’m just doing a pretty basic routine where three coins are removed and disappear. Then the coins reappear in someone’s hand. It’s a strong routine and plays well. I’m glad I’ve started playing with it!
When you work corporate parties (especially in December) you will frequently encounter a dance floor between the stage and the audience. A lot of performers call this the “dance floor of death” because it’s really hard to connect with the audience when the first row is 30 feet away.
This moat between you and the audience isn’t exclusive to corporate gigs, I recently encountered it at a county fair that I was performing at. Here are two view, one is from the stage looking towards the audience and the other is from the audience looking towards the stage.
You can see my show set up on the stage, and since I was the first show of the day, I left my gear up there until just before I started to “talk up” my show. About 10 minutes before the magic show’s start time, I moved my gear to the floor and in front of the stage. That closed the gap between me and the audience.
Since the audience was seated in bleachers, I didn’t have to worry about people not being able to see things as I wasn’t on the raised stage. It worked out great and I filled the bleachers for both of my shows!
Being on the stage is a power position, but sometimes the floor can be more powerful!
Last week I wrapped up a 12 day gig at the Ohio State Fair. One of the challenges for me was how big the stage was. It was very wide and deep, then the backwall was about 6 feet beyond the end of the stage. That makes a lot of magic hard to focus on. Especially for an act like me that uses handheld props.
Here’s what the stage looks like:
Over the two weeks I learned to play my show BIG using large gestures and working to get bigger reactions out of people onstage. Here’s the highlights of week one:
Recently I wrapped up a twelve day run at a fair. I was doing 30 minute stage magic shows. Here’s what my case and tabletop set up looks like:
The show set list is pretty simple:
ACAAN Rope Trick Cup Trick Drawing Routine Tape Measure Prediction Marshmallow, blindfold, or whip and safety pin routines Hoop and Cup
The second to the end position is a variable spot in the set let. It could be one of three routines based on time, how much of the audience are repeat, and general vibe I’m feeling. That variable is great when there are people who just saw the show, you can have a slightly different show for them!
I’m a huge fan of antique magic, and I think when the current young generation of magicians gets old the antique magic trade will have greatly diminish. The kids coming up in magic over the last decade or so are growing up with downloads, so they aren’t connected as emotionally connected physical props.
I recently found a Merv Taylor Glass Penetration at an auction in Indiana and was the winning bidder!
Looking for auction houses that have some magic stuff is one of my hobbies when I’ve got time between shows. The auction house was only a couple of hours away from where I was performing in Ohio! This was a great find to add to my collection!
One of the things that drives me nuts are magicians, or any performer that uses a flag in their show and doesn’t understand the US Flag Code. These are rules that define what a US Flag is, how it should be displayed and handled.
Someone recently posted in a magician’s group of their show and the American Flag in the picture being backwards was all that I could see!
There are a couple of flag code violations in the pictures above. First the flag is backwards, and then there are props on top of the flag. This isn’t a huge deal to most people, but it’s like doing a gospel magic show, but all of your crosses are upside down! It takes virtually the same energy to correctly hang a flag as it does to incorrectly display the flag.
If you use a flag, learn to handle it respectfully!
While I was working in Columbus, OH I arranged for the magician’s at the Ohio State Fair to go visit the grave of Howard Thurston!
He’s in the mausoleum at Green Lawn Abbey. This is locked and you need to make an appointment to get into the mausoleum. I sent an email through the website and made an appointment with Kathy.
It was a fun morning trip and Kathy gave a great tour! If you’re in Columbus, you should definitely visit!
One day at the Ohio State Fair last week I performed with a bluegrass group and their fiddle player had the best merch display! When closed it’s like a small ATA case, then it quickly and easily pops open and it ready go to.
Here it is open:
The record slides into the case and that flips down and locks in at the merch in the lid. Everything in the base lays flat and he’s set up and packed up in about 90 seconds and it looks great!
Here’s some other views of it:
Did you notice the two arms on the back that slide out to the sides to display more stuff if needed?
If you read this blog, you know I like playing with old packet tricks. I’m currently at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio and noticed that Nick Trost lived here when he was alive and putting out packet tricks.
I did a little bit of research and found out that he was buried in St Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, OH. I drove out there to try to find his grave and the cemetery was gigantic, so I asked the office for help.
The gave me a map to the location of his grave in the very back of the cemetery. That map saved me hours (days?) of searching and I found him really quick!
It was a nice drive out there and gave me something to do that morning before my shows at the Ohio State Fair.
Years ago I took fire out of my show, the reason is that you can’t do it everywhere. And some places that allow you to do it, there’s huge restrictions. A good example is right now I’m performing at a State Fair and there is zero fire allowed. If I counted on destroying a dollar bill by burning it, I would have to cut that bit from the show. I want a show that I can consistently do the same way every time.
Here’s a story about working with a fire act from about a decade ago. I was working with a juggler and whose finale was juggling torches. At his first show at the fair, the fire marshal walked by and saw him with the torches on fire and had a chat with him right before his next show. The juggler needed two “safety” people onstage, one with a bucket of water and one with a fire blanket.
Since this was right before his show, the juggler asked me and another act to help him out, so we did and everything went well…until the juggler’s third show. When he asked us to help again, we both said no. We have other things to do, and while I’m happy to help once, I’m not going to do my three shows a day PLUS being his unpaid fire safety for three more shows. The juggler ended having to cut his finale, and didn’t have a backup plan and ran short the rest of the run.
If the juggler had asked about fire before the gig this wouldn’t have been as big of a problem as he could have packed a backup plan. Sure the fire marshal can be inconsistent when you talk to them, but just making that phone call can give you an idea of whether or not it will be a challenge to get that fire trick onstage.
If you’re show uses fire, be sure to bring a backup plan in case you get shut down!
