Recently I was hanging out with a friend on Zoom and he did Goshman’s Cards Thru Newspaper. This is a fantastic trick and I think a really good trick for Zoom due to the static camera angle. It makes everything easy to see and laid out well (unless you’re watching from a cellphone, like I was).
Exploring trick that aren’t right for a live show for your virtual show is one of the very fun things about right now. Personally I’m doing things I’ve never really been able to do before, it’s great!
The switch of tables from my smaller table top to a larger one that’s mounted on a speaker stand is done. First I added the new, larger dice holder and today I put the servante on it. I 3d printed some brackets to hold the wire frame of the servante to the table.
Here’s how it looks from the floor looking up:
Finally here’s what it looks like from where I stand behind the table:
In my live, in person show, I don’t do any performing on the table top. It’s simply a place to set things. However for virtual shows, action happens on the table top. I really love having a servante and it kinda makes me want to put a topit in all of my coats for when we get back to in person shows. It’s super handy!
One of the things I’m always doing it trying to improve what I currently do. Right now in my virtual show I do a modified version of my Cee-Lo trick, which is a cup and dice routine. This ends with the production of two large dice. The large dice are 1 1/4 inches on each side. To give you some perspective, the picture below is one of the jumbo dice next to a regular die.
The reason that the trick uses 1 1/4 inch dice is that for a live, in person show, it makes the loading procedure work. The cup will hold two 1 1/2 inch dice, but the method where the spectator loads the cup for you doesn’t work well with a larger die.
I was cleaning up and found the old set of 1 1/2 inch dice I tried using for Cee-Lo. It hit me, since I’ve changed my loading procedure for virtual shows, and there are no spectators to handle the props, why not move to the larger size dice. To give you an idea of visually how much bigger they are, the pictures below are a 1 1/2 inch die next to a regular die and a 1 1/4 inch die.
That extra quarter inch makes it look massive! The nice thing about how I load the cups for live virtual shows is that the size of the die doesn’t really matter. I’m getting a little more visual impact for no extra work! I’m a fan of that.
There’s an old saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” and this has really hit home for me during the pandemic. I’m having a blast making little cooking/mixology videos.
I’m doing one today for the International Brotherhood of Magicians, it’s an IBMfizz! Here’s the magic ad for it:
Here’s the recipe for it:
I think you can watch the video on the IBM’s facebook page.
I’m enjoying making these videos, it’s a fun theme to add trick to!
One of the interesting things about right now is that we live in a world where I can do a show that I did months ago. On Sunday I was in a show where my bit was prerecorded, and I just hung out in the chat section. It’s strange chatting about your show with people while they are watching your show.
That said, I’m not a fan interacting through YouTube’s comments. Every time I’ve done it “Slow Mode” comments have been on/enabled and you can’t have decent interactions with people. Any back and forth quickly gets buried in the chat and makes no sense. I think it takes a lot of the fun out of having me in the comments interacting live with people.
Maybe I’m a dinosaur and the idea of interacting with people in real time is a holdover from being a live, in person performer. I hope it’s not, and that people still want that interaction.
Sometimes I’m doing a quick virtual show spot and it doesn’t really need much set up. For this short spot, I did a simple set up:
It’s a light, camera, mic and an iPad that’s set up as a second screen for my laptop. Not much extra was needed for this gig, and I was just dealing with hand held props.
The softbox light was a great addition to my home studio. It’s super bright and does a great job lighting up my small space. I like it a lot more than the panel LED’s I had been using.
Another day, another change to my wheel. This is a subtle change, but I added colors to the wheel.
There’s a very good reason for this, I’ve figured out a way to force a color on the front and an object on the back. I can now do a prediction that will have three reveals with the wheel, the only variable would be the number, which would be the first selection. Once the first number is made, I can pull the prediction from an index and I’m set! It’ll take a lot of the heat off of the switch, as it happens at the very beginning of the routine!
A myth I spend a lot of time trying to educate people who ask about virtual shows is that to do them, I simply turn on my laptop and go. There’s soo much more that goes into it. One of the things is your background. Sounds simple, but it’s not.
Recently I was watching a Zoom magic show and this guy didn’t put much thought into what was behind him. He’s got an interesting picture of a lady behind him. She kinda stole the show.
I’m not saying the picture is inappropriate, but if what is behind you is more interesting than you, you’ve got a problem. Unfortunately we’re trying to connect to people on a human level through Zoom. Whatever is behind you is a window to your world.
If any objects are visible, you really need to think it through. I used more of my attention trying to figure out the performer’s relationship to the girl in the picture than on his performance. Was she his wife, pen pal, someone he admires? Is that a pic from 20 years ago, or last week? Is she still alive? Are they still together?
Make your background intentional. If you have things visible, remember it’s a window into who you really are.
Months ago I was texting with one of the groups I brainstorm with and I brought up the idea for this gag. You say, “You’ve been a great group, you know, I’m going to give you a free pitcher of beer!” You then reach into your wallet and remove a card with a picture of beer!
The play is on the picture/pitcher words that can sound similar. This would be a gag card similar to the Pride and Joy or the picture of my two kids.
When I have them printed, I also did a set with and empty pitcher. The idea is that I can also use the Out To Lunch principle and make the full pitcher become empty. I’m not sure if I’ll ever use it that way, however I was trying to be forward thinking. It’s much easier to have them both made at the same time, than having to go back and recreate it to make the empty pitcher.
About a week ago I had a post about the game wheel that I bought at a thrift store. I’m going to be using it with Haim Goldenburg’s Wheel of Mind force. The picture on left is what it looked like in the thrift store and the picture on the right is after I cleaned it up.
The problem with the white wheel is that while it is dry erase, it’s still very hard to clean. Also the white isn’t the best on camera. Learning that, I resurfaced the wheel and coated it with chalk board paint. Here’s what the front and back look like now:
It plays on camera much better this way and it’s easier to change the items on the back. Now I just need to figure out what I’m going to force in the show!
