Restarting to do a trick that’s been almost two years since I used to do has some fun little challenges. One of the things that the trick needs is a double walled envelope. I went out and bought some envelopes and gimmicked them:
The first show I realized quickly that these particular envelopes were made differently than I was used to. They start loaded with and item behind the wall and I put something in front of the wall during the show. During the first show I used it in yesterday, I couldn’t get the front compartment open! It was too flush with the front side of the envelope.
The solution was pretty easy, a quick little tear and I was good to go! That little scallop I ripped out allowed me to access the front compartment easily.
The routine that I use this for the audience never sees that side of the envelope until it’s sealed, so it’s not issue having a tear that big.
I frequently tell people that creating and performing magic is 90% problem solving!
This week I’m performing at a 9 day fair and it’s been a little while since I’ve done my full stage show, so I’ve had a few little road bumps. The biggest one is that I’m not doing my cracker card trick. It’s a fun trick with some twists and turns and it’s an unusual trick.
The problem is the cracker packaging I need to do the trick doesn’t appear to be made anymore. I need to load a cracker into a cracker wrapper and seal it, and all of the packing that I’ve found recently don’t work for the resealing part, and are super tight making the loading really difficult without damaging the cracker.
After much searching, this cracker finally popped up. The packaging looks looser that what I’ve been able to get recently. While that solves one of the issues, it doesn’t solve the other. The placement of the seam on the packaging is in the middle, and that won’t work for the resealing of the cracker package.
I’ve got an idea of how to make it work, however you can’t just order one or two crackers to try out the idea. I need to order a box of 500 of them and after shipping I’m about $50 into crackers! The trick is worth the gamble, let’s hope it works when they show up on Thursday!
One thing that I hope still sticks around are some magic clubs getting together on zoom. While I think that meeting in person is more valuable, the Zoom ones tend to be more beneficial to me.
I just happened to be passing through Minneapolis on their magic club night. I looked it up and it was on Zoom (not in person). While I would have loved to visit in person, doing it online was OK.
Whenever possible, I try to get to magic clubs. I think they are extremely valuable in growing as a magician. I hope they figure out (as a whole) how to fix sagging membership numbers as they’re something I’d rather not see go away.
I’ve wanted to visit Magic Inc for a long time, however every time I’ve been in Chicago it’s been closed. I finally made it to Chicago when it was open.
Inside I noticed they had my Evaporation trick in stock! It’s always fun to see my trick out there in magic shops.
It’s an interesting idea, it’s basically a book that’s just one trick, with a lot of methods for it. It sounds like it’s a bit of a journey through how the trick was created. I haven’t really had a chance to dig into it yet, but I’m excited to read it!
The final day of Abbott’s for me was getting up early and giving Elliott Hunter a ride to the airport, then hitting the road for my next gig. I also forgot to mention the Elliott won first place in the competition!
On my way home, I stopped at the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin. I watch my friends Adam Winrich do his fire whip show and Lynx Kim do his sword swallowing show!
Both are them are top notch acts, and worth checking out if you’re in the area!
One thing I noticed at this particular fair and I think Ren Faire’s in general is that the audiences are there to have a good time. If I try to overanalyze it, they really commit to going. They get dressed up and spend time and money on that. That gives them the incentive and mindset that they are there to have a good experience.
Now I just need to figure out how to get my audiences to commit to my events before they leave their homes!
I got up early after sleeping in my car, and caught Franz Harary’s lecture. It was more of a Q&A and he shared a lot about how he thinks and how he works.
Then I had a little birdcage jam with Thomas:
We got really nerdy about the cages, it was a lot of fun!
Then I ran into Larry Kahlow from Eagle Magic, which was the shop that I went to when I lived in Minnesota!
It was great to catch up with Larry!
Before the convention, my daughter had made some buttons out of the George Shindler’s beginner’s magic book. I ran into George and gave him one of the buttons!
When I gave him the button, he told me that he does the trick on the button. I told him it was his trick from his book!
It was a fun show and got a deserved standing ovation!
I’m now trying to figure out how to get to Abbott’s next year. It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll be able to go, with me taking time off for FISM next summer.
Yesterday was the first official day of the Abbott’s Magic Get Together. I spent a good chunk of the morning in the dealers room showing people the products that I brought with me. Then I walked (15 mins) into downtown to see the street performer:
People liked him, however he was a little bit too standard for my tastes. All standard tricks, done in the standard way, with standard patter.
Later in the day was Nick Diffate’s lecture.
It was good, he shared some good stuff.
The stage show that night was fun, and it was good to see Stuart Mcdonald’s act.
There are a few choices that performers make that make me scratch my head. The first is when you’re dong a magic convention and in the evening show, why would you do a standard trick in the standard way? I honestly believe that professor’s nightmare has no place in a show at a magic convention.
The other was they had a speed painter who added a mentalism bit to his speed painting. The effect was he was going to paint the person that someone was thinking of. He used an Amazebox to force it, and from the audience I could tell something didn’t look right. The speed painter got to the end and when he asked the person to reveal the person they were thinking of, it wasn’t who he painted. It took all of the air out of the trick. If you have a skill that’s very interesting, don’t try to add a magic trick to it…especially if you’re not a good magician.
Yesterday I got into Colon, MI, which is a day before the Abbott’s Magic Get Together starts. The day begins at 10 am, so I figured it would just be easier to arrive the day before.
Somehow, despite not really knowing anyone here, I got invited to a amish chicken dinner! It was a lot of fun. The dinner was amazing, then we went to an amish farm and did a show for some families.
I was invited to perform, so I did my spoon act and it went over really well! I was worried about a few lines in it, but it played great and I’m glad that’s the act I did.
Today is the first day of the Abbott’s Get Together, and it looks like it’ll be a fun day!
One thing I don’t get is performers who wear sunglasses when they perform outdoors. It blocks your connection to the audience. I don’t care if you have a sensitivity to light, it hurts your show. I get that standing in the sun is uncomfortable, but so is sweating in 107 degree heat.
At the ND State Fair, on the stage next to my stage is a music stage. Daniel Kosel is performing, and all week he’s been wearing sunglasses for his shows. I want to note that his show is a lot less of a show than the other acts I’ll be talking about later in this post.
Daniel Kosel performing at the ND State Fair
Daniel is just a guy with a guitar, who stands there and sings. He sings slower songs and mostly older songs. His performance isn’t very dynamic, there’s nothing he does that makes you want to watch him, he’s more of an ambient act, than a mainstage act. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I also don’t think this is the venue for that. He’d be better in a smaller, indoor type venue.
Yesterday on the same stage they had the 188th Army Band of North Dakota. This is one of the Army/National Guard Band, and if you ever get the chance to see any of the army bands, do it! They performers are all super talented and very dynamic. They do upbeat music, and their show is super tight! Any performer can learn a lot about watching these band.
188th Army Band of North Dakota
If you look at the pic of the 188th band above, you’ll notice the guy in the center is wearing sunglasses. While I’m not a fan, I also give him a pass, as he’s not the front person, it’s the lady to the left that’s the signer. The guy in the middle was doing a guitar solo when the pic was taken.
The final show of the day was Sting Rays Jukebox Rock. This show is a high energy show that’s full of production and is a lot of fun. Sting Ray plays oldies, but songs everyone knows. He’s got a great look and a tight show. He does a good job connecting with the audience. He’s very likeable onstage.
Sting Ray’s Jukebox Rock
You’ll notice that no one in Sting Ray’s show is wearing sunglasses. I know this pic was taken after sun down, but at his earlier shows while the sun was up, everyone’s eyes were visible.
I’ve always told performers you can learn more about performing by watching other shows than you can by doing your show. You learn what you like or don’t like, and once you know what you don’t like, you can try to avoid those things in your show.
One of the fun things in the World of Wonders show is they do the some great illusions! One of them is the headless woman. This is part of a larger routine, where a girl gets her head cut off, the head is displayed balanced on a sword on a chair (so you can see under the head) and then the body is displayed without a head!
It’s fun to get to slip into the illusions for fun, but it also gives me a lot more respect for people who do them. Not just sideshow illusions, but magic illusions as it’s a lot of slipping into places that don’t feel like they were designed for people to slip into!
I don’t do illusions, however I do think it’s important for magicians to try to slip into them. It’s easy to say, “I know how it works, she’s just in the base…“. the reality is that there’s a lot more to it than simply laying down.
