At a recent Halloween event, I was hired to perform at a close up magic station. This was simply a table that kids came by and I did close up magic for them.
This was a fun format to perform in, and with the table, I had more props with me than I would usually for a roving gig. When the crowd grew bigger, I did a couple of bigger tricks.
Another thing you can’t see in the picture is that I brought a speaker with me and used it to amplify my voice. The event was in a noisy gym, so a bit of audio support was nice!
On a TV appearance last week I did The Fortune Teller trick from my 2025 lecture notes. You can watch the appearance here:
What I like about this trick is that the moment you bring out the prop, the audience gets a hit of nostalgia. That makes it a trick that instantly connects with the audience.
Then my card routine with it has a three-reveal punch. The card routine I did in this TV spot is different from my stage routine, which wouldn’t work with this setup, with the host standing next to me.
Last week, I was at a booking conference and they had a “pitch and perform” event. In this event, each person had 5 minutes to introduce themself, tell what they did, and give a short sample of what they do.
Here’s what I took with me:
There are two routines, one I intended to do is my Stand Up Chop Cup (it’s in my 2025 lecture notes) and the back up routine is a rope routine. Both magic routines would run about three minutes and the other two minutes would be the pitch part. What’s important about these two routines is that there is no set up and no clean up and they have a lot of magic!
I always try to have a back up routine for things like this. It’s only five minutes, but sometimes I’ll see the room and decide my main trick isn’t right, or there will be another magician who may do something similar to what I had planned. That’s why the two tricks I brought were very different visually and in effect.
Recently I was doing a gig at a retirement community and one of the people that lived there was magician Dick Barry!
Dick is retired now; however, he has created many magic tricks that were sold. He was also a performer at the Magic Castle. I had a great time chatting with Dick before the show. This is one of the great things about performing at a retirement community, you never know who you’ll run into!
If you want to learn more about performing at retirement communities, check out my book How to Perform for Seniors.
Recently the Portland Society of Magicians has their amateur magic contest. This was for people who don’t really perform for pay.
What I love about things like this is getting to see all the different styles of magic that are performed. Also, it lets me see the various trends that are going around magic.
One thing I noticed in the contest was that there were two acts where the trick didn’t work, and they ended at that point. That’s something that separates pros from amateurs: how they deal with mistakes. A pro will plow on and figure out a way out of it, whereas the amateur doesn’t necessarily have that “toolbox” to get them out of the situation. How do you get the “toolbox” of outs, simple, you fail a lot! Failure is part of the learning process and a very important part of it!
In a box of used magic I found an almost 30 year old letter from an established professional magician to a newer magician. It’s notes on the newer magician’s show, you can read them below:
The notes are pretty spot on, and great advice. I love that the older magician took the time to write up the advice so that it’s easier for the newer magician to implement the suggestions!
Personally I love helping magicians be better, and I think it’s something we all should do!
I was playing around with some cards the other night and came up with a very 1980’s feeling packet trick. The effect is you show four aces. The ace of diamonds changes to a two of diamonds. Then the ace of clubs changes to the three of clubs. For the finale, the ace of hearts turns into the four of hearts, giving you a one (ace), two, three and four.
This trick uses a series of Ascanio Spreads. I’m not going to go teach that move here, but you can look it up and find a tutorial for it online.
Here’s the starting order of the cards:
Hold them face up in your left hand in dealing grip. Do an Ascanio Spread to show four aces, putting the four card block on top of the packet .
Do a second Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of diamonds is now a two. Put the four card block top of the spread.
Next do a third Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of clubs is now a three. This time, you will switch places of the middle two cards. I openly displace them, and then put the four card block on top.
Finally, do a fourth Ascenio Spread to show that the ace of hearts is now the four!
That’s it, there’s really not much to this trick, and it feels like it needs an ending. I have played with having the backs change colors and have a method for that, but I’m not really happy with it.
Additionally, I’d be surprised if this sequence had not been created before. It seems fairly obvious that this result can be achieved with just Ascenio Spreads.
After a summer of performing, I was doing some prop maintenance and noticed how gross the ropes I use have gotten!
Going through your props a couple times a year to clean them up or replace things that get worn out is a good thing to do. It’ll keep your show looking fresh and not beat up.
The final day at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) convention was a show day for me. I skipped the card clinic in the morning to prep my show for the afternoon. Here’s what I look like before showtime (I’ll add the after later in this post)!
The show went well, it took a few minutes to warm up the audience, but they were great!
A lot of magicians are nervous about performing for magicians. One way to look at it is that they are just people, and in theory, if they’re at a magic convention, they are magic fans. That should give you a head start, as they’ll likely appreciate what you’re doing, unlike a dentist convention.
Here I am after the show, a sweaty mess!
After my show, it was a dinner break, then wrapping up the evening was the One Handed Cut A Thon and the Bag of Tricks contest.
The One-Handed Cut-A-Thon was for whoever could do the most charlier cuts in a minute for the first round and the most in 90 seconds for the final round.
I made it to the final round, but unfortunately, I didn’t win. I did win the Slickest One-Hand Cut award!
Then it was the Bag of Tricks contest. In this contest you get a paper bag with about 14 items and you have to come up with an routine using only those items. You have to use all 14 items or you get a deduction. All the bags were the same, except that each bag had one wild card item, that was different in each bag.
I entered as a team with Mike Norden. Our wildcard item was a tiny smock.
We ended up getting second place, but it was a ton of fun!
The PCAM convention was a ton of fun, and it’s really a family there. Everyone is cool and open to hang out with anyone! I highly recommend this convention to anyone!
