Category: Uncategorized

Is it Worth it?

After yesterday’s post about the offensive magic routine, it made me wonder why magicians fight so hard for things that have aged out of being acceptable.
Is it that they fear having to learn something new?

Honestly I don’t know.

Ray Franklyn continues to blow my mind with his defense of how he presents this magic trick. He asked me to tell him what I felt was offensive. Here’s a screenshot (Franklyn is his “stage last name”):

Ray Franklyn Magic show

His casual use of “Chinaman” shows how out of touch he is. Is he intentionally being offensive or racist, or does he not know better?

Honestly, I do not think he is intentionally trying to be offensive or racist…HOWEVER I do think that he’s unwilling to learn that it’s no longer 1960 and what may have been acceptable to say then, is not now.

Change is hard.

I struggle with keeping up with the times in my show. I also push boundaries in my show, however in the last 20 years I’m very aware those boundaries have changed. I also push boundaries with a personal point of view, not simply rehashing an Ian Adair trick that’s been done before.

Simple Virtual Set Up…

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.

Doing the Full Act…

I got a last minute gig for today doing my full flea circus. I’ve done a greatest hits of the flea circus in some virtual shows, but not the full show. I haven’t really done it in almost exactly a year. A couple of days ago I pulled the props out of the shed and fixed what needed to be repaired. I was amazed that it was in pretty good shape. Normally I have two seasons I do it, summer and two weeks in December. It feels like I usually do a lot of work on it at the begging of each of those seasons.

Here’s it set up after a couple of glue applications:

I also recently picked up a new webcam and I set it up on a tripod that’s at the floor of the circus. I think it’s an interesting view of the flea circus.

Seeing the flea circus from the “ground level” is something that I can’t do in an in perons show. Here’s me playing with the fire breathing flea:

I’m a fan of the low camera. I’m going to use it for a couple of high flea tricks like the trapeze. I like the texture that using this gives me!

Keepin’ It Real…

Somehow I stumbled up a Hallmark movie that had some magic in it. It’s called the Christmas House. Magic is a big plot line in the movie, and there’s magic sprinkled throughout the movie.

Turns out the magic consultant was a someone I knew. Jason Verners did a great job with the magic tricks being actual magic tricks…or at least magic tricks that are possible. Soo many shows or movie simply make it up, and that’s fine, but I think it’s way more realistic when the tricks have some basis in reality.

12 Cent Interactive Trick!

The last couple of days I’ve been writing about doing an interactive “do as I do” trick using coins that has a magical ending. Yesterday I talked about how I’m forcing the coin, and a couple days ago I talked broadly about how the coin vanish would happen.

Basically I’m using a 21 cent trick coin set…but instead of the dime that’s in the set I’m using a penny. That gives me a set of two pennies and two nickels that will nest to form a single nickel. You are essentially doing the standard routine used with tricks like the 21 cent trick, all the coins go into your hand, you remove a nickel (that has the other three coins inside of it), then open your hand to show the other three coins are gone.

What my forcing sequence gives is a mini effect before the main effect. More importantly is that the mini effect justifies removing the nickel from your hand, which shifts a lot of heat from the method of the trick AND removes heat from the coin on the table, since there was a reason to remove it.

What I love about working on this trick is that I’ve taken a trick (21 Cent trick), where the standard routine is garbage and made something decent out of it. I can only think of one other routine with the coin set that’s any good. It’s in one of John Mendoza‘s books and uses ae $1.35 coin set, which is essentially the same coin set. That routine ends with a very surprising production of 85 pennies!!!

Watch Nick Lewin…

On the this weeks episode of Masters of Illusion, the act to watch in Nick Lewin do his Slow Motion Torn and Restored Newspaper. He’s the best act on the show. You can see the lifetime of work he’s put into it. You can watch is on The CW’s website.

Nick knows every beat of that trick. starts out with energy, establishes his character and the magic is strong.

Pay attention to how each joke moves the act forward. There are no jokes shoehorned in there. It all relates directly to him or the trick.

The appearance was just under 2 minutes, and I counted 9 laughs in those two minutes. That gives him 4.5 laughs per minute. That’s pretty solid, my goal is 4 LPM’s. You’ll notice he front loads the routine with jokes and then the final 25% is magic, and he doesn’t really mix the two.

I think everyone who wants to be a comedy magician can learn a lot by watching Nick’s appearance.

Stuff I’d Never Do…

One of the fun things about making short pre-recorded videos for events is that I get to play around with things that I’d never do in my show. Here’s a clip of a trick from one of those videos:

What I really enjoy about making videos like this is getting to play a lot more. When you can try something 20 times, it allows you to take risks you’d never take in a live show.

Go out and play!

The Cork Trick…

Awhile ago I was visiting Steve Dobson and someone (sorry I can’t remember who) showed me a little trick with cork. You put the cork under a cup and when you lifted it, it was standing up on end. It’s a clever little trick that I learned is Sol Stone’s Abraviagra.

You can watch Sol do it here:

Sol’s version is great, while his presentation is a bit dated, don’t let that turn you off. This is a great impromptu trick. I’ve used it a bunch and and it’s great.

I was recently working on some videos for a client thought about the cork trick. I needed to get a bit more time out of it, and wanted a bit more build to the routine. I don’t think it would hit as hard if you’re not there watching it in person.

Here’s what I came up with:

The trick progresses from fully covered, to partially covered, to just under a clear glass, and then there’s the kicker at the end. My method is a bit more complex than Sol’s method is. Mine was designed for a video, so it didn’t need to be practical. It’s super gimmicked!

I think the trick came out well and while it won’t be moving into my show anytime soon, it was fun to do and it’s something that’ll be in my “back pocket” if I need it.

Give a Laugh…

A couple of years ago while in New Orleans I got to sit down with Aye Jaye and chat about his book, The Golden Rule of Schmoozing. We talked about giving people things, and initially I didn’t know I was doing it, but I was. I always have a trick or gag ready. I never force it on people, but if the situation is right, I do it.

That brings me to this gag that I thought up not too long ago:

I was at the store and got carded because I was buying some alcohol. I remembered a gag that was taught to me by Tom Mullica where you glue a clown nose on your ID. I thought it’d be a topical gag and found some paper and cut one out and stuck it to my ID. Now I’m giving away a laugh, and expecting zero in return.

Nothing.

Just giving out a smile. That’s all. It’s a great feeling, and something that I think people need right now. Also I think it’s one of the better COVID gags out there right now, because the laugh is on the situation, not on the virus.