Uncategorized – Page 13 – MagicShow.Tips

Keep Notes…

Last year for a gig I built a Girl Without a Middle illusion. Basically, it’s a Sphinx Illusion, but I put it on wheels so that I can get in it and walk around. Then I can stop and put other people in it, and pictures and be taken. Here’s what it looked like: After … Continue reading “Keep Notes…”

After doing it last year, I think I must have thought it wasn’t going to get rebooked as I kept nothing about the box, not even the building notes. When the time came to rebuild it, I was basically starting from scratch. I found the receipt for the mirrors, so that gave me some basic info about the box and a starting point.

My learning lesson was doing something as simple as taking a picture of my build notes would have helped a lot.

I’m lucky that when I went to Austin, I got to pass through a second time. Once again I only had a few hours, but I got to check out another show at the Museum of the Weird. We saw Dan and he did a great show. One of the big differences between seeing Dan … Continue reading “”

One of the big differences between seeing Dan and the Black Scropion was that Dan talked to us, and it felt like he was more int he moment than the Black Scorpion was. I really prefer this style to watch, however it’s all the different types of performing styles that make it “art”.

Do Your Research…

Recently this meme has been circulating around the internet: It’s used in the context that good art costs money. While mostly true, the problem with the meme is that while the Mona Lisa is considered great art, it was never completed, or delivered to the client. Your art, is it complete and deliverable…if so you’re … Continue reading “Do Your Research…”

Recently this meme has been circulating around the internet:

It’s used in the context that good art costs money. While mostly true, the problem with the meme is that while the Mona Lisa is considered great art, it was never completed, or delivered to the client. Your art, is it complete and deliverable…if so you’re a step ahead of someone who has a better show than yours, but can’t present it.

Personally I’ll pay for something that gets done over something that while great, is never finished or delivered to me!

Be Nice…

After my showcase last weekend at a conference, my agent relayed something that was told to her by someone attending. Someone in the audience said they, “I liked Louie because he doesn’t make fun of anyone.“ This is 100% true, however people frequently misinterpret what I do as making fun of people. I never make … Continue reading “Be Nice…”

After my showcase last weekend at a conference, my agent relayed something that was told to her by someone attending. Someone in the audience said they, “I liked Louie because he doesn’t make fun of anyone.“

This is 100% true, however people frequently misinterpret what I do as making fun of people. I never make fun of people, I make fun of situations. I may ask someone why they did something strange, or comment on something that they do, but I never “punch down” to them. I create situations and play within these situations.

That’s the key, is to not “bully” people, but to create situations where your personality can shine. If you are a bully or an a-hole and that’s your instinct, then it will come out and it’s probably something you need to work on internally.

Let Them See You…

At the showcase that I was at last week, one of the performers wore sunglasses while he performed. Personally I think in 99.7% of all instances there’s no reason for a performer to wear sunglasses. The only acceptable reason is for a character thing, like Rudy Coby and that character must be strong. Other than that, you better be a huge celebrity like Metallica…and I’ve seen Metallica twice, they don’t wear sunglasses on stage.

The big thing is that sunglasses block your eyes. When the audience can’t see your eyes, it’s a lot harder for them to connect with the audience. You’ve essentially put up a wall between you and the audience, and you have to break that wall to connect.

If you are wearing sunglasses, take them off and look at your audience. Yes, even if you are outside with the sun in your face.

Keepin’ It Casual

When I was performing a couple of weeks ago at a fair in California, I had a friend come out and see the show. He’s known me for a while, but never seen the show. His reaction to the show was, “it was just like hanging out with you”. I really liked this comment, as that’s the vibe I’m going for in my show.

The goal of my show isn’t to be a formal magic show, but to be a show where it feels like we’re hanging out. It’s a show like we met at a party…obviously more formal than that as I use props, but not too formal.

Fun Surprise!!!

While scrolling through facebook, I saw that Dom Chambers got passed through to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent. This was of interest to me as I had made a prop for him to use on the show. Here’s video of his act from AGT last night: He uses my Evaporation trick to pour the … Continue reading “Fun Surprise!!!”

He uses my Evaporation trick to pour the beer into the video screen. The bottle was custom made for his act. It was a fun project, and I’m always glad to see people use magic that I’ve created!

Yelling into a Wall…

This week I’m performing at a very small county fair. There’s an act that’s a “found space” act here. Essentially a found space act is one that isn’t on a stage, so very similar to a busker or street performer, however they don’t take tips. He’s a singer that basically does cover songs.

All day he’s been essentially playing to no one. He’s had no crowd all day. One thing I learned from a guy named Skip Banks, who is an amazing act at fairs and knows how to draw them in. He has a theory that you need to make the audience comfortable. That means giving them a place to sit and watch your show and shade.

Doing found space entertainment as “ambient” entertainment really doesn’t add much value to the event. If you are doing ambient entertainment in a wine garden, it makes more sense, than in a random walkway.

This act would be way more successful if it tried to engage people. He could do this by simply by changing lyrics to song to thing that are happening around him, or talking to people. Instead he was a human jukebox on auto play.

Prune Your Hedges…

In my show, what used to be the second routine was a really long routine. It was also a long time before it got to the payout of the trick. It was a 6-8 minute routine with one magic effect. It’s a funny routine, but too long for the second trick.

What I did was cut out a chunk of the routine that was funny, but compared to the rest of the routine felt less spontaneous. I was guiding the person onstage into a funny situation. While funny and the person on stage was genuinely reacting, my responses were too canned. There was a time when I was figuring out the routine and my responses were much more genuine. Now I’m just going joke to joke.

I needed to get out of this. I cut that whole section, and the routine is playing a lot better. I also moved this trick to the third spot in the show. The routine that is now in the second spot has three effects in it, with the first one happening immediately, and the second one pretty quick. They are all good tricks and keep the momentum going.

Just because you can get 8 or 10 mins out of a routine doesn’t mean you should. Shortening the trick for me is getting a better reaction than the longer version.

How To Create New Tricks…

It drives me nuts when people say they “aren’t creative like me” or that ” not everyone can create new tricks”. That’s total BS, it’s not that they aren’t creative, it’s that they aren’t motivated to be creative. Just like learning a sleight of hand move it simply takes practice.

The easiest way to start your creative thinking is to read a description of a magic trick and figure out a method. Don’t watch a demo video as what you see can affect what you do. Watching a demo could make try to make you recreate that specific the method, this isn’t what you want to do.

Coming up with your own methods is a good starting point for learning to be creative.

The key to being creative is actually putting energy into it. Sure some ideas pop out of nowhere, some are the result of specific work. I used to set aside 30-45 mins every morning to try to come up with ideas (magic tricks / jokes / etc). The key is to do it everyday, I do it in the morning because if I do it then, it will get done. Be aware that 95% of these ideas will be junk, but you are mining for the 5% that’s good.