Whenever someone finds out that I’m a magician and asks to show me a trick I always say yes. I’m amazed at the amount of magicians that hate being shown tricks. By saying “yes” I’m promoting someone’s enthusiasm (and my own) for magic.
The quality and variety of tricks that people show me are way better than a decade ago. I think YouTube has helped people learn more than just the 21 card trick.
By saying yes, I met a guy that could do a tabled faro shuffle with a beat up deck and he helped me learn to do it. The other day one I saw a coin trick that I’d never seen before and it was cool!
On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we welcome in Mr. LO. We talk about a number of different things including his life as a ballet dancer and all that goes into maintaining your body to perform that every night.
He tells us about the various career transformations he had to make including becoming a full time contortionist and how he found paper tearing to take over once he aged out of contortion. We learn about all the things that go into making such a unique act and the difficulties accompanied with performing an art form that no one performs anymore. A great conversation with a first time performer at the 2025 festival.
The other day I had some free time in downtown Seattle, so I swung by the Market Magic Shop in the Pike Place Market. One of the cool hidden things at the Pike Place Market is that they have a giant Ask Alexander poster on public display in one of their less travelled hallways!
I picked up a couple of things at the magic shop, but while I was there I noticed t they had added Play-Duh to their spring snake selection!
I posted my routine for Play-Duh recently and I really love this prop! It’s in my summer library show and my routine is a hit! I’ve said it before, I wish I had thought of this idea!
Support brick and mortar magic shops, if you don’t , they will keep disappearing!
I love updating old things to make them modern and more relevant. A great example of this and something that I wish I thought of is Play-Duh. This is the old spring snake in a can, but instead of a peanut brittle or chip can, it’s a “Play-Doh” style can.
Simply putting a spring snake into Play-Doh can won’t work, the lid won’t reliably stay on. This has an adjusted lid to make it stay on.
I’ve been using this in my test shows for my summer library show and it’s a HIT!
The national theme for libraries this summer in the USA is Color Your World, so this fits right into the theme!
Here’s how I use it in my kid show:
Effect: Five container of Play-Doh are shown, each has a different colored lid. One is selected (purple). The other four are opened and they contain a ball of purple Play-Doh. When the selected one is opened, and two purple spring snake jumps out.
This is a really simple routine, all you need to do is to put purple Play-Doh in the four containers that aren’t purple. Two spring snakes go into the one with the purple lid and you’re all set.
All you need to do is force the purple one, I use Phil Smith’s Quinta Force, but the PATEO Force or Magician’s Choice force would also work.
It’s a fun routine, especially when you add in all the Bev Bergeron style bits of trying to put the spring snake back into the can and having them pop back out.
This isn’t a product that I put or make anything on, it’s just something that I think is really cool idea.
Magicians can learn a lot from taking tours. I did a whiskey tour when I was in Nashville and Jimmy the tour guide was a great example of what magicians can learn.
Jimmy had a great “character”, we all knew what he was about very quickly. He also had what was essentially a stand up comedy set that he did while he drove the bus. He told personal stories about the landmarks we were driving by and the history of the area. I think many magicians miss that, connecting with the performer.
I do think that magic is important and you have to have good magic, but connecting with the audience and letting them know who you are is a close second.
Many years ago I heard an interview with Jerry Seinfeld that had an interesting piece of advice. He said your job isn’t having fun onstage, you should be working! I agree, your first job is to work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun at the same time.
Here’s how sweaty I am after a show:
I know it’s gross, but I busted my ass onstage! It was fun, but I worked
When I was in Nashville recently I saw a ton of bands whose names I can’t remember. One of the bands playing at a bar that I stopped in was this one:
Their name was one the screens behind them. This is something that’s easy for you to do with your show. Put your logo on to a flash drive and keep with with your show gear. Now anytime there’s a TV in your performing area, plug in the flash drive and pull up your logo.
Personally I think having your logo on a screen is more modern than having a sign on our table. It also adds a touch of “production” to your show. This is a super easy way to get them to remember your name!
I did a test show of my 2025 summer library show. My show is themed around colors, with an emphasis on the colors of the rainbow. Here’s my view of the show when set up:
The Milson Worth Silk Cabby is something that I put in the show for the color blue. The effect that happens is that “my grandma’s scarf” stretches from about 9 inches to 20 feet long while in my grandma’s scarf box. This prop is an outlier in the show as I don’t use magic prop looking things in the show.
After doing it in the show, it really doesn’t feel right as a prop in the show. I think I may just use a double walled bag. The bonus of that is that it will reduce bulk and weight that I need to move around. The downside is that I don’t get to use a fun, vintage magic prop in my show.
For me a test show about a month before the summer library season is really helpful to identify things that don’t work, or I don’t like in the show. Once the season starts, I don’t have a lot of time to build or find a new prop to replace something that isn’t playing how I hoped it would.
