About a month ago I added a new trick to Zoom that’s been doing really well. It’s an interactive trick, where someone thinks of someone in the Zoom room and I tell them who they are thinking of. It’s a pretty good trick because it’s so customized and uses what’s happening now. It’s “propless mentalism” in a zoom room!
What I do is make a progressive anagram for the first names of the people in the Zoom room and have someone think of a person. I then go through the flow chart and tell them who they are thinking of! It can be instantly repeated, and if people join later, you can simply add their names. It’s great!
One of the advantages of doing it people’s first names in a zoom room is the person thinking of the name is looking right at the name. That makes if very difficult for them to misspell it!
Give it a try, you’ll like it!
Virtual MCing!
Today, you can check me out doing some virtual stage hosting for the Coconino County Fair on their facebook page! I’ll be introducing their bands and doing some magic tricks.
When I was a teenager I remember in all of the Karrell Fox boxs there being tons of magic tricks that he used to introduce act. Things like a piece of rope ends up shaped like an acts name, or the chalk magically writes the acts name on a chalkboard. I remember thinking how that was very dated feeling. What I mean by that, is that it doesn’t (to me) feel modern in a live variety show.
Now that I’m doing some of this virtual hosting, things like that kinda make sense. In a virtual video, the trick can happen, then the bands video starts. There’s not lag between me leaving the stage, and the band walking on and getting ready. I’ve gone back and reread a lot of Karrell’s stuff and while the props need to be modernized, the ideas are solid!
Corn Dog Idea
Yesterday I posted about making a corndog out of urethane. Later I made one out of foam, and prefer it to the urethane. I think the foam works better with the texture of a corndog.
I started playing around with the foam corndog and it handles better than the urethane one. Here’s what I came up with:
The video isn’t what I made it for, but it makes for a decent social media video.
Prop Making…
This week I’m MCing a virtual event, well really just doing introductions for bands at an event. It’s three bands, and all I really need to do is read the words that the event producer gave me, however I want to add a little something. One of the things that I want to do is make a corndog appear and disappear. As far as I know, no one makes a vanishing corn dog.
I started out to fabricate a corn dog. The first step is to make a silicone mold of a corn dog. The first surprise was that a corndog floated in the silicone, so I had to hold it down with some toothpicks. Once the silicone mold had cured, I pulled out the real corndog and used urethane to make the fake corndog.
I added some pigment to the urethane, the color, isn’t exactly right, but I’m going to give it a little bit of paint and I’ll be good to go. I only need this for one show, so the paint doesn’t need to last.
I’m excited to do record this! We’ll see how it turns out!
First Full Show…
I just had my first full in person show in over six months! I’ve done shorter shows, but this was the first full one. It’s the most nervous I’ve been in a long time, I knew it was nerves, and I didn’t let them get the best of me.
The shorter show’s I’ve been doing were designed specifically for a 20 min set and didn’t have any of my normal full show material in it. I did a couple of run through’s of the show, it was amazing how much of the show came back immediately.
I was also surprised at what I forgot to do once the show started. I do a nest of boxes, and what comes out of it is something from the beginning of the show. I forgot to do the bit that allows me to get the item. At the end of the show, when I started to do the boxes, I realized I didn’t have anything to come out of them. I took the did a quick card trick and the signed card came out of the nest of boxes.
It was fun to be in front of an audience again!
Christian Swenson – The Moisture Festival Podcast
Physical movement virtuoso Christian Swenson joins Matt and Louie in the Moisture Festival Podcast Studio. They talk about his early life studying dance, his interest in movement and how that led him to create his unique style of performance called “Human Jazz.”
They cover the variety of performance masters Christian has studied under and how he came to perform at the Moisture Festival. If you love Christian’s work, you will love hearing how it all began.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Recharging Your Battery…
Last summer I started using rechargeable batteries in my show. I fought using them for a long time because in the past they weren’t very good. I finally listened to Steve Trash and Eric Haines about getting them. While I’m not performing a lot this summer (due to COVID restrictions) they are still getting used.
I bought double the batteries to run my show. When I’m out performing, I have another set in the charger and switch the batteries when I get home. Initially it took a little while to get into the rhythm of using them, but now it’s second nature. I also keep a full set of regular batteries for my show in the trunk of my car as a back up.
The rechargeable batteries paid for themselves within a month or two last summer. Having them this summer is nice because not having a battery bill is adding to my profits, which is really helpful this year. If you’re not using rechargeable batteries, it’s totally worth investing in, I wish I did a few year earlier!
Taking a Pea…
One of the silver linings about having the entertainment industry shut down during the COVID pandemic is that I’m getting play around with making a lot more props. One thing that I’ve wanted to make for a while are peas for the three shell game.
I had some time some the other day and made some molds for the peas. Then I picked up some urethane and made them. The urethane I used was a 40A on the Shore Hardness Scale.
They have a little bit of give, but are pretty firm. I like them so far!
Still Working On It…
Months ago I started working on my version of Goshman’s Cards Thru Newspaper trick. My version ended up taking out everything I didn’t like about the trick, which are the cards and the newspaper. I ended up replacing them with Polaroid pictures and an envelope. It’s still a work in progress.
A couple weeks ago I was invited to be a guest at a magic club meeting that took place over zoom. One thing they did was allow people to perform and get critique from Patrick Martin, who also did a presentation during the meeting.
Only a handful of people took the club up. I volunteered to do something if they had space and wouldn’t get in the way of club member’s having the chance to be critiqued. They had plenty of space, so I did my trick with Polaroid pictures.
There was some great feedback, mostly with how bad my pictures were and how they showed up on the screen. They are 100% correct, here’s a screenshot:
The reflection from my ring light made the picture hard to see. There are a couple of solutions for this:
- Spray them with matte spray to dull the gloss
- Have the camera behind the ring light and bring the pics past the ring light
- Have more contrast between the animal and background in the actual picture
- Remake the picture so that it’s not glossy (i.e. fake Polaroid)
I think the final solution will be a combination of all of the above.
a bit of praise…
Yesterday’s post was a bit harsh on Goswick. I’m going to give him some praise today. Here’s a trick I think is an interesting idea:
Now, it’s a interesting routine, I’m not sure it calls for the giant props that he’s using, but it’s a good idea. If there was a way to have a flat board, without the strange triangle, it’d be a much better trick. I think the triangle points at the method.
I do like the idea of watching the elbow, that’s good. I wonder if there’s a better prop for this trick. Maybe a cloth that’s held up, you’d need a little bit of engineering, but using a cloth or something not rigid would add another layer to this effect.