MagicShow.Tips – Page 172 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Stuck in 1990…

I think that a lot of the way that illusions are presented by magicians are stuck in the 1990’s. The magician’s assistant isn’t much more than a prop and not a personality. Yes, there are assistants that are personalities, however most of the ones that I see are simply someone that’s pretty and willing to … Continue reading “Stuck in 1990…”

I think that a lot of the way that illusions are presented by magicians are stuck in the 1990’s. The magician’s assistant isn’t much more than a prop and not a personality. Yes, there are assistants that are personalities, however most of the ones that I see are simply someone that’s pretty and willing to fit into the box.

Recently I saw a magic show where the illusionist had three assistants. Only one had a personality, and it was pretty limited based on what I saw, however they were an act within the show and not the whole show, so she may have had a bigger role. The other two were simply stagehands with fake eyelashes and gowns.

This is where I think magic is stuck 20+ years in the past. The magician is the dominate one over everyone else on the stage, and not everyone is equal. Why not have a female assistant that looks like the theater’s stage crew, but has dialogue with the performer? Do they have to wear a bikini? I think we’ve grown past the magic show having to have “sex appeal” for people to watch. People watch all sorts of theatrical shows without scantily clad ladies…why not a magic show?

Yesterday there was a folk duo at the fair I’m performing at, and we are on the same stage. In between shows, the lady commented that she likes how I ” randomly make fun of people“. I had to correct her, because that’s not what I do. Yes, I do make fun of people, but … Continue reading “”

Yesterday there was a folk duo at the fair I’m performing at, and we are on the same stage. In between shows, the lady commented that she likes how I ” randomly make fun of people“. I had to correct her, because that’s not what I do. Yes, I do make fun of people, but it’s not random.

I make fun of peoples actions, never on how they look or what they wear, and never out of the blue. There is always some choice that the person has made that will cause me to comment. It could be a teen texting in the audience, or whatever, but there’s always an action that causes it.

Currently our society really looks down on bullying, and randomly picking on people in a Don Rickles sort of way is a great way to alienate yourself from your audience.

Here’s an example of what I don’t do. Recently I saw the Lance Burton and Friends tour and Fielding West does a bit where he scares someone from the audience by asking them to touch something, then making a sudden loud noise and startling them. In my mind that’s an old school thing, that I think works with his character, but not some much with younger people. That sort of thing is considered inappropriate by most modern performers.

What I’m trying to convey is that it’s OK to comment and play, but not okay to bully.

Being In the Moment at Dinner…

Last night, I had dinner with a musical comedy act named Joe Stoddard. Joe plays guitar and sings original and parody songs. One thing that Joe does really well, is being in the moment and looking like he’s having fun. This is something I used to be really good at. And I’ve been struggling with lately.

I think I’ve written about this before, but trying to be present in the show, not just hopping joke joke is something I’m trying to be very conscious about. This year I’m doing pretty good at it.

I have a routine early in the show that lets me play with the audience. And that’s great and really helps out with all of that. One of the things Joe and I talked about last night was how he stays in the moment. He says he always tries to be aware of things happening in the audience, so he can comment on it, and work it out into the show where he calls attention to it. That’s something I’ve been doing a lot lately is looking for opportunities to bring up real things that are happening. I had a kid yesterday in the show who was chewing gum, and I’m pointed out that he was chewing gum, and the kid wouldn’t stop laughing.

It was a very real moment and he started offering people gum. Then someone else is pretending to chew gum but they didn’t have gum. It was a great, real moment that I expanded upon, because I noticed it was there and got a lot of mileage out of it. So being present in the show is something that is very, very important.

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.

Alterations Necessary…

One thing with magic gimmicks is that one size usually doesn’t “fit all”. There are tons and tons of cheap and expensive gimmicks that I’ve owned that I’ve had to put a lot of work into to get them to work for me. The main reason for this is that how the gimmick’s creator used the trick may not be how I intend to use it.

Sometimes my handling will be different because I don’t move how the gimmick was designed to be moved. Other times the gimmick won’t be made to withstand the stress I’m going to put it through. I really don’t fault the creator for this and as a magic creator I totally understand this.

A few minutes ago I finished rebuilding a gimmick I paid a lot money for simply because I’m using it for an off label type use. I’m still using the creator’s gimmick, it’s just now works in a slightly different way. Don’t be afraid to settle, be willing to alter it!

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.

Making Progress…

The trick that I’m working on is an object to impossible location. That spot is inside a ball of yarn. I had the idea for the trick a few days ago, and it’s making progress. The trick isn’t 100% new to me, it’s parts of tricks that I’ve tried to get to work for years, and it just never did. Finally the routine is coming together.

For the ball of yarn, one thing I never liked is the awkward handling of cup. Someone has to hold the cup, and it’s much strong if that person isn’t me. That means I need to get another person onto the stage to hold it. That’s just not efficient. The other day I had an idea for a cup holder that’d attach to a mic stand (read the blog post about it here).

The cup holder was 3D printed and ready to go yesterday, here it is:

I used it in three shows yesterday and it worked great! It’s going to need a redesign as the part that holds the foot of the wine glass can be about half as tall as it currently it. A lower profile on the cup hold will make it look a lot less clunky.

It’s still a new routine, but it’s coming along nicely. I’m really glad I took my 3D printer on the road with me this week. There are a few other props I made for the show in my hotel. The next thing I need to make, but won’t have time to do before I head back home is a stand to hold the props for the dollar / drawing routine in my case.

It’s The Little Things…

There are some tricks that I like, but never work for me. One of these tricks is the Slydini Silks. This is the trick where people tie two handkerchiefs together and they magically untie. It’s a trick that’s always fallen flat for me when I’ve done it. Recently I came across a video of Slydini … Continue reading “It’s The Little Things…”

There are some tricks that I like, but never work for me. One of these tricks is the Slydini Silks. This is the trick where people tie two handkerchiefs together and they magically untie. It’s a trick that’s always fallen flat for me when I’ve done it.

Recently I came across a video of Slydini doing it:

One thing I learned from watching the video was that he used a cup to put the handkerchiefs into. I wasn’t using the cup, so I added that the other day. I was amazed at the difference adding a prop that made no difference in the trick made! All of the sudden people were responding positively to the trick.

The small things make a difference. Sometimes the most insignificant addition or change can make at trick!

A Baby Step Forward…

One of the tricks that I started working on this week is my drawing and dollar routine. It’s been playing very well, and I think it’s something that’s going to stay in my show for a while. It’s a good piece where I get to interact with the audience.

The nice thing is that there aren’t a lot of props, but plays fairly large. It uses a small clipboard, marker, three thumbtips, a wine glass and ball of yarn. that sounds like a lot, but it’s packs smaller than most magician’s change bag routines. I can use a borrowed clear wine glass for this, so

So far I’ve done the routine five times, and yesterday I learned that I need to find a place for the wine glass that holds the ball of yarn to be in view, but away from me. Right now the table it too close to me, I want it somewhere where I’m not constantly reaching over it. This trip I packed my 3D printer with me, so I’m printing a stand that will fit on top of a straight microphone stand.

The picture above is upside down, the tube will fit over the shaft of the stand and the foot of the wine glass will slide into the cut out notch. The solid side of the holder will go towards where they are pulling the string from. I’m hoping that the weight in the base of the mic stand will be enough to keep the whole thing from falling over. I also foresee a redesign once I try out this initial design!

Well, That Worked…

One of the great things about performing at fairs is that you have a lot chances to work on new material. A couple of days ago I mentioned an idea for quickly getting a borrowed dollar bill (you can read it here). I tried it at two of my three shows yesterday and it played a lot better than I thought it would.

Basically a kid draws a picture and it turns into a dollar bill, and I will borrow that dollar bill in the next trick of the show. Later the picture reappears in an impossible location.

Here’s what I learned yesterday. The first show I asked a kid to draw a picture and the girl drew a heart. As far as giving me material to work with, the heart didn’t give me much. The second show the kid drew a picture of me and this gave me a lot to work with! Today when doing the trick I’m going to ask the kid to draw a picture of me and I’ll make jokes about it.

With a drawing of ME it’s easier for me to make fun of the drawing without it feeling like I’m crapping on the kid, because I’ll be making fun of me. This is a huge distinction in how the audience could possibly form impressions of me.