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
-Louie
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!
-Louie
It always fills my heart to see people using the magic tricks and props that I’ve created!
Fredric Desmarais is working on a routine using the Remote Control Chattering Teeth that I make!
If you use anything that I make, please send me pics of it in your show!
-Louie
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.
-Louie
One thing I’m not against is doing a show for free, but there needs to be a reason. I’m not talking about shows for charity, but shows that are ticketed, but there’s no pay. I look at these as a chance for me to break in new material and I don’t do my A material, I do things that I’m working on. The only exception to this is if it’s a favor to a friend.
A little while ago a show producer posted a “casting call” in a performer’s group. Here’s the form you had to fill out to audition to perform for free:
First of all, if there’s an audition for a free show, I personally stay away from it. There’s zero reason to audition to not get paid, unless there’s some other form of compensation from the gig, like them providing high quality video/pics of the act.
Next they are asking for experienced performers to do this gig for no pay. The schedule of the shows taking place on Saturdays kills any opportunity to take paid gigs on that prime night for actual paid work.
The super crazy thing to me is that they want 7 rehearsal days…for a FREE show! Then another six days for the shows, for a total commitment of 13 days with zero compensation. The gig is selling tickets, but they aren’t even kicking in for gas or meals for the performers.
Personally I say NO to gigs like this.
This is worse than the charity gig that asks for a show in trade for exposure. You can easily leverage those shows into something that’s a win-win.
Is getting to do an act that’s not even YOUR act worth it?
-Louie
Recently I hit the road for a short three day run of out of town shows that were done by car. Then I flew out out of an airport a few hours from home to another gig on the other side of the country. That meant that I had to leave my car parked at the airport with a lot of my show gear in the car.
When I do this I lock all of my gear to the car. This isn’t going to stop someone that REALLY wants to steal it, but it will make it harder! If someone’s going to a quick “smash and grab”, then they’re not getting anything. I want to make them work to steal my stuff.
Once everything is locked to my car, I then cover everything with a black sheet.
The black sheet combined with the tint on the windows makes it hard to see anything in the trunk of my car. While this doesn’t make it 100% invisible, it does a really good job of hiding my gear and definitely gives me some peace of mind that I at least tried to deter people from breaking into my car.
-Louie
Magician’s can learn soo much from watching a drag show or professional wrestling. Those two are very similar, every act has a “hook” and they play things BIG! Big gestures, big personalities and they take time to connect with everyone in the audience.
The host of this show did some crowd work and they were really quick on their feet with jokes based on what the audience was saying. This is a place where many magicians could learn something. Most magicians the moment the person from the audience gets a big laugh the magician shuts them down. In my opinion that’s the wrong approach, you should let that person shine! That’s also why people go to live shows, to see a unique show that no one else will ever see!
Go out and see a professional wrestling or drag show. Watch how big they play everything with gestures and how they engage a crowd. Watch how they look at the whole audience. There’s a lot to learn!
-Louie
A bit ago I was at a gig and before the show the MC told me the introduction there were going to use for me. It don’t remember the exact wording, but it essentially said that I was “slumming it” to perform for that audience.
Personally I don’t like putting down the audience before I even start. You don’t know about the audience, for some people it could be their big night out for the month or year. I don’t want to do that. I’ll put myself down all day in the show, but not the audience, and especially not before I’ve taken the stage. The audience doesn’t know me or my vibe.
An introduction should build up the performer or inform the audience about what they’re going to see. Not put down the audience.
I politely asked the MC to use the prepared introduction.
Don’t be afraid to tell an MC or show host exactly how you want to be introduced. There are times when I’m the MC and an act insists that I use something that I know is wrong. Like when they hand me four paragraphs to read. I’ll ask if I can shorten it, but if they insist, I read what they gave me.
-Louie
Performing as a magician with a full magic show (versus an just an act) can be a very solitary job. Most of the time you’re working alone. You do that corporate gig, school assembly, birthday party as the only performer at the event.
Then there are other gigs that bring entertainers together, things like fairs and cruise ships will have multiple performers with shows at the same time. Recently I performed an a ship that had three guest artist magicians, one staff magician and a production show that featured a lot of magic! It was basically a magic convention. Add in some musicians or comedians and it’s quite a group!
One of the fun things about working with other entertainers is just sitting around a sharing stories. Anyone who has been a performer for any length of time has stories of crazy gigs! Honestly its sitting around and “cutting up jackpots” (carnival slang for telling stories) and having a bunch of laughs is good for the soul.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t understand it when magicians say they don’t hang out with other magicians. It must be a lonely like out there for them!
-Louie
Yesterday I mentioned that I paid $15 for a box of magic stuff. All I had to go off of was the picture below:
Well, when I went to pick it up, it was actually 4 boxes!
This led to a challenge as I’m travelling right now, so my car has my show in it and I won’t be home for a few days. Also quite often old magic has a musty smell, and I don’t want to have that smell in my car all week and I just don’t have space for it.
I stopped at a grocery story and used their parking lot to sort through the boxes. Like most boxes of used magic, most of the stuff is junk.
Here’s an overall look at some of the boxes:
The VHS tapes have great material on them, I dont’ have a VHS player and there’s really no market for them. I did find a lo
The stuff that I didn’t want filtered down the magic food chain. These were left at a performer’s house who lives near where I got the boxes.
Here’s the pile of stuff that I kept:
There’s a MAK french arm chopper, MAK Chen Lee Water Suspension, snake basket, multiplying bottles (india), sword thru neck (india), and a lot of other misc stuff.
One of the surprises were two Ormand McGill books and they both were signed!
These boxes of magic were a solid buy for $15 and since I was in the area and didn’t have to travel to get them.
-Louie
