Right now I’m performing at the Ohio State Fair and there are three magicians AND a hypnotist that does a mentalism show. Technically that make four magicians all working at the same fair on the same dates! This is a large fair, so two of us are on one stage and two are on another stage.
None of the magicians working here do standard acts. None of us are “stick to the classics” sort of people. We all have unique shows that don’t use common material. That’s an important thing, sure an act of standard tricks can get booked, however having an act full of unique tricks definitely makes you more bookable.
Yes, bookers do know what a generic magic show looks like. A birthday party parent may not, but someone that their job is to book acts can tell the difference. This is one of the secrets to my success, being able to work with other magicians at the same event.
One of the things that I did to build a unique show was to write down the tricks I did in the show. I labelled them as: common, uncommon or unique.
The goal was to get rid of all of the common tricks, then eventually get rid of all of the uncommon tricks.
-Louie
The Moisture Festival Podcast – Matt Baker
On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast Louie interviews his co-host Matt Baker. They discuss a wide range of topics including Matt’s time living in Western Samoa as a teenager and how he became a vegetarian. We also learn how Matt got into performing at a young age through hackysack (footbag) and how that skill took him across Europe and all over the US doing school assemblies.
Matt discusses his time in the award winning juggling duo the Brothers from Different Mothers and the challenges that duo’s face. We learn all about the crazy places his solo show the Matt Baker Comedy + Stunt Show has taken him and where he will be going next. A fun interview with your second favorite Moisture Festival Podcast host.
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Showing Process for Mentalism
When I went to a Gerry McCambridge workshop a few years ago, he talked about how it was important for a mentalist to show the process of how they’re reading a mind. A common process shown by mentalists is reading someone’s body language. In the mentalism I do that’s not presented as a coincidence, I try to show a process that’s believable.
I’ve been playing with unbelievable processes. One idea I had was for someone who it thinking of a work, they whisper it into their fist, then the need to get that idea into my head…so they slap me in the face!
That was just an idea, but it lead to a couple other ideas that were more workable. The idea I think I’m going to go with is to have someone think of a word. Then I hand them a paper roll and they are going to swing it like a baseball bat at my belly in a way that feels like their word.
I think there’s a ton of comedy potential that can happen around how the hit me. They can’t hurt me with the paper roll as it just collapses if they swing it hard.
Then after I verbally reveal the word, I can unroll the paper tube and it says the word they are thinking of!
I think this routine has potential.
-Louie
Recording My Show
When Ray Ban first put out their Ray Ban Stories glasses with a video camera in it, I thought about getting them. The current version is the Ray Ban Meta, which does more than just record. They’re also voice assistants, and does a few other things.
I had been on the fence about getting them for years and I finally picked up a pair.
The current version of them when the record, there’s a LED that flashes. Obviously I don’t like that it’s distracting. It’s purpose is so that you can’t secretly record people, and that makes sense. However to use them to record another angle of my show that’s already being recorded by a camera or two I personally have no issue using them without the LED flashing.
The challenge is disabling the LED. You can’t simply cover it, if you do, you’ll get an error. What I did was read a bunch on Reddit and found a few solutions and picked the one that I thought was best and fit my level of how much I wanted to alter the glasses.
If you’re thinking of getting a pair of these, read up on what they do and don’t do to decide if they’re right for you. Also if you want to disable the LED, be sure to read up on different ways to do it to make sure you are comfortable with the level of risk of damage to the glasses that can happen.
-Louie
A Tip for Mentalists
A while ago I worked with a mentalist and they did a “psychometry” sort of routine where they matched things with the object’s owner. To do that the objects were put in bags then mixed up before the mentalist returned them to the proper owner. This mentalist (and many others that I’ve seen) put glasses on to do the part where they needed to read the marks and removed them after they read the marks.
DON’T DO THAT!
Sure probably 90% of audiences won’t notice that or make the connection, however many do. It’s like casually looking at an Apple Watch to get information, people notice. A friend of mine who isn’t a magician, but books big events had a mentalist and I asked how they were. My friends response was, “they looked at their watch a lot” and that told me all I needed to know.
Audiences do notice these things. Can you come up with a different way of making the prop?
Sew beads into it’s marked by feel?
Or use something that’s easier to see?
Can you wear glasses your whole show?
Think outside of the prop you bought that will work better with your eyesight!
-Louie
Oil and Water
Awhile ago I found a set of lecture notes called Something From the East by Haruhito Hirata. In the notes there was an oil and water trick that wasn’t for me, but it did have one part that did appeal to me. The cards were dealt out in rows and then the rows were mixed. The cards then separated by color.
The method was fairly complex and involved. I thought the trick could be streamlined a little bit, so I came up with this:
Then I realized that I could get a bonus trick out of it if the cards had different colored backs, so here’s the second version:
I’d like to get a third effect out of it, but not sure what that would be. Maybe it’ll come to me one day…
-Louie
Seance Spirit Hand!
One of the things that I make every now and then are seance/spirit hands. These are hands that tap messages from ghosts. I just make and sell the shell of the hand, it’s up to the buyer to gimmick them or use a gimmicked board wit them. The hands are also unpainted so that they can be decorated for whatever look the buyer wants.
Here’s one of the hands that was decorated and packaged beautifully by someone who bought on of my seance/spirit hand shells!
No one really makes a these hands and if you want one, the hand shells that I make are a good starting point!
-Louie
Jumbo Coins Thru Table
Sometimes I see a trick and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The effect is a coins through table, but with jumbo coins.
Watch the video:
From a magician’s standpoint the jumbo coins add difficulty. From a non-magician standpoint, I’m not sure if it enhances the effect. Sure, everyone knows that doing sleight of hand with a 3 inch diameter coin is much harder than with a 1 inch diameter coin. That difference is something that doesn’t really matter in the moment, unless you sell the trick as a “try to catch me” sort of trick.
Also, why jumbo coins?
I get that it’s a coin trick made bigger, but wouldn’t drink coasters work instead of the jumbo coins. Now you have a trick with a natural object that belongs on a table.
I think the effect in the video is very well done, however not sure how I feel about the trick.
-Louie
Magic Show Production
This summer I ran the video elements of my library show with iQpro. I still ran the audio with showcues as I was really comfortable with that. If the video didn’t work it was not big deal. If the music didn’t work, that was a bigger deal. The show still would have went fine, but the music adds more to the show than the video does.
I’m now very comfortable using iQpro for the video elements of my show. The nest step is to get confident using it for the audio. This week I’m at a state fair and going to use iQpro for the audio of the show, and run video with it as well. The video won’t show anywhere but my iPad and no one will see it, except me. However this is good practice for using it for both video and audio.
-Louie
A Simple Trick to Not Forget Anything
One of the challenges of doing your show is packing up. Specifically not forgetting anything. One thing I do is the “Dummy Check” where after you’re packed out, you visually look where your stuff was one more time to look for anything you forgot.
One of the challenges with this summers library show is that the show used a lot of power and I tried to charge the batteries while I was packing up a show. For a normal day of two to three libraries, it’s not a big deal. However there were many days where I had four or five shows in a day. That meant that if I could charge the batteries for 10 or 15 mins while I packed up, it made a huge difference for that last show.
The technique I would use to not forget to the batteries was to put my keys near where they were charging as the plug wasn’t always near the performing area. Without my car key, I couldn’t load out. For me this was a fool proof system to make sure I left with the batteries!
If you’re worried about not packing something, put your keys near it!
-Louie