Normally, I keep a good eye on my props when I’m packing up. However, at yesterday’s morning assembly, a class asked to take a picture with me, and of course, I said yes. While we were doing that, I noticed a teacher had lined up their class to leave the gym right next to my table. It was a really strange place to line up the kids, as my table is in the middle of the gym floor.
While I was getting my picture taken with the class that asked, I could see hands reaching for things. I quickly ran over and moved the kids away. A quick look, and I didn’t notice anything missing or broken. Then, while I was setting up my next show, I noticed one of the “knots” for my BEKOS (smiley face version) was missing!
I’m in the middle of nowhere and in a different hotel almost every day, I really can’t have another one shipped to me. I plan on making a makeshift knot, probably two so that they match, but that’s a project for tonight.
What I did for the next two shows yesterday was do the trick with the first knot, visually sliding off. Then the second knot, I tied a false knot in the silk, and mimed sliding it off. That didn’t play well. For the third (last) show of the day, I tied a false knot and blew on it to make it disappear, and that played much better. That’s the plan on how I’ll do it today.
This is an instance where having a deep background in all sorts of magic really helps! I didn’t need to learn anything. I noticed the knot was missing right before the show, and immediately had a backup plan that I could use 40 minutes later!
I call all of that stuff in my brain that I don’t actively use in my show, but I can do my “magic toolbox of techniques”. When I need to fix something on the spot, it’s much easier than having to figure out something brand new and put it onstage with no practice time.
-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!
Tag: bekos smiley face
Hump Day for the School Assembly Tour
Today marks the start of the second half of this school assembly tour. The show has gotten much tighter than the first show, and I’ve removed a lot of material from it. One chunk that was three tricks has been eliminated, as well as some lines/jokes/bits that weren’t playing. More importantly, I found the strengths of the show and accentuated those.
The show’s strength is that while the tricks are good, the strength of the show is how I interact with the kids. I let them shine in the show, and the meat of the show, which is my Monopoly Routine, feels more like a hypnosis show with the kids doing sort of act outs than it does an historically themed magic show…but it is still a historically themed magic show!
It is interesting that one of the tricks that was going to be filler in case the show ran too short became the closer. This trick is Jeff McBride’s BEKOS (smiley face version) and it’s really the only routine in the show that I didn’t create. The other one would be the Flying Spoons by Jemin, which is used as part of a larger routine.
That’s the cool thing about a tour like this, where I’m doing 2-3 shows a day, the show gets good fast!
-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!