I don’t do a lot of bar gigs anymore, I’m not opposed to them, but they don’t normally make sense with my schedule. Last week I headlined a comedy show at a speakeasy. It was a fun gig!
One of the skills you need for these gigs is to be able to follow any act. The act before me was a comic that was fairly blue, and I do a “TV clean” show, so there’s contrast and the audience has to shift mental gears from his style to mine. There’s nothing wrong with what he was doing, that’s his art. When there’s contrast like that, you need to come onstage with confidence, you’re bringing the audience into your world.
Before the show I always try to do some close up magic, that will have people in the audience already on your side!
The “green room” was in a back corner of the bar and the cool thing was I could watch the show on the TV!
They sold well after the show, so that was a bonus!!
Bar gigs have a lot of challenges, like sight lines, rowdy crowds, challenging stages, however I find them very rewarding as a performer. Because they are typically smaller venues you can connect with people a lot more than in a larger venue.
Last weekend I drove up to Canada with my buddy Chris Beason to see Harrison Greenbaum‘s show. I had heard a lot about him, but never really have seen him perform. I had seen a version of his lecture at an online magic convention.
In the show he did six tricks in 90+ minutes. That’s about one trick every 15 minutes. He doesn’t get 15 minutes out of the trick in a traditional sense. Before tricks he has stand up comedy that segues from the previous trick to the next trick. This is the way to do it, none of the routines feel like they’re dragging out.
Harrison’s show is also very much in the moment, and he does a lot crowd work (talking to the crowd, ad libbing with them, then using that info in the show). This makes the show feel like you are definitely seeing a unique show that will never happen again.
Watching Harrison’s show is a good lesson in how much you can do with a huge personality and very minimal props. He doesn’t just stand in one spot, he moves all over the stage and really fills the space. It doesn’t feel like a bar show that happens to be on a stage, it feels like a stage show that happens to use smaller props.
On Saturday I performed my show for a sold out audience at the Spokane Comedy Club! When I’m performing at on the road at a public show, I always try to reach out to the local magic club. The Spokane Magic Club turned out in force for the show! It was great having them in the audience.
These daytime shows are a lot of fun to do. Years ago when I was in my early 20’s I opened for Brad Upton at a lot of comedy gigs. At the time I was doing a lot of school assemblies during the day. Brad mentioned that being able to get paid to do entertainment during normal people’s workday was like finding gold. At the time, I didn’t realize how correct he was. As I’ve gotten older and when I’m home, I got to bed at 9pm, the later gigs are more work. I still love doing them, however these 4pm shows I’ve been doing at comedy clubs are great, I’m done by dinner time!
Here’s my 55+ minute show from Saturday in 44 seconds:
Another thing that’s fun is that these shows put kids into an environment that is normally just for adults. That gives these shows a special energy that you don’t get at a community center gig and leads to amazing shows!
There are very few comedy stage magicians that are also into sleight of hand. We BS’d a Juan Tamariz move and packet card switches, which was a ton of fun!
If you ever get a chance to see him perform, go do it!
Yesterday I started work on the current batch of Applause Please 2. This is the prop used for my “object in lightbulb” routines. The base and outer shell of the applause sign are made by Brian overat Magic Crafter and look amazing!
Yesterday I added the switch and lightbulb holder to the bases.
I also made all of the electronic parts and added the remote controls.
Today I’ll be adding the electronics to the boxes and packing everything up. Hopefully I can get all of my preorders out in the mail tomorrow!
I only have one left if you want to order the Applause Please 2 from me, however four of these are going to Hocus-Pocus.com, so they’ll have them in a few days.
When I was 21 years old, I started performing in comedy clubs. I really came up through the open mic system. As a young comic you’re taught that stage time is more precious than gold. The more you go up, the quicker you get better.
The other day I was at a booking conference for the fair industry and the bar at the host hotel had a comedy night the day I was there!
I sent a text to a friend to find out who books the room, then a text to the booker and I ended up doing a guest set in the show!
The needing to have stage time is still in my blood! This also had a positive effect at the booking conference. When you checked into the hotel, the front desk really pitched you the show that night as it’s “free to hotel guests”, so everyone attending knew it was happening. As word got around later that night that I ducked out of dinner to do some comedy, I had people coming up to me asking me if I really did that. It lead to me meeting some people I probably wouldn’t have! It also cemented in bookers minds who haven’t seen me showcase in the past as what I do and that I’m actually funny.
Recently I had a kid ask me to do a back flip during the show. This is a trend and I finally had someone ask me to do it. After it happened I came up with this trick:
When I was stage hosting a couple of weeks ago, one of the things that I was asked to do was a contest for the sponsor on the mainstage at the event. One day’s entertainment was geared towards a Spanish speaking audience, and I don’t really speak Spanish, but wanted to try.
I had one of the people on the catering staff who was from Mexico help me translate the beginning of my script.
That’s the opening of the script, but then I needed to figure out how to transition into English. So we wrote a little joke:
That was a great little transition joke, and the first joke I’ve written in another language.
The lady helping write it also helped me with my pronunciation. I think people really appreciate when you make at attempt to communicate with them in their native language.
The new version of Applause Please is now available at Hocus-Pocus.com! Right now there are only five units available and they have them all, so if you want one, be sure to order one now!
I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more of these made. I probably won’t have time to make any more until after the summer.
Applause Please 2: The Encore Applause Please has been a hit of Louie Foxx’s show for about a decade! After releasing it to the magic community 8 years ago, the prop has gone through many changes based on feedback from magicians who use the trick and Louie’s pleased offer Applause Please 2: The Encore!
Louie has performed it for kids, adults and everything in between at libraries, school assemblies, comedy clubs, theaters, and on cruise ships! The basic effect is you use an applause sign that lights up when you step on the foot switch throughout your show. During your show something disappears and reappears inside the lightbulb inside of the applause sign!
The Applause Sign and base have been redesigned by MagicCrafter and built in high quality wood. The remote control units have been upgrade to be completely battery powered, so you don’t need to plug it into a wall, this makes it much more versatile than the original version!
Warm Up: You show an applause sign and light it up by stepping on a switch and the audience claps. When you look away the sign lights up on its own and the audience applauds. The applause surprises you and you look back at the sign just as it turns itself off. This comedy “look don’t see” bit is repeated until the audience is warmed up and ready for the show!
Routine 1: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. During your show, you pour a bottle of juice into a folded up newspaper and the liquid vanishes! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is FULL of the juice that just disappeared! You twist the end off the light bulb and pour the juice out!
Routine 2: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. You show a handkerchief, and it changes color from Red to Yellow. You then teach the audience how the trick works and reveal that there are two handkerchiefs. You demonstrate the trick again, while “teaching” how the trick works and at the end the red handkerchief has vanished! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is the missing red handkerchief!
Bonus effect 1: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. At some point during your show, you make a red handkerchief disappear! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is the missing red handkerchief!
Bonus effect 2: You borrow a dollar bill and have it signed, it ends up inside the lightbulb of the applause sign! You get video of a routine that Louie did for a library tour almost a decade ago. The method isn’t taught, but if you own a thumb tip, you can figure it out and is included as another example of a routine you can do where an object reappears in a lightbulb.
You get:
– Remote controlled applause sign! – Plastic lightbulb with 2 bases (one for liquid and one for the silk routines) – Flash drive with instructional video – 9v battery – Evaporation liquid vanishing trick (sports drink style bottle) – Dye tube – Yellow and red silks
You get everything you need to put Applause Please 2: The Encore into your show right away!
The comedy bar gig I did the other night had a pretty simple set list. It was some stand up comedy, then four tricks and it ran 22 mins. The set list was
Tape Measure Prediction
Choices Routine
Whip Act
Hoop and Cup Balancing
This set list only uses one person from the audience onstage, and that’s for the whip act. This makes for a show that’s much punchier and doesn’t have the dead time of bringing people on and off stage.
The Tape Measure Prediction and the Choices Routine both use people from the audience, but they stay seated. If a persons only job onstage is to pick a card or something very basic like naming a number, I’ve been leaving them in their seats. This saves time if you only need someone to perform a basic task, and breakup up the constant flow of people coming and going from the stage.
Look at your show, are there routines where you don’t need the person physically onstage? Try using them from their seats!
