Tag: houdini

AKA Houdini in Appleton, WI

About a month ago I was out in Appleton, WI performing at the comedy club there. One of the main reasons I went out there was to see the Houdini stuff at the museum. If you’re reading this blog and don’t know, Houdini’s “Home town” was Appleton, WI, or at least that’s what he told people.

Before I went to the museum, I checked out Houdini Plaza in downtown.

Houdini Plaza
Houdini Plaza
Houdini Plaza

Then it was off to the museum to see the exhibit they call AKA Houdini.

AKA houdini

I found it interesting the disclaimer they have on exhibit telling people that magicians may have an issue with the exposure of secrets!

AKA houdini

One of the first things you see is the “haunted” bust of Houdini!

Houdini artifacts

Three of these busts were made and two mysteriously broke right after his death.

There’s some fun interactive things, like you can pick a lock, try out Houdini’s Metamorphosis trick, break out of jail and try to fit into a milk can!

milk can escape
Jail Break escape

Then there’s a ton of Houdini artifacts!

Houdini artifacts
Houdini artifacts
Houdini artifacts
Houdini artifacts
Houdini artifacts
Houdini artifacts

And of course you exit through the gift shop.

This was a super fun way to spend my day before my show at the comedy club. If you’re in the area it’s totally worth the trip!

-Louie

Read Nick’s Blog…

If you’re not reading Nick Lewin’s Blog, you are missing out. He just put out a post called “new rules for magicians 2021“, which are 8 rules for magicians. Each of them is solid advice. I want to comment on his first one, which is:

New Rule #1  Realize that not everyone is fascinated by Houdini.

This is 100% true. It’s just a name, not someone that YOU are personally acquainted with. Using Houdini in most instances is a lazy way to find a hook. Usually it’s used in an escape and someone says that they will escape faster than Houdini did. Let’s make an analogy, if I went to see an show and the signer said they were going to sing 9 to 5 better than Dolly Parton, that doesn’t draw me in at all. Just sing the song.

One rule I’ve had in my show for a long time is that I don’t mention any other magician in my show. There’s a reason for that, most people don’t have a connection to that. Not too long ago a local magician had a huge bit where he described a trick that Criss Angel did, but then he related that to a just ok coin trick. Watching this, my impression was that he told me about a TV show he watched where a magician did a way better trick than what the local magician is about to show me. Mentioning the magician took away from the trick.

I think the one exception to mentioning another magician is if you have a relevant personal reason to do it. If you were on Fool Us, then mentioning you did the trick for Penn and Teller makes sense. If you invented a trick for David Copperfield, then mention it. Name dropping those has meaning, just mentioning another magician because you were too lazy to write something better is just that, lazy.

-Louie