Commercial Art Supporting Art Art

One of the fun things about performing at fairs is that you work with a bunch of other entertainers.  In the green room someone was talking about a friend of theirs that has a very artsy act, but it isn’t getting much work with it.  We were trying to come up with advice to be relayed to the artsy person, and here’s what we came up with.

They need a commercial show to support the act, it’s hard to get enough work to pay the bills with just an act (artsy or not).  Making a living now with just an act is really hard, there aren’t as many variety shows, etc and enough of them to fill up a calendar.  That’s where having a show comes in. There’s a lot more opportunities to do a full show than there are just an act. 

If you look into it, while someone like Jeff McBride is known for several acts, he also has a full show to support those acts.  Now let’s look at art, someone like Andy Warhol did a lot of commercial art which brought in money to pay the bills until he could make enough doing the art-art. 

While it’s not bad to work on a passion project, you do need something that will reliably pay the bills. That’s why you also need a commercial show!

-Louie

Genii Magazine!

In David Kaye’s column in Genii Magazine this month he did an article about performing at fairs. He interviewed Jef Eaton, Alex Zander, Terry Godfrey and myself for the article.

genii magazine
genii magazine

It’s a great article with some solid nuts and bots information about performing at fairs and how to get into performing in that industry. If performing on the “fair circuit” is something you’ve though about doing, you should pick up the July 2023 issue of Genii!

-Louie

FISM day 4

Walking to the venue, I stumbled on to a little magic jam going on outside and I saw some great coin work! I think coin magic is starting to catch up with card magic in popularity based on the amount of coin work I saw.

coin magic


The amount of magic going on everywhere at FISM is staggering.  A person of virtually any skill level could learn something just by walking down the hall and stopping at the first group of people they saw.

One of the highlights of FISM was seeing my friend Elliott Hunter compete in the stage competition. 

elliott hunter magic

I’ve known Elliott since he was a kid and seen this act grow over the years.  I know how hard he works on it and every time I see it, it’s better than the previous time!  The path as a performer to get into the FISM competition is grueling, and I respect anyone who manages to make it onto that stage!

FISM did have a really cool thing, which was Jeff McBride’s Magic and Mystery School room.  This was a conference room on the beginning of one of the hallways.  It was always full of magicians learning from Jeff McBride or one of the school’s instructors like Will Bradshaw.  Jeff provided lectures and hands on learning for stage, close up, impromptu and performance skills.  They passed out props for you to use to learn the routines and this room was virtually always full of magicians actively learning!

Jeff, like Bob Fitch was very generous with his time and was probably the hardest working person at FISM!  He was essentially performing and teaching all day, I’m not sure when he ever ate or slept as I ran into him out very late one night!

Today at the close up contest is where everyone started to realize how great DJ FISM was!  During all of the contest while acts were setting up or striking, there was music playing.  Today DJ FISM (sorry, I don’t know their real name) had the audience singing to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and usually had a song that somehow related to the act that had just ended. Then just when we’d gotten the Topas song One More out of our heads he’d play it, ensuring it was locked in there for the whole convention.

The silver lining of having 18 months of virtual magic meeting and lectures during the pandemic, was meeting a lot of magicians from around country and around the world that I would probably never have met.  FISM was a great opportunity to turn those virtual relationships into real world friendships.  I got to know Marc DeSouza after he attended a virtual lecture of mine, and we’ve chatted off and on for the last couple of years. 

His talk on magic history was great and one of the highlights for me was seeing Marc present the Germain Lock.  The effect of this lock is that it unlocks when your hand’s shadow acts like a key.  By today’s standards, unlocking something is as simply as a home security app, but when you think about it in the context of 100 years ago, it’s astonishing!

marc desouza magic

Tonight was my night to go the banquet. There were two nights of banquets, one for group A who had red lanyards and one for group B that had blue lanyard. The fun thing about the banquet, was that unless you already had a big group with you, it forced you to sit with and meet new people!  The table I ended up at, we all had a great time showing each other what kinds of magic we did!

The banquet food was average banquet food, it was alright. I’ve had better, I’ve had worse, it was pretty much right down the middle.

After dinner, it was time for the gala show that was hosted by Alain Choquette and John Archer The two of them had a more chemistry as a duo and they really should work together more.  This was the strongest show of the week.  This ended with a hilarious “after the credits” vignette where John and Alain have dinner and are served by Mike Caveney and Rob Zabrecky.  They are finally joined by Michael Ammar who is playing the part of the Pope!  All the people who left right after the last act performed missed a really funny bit.

After the show tonight, FISM moved the jam area into the empty back of the dealers room to try to get some more traffic to the dealers.  They also moved in a snack cart that had beer and wine.

I’m surprised it took several days for FISM to utilize the empty back half of the dealers room.  I also think some large purchases were made with a little bit of liquid encouragement!

The dealer room late night jam closes at 1:30am and the smarter magicians went to their rooms to sleep.  I’m not one of them and stayed hanging out to see all the shenanigans that spilled out into the hallway. 

Magic was happening everywhere and all of the late night crew was getting familiar with each other.  This is the point where magicians start showing off some of their more experimental ideas. 

After an hour of hallway magic, slipped over to Ninkasi bar for a bit before I needed to go to bed, as I was determined to make all of the contests in the morning!
-Louie

What’s Wrong With That Act…

Recently I saw an act that is everything I dislike about how people perform magic. They lacked technical skill, knowledge of the trick and presentation. For me it was a trifecta of what I don’t like. This act did the “Sands of the Desert” trick. This is a trick where you have a bowl of … Continue reading “What’s Wrong With That Act…”

Recently I saw an act that is everything I dislike about how people perform magic. They lacked technical skill, knowledge of the trick and presentation. For me it was a trifecta of what I don’t like.


This act did the “Sands of the Desert” trick. This is a trick where you have a bowl of water and you swirl your hand in it and the water turns black. then you dump different colored sand into the bowl and swirl it up. Then you reach into the bowl and pull out handfuls of dried sand that’s all the same color. For the finale the water in the bowl turns clear.


First of all, the performer couldn’t do the trick. It’s not a hard trick to do, and they lacked the technical skill to do it. It was pretty crazy to watch. You really should practice it before you do it in a show. You not only need to know the “sleight of hand” but how and why the props work like they do. That’s super important, knowing why something is shaped the way it is, or how to hold it.


As far as their presentation goes, it felt like they were trying way to hard to put meaning to something. They tried to use the trick as an analogy for the universe. That’s fine, but it lacked conviction and authenticity. It felt like they asked someone to write a script and they read the script. If you watch Jeff McBride do his stuff, you feel that he believes it and he’s trying to open your eyes to something, not just saying big words. He puts his heart into it, but that’s also Jeff, and a piece of who he is.


Put yourself into your tricks, put your heart into it and put your time into it. Dive into the props, the sleights, learn the history of the trick, learn as much as you can about and the story you’re telling. That will come through in your show.

Be a Student…

When I was a teenager right around Thanksgiving the annual TV show The World’s Greatest Magic would be on. This would be my chance to see acts I’d only ever read about in magic magazines. It was a chance to see how great (or not) things actually were. Back then I’d record on VHS these … Continue reading “Be a Student…”

When I was a teenager right around Thanksgiving the annual TV show The World’s Greatest Magic would be on. This would be my chance to see acts I’d only ever read about in magic magazines. It was a chance to see how great (or not) things actually were.


Back then I’d record on VHS these magic shows and you’d really study the acts. Not to sound like an old man, but kid’s nowadays don’t study acts on video. I knew every move of Jeff McBride’s card act and could do it. This gets you inside the performer’s head, and you start to understand their choices.


With all of the acts you can watch on YouTube, it’s hard to pick a few acts to study. The amount of content is overwhelming. I think kids now should pick a performer or two and really study their work. Not copy it, but study it, try to figure out why they do what they do.

Using Magic For Good…

One of the cool things about being a magician, is you frequently have the ability to change someone’s day.  What I mean by that is showing someone a little card trick can change their mood.  Here’s an example, I was stuck in line that wasn’t moving.  Someone recognized me a the magician from the show … Continue reading “Using Magic For Good…”

One of the cool things about being a magician, is you frequently have the ability to change someone’s day.  What I mean by that is showing someone a little card trick can change their mood.  Here’s an example, I was stuck in line that wasn’t moving.  Someone recognized me a the magician from the show and we chatted for a minute.  Then I offered to do a card trick.  Everyone in the line went from being annoyed at a non moving line, to laughing and having a good time. One little card trick changed the mood and experience of 30 people. 


Sometimes I wonder why so many magicians say they never do a trick for people outside of being paid.  Personally I thinks it’s a very self centered approach.  Being willing to do a little magic trick, if very different than feeling like you have to do a magic trick.  You can say no, and sometimes you’re asked to show a trick and it’s just night a right situation and in the end no one will really gain any real joy from it.  But when you know it’ll improve someone’s day, you should do it!


This is part of leaving your mark on the world.  Jeff McBride is really into this type of “giving” with magic.  It doesn’t mean doing a show, just a quick thing to make someone’s day a bit more fun!  That’s why in my wallet I always have a trick that I can do, that’s a good trick, with a direct plot, but also quick.  It’s not a long routine, it’s a quick trick. I actually have a 15 min show in my wallet, but usually don’t do the full thing.