For my summer gigs that I flew to, I tried to rent cars less this year. It’s mostly because they just kinda sit there all week while I’m performing. Most places I stay within a couple of miles of the venue. That means I can walk or use things like the Lime eScooters to get around.
Normally I’ll take an uber/lyft to load in and out of the venue. However the last fair I did, it the ride share wait time was a lot and was super busy when I left, so I tried putting my case on the lift and zipping up the road to the hotel. Much to my surprise it worked!
I’m going to say that it’s probably fairly dangerous to do this, however in a pinch it worked for me. With that said, DO NOT DO THIS!
In a box of used magic I found an almost 30 year old letter from an established professional magician to a newer magician. It’s notes on the newer magician’s show, you can read them below:
The notes are pretty spot on, and great advice. I love that the older magician took the time to write up the advice so that it’s easier for the newer magician to implement the suggestions!
Personally I love helping magicians be better, and I think it’s something we all should do!
Over the summer I worked at a fair with a hypnotist and some other acts. One night during the hypnotist’s show, the drummer from the band that was next onstage started bringing his drum kit onstage and setting it up! This is a huge breach of etiquette when you are sharing a stage with another act.
The thing is when you perform at fairs there are really two types of acts, acts that are professionals and acts that aren’t. The community acts are typically acts that are newer and just haven’t ever shared a stage with another act and don’t know the rules.
While it’s annoying a hell when someone tries to set up during your show, it’s also a teachable moment as they obviously don’t know that they shouldn’t do it. When it happens during my show, I simply mute my mic and firmly say, “This is an active stage and you need to get off of it right now.“
No discussion, just that said firmly.
Then after my show, if they don’t apologize to me, which they will about 90% of the time, then I explain to them during someone else’s show 100% of the stage is theirs…unless other arrangements have been made. I usually ask/mention how they would feel if I went onstage and started setting up while they were performing.
Last spring I picked up a Porter Case. This is carry on luggage that converts to a luggage dolly. I haven’t needed to use it, until my recent trip to Canada to get on a cruise ship.
Here’s the case in its three positions:
After using it to get from home to the airport, the airport to the hotel, and the hotel to the cruise ship, I’ve decided I like it! Since they haven’t made these in a long time, the challenge will be to find another one as a backup.
I was playing around with some cards the other night and came up with a very 1980’s feeling packet trick. The effect is you show four aces. The ace of diamonds changes to a two of diamonds. Then the ace of clubs changes to the three of clubs. For the finale, the ace of hearts turns into the four of hearts, giving you a one (ace), two, three and four.
This trick uses a series of Ascanio Spreads. I’m not going to go teach that move here, but you can look it up and find a tutorial for it online.
Here’s the starting order of the cards:
Hold them face up in your left hand in dealing grip. Do an Ascanio Spread to show four aces, putting the four card block on top of the packet .
Do a second Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of diamonds is now a two. Put the four card block top of the spread.
Next do a third Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of clubs is now a three. This time, you will switch places of the middle two cards. I openly displace them, and then put the four card block on top.
Finally, do a fourth Ascenio Spread to show that the ace of hearts is now the four!
That’s it, there’s really not much to this trick, and it feels like it needs an ending. I have played with having the backs change colors and have a method for that, but I’m not really happy with it.
Additionally, I’d be surprised if this sequence had not been created before. It seems fairly obvious that this result can be achieved with just Ascenio Spreads.
After a summer of performing, I was doing some prop maintenance and noticed how gross the ropes I use have gotten!
Going through your props a couple times a year to clean them up or replace things that get worn out is a good thing to do. It’ll keep your show looking fresh and not beat up.
The second day of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians convention started out with James Cielen’s talk about performing on cruise ships.
James’s talk was a great insight into what it takes to consistantly be working on cruise ships.
Then it was a break for lunch, which was hosted by Henry Tom.
After lunch was the stage contest. I was recruited to be a judge, so I couldn’t watch for fun, I had to watch for “work”. Lots of great acts! One of the acts produced two live fish! These weren’t gold fish, they were about 10ish inches long and were FISH!
This week I’m lecturing and performing at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) convention aboard the Holland America ship, the Eurodam. I got into Canada the day before the cruise. With the extra day in the Vancouver BC area, I went to see Shawn Farquhar’s Hidden Wonders show!
Shawn’s show is great and it’s a really smart format. It’s not a rigid show, and they way it’s presented makes it feel fresh for the audience.
Then a bunch of the magicians who were in town the night before the convention all went out to hang out!
That brings us to day one of the convention. This year’s PCAM convention is on the cruise ship Eurodam. Before I got onto the ship, I had breakfast with Paul Romhany and Peter Samuelson.
Paul isn’t attending the convention, so it was nice to see him.
Boarding the ship was a potential problem for me as I had my show with me, but I wasn’t a guest entertainer hired by the ship. That means they didn’t have to let me bring any props onboard that they objected to. I really lucked out. I have a whip and that’s the prop I was worried about getting taken away.
I got really lucky, the x-ray screener saw the whip and told the person next to her that I had she thought I had a whip. The second person took my case and handed it to a third person and said, “He has a wire“. The third person opened the case and and saw a coiled up power cord and said, “is this the wire?” I said, “yes” and they closed my case and let me proceed.
Now that I was on the ship with all of my gear I could relax a little bit.
The opening event for the convention was James Cielen‘s show.
We were supposed to see his show in the main theater as part of the cruise, but his schedule shifted, so he did a show just for us. The show he did was close up magic that was projected onto a screen. It was a solid choice of material and I it was great to see what a full close up show for a theater looks like.
The next two events were presented by Daniel Garcia.
He performed a close-up show, a Q&A session, and a lecture. His material is great, and he did a great job explaining why he does things the way he does.
I picked up his One Card, which is a great way to do a named card in envelope.
That took us to about 11 pm, and it was time for me to go to bed.
Today is day two, which has the close up and stage contests. James Cielen has a Q&A about working on cruises, and my lecture is tonight. It’ll be a full day, and I’ll probably need to take a nap or two to make it through.
I just started reading the book Openers. This book is a compilation of “openers” for magic shows. The book is mostly close up openers so far, but I’m only about 1/3 into the book.
So far my favorites are: Virus by John Guastaferro: This is a full deck, all backs routine where one side then turns blank, then to normal playing card faces. It’s not too hard to do. I like the routine, however I think I’d need to find a new theme for it. His theme is great, just not for me.
Contender by Liam Montier: This is a quick trick where you know which card someone is thinking of. I think this is a great “bar bet” style of trick.
I should also mention that I’ve been hunting for chop cup routines that don’t use a table and there’s one in this book called The Gold Cup Con by Carl Royle. It’s a close up routine using a small chop cup that will hold a golf ball. It’s a great routine, just not for what I’m personally trying to do with a chop cup.
The next step in switching to a handheld microphone has happened!
I just bought a Sennheiser handheld microphone that’s compatible with my Sennheiser ew G4 receiver. That saved me having to buy a new receiver. Also I still get the benefits of a smaller and battery operated camera mount receiver, which I prefer of the larger plug in style receivers.
Another advantage of switching to a handheld mic for my main show is that most venues already them, so I don’t need to bring my own for many gigs!
