This is my final post about the Harlem Globetrotters…but seriously, if you’re a family, comedy magician, you can learn a lot from watching this show. Like how many of the players have defined characters, and how the “game” is structured.
They have a lot of audience participation bits, but they aren’t done in a row. They’re separated by bits without audience participation.
In your show, is it a constant stream of people coming up and down from the stage. Are you only interesting when you’re interreacting with people from the audience?
One of the takeaways from seeing the Harlem Globetrotters is while its a fun show, the audience is definitely aware that everyone on the basketball court is very skilled! Before the game started one of the Globetrotters (Moose, I think) was nailing baskets from half court with one hand and his back to the hoop!
How does that relate to performing magic?
Simple, in my opinion the audience must know you are skilled at what you do. I guess you don’t need an overt display of skill like a manipulation act, but something that shows you’re not just doing push button magic.
How do you do that in magic? There are a lot of ways, many years ago when I went to Caesar’s Magical Empire in Las Vegas the stage show as done by The Pendragons. One of the things that he did was sat on the edge of the stage and did a torn and restored cigarette paper. It stood out because The Pendragon’s show is soo big, then he does a little bit with a tiny piece of paper. That routine just used his hands and the cigarette paper and showed that he can do sleight of hand.
Whatever you do to show skill doesn’t have to overtly look like you have skill like producing cards from backpalm, but the audience needs to know you have skill.
Over the weekend I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. It’s a fun show, and totally worth checking out if they’re in your area. One thing that they do (as most sporting events do) is they have an introduction video.
The pictures above don’t really do the intro video justice. It’s really just a quick sizzle reel to hype up the crowd and also give them a little bit of context as to what they’re about to see.
This is something my old agent Sunny had me do for showcasing and it’s carried into many shows where they have the capability of an intro video. It tells the audience it’s start time and will introduce me and my show better than 90% of people who introduce me. My intro video won’t say my name wrong, and will get my intro right 100% of the time and not try to add in things that it thinks is funny, but isn’t.
These don’t have to be very long, maybe 30-60 seconds and are really just a sizzle reel, to get the crowd to shift their attention to the stage.
I’m a huge fan of Richard Himber and his magic. One of the things that magicians say is that he had a huge ego and they support that by mentioning that he named his tricks the “himber wallet“, “himber ring” etc. That’s not quite true, those tricks were marketed under different names that didn’t have himber in the titles. Magicians started calling them himber ____.
At a magic auction a while ago ago I picked up a Silver Rocket Box that Richard Himber put out. It’s a super clever trick for producing silks.
I added the cup production. One thing that most silk productions lack is an ending. Usually they end with one big silk, which I think isn’t a good ending. You need to bunch up the silks and produce a bowling ball or whatever.
Whenever I travel I always try to meet up with the magicians in that area! Since Chris Beason and I were in Canada last week to see Harrison Greenbaum’s show, there were a lot more magicians out than if I was just randomly in that town.
Before the show we got to have dinner with many of the the magicians in British Columbia!
Then after the show we got to have second dinner with the Norden’s and Harrison.
And the next day we got to have lunch with Reg Donnelly and Paul Romhany!
Paul knew, but didn’t mention that he had won the literary award from the magic castle! They announced it the next day.
It’s always fun to hang out and swap stories with magicians! If I’m ever in your area, shoot me an note, if I’m available, I’d love to kick it!
For every show that I do, I have a written set list. I know my show, but I always have one. For my main show, it’s taped to the inside of the lid of my case. Recently I was in a show where I did three five minute spots, so the list was written on a piece of paper inside the bin on my table top.
I do this for a couple reasons, for my main show if I’m repacking it, it’s easy to go down the list as I pack to make sure I have all of my props. For unusual configurations of my show, it makes sure I have all the correct props set. It also takes brainpower out of what I’m doing, I can glance at the list and know what to do!
While I was in Canada last weekend I was chatting with some magicians after the Harrison Greenbaum show and someone mention there was a guy about an hour away that was making vanishing birdcages and gave me his phone number. I called him the next day, and was invited over and got to see some of his cages!
These cages are great and since he’s not mass producing them, he’s open to doing custom sizes. The cages have a great action to them and look great!
I’m very fortunate to have gotten to see these cages and I’m on the list for a cage the next time he makes them!!!
Talking to people and then following up on opportunities when they present themselves is one of the biggest secrets to success. Not just in prop hunting, but in life!
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.
In my tech sheet that I send out for stage gigs, one of the things I ask for is a corded microphone in a straight stand. This is my emergency microphone, in case something strange happens with my headset mic. I ask for the mic to be muted on the mic, no the soundboard. If I need to use it, I simply grab it and switch it on. I don’t need to ask a sound guy to hand me one or switch it on.
Here’s my emergency mic at a large corporate event sitting behind their projection screen:
I don’t always get a corded mic, less and less venues and sound companies have them. I frequently travel with my own handheld mic with a switch, however I don’t travel with cord. I’m OK with a wireless handheld as an emergency mic, but prefer a corded as if something is causing interference with wireless, I definitely won’t have the same problem with a handheld.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Disneyland with a bunch of variety entertainers after an event in Anaheim.
One of the things we saw was the piano player at the Golden Horseshow Review.
The format in the show (20ish mins) show was song, jokes, song, joke and that repeated. This is a solid formula for a show and format that’s great for a magician, just substitute tricks for the songs.
Why does it work? It changes him from an ambient act to an engaging show. The jokes also make you connect to him, he’s not just a piano player, he’s a person. That’s the goal with a magic show, to be a human. If you want to learn more about being a person on stage and not just tricks, check out Jon Armstrong’s Masterclass on Vanishing Inc. That master class is really great!
