I'm on the road from July 12th to August 17th.
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-Louie Foxx Dismiss
One of the things that I think is important to do with magic is to be social. Hang out with other magicians, see what they are doing and learn from it. When I was starting out, there was no internet, so that’s how new tricks got around, someone learned it in another city and they … Continue reading “Be Social…”
One of the things that I think is important to do with magic is to be social. Hang out with other magicians, see what they are doing and learn from it. When I was starting out, there was no internet, so that’s how new tricks got around, someone learned it in another city and they showed you at a magic club or jam session.
Here are some of the highlights of the last meeting of the Seattle Magic Club:
Simply knowing what other magicians in your market are doing is HUGE. Personally, it let’s me know what tricks not to do in my show. It also let’s me know who someone is talking about if they saw a magician can can’t remember their name.
Recently I was talking to a magician who wanted to use music in a close up set. Lots of magicians have done this. It’s usually done in more formal close up or really a small parlor show and not in a roving magic context. For me one of the early example of this was Jean … Continue reading “Close Up Music?”
Recently I was talking to a magician who wanted to use music in a close up set. Lots of magicians have done this. It’s usually done in more formal close up or really a small parlor show and not in a roving magic context. For me one of the early example of this was Jean Pierre Vallarino on the World’s Greatest Magic in the 1990’s.
More recently this has gained popularity with Shin Lim’s performances on America’s Got Talent. One thing about Shin’s performance is that it’s really not a “Close Up” act, it’s a parlor act and I think a lot of magicians don’t realize that because it feels more intimate on TV. I’m not saying it can’t be done close up, but it’s bigger than most close up.
Back to using music in close up. One of the great things about close up is that you can quickly and easily connect with people, and with music you are staring out with a wall. It’s a “I’m the performer, you are the audience” scenario. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does make it harder to connect.
Personally I prefer a “we’re in this together” vibe to my show. That is easier to accomplish by talking with people. However, that’s just me, and if we all did everything the same way, the world would be boring.
I’m pretty sure I’ve written about his before, and I’ll say it again, we live in an amazing time to be magicians. You can watch videos of old master magicians perform, or the new upcoming magicians on YouTube. You can stream a magic lecture from your favorite magician without leaving your couch. While all of … Continue reading “”
I’m pretty sure I’ve written about his before, and I’ll say it again, we live in an amazing time to be magicians. You can watch videos of old master magicians perform, or the new upcoming magicians on YouTube. You can stream a magic lecture from your favorite magician without leaving your couch.
While all of this is great, I also thing an important part of being a good magician is “jamming” with other magicians. Not just demonstrating tricks, but playing with magic. When you play and start “riffing” with tricks, some amazing stuff happens!
Go out to your local magic club, meet some people and start jamming, you never know when you’ll stumble upon the next big magic trick!
Recently I was performing a close up gig for a bunch of teenagers and a great group. When I finished they thought I as the best magician in the world (I’m not). What made me 200% more amazing than I normally am was that I wasn’t afraid to go off script. This was one of … Continue reading “Go With The Flow”
Recently I was performing a close up gig for a bunch of teenagers and a great group. When I finished they thought I as the best magician in the world (I’m not). What made me 200% more amazing than I normally am was that I wasn’t afraid to go off script.
This was one of the shows where everything that could go right, did! What I mean by that, is I do a “coin under watch” routine. I load the coin really early in the routine. It’s risky, as it has a lot of time to be discovered or fall out. Well, about halfway through the trick one of the kids says, “make it appear under his watch” and points to the guy who I had the loaded watch.
A miracle was about to happen.
When things like this pop up, I can’t get excited and immediately make it happen. I need to make it look difficult for me to do. I laughed it off telling the kid that it would be amazing, but I’m not that good. Got slightly deeper into the routine, and then made it appear under the guys watch. The kids when crazy!
The entire set I did for these kids, they would request things to happen that I already had set up. To them it must have felt like I could do anything, to me it felt like the audience was psychic!
Yesterday I did a gig that was for only about 15 people, so it was a large close up show or a small platform show. One of the things with shows like this, is that it often lacks the formal feeling of a formal show. People can get chatty with you and I tend to … Continue reading “Small But Mighty…”
Yesterday I did a gig that was for only about 15 people, so it was a large close up show or a small platform show. One of the things with shows like this, is that it often lacks the formal feeling of a formal show. People can get chatty with you and I tend to be a little less formal with them.
With this many people, it’s easy to connect with them, and for them to connect with each other. I can spend a bit more time with someone if something interesting is happening. I’m still doing my show, but I feel it’s easier to play a lot more.
When performing for a bigger group, playing can be more difficult if it’s verbal. The audience can’t hear the person, so you either need to mic them or repeat what they are saying. I’m all for playing, however sometimes, it’s just not as practical as thers.
One way to keep creativity fresh is to be creative in more than just the field that’s your job. Lots of magicians in addition to magic also do things like painting, photography, or music. Having another outlet for your creativity allows you to continually flex your creative muscle. One of the creative things that I … Continue reading “Creative Side Hustle”
One way to keep creativity fresh is to be creative in more than just the field that’s your job. Lots of magicians in addition to magic also do things like painting, photography, or music. Having another outlet for your creativity allows you to continually flex your creative muscle.
One of the creative things that I do is run a podcast called The Odd and Offbeat Podcast. In this podcast a buddy and I talk about strange news stories and joke about them.
The fun thing about this podcast is that it’s a weekly podcast, so I have to keep up on reading the news and writing jokes about things that I read. It also keep me sharper with my ad libs as we riff on each other’s jokes.
If you don’t already have a creative hobby, go out and find one!
I’m a big fan of getting new ideas for magic tricks in front of people as soon as possible. The sooner you can get something new in front of an audience, that sooner you know if it’s good or not. Even with a rough idea, you’ll get a sense of whether or not there’s anything … Continue reading “The Sooner the Better…”
I’m a big fan of getting new ideas for magic tricks in front of people as soon as possible. The sooner you can get something new in front of an audience, that sooner you know if it’s good or not. Even with a rough idea, you’ll get a sense of whether or not there’s anything worth pursuing or not.
Personally, I don’t want to waste my time on an idea that doesn’t connect with an audience. Doing a trick once in front of someone will also let you know technically if you are doing the right thing technically. You’ll know if a certain move or sleight fits the rhythm of the trick.
Obviously you must be able to do whatever moves the trick requires at a passable level. This is where having a background in sleight of hand comes in handy, it will make doing new things much easier, than if you don’t normally use sleight of hand.
When I was about 15 years old, I saw John Carney lecture in Minneapolis. One of the things he talked about was doing the pass. He said the best way to create a new pass was to do an existing one backwards. For example a Herman Pass is essentially a Classic Pass Backwards. Occasionally when … Continue reading “Do It Backwards!”
When I was about 15 years old, I saw John Carney lecture in Minneapolis. One of the things he talked about was doing the pass. He said the best way to create a new pass was to do an existing one backwards. For example a Herman Pass is essentially a Classic Pass Backwards.
Occasionally when I’m jamming with magicians I’ll start to play with a move or an idea backwards and it will yield interesting results. Recently I was talking to a mentalist and the subject of spoon bending came up. I asked him if anyone had done it backwards. What I mean by that is bending the spoon towards the bowl, instead of away from it.
He mentioned that a lot of the optical illusion parts of bends may not work. He then demonstrated the spoon bends that he does, and he was right about them not working with the bend going the opposite direction. However, this playing around with flipping the bend backwards led me to come up with what I think is a new spoon bend!
The first paid gig I ever did when I was a teenager was an event where I did close up magic lane to lane at a bowling alley. It was a rough gig, and even and a kid after doing it, I knew it sucked. It was a bad show because the event planner was … Continue reading “Coming Full Circle…”
The first paid gig I ever did when I was a teenager was an event where I did close up magic lane to lane at a bowling alley. It was a rough gig, and even and a kid after doing it, I knew it sucked. It was a bad show because the event planner was trying to put an activity into an an activity. No one wanted to watch the tricks, I did, they were busy bowling and I as interrupting them.
Over the years I’ve gotten requests to do gigs at bowling alleys and I’ve turned them down. However over 20 years later I finally accepted a roving magic gig at a bowling alley.
Why did I take this gig? I wanted to try it again, and see if I could conquer it. I’m happy to report that last night the show went wonderfully!
What did I do differently 20 years later?
A lot of things have changed. First of all there’s the “David Blaine Factor”, which is that his TV shows have made people aware of what close up magic is. When I was a kid, people didn’t know what close up magic was, and they thought it’d be lame tricks that your uncle Jimmy Does.
This time around I also had over twenty years of performing experience. My close up set was short tricks, nothing too long and drawn out. It gave me a chance to leave if I noticed they were more interested in bowling. Add that to being a much stronger performer than I was as a teenager.
My advice is if you’ve had a rough performing situation in the past that you swore you’d never do again…maybe try it again. I’m glad I did!
If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of comedy magician Nick Lewin. He was one of the magicians that I saw as a teenager and his style shaped how I perform. He’s someone that had pretty much done it all as a magician. Recently he was on the The Variety Artist Podcast … Continue reading “Fantastic Information!”
If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of comedy magician Nick Lewin. He was one of the magicians that I saw as a teenager and his style shaped how I perform. He’s someone that had pretty much done it all as a magician.
He gives a ton of great advice on all aspects of your show. One of the things that I really liked is he mentioned that comedians and comedy magicians have a different definition of what performing “comedy” means.
Most comedy magicians thing performing comedy in a comedy club means being dirty. That’s couldn’t be further from the truth. Performing comedy in a comedy club should mean you have original material. Jokes that move a plot forward. Yes, you can have limited success doing store bought tricks, but at some point to really progress you need to write material!
