Playing with the Silk Thru Microphone Stand concept, and starting to do some research on it, I’m amazed a how little there is about it out there. I guess that part of it is that I’m searching for a specific trick, that really only has two methods. It’s also a quick trick, so there’s a … Continue reading “Researching the Silk Thru…”
Playing with the Silk Thru Microphone Stand concept, and starting to do some research on it, I’m amazed a how little there is about it out there. I guess that part of it is that I’m searching for a specific trick, that really only has two methods. It’s also a quick trick, so there’s a lot le
Then I realized I should be searching for a Ring and Silk routines, as that’s much closer to what I’m going to be doing. Once I searched that, I had a bit more success. Here’s a good example of something similar to what I want to do:
I’m not using a ring, but a coat hanger, however the moves are similar. The size and shape of the coat hanger lends itself to a couple of things that a ring doesn’t. This is what I find exciting. Also the routine I’m going to do, will probably be a talking routine, where I’ve only seen silent ones (not that that’s a huge differnce).
One of the books that I’m reading right now is Principia by Harapan Ong. It’s a card magic book, and while I’m only about 50 pages into it, I think it’s a really good, modern card magic book. One of the books selling points is that there is internet video of Harapan doing all of … Continue reading “Newly Acquired Taste in Card Tricks”
One of the books that I’m reading right now is Principia by Harapan Ong. It’s a card magic book, and while I’m only about 50 pages into it, I think it’s a really good, modern card magic book. One of the books selling points is that there is internet video of Harapan doing all of the material in the book. Unfortunately I’m in a position where I don’t have internet access fast enough to stream video, so I haven’t watched them.
One thing that surprised me was there was an “elevator” card trick that I actually liked. I think I was introduced to the elevator plot when I was a teenager reading the big Alex Elmsley books. I never really liked the plot simply because there always seemed to be either too much process or too much proving. The Michalevator routine in the book doesn’t have much process and doesn’t over prove…and I like it.
I don’t know if I’ll ever actually use Harapan’s elevator trick in an actual show or not, but it’s been fun to play with. I’ve said it before, but it’s important to still play with magic. That’s how we learn, through play.
One of the things I try to do is act on most of my ideas. No matter how bad, impractical, or not my style it is. Just working them out is a good exercise for my brain. Most of these ideas will never make it into my show. Here’s an idea I’ve had in my … Continue reading “No Bad Ideas…”
One of the things I try to do is act on most of my ideas. No matter how bad, impractical, or not my style it is. Just working them out is a good exercise for my brain. Most of these ideas will never make it into my show.
Here’s an idea I’ve had in my head for a little while:
I’ve come up with several methods for it, all of which are very impractical. This one is probably the most usable version of the trick.
The downfall is that the trick isn’t how unpractical the method is, it’s that it’s a small trick. Visually it’s hard to see, and it’s got a very specific spot in a show that at can be. This trick has to be the opening of a card set, or when you introduce an additional deck of cards into a card set.
I’m glad I worked through the methods and got to work out my creativity muscles.
There are tons of magicians that hate it when people show the magic tricks. Honestly I’m not sure why they’d dislike it. When you watch a trick you are encouraging someone that’s into magic on some level. You are also not being a jerk. I understand that there’s a common magic trick that people show … Continue reading “Magic From Non-Magicians…”
There are tons of magicians that hate it when people show the magic tricks. Honestly I’m not sure why they’d dislike it. When you watch a trick you are encouraging someone that’s into magic on some level. You are also not being a jerk.
I understand that there’s a common magic trick that people show us and it’s a horrible trick and quite often the person fails to find the card because they don’t practice enough. However you never know when you are going to see something interesting.
Here’s a bartender that saw Chris Beason and I jamming magic tricks and offered to show us a trick:
While the trick was a math based trick, it was something I think I had read as a kid, but had never seen anyone do it. It was an interesting trick and while not the greatest trick in the world, it was worth watching 10 bad tricks to get to one that was fun!
When I was a teenager there was a trick that came out called Diminishing Returns by Mike Powers. This is a great trick where someone picks a card and the whole deck shrinks except for their card. Then the whole deck grows and their card shrinks. For the finale their card visually grows back to … Continue reading “The Shrinking Card…”
When I was a teenager there was a trick that came out called Diminishing Returns by Mike Powers. This is a great trick where someone picks a card and the whole deck shrinks except for their card. Then the whole deck grows and their card shrinks. For the finale their card visually grows back to full size. It’s a great action packed trick.
Here’s the video of the Diminishing Returns trick:
It’s a great trick and I did it for quite a while. Recently I was messing around with some cards and ended up playing with a similar gaff and here’s what I came up with:
This is a fun little sequence for the shrinking of a card. There’s not much to it, and I might write it up for Vanish Magazine in the future.
Frequently on internet magic groups people talk about set lists. I’m always amazed at how many people just make up the show order as they go. They justify this as selecting their show to what the audience will like in the moment. In theory this is a good idea, but your show will lack tightness, … Continue reading “Show Flow…”
Frequently on internet magic groups people talk about set lists. I’m always amazed at how many people just make up the show order as they go. They justify this as selecting their show to what the audience will like in the moment. In theory this is a good idea, but your show will lack tightness, and if you read this blog, you my remember me writing about tightness as one of the things that makes a show professional.
Having a set list and following it allows you to work on your show as a show, your segues get better, your prop management is better. You will have less wasted motion, than if you are randomly grabbing a prop. This gives the audience a sense that you know what you’re doing.
I really feel like my show started to grow as a show, not as a collection of acts when I started doing it according to a set list. This doesn’t mean you can’t vary the list occasionally, but you strive for a consistent, preplanned show order. This has helped me enormously as my career has grown and from when I’ve started working in venues that want me to submit a set list for the theater crew.
Put your show down on paper and learn it like a show!
When I see magic shows, I like watching them from the back of the room. You learn a lot more about how to perform from a bad seat than you do a good seat. In theory your show will play to all areas of the audience and play virtually equally. I get that some things … Continue reading “Worst Seat in the House”
When I see magic shows, I like watching them from the back
of the room. You learn a lot more about
how to perform from a bad seat than you do a good seat. In theory your show will play to all areas of
the audience and play virtually equally.
I get that some things will automatically be harder to see from
different parts of the audience by nature of distance, like a jumbo card will
look jumbo from the front row, but smaller from the back.
When watching a magic show from the back, it makes you aware
of what you can and cannot see. For
example I personally can’t read a normal playing card from about the 10th
row. What does that mean, someone in the
back of the theater doesn’t know what it is.
How do you overcome this? Use jumbo card, use low vision cards, make the
card with a big X???
Then colors of props start coming into play. Having a prop that “pops” due to contrast
between what you wear or the background becomes important. I’m not saying all of your props have to be
neon colors, but it’s important for you to be aware of what’s visible and
what’s going to disappear.
Start watching shows from the cheap seats and you’ll soon realize most magic
shows are too small!
After playing some more with the Three Ball Routine, I started to write up a little routine. The routine changed from what I had written yesterday for an ending, however the ending that I wrote make more sense with the routine. I still like the egg idea from yesterday’s post, just not with this routine. … Continue reading “Three Ball Routine…”
After playing some more with the Three Ball Routine, I started to write up a little routine. The routine changed from what I had written yesterday for an ending, however the ending that I wrote make more sense with the routine. I still like the egg idea from yesterday’s post, just not with this routine.
Here’s the routine (so far):
“This trick uses three balls, that’s why there are 2 billion chinese. 3 balls, one for each year of high school I completed.
What I love about this trick is how pure of a magic trick it is, no fancy boxes, no dancing girls, no dignity. It’s 91% sleight of hand, 7% my gift of gab, and 2% old school “Magic”
This is probably the most international trick I do. These balls were made in factory in china, but I bought them in shop mexico and the trick is presented by me, who is from…my mother.
One…two…three.
That’s one, two…did you see the third one go? It hasn’t yet. And faster than you even begin to throw money onto the stage, there is it! Don’t reach for your wallet…the moment’s past.
Let’s do it again in spanish.
Tres Bolas. Uno…Dos…Tres
Uno…Dos… .Y No Trace
Let’s try it in chinese. Ee…Ar…San. San goes into the pocket.
Ee..ar…and San.
One more time…Ee..Ar …and sam goes into the pocket. This trick has literally taken around the world…topull flags out of fist and name countries”
I like the ending with the flags of the nations because it fits with the theme of the routine. Also the flags should play pretty big, and move the action up towards my face. The patter isn’t finished yet, and I need to come up with one more language to do the final count instead of repeating Chinese. I think there’s something in this routine…
One of the things I do when I buy a magic book, is that I try to work through everything that’s reasonable to work through. What I mean by that is that I I’m not going to build an illusion if it’s in the book, but I will build simpler project. I try work through … Continue reading “Work It Out…”
One of the things I do when I buy a magic book, is that I
try to work through everything that’s reasonable to work through. What I mean by that is that I I’m not going
to build an illusion if it’s in the book, but I will build simpler project. I
try work through every trick that doesn’t require a crazy gimmick I don’t have.
I think this makes me a better magic creator and performer. It allows me to improvise much better as I’ve
already done something a few times, it makes it easier to recreate when the
moment occurs. It also makes you look at
props differently.
When I travel, I try to make little videos of magic tricks with things found in my hotel room, or in today’s case my state room as I’m performing on a cruise ship this week. This morning when I was brushing my teeth, I noticed the cups in the bathroom were big enough to hold a deck of cards. That then led me to thinking about the trick Everywhere and Nowhere by Hofzinser that uses a glass to isolate a deck of cards. That led me to wondering if a “flap card” would work in a glass. Turns out a flap card works great in a glass, and I like the isolation that the glass adds to the change of the card.
Now it’s got me thinking about how I can use this in a show. In a cabaret show, or a stage show where you have video projection, it would be a great reveal for a tossed out deck. You start with one card in glass as your prediction. The three cards are selected and the prediction changes to three different cards. If they saw their card they sit down. This moves the flap card from essentially a close up trick to something bigger.
Maybe I’ll start to write a tossed out deck routine using the flap card as the premise/ending.
One of the tricks I’ve always loved is the Haunted Deck. It’s an amazing trick, the first one I ever bought as a kid was horrible, half the deck was gimmicked, and you were attached to it, so it wasn’t the most practical version of the trick. It worked, but it could be better. This … Continue reading “”
One of the tricks I’ve always loved is the Haunted Deck. It’s an amazing trick, the first one I ever bought as a kid was horrible, half the deck was gimmicked, and you were attached to it, so it wasn’t the most practical version of the trick. It worked, but it could be better.
This is where innovating comes through, there’s are better ways to do the Haunted Deck, and it’s a good thing we didn’t stop at the version I bought as a kid. A similar version is the one popularized by Eugene Burger, which while similar in method, allowed you to use the deck after the trick. This is a huge leap in the method.
Then you have a version using Loops, which allows you to use a borrowed deck, but can be unreliable as the gimmick is fragile. A few years ago I discovered Haunted 2.0, which fit the bill for me. 100% reliable, allowed me to use the deck before and after the trick, it’s great and the version of the trick that I do. However last week at a magic session a friend of mine showed me an impromptu version. It’s at about the 37 second mark of this video:
I think this version looks amazing and the only reason I haven’t switched to it is that in Haunted 2.0 you don’t have to touch the deck, which is one of the strong points of that version.
If we stopped innovating with “good enough” the Haunted Deck would be a trick that I wouldn’t be doing now. So go out there and make good tricks better!
