magic tricks – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

On my flight home yesterday I started reading an ebook called Building An Act by Tommy Wonder that you can get on Tom Stone’s Website. I had bought this ebook a long time ago and hadn’t read it. I’m only about a dozen pages into the book, but so far it’s great! One of the … Continue reading “”

On my flight home yesterday I started reading an ebook called Building An Act by Tommy Wonder that you can get on Tom Stone’s Website. I had bought this ebook a long time ago and hadn’t read it. I’m only about a dozen pages into the book, but so far it’s great!

One of the things that he mentions, that you build up enthusiasm for what you are creating and that enthusiasm carries you, but also inspires others to help you. Thinking back on things that I’ve created, and the help I’ve gotten from essentially strangers. I’ve gone into industrial shops tell them what I’m trying to do and they go out of their way to help me or teach me how to make something, usually for free. I always offer to pay, it’s amazing how many are fine with just me buying the few bucks in materials.

Another thing he does is puts a time limit on it. This is something I don’t do, however when I’m creating something new that I’m passionate about, I tend to get in done within the time limit that Tommy Wonder mentions in the book. I really like the idea of imposing a time limit to get at least a basic, version of the trick done.

I fly again tomorrow, and I’ll finish up reading it on the plane.

Foolproof Isn’t Always…

One of the things that drives me nuts are people who use electronic mentalism effects and aren’t prepared for what happens when they don’t work. I was recently at a trade show and there was someone else using a trick on the same frequency as me. I quickly realized that and went into my other … Continue reading “Foolproof Isn’t Always…”

One of the things that drives me nuts are people who use electronic mentalism effects and aren’t prepared for what happens when they don’t work. I was recently at a trade show and there was someone else using a trick on the same frequency as me. I quickly realized that and went into my other method of doing the trick that didn’t rely on the electronic device.

I learned that the other person didn’t realize it and they were frequently unable to “read minds” as they were getting my signal. This is the problem with these fool proof type tricks, they are easy to do amazing things…until they aren’t.

When I realized someone else was on the same frequency as me, I turned off my receiver, but still used the prop as it’s part of my tradeshow set. Unfortunately my prop was still sending out a signal. Now the ethical question is should one of us have stopped using the trick? In my opinion the answer is no, we both are entitled to do the trick.

They never came to me to ask me to turn it off, and honestly I probably wouldn’t have turned it off as I’m equally as entitled to use it as they are. It’s a learning lesson, what to do when more than one person is using your frequency. One that I’ve anticipated, and spent time figuring out how to deal with. If you are performing in any setting where there is more than just you performing, you need to be aware of this and have a backup plan.

Fishing Pole and the Ball of Yarn…

One of my favorite things is figuring out magic tricks. A couple of days ago I made fishing pole reel to wind up the yarn from the coin in the ball of yarn trick. Yesterday I used it in a show and learned a few things about it.

First my method of attaching the yarn to the string needed improvement. The yarn was threaded through a small hole and then knots were tied in the yarn to keep in from pulling back through the hole. Well, the knot pulled itself through the hole. I’ll need to either tie a lot more knots, tie something to the end that’s larger than the hole, or simply just tie it around a post. This is an easy fix.

Second thing that I learned was that while my pole is collapses, I should have it fully extended before the show. It’s a waste of time to have it extend it, and I also use an extendable pole in my show, so I don’t want a feeling of duplication.

The final thing that I need to do is to change the method for the trick. Right now I’m using Vernet Magic’s amazing trick The Yarn as my method for making the billet appear on the end. This is a great method for getting the billet on the end of the string when the trick is done in your hands. Unfortunately using a five foot fishing pole has created an unanticipated challenge when the string is five feet from your hand. I’m solving this by changing the method for this trick, and the bonus of the new method is that the trick will play a lot larger!

I love that this fishing pole is in my show, and I’m hoping that I can figure out both the technical part and the presentation part so it stays in my show!

Old Style Magic…

I’m a huge supporter of magic clubs. They are very useful for learning magic, as well and giving a sense of community. I made a couple of comments about a few things being an “older style of magic“, unfortunately I don’t recall the specific things I referred to. We also had someone new to magic … Continue reading “Old Style Magic…”

I’m a huge supporter of magic clubs. They are very useful for learning magic, as well and giving a sense of community. I made a couple of comments about a few things being an “older style of magic“, unfortunately I don’t recall the specific things I referred to. We also had someone new to magic at the magic club and they asked what I meant by “older style of magic“.

Like anything people change the way they do things and there are trends that come and go. An example of this is card tricks. More modern card tricks have less work that is tabled, however that’s changing due to the popularity of close up acts for TV. Modern card tricks also tend to have a lot less procedure and higher payoffs than the card tricks in Tarbell.

Stylistically what people are doing is more in your face than it was 20 years ago. I’m not saying that it’s good or bad, but different. Being aware of the styles and trends will keep your magic feeling up to date and fresh.

Making Progress…

The trick that I’m working on is an object to impossible location. That spot is inside a ball of yarn. I had the idea for the trick a few days ago, and it’s making progress. The trick isn’t 100% new to me, it’s parts of tricks that I’ve tried to get to work for years, and it just never did. Finally the routine is coming together.

For the ball of yarn, one thing I never liked is the awkward handling of cup. Someone has to hold the cup, and it’s much strong if that person isn’t me. That means I need to get another person onto the stage to hold it. That’s just not efficient. The other day I had an idea for a cup holder that’d attach to a mic stand (read the blog post about it here).

The cup holder was 3D printed and ready to go yesterday, here it is:

I used it in three shows yesterday and it worked great! It’s going to need a redesign as the part that holds the foot of the wine glass can be about half as tall as it currently it. A lower profile on the cup hold will make it look a lot less clunky.

It’s still a new routine, but it’s coming along nicely. I’m really glad I took my 3D printer on the road with me this week. There are a few other props I made for the show in my hotel. The next thing I need to make, but won’t have time to do before I head back home is a stand to hold the props for the dollar / drawing routine in my case.

The Elephant in the Room…

One of my best friends (who is also an amazing performer) always says, “you’ve got to address the elephant in the room”. What he means is if there is something that the whole audience can see or is aware of that’s a distraction, you need to acknowledge it. When I perform at fairs, sometimes the “elephant in the room” is a literal elephant, other times it’s not.

A few weeks ago the backdrop to my stage was a row of porta-potty’s. It’s something that I needed to address, so here’s how I did it:

By addressing it immediately in the show, I got a big laugh. It also shows a bit of my personality, it shows that I’m fun and don’t take myself too seriously.

I talk a little bit about this in my interview with John Abrams on his podcast The Variety Artist that comes out on August 12th. I talk about a stage I performed on where to get onto the stage people from the audience physically had to leave the building and go around back. I also talk about how I addressed this problem. If you don’t listen to the podcast, you should give it a listen!

How To Create New Tricks…

It drives me nuts when people say they “aren’t creative like me” or that ” not everyone can create new tricks”. That’s total BS, it’s not that they aren’t creative, it’s that they aren’t motivated to be creative. Just like learning a sleight of hand move it simply takes practice.

The easiest way to start your creative thinking is to read a description of a magic trick and figure out a method. Don’t watch a demo video as what you see can affect what you do. Watching a demo could make try to make you recreate that specific the method, this isn’t what you want to do.

Coming up with your own methods is a good starting point for learning to be creative.

The key to being creative is actually putting energy into it. Sure some ideas pop out of nowhere, some are the result of specific work. I used to set aside 30-45 mins every morning to try to come up with ideas (magic tricks / jokes / etc). The key is to do it everyday, I do it in the morning because if I do it then, it will get done. Be aware that 95% of these ideas will be junk, but you are mining for the 5% that’s good.

Make Them Come To You…

This week I’m doing a lot of local gigs and it’s nice to be home. In the summer I do many summer day camps for kids. Usually I’m doing them for school age kids, but this week I’ve been doing mostly younger kids in the 3-5 age range. This is a smidge younger than my demographic, however the shows are doing fine.

One thing that I consciously don’t do in my show is any standard kids show material. No break away wands or anything like that. I want do make them come up a level. This isn’t something that’s easy to do. Making the wand break is easy, making counting pieces of string entertaining to a kid is hard. I’m purposely taking a harder route, but in doing that it makes me a better performer.

Challenging the kids to be more sophisticated separates me from most other kid shows. It also teaches the kids to be better audiences, and that listening is an important part of watching a show, and more important than screaming. Many kid shows are simply getting the kids amped up, and that’s it. They have one gear. I have some slower parts to the show, and some more high energy parts. Having texture in your show is important, even when performing for kids.

Pump The Breaks…

At my only show I did yesterday I really slowed down. The entire show I probably went 30% slower. I let the magic moments sink in and the jokes marinade with the audience. I’m really happy with the results and I’m going to keep the slowness going for all three shows I’m doing today.

I understand why I go fast. It’s a fear of failure. It’s the fear of audiences not liking the tricks, or jokes not landing with the audience. How I deal with it is that I plow on to the next line. I recently watched a short little animated documentary on Doc Ellis. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the Major League Baseball pitcher that pitched a no hitter on LSD!

What doc was doing with drugs and alcohol was dealing with his fear of failure as a major league pitcher. I’m doing the same thing with speed. Moving from bit to bit and not giving them time to fail, but in the process they aren’t getting time to succeed!

Breaking In Tricks…..

Before my show at a library I did some tricks that I’m working on as my preshow. One of the tricks is a dollar production called Sketch Money by Joao Miranda. It’s a drawing of a dollar bill that turns into a real dollar bill and other I did was the gypsy thread. Sketch Money … Continue reading “Breaking In Tricks…..”

Before my show at a library I did some tricks that I’m working on as my preshow. One of the tricks is a dollar production called Sketch Money by Joao Miranda. It’s a drawing of a dollar bill that turns into a real dollar bill and other I did was the gypsy thread.

Sketch Money played better than I thought it would, and I added a switch at the end to get rid of the gimmicked dollar bill. Basically I’m going an “under the box” type switch with the pad of paper instead of a box. It worked well, and I thought there’d be a ton of heat after the dollar production, but there was none. That was very unexpected.

The Gypsy Thread trick from a technical end is fine, I just need to work on selling the end. The trick is missing the magic moment. I think I need to verbally tell them what’s going to happen right before it does happen. I’m doing this trick for kids, and I think the moment of licking the string overshadows the restoration. The string licking is a very funny moment for the kids. I need some more separation between it and the restoration, and to give the restoration a magic moment, like a snap.

I’m happy with how these tricks are coming along and both are for my summer library shows, so hopefully they’ll be solid tricks by the end of the season.