Take a Risk…

Sometimes you have to do something that’s hard. Where if it fails, you stand to actually lose. I was curious about adding money to the presentation of the 10 card poker deal. The idea of losing real money, even for a sure fire bet was hard to do the first time. Yesterday I put some … Continue reading “Take a Risk…”

Sometimes you have to do something that’s hard. Where if it fails, you stand to actually lose. I was curious about adding money to the presentation of the 10 card poker deal. The idea of losing real money, even for a sure fire bet was hard to do the first time.


Yesterday I put some money out, by the third hand I had over $400 on the line. Personally I don’t like the idea of me giving the person money to bet with. I prefer just betting my money, and letting them risk nothing. I think that if they never had money in their hand, the feeling of loss is lessened.


The main reason I wanted to put real money on the line, is that I wasn’t positive I wanted to have a money aspect of the routine. What I learned was that I don’t, but I never would have known, had there not been a risk element to it.

Real vs. Manufactured Moments

One of the reasons live entertainment is unique is that anything can happen and each show has the potential to be unique.  The problem comes in when you have performers who refuse to go off track, and strictly stick to the script.  When you ignore things that come up and don’t, “live in the moment” … Continue reading “Real vs. Manufactured Moments”

One of the reasons live entertainment is unique is that anything can happen and each show has the potential to be unique.  The problem comes in when you have performers who refuse to go off track, and strictly stick to the script.  When you ignore things that come up and don’t, “live in the moment” you are missing out on a gold mine of stuff that can happen.

One of the reasons live entertainment is unique is that anything can happen and each show has the potential to be unique.  The problem comes in when you have performers who refuse to go off track, and strictly stick to the script.  When you ignore things that come up and don’t, “live in the moment” you are missing out on a gold mine of stuff that can happen.

One of the things in my show is I have places where the person onstage can have a real moment onstage with me, not a manufactured one.  Then I get to play, we can see where it goes.   Sometimes it doesn’t go anywhere and that’s the risk, however the reward outweighs the risk. 

The only hard part is to recognize when real moment becomes a manufactured moment. This is something that will happen with time.  You’ll learn that if you ask a specific question within a certain contex you’ll typically get a handful of answers.  Over time you’ll end up with a response to those.  That’s when the real moment becomes a manufactured moment.  There’s nothing wrong with a manufactured moment.  I have a ton of them in my show. 

Next time you perform, ask a question and play with the answer you’re given. 

Use Everything…

Most magicians have drawers full of magic that they don’t use. Stuff they’ve bought and for whatever reason ends up in a drawer never to be seen again. I used to have that, however a couple years ago I decided I was going to actually use all of my props…at least a few times. I’ll … Continue reading “Use Everything…”

Most magicians have drawers full of magic that they don’t use. Stuff they’ve bought and for whatever reason ends up in a drawer never to be seen again. I used to have that, however a couple years ago I decided I was going to actually use all of my props…at least a few times.


I’ll do the tricks from the “magic junk drawer” at about a dozen times. The goal is to learn what I can from the prop before throwing it away. Occasionally I’ve been surprised and something that I thought was junk became a keeper.


I think the reason a lot of good tricks end up in drawer is because the price to prop ratio is bad. What I mean by that is if you paid $50 and they gave you a blank card your mindset is that it was a rip off. The trick’s value when performed could be much higher!


However the majority of the tricks are simply bad tricks that someone either loved enough to sell…or was greedy enough to sell a bad idea. Bottom line is that if it doesn’t work for you after you’ve done it about ten times, don’t keep it!

Magic Books…

TI’m a magic book guy, I love magic books. My generation of magic is at the tail end of books, when I was getting serious about magic videos didn’t really exist. The VHS tapes that were around were insanely expensive at $75-$100 bucks! Being a book guy, that means you find a lot of hidden … Continue reading “Magic Books…”

TI’m a magic book guy, I love magic books. My generation of magic is at the tail end of books, when I was getting serious about magic videos didn’t really exist. The VHS tapes that were around were insanely expensive at $75-$100 bucks!


Being a book guy, that means you find a lot of hidden little gems of magic. Things that are cool and buried in a book. Someone once told me that the best things in books are the tricks with no illustrations. They are the things that the author wants in print to assert ownership, but doesn’t want anyone to do.


My book collection is pretty big and I like having a large selection of books to reference, or to read. I’ve also worked through most of the stuff in all of the books I own. Many years ago, Eugene Burger mentioned in an article in a magic magazine that he only had a few magic books. He loved books, read them, however he didn’t keep them. He gave them away after reading them.


I thought it was strange that he didn’t keep books. As I get older, and my performing style is more defined, the books that want to keep are probably less than a couple dozen. Most of these books would be books that had an influence on my, now that I really need to read them again.


This has made me think about the advice that you should “Only learn seven tricks”.  This is advice that I don’t agree with. You can’t pick seven trick without learning hundreds of tricks to pick those seven. We no longer live in a time where you can make a career out of a handful of tricks. You need to keep learning and adding to your base knowledge to grow!

TLDR: Keep learning, but you don’t need to be a hoarder!