magic – Page 13 – MagicShow.Tips

Always Be Tweaking…

Over the last year I’ve been working on a Take Up Reel of my own design. If you don’t know what a Take Up Reel is, it’s a complicated process to do something very simple. All it does all you to have a piece of string and shorten it. That’s it. It becomes very handy if you use a wrist to wrist pull and need freedom of movement before using the pull.

What I designed works great for me, however I designed it for how I use it, not how other people may use it. Recently I sent some out to other performers and am getting feedback. Based on that feedback, I’m working for it to hold a thicker gauge line.

Adding a thicker line is a small change, but it adds a bit of an engineering challenge to the device. Hopefully it’s not too hard, I’m working on the first adjustment now and we’ll see how it is once it’s done printing.

Being open to other people’s feedback is something that I think is very important, especially if it’s something that I want to bring to market.

Borrowed Dollar Problems…

In my interview on The Variety Artist podcast I talk about working on a drawing duplication trick. It hit me yesterday that this could be the solution to the hurdle of borrowing money from the audience. The challenge of borrowing money is the time it takes people to get out money, or whether anyone will have money to offer.

How do you get from a drawing duplication to borrowing a dollar bill?

Simple, they draw the picture, I fold it up and it turns into a dollar bill. I give them the dollar bill. Then a bit later I need to borrow a dollar bill and of course the person who I just gave the dollar to has one ready for me to use.

Then later, I have the picture that they drew that I can load as a prediction, or as a production of their drawing. I think this solves the problem of time and uncertainty of borrowing money from the audience.

Add a Little Magic…

When I travel I love visiting junk shops, you can find all sorts of props. Yesterday I found some sandwich skewers that were 50 cents for the pack. I bought them for the sole purpose of bring a smile to the old ladies who ran the shop. Here’s what I did: People who say the … Continue reading “Add a Little Magic…”

People who say the only do magic tricks when they are paid are completely missing the boat when it comes to promoting magic in general. Not forcing magic on people is also important. You notice I do one trick, and she asks me to show another person. I’m not forcing a show on anyone. Just a quick little thing.

Shin Lim’s Show…

shin lim magic — pic from www.shinlimmagic.com

It was a long day, I went to Canada and back to see Shin Lim’s show. This was the first stop of his tour. I’m going to be completely honest, the show was a bit of a let down. My ticket said “Shin Lim” but the show was Colin Cloud with Shin doing a few things here and there. Colin is great, but it was sold to me as a Shin Lim show and I really wanted to see what a Shin Lim show was.

Colin opened the show and carried it. Shin has a long way to go to carry a whole theater show by himself. Shin’s opening trick was the “love card trick” that Penn and Teller do, which is a good trick, but not an opener. The worst part was we got halfway through it and they Shin said that he “messed up the math” and told us to throw the cards on the floor. The family next to me was confused. At the end of the show, he also referenced messing up this trick. By that point in the show, we had forgotten about that, and he didn’t need to bring it back up.

Unfortunately every routine that Shin did had something that didn’t work. sometimes it was just a card peeking out that we shouldn’t see, to the Love Card Trick that just didn’t work at all. It was interesting leaving the theater, people were talking about how underwhelmed they were, and that his stuff looked better on TV.

Here’s my takeaway, if your name is on the ticket, you should be on the stage the most. And that simply putting a camera on close up magic doesn’t make it engaging for the audience. There still needs to be more. That’s why Colin Cloud stole the show. I have a ticket to the show for six months from now when it’s in Seattle and I’m excited to see the show, and hopefully what an awesome show in that time it’s grown to!

Instagram Magic

A year or so ago I was chatting with Jonathan Friedman and he said something like, “Instragram is now a perfectly valid performing venue…”. He’s 100% correct. Social media magic has really launched the career, or kept them going for many magicians.

Shin Lim is a good example of this. His fanbase is HUGE outside of magicians. He’s using magic trick to keep people who follow him engaged and promote upcoming shows. A lot of the stuff he’s doing is social media only content. It’s stuff that he’s really not going to do in a show, it’s just to reach or connect with fans.

On a smaller scale than Shin Lim, I do this. The main reason is to give me an outlet for ideas. Things that I know I’ll never really do in a show. Here’s a good example:

Having a reason to work out little ideas and a place to share them is great. I’ve had a couple of ideas I’ve posted videos of get big responses, and I’ve figured out ways to work them into the show.

The moral of the story is to not be upset with social media magic tricks, they have place and a purpose. You need to grow with the times and stop being a dinosaur!

Instagram Force…

A few days ago I wrote about using the Predict n’ Grab trick to force an image on Instagram. I was thinking this morning if it’s better than using flash cards. Everyone can relate to flash cards…but also with Instagram.

Flash cards are a tangible thing which is nice, however so is my phone and it’s larger. For the trick I’m doing, on the person on stage can see the forced animal. The reason for that is simple, since I’m doing this for kids, I don’t want another kid to say what it is. If they say what I’ve forced outloud, I can’t got back and redo the selection because of what I’m revealing.

Instagram also feels “cooler” for older kids in the audience than flash cards do. When performing for kids, I always try to play up to the older kids, than play down to the younger ones. I’ve found that works better for my style of performing.

Reel Experiments…

The Silk Thru Coat Hanger that I’ve been doing is getting some interest from magicians on Facebook. It’s interesting how many don’t realize that going from the body to the hook isn’t a standard way of doing it. They’re going to try it, but I’m not sure they’ll “understand” the trick.

By understanding the trick, there’s a lot that can go wrong with this trick. I think that’s why more people don’t do Silk Thru Ring or even the Silk Thru Microphone type tricks. In the short amount of time I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned a lot about the trick and the props used in the trick.

The first thing you need is a good reel. Right now I’m using a P & L reel, but still experimenting with other ones. I just had a Kirkendall Reel show up yesterday and have a Tango Ulimate Reel showing up today. I’ve even played with using a badge reel.

The nice things about a badge reel is that they are cheap and have a lot more force than the other magic reels. The downside is that they make a lot more noise. When initially experimenting with a badge reel, I 3d printed a finger clip and glued it on one:

I think when I have time, I’m going to 3d print the entire reel housing and put the badge reel inside it. I think there are some things that I can do to quiet down the cheap badge reel and make it usable!

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 … 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).

Silk Thru…

When I was a kid I remember reading in Tarbell Vol 4 called The Penetrative Silk. This was a handkerchief that you can pull thru and upright pole and used a very simple set up. I’m not positive if this trick predates the Silk Thru Mic Stand trick or not. They are essentially the same … Continue reading “Silk Thru…”

When I was a kid I remember reading in Tarbell Vol 4 called The Penetrative Silk. This was a handkerchief that you can pull thru and upright pole and used a very simple set up. I’m not positive if this trick predates the Silk Thru Mic Stand trick or not. They are essentially the same trick with different methods.

If you aren’t familiar with the trick, here’s what it looks like:

In my show I’m always looking for tricks that can be done solo, with just me on stage. I like the concept of pulling a silk through something. This is something that is visual, so would play big. I found a P & L fingertip reel at a decent price and started messing with it.

The hard part now is figure out a routine with it and what’s going to make the trick uniquely me. I’ve found a couple of interesting moves that I don’t think have been done before, or at least I haven’t seen before. Hopefully this ends up being something that gets used in my show!

Break In Time…

I’m frequently working on new material, and need places to try it out. that’s the thing with magic, it needs an audience to see how it actually plays. Frequently I break in new material as the “preshow” while the audience is waiting for the show to start.

Yesterday before a show I started breaking in the three ball trick that I’m working on. What’s interesting about the trick is that my method which is a little unusual for the three ball trick seems to work and be deceptive to the audience. Trying out an unusual method for a trick is one of the most stressful things that I do. You never know if people will see right through it, or not. I’m glad I tried it out, I’m going to keep moving forward with the trick.

Taking the leap and putting stuff in front of the audience is very rewarding when the trick plays out. You can learn a lot from a method or presentation that doesn’t. Whenever I”m breaking in new material I try to record it, so I can watch how the audience responds and use that info for future development.