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Shell Game Ending…

If you read this blog or follow me on social media, you know I’m not the Three Shell Game. I’ve come up with several original takes on the classic trick, which is great for a routine that’s basically been unchanged decades. I just built an ending for the shell game that I think is pretty cool.

Before I tell you what I did, let me tell you the two types of tricks that I think are usually the most lazy ways of being creative with magic. They are items that are hollow and turn solid and items that turn into glass (or clear plastic). Yes, there are execptions, like when Jerry Andrus and Danny Korem first did the Omni Deck. If you take a marker an turn it clear…great, but unless you have a really original take on the switch, it’s just a color change and no different from turning the marker from red to black.

So now, let’s get back to the shell game. Personally I’ve never done the ending where the shells turn solid. Why? I don’t think it makes sense. It’s a kicker ending that’s not really logical and doesn’t really move the ending forward. It’s too different from what has happened the whole time. It’s a “what?” moment because it thinking of the audience has to shift a lot from what was happening the whole routine. It’s almost like it’s the beginning of a new routine.

How did I fix the solid shells? I took it a step further. I used it as the starting point for another effect. Here’s how the routine plays. You do a few shell sequences, then cover a shell and pea with a shot glass. They are mixed around and guess where the pea is. When they lift the shot glass, then the shell, they see no pea, and then they discover the shell is solid. Now it’s a mystery they just discovered. They will turn over the other two shells to check them, and they are solid as well. Having them discover the solid shell is soo much better than you revealing it.

Now for the new ending:

When they look at the shotglass that’s sitting on the table, they see the pea under it. When they pick up the shotglass, they realize the shotglass is solid! The pea is embedded in the solid shotglass!

This is a solid (pun intended) ending for the solid shell game. It takes the routine one step forward to an ending that’s more logical than just the solid shells.

My Cooking Show…

In yesterdays post I showed a gimmick that I was making for a video. This video was made because my brother said I should do a cooking show for our weekly “virtual dinners”. A night before our dinner, I had a ton of ideas and wrote out a rough script, and sent it to a buddy of mine who punched it up. I then built the gimmicks and recorded the show.

Here’s what I made:

At about the 9 min mark you can see the gimmick I posted about yesterday. There’s a couple of other interesting magic effects that happen in the video as well. This was what I found interesting about making the whole video was that the cooking was a frame for magic to happen. It was a built in presentation hook.

It took over 12 hours to make this video, and the sole goal of it was to make my brothers laugh. That’s art, money or longevity of it wasn’t a consideration, it was simply to get a reaction. What reaction are the videos your are posting designed to get?

Take It Further…

If you’ve seen my magic lecture you’ve heard my favorite quote, which is essentially what my lecture is about. If you haven’t, here’s the quote:

Go past crowd pleasing and into real comedy…
Mel Brooks

He says it on Tom Papa’s podcast, it’s a great interview and you should listen to it. In my lecture I use the quote not just for comedy, but for magic. Sponge balls are crowd pleasing, how do you go past that and get into real magic?

Let’s get back to what I’m writing this post about. Someone in a magic forum had posted a picture of the nest of wands comedy prop that was broken.

If you’re not familiar with the Nesting Wands trick you have large diameter wand and smaller wands keep coming out of it. If you’re not familiar with the prop, here’s it in action:

The sets that are common in the USA have one end that’s sealed, and the person who wrote the Facebook post thought that they were broken and need to be fixed. For me whenever a prop breaks, I look at it as a chance to p lay with the prop and figure out things that may not have been possible before. I’ve had a bunch of cool things come out of props breaking and getting a new view of them.

When I was younger and did magic shows at kids birthday parties, I used this prop. However the set I had were made by Tops Magic in Europe. Most people in the USA didn’t like this set of Nesting Wands because they were open at both ends. I loved them because there was a lot more you could do with them. Here’s some ideas:

When the kid tries to “one up you” and restack them, they will fall out the other end.
You renest them and they all fall onto the floor.
You renest them and they slide out the other end and land in your case, but you don’t notice that. Then once they are all in your case, you look at the wand in your hand and see it’s empty. You then look around for where they went.
When the kid hands them back to you, you drop them all over the floor. You pick up the biggest wand and ask the kid to hand you another wand. They do, you put it into the wand in your hand and it just falls out the bottom ( you don’t notice that) and have the kid keep handing you wands and they keep falling through. Repeat till it’s not funny and at that point start holding the wands in with your finger at the bottom. Once they are all nested, let them drop out and onto the floor!

Look a prop breaking as an opportunity to do something creative and new with the prop. Sometimes you’ll just have a broken prop…other times you’ll have gold!

Support Your Art!

This weekend I got to perform at a sideshow festival in New Orleans. I think that performing at or attending festivals is something that very important for performers today. You are supporting innovation in your art form.

When you go to these festivals or conventions as an attendee, you get to see the top performers. This keeps you informed of what level you are at and who your peers are. Knowing what level your show or act is act keeps your helps with pricing and what sort of venues you can be performing at. The acts you see keep you updated with the trends in the industry. What tricks or styles are
common, and once you know the trends you can embrace or avoid the trends.

performing at festivals is a good place to “level up” your show. When other people see what you do and how you do it, you can become the trendsetter. I know the old argument is that people don’t want other people to steal their material. It’s a lame excuse because as a performer you need to do your art where other people will see it. You’ll never know who is seeing it no matter where you do it. Do it for industry and establish it for yourself.

Keep Learning…

Yesterday I was at a class on making silicone molds and using them to cast things in resin. Personally, besides learning the skill, I’m always watching for ideas that I can use during my performance. I noticed a couple of things that confirm my current thoughts on audio and video during a show.

The first thing that while we were in a fairly small and quiet room and there were only 25 of us, it was hard to hear the presenter. They should have been mic’d up. This goes for pretty much anything that’s not a close up gig, you need to wear a mic!

The second thing was their use of video. They had a straight down show from directly above the table with the screen directly behind the presenter.

This is the way to do it. In all of the shows I’ve seen when the action is on a sidewall, your attention is torn between the screen and the presenter. With the action on the screen behind you, it really lets you watch both the same time as both are in your field of vision. This is the way to got for projection.

As a bonus to confirming my theories on audio and video during a show, I also learned to make molds and cast things in resin!

After The Force…

The other night I finished up reading After The Force by Ron Frost. I think it’s important to keep learning. There are tons of magicians I know that don’t learn magic for fun. They only learn something when they have to, which I think is the wrong approach. I think that magicians need to keep … Continue reading “After The Force…”

This book’s title is a bit misleading, I expected just endings to card tricks. The first part of the book teaches you how to force cards in a variety of ways. I agree with Ron’s assertion that the Classic Force is the best force. Then he teaches you a lot of tricks that uses forces, but in the context of the whole tricks. It’s the trick start to finish. Not that it’s a bad thing, I just thought it’d be something a bit different.

I’m glad I read the book, and worked through the stuff in it, however I don’t think anything from it is moving into my working set. It’s not that the stuff is bad, it’s just not for my show. There is one move in the book that will move into my “toolbox” or moves that I use when a situation calls for it. The big thing is to keep educating yourself on techniques and grow as a magician.

Music Driven Magic…

One thing I wish I had more of is music driven acts. These are acts that use mostly music and not talking to move the act along. The nice thing about these is that they pretty much run exactly the same every time you do them. With them timed to the music, you know a 3 min bit will be 3 mins.

One thing is that whenever I start to put acts like these together, I always end up talking. Partially because I think that’s me and what I do and partially I think it’s my insecurity and fear of doing something out of the norm for me.

Speaking is my favored way of connecting with people. That doesn’t mean I can’t do it without speaking, however it’s my default. I think I need to get out of my comfort zone and try some more silent, music driven acts!

Secrets…

Darren Brown’s show is one I’ve wanted to see live for a long time. I got to see it last night on Broadway in New York City and it was amazing! I rarely give standing ovations to magic shows, however this is one that I did and enthusiastically did. Nothing in the show “fooled me”, … Continue reading “Secrets…”

One of the things that I found really interesting was how he managed to make a trick that was a transposition work within his character as a mentalist. I found this really cool and interesting, and what made it work was that there was only one part of the transposition. There was never a vanish, just a reproduction. I think that also gave it a lot more impact within the context of his show.

I love it when I see something that’s so outside of the “rules”, and the person makes it work and makes it work big! My only complaint about Darren’s show is that I don’t get to complain about any of it!

As You Wish…

One of the most common joke questions people ask is if you can turn a one dollar bill into a hundred dollar bill. When people ask things like this they think they are the first person to every ask you that. There are three ways to deal with it. First you can laugh with them, next you can try to one up them with a joke, and finally you can do what they ask.

Of the three reactions to the joke, the only one I don’t recommend is the second one. Let the person have their moment, they are going to allow you many more. Now as for the first and third option, I prefer being able to comply, but that’s not always possible with the “make my wife disappear” jokes, so then you have to laugh it off with them.

For something like turn my dollar bill into a hundred dollar bill, you can comply. You can keep a hundred dollar bill in a thumb tip and do a bill switch, however if you do this you have to give them the hundred dollar bill. It’ll cost you ninety nine bucks, but you’ll have created a miracle that they’ll talk about forever.

Another way would to be to take their dollar and switch it for a bill that has the serial number altered. The serial number reads “A 00000100 S”, so it’s a hundred dollar bill. You could also have the serial number read “1 HUNDRED”. Either way you’ve turned their bill into a hundred. Changing the serial number takes a bit of work, but it’s a lot cheaper than spending $99!!!

Keep Notes…

Last year for a gig I built a Girl Without a Middle illusion. Basically, it’s a Sphinx Illusion, but I put it on wheels so that I can get in it and walk around. Then I can stop and put other people in it, and pictures and be taken. Here’s what it looked like: After … Continue reading “Keep Notes…”

After doing it last year, I think I must have thought it wasn’t going to get rebooked as I kept nothing about the box, not even the building notes. When the time came to rebuild it, I was basically starting from scratch. I found the receipt for the mirrors, so that gave me some basic info about the box and a starting point.

My learning lesson was doing something as simple as taking a picture of my build notes would have helped a lot.