magician – Page 10 – MagicShow.Tips

It’s The Little Things…

There are some tricks that I like, but never work for me. One of these tricks is the Slydini Silks. This is the trick where people tie two handkerchiefs together and they magically untie. It’s a trick that’s always fallen flat for me when I’ve done it. Recently I came across a video of Slydini … Continue reading “It’s The Little Things…”

There are some tricks that I like, but never work for me. One of these tricks is the Slydini Silks. This is the trick where people tie two handkerchiefs together and they magically untie. It’s a trick that’s always fallen flat for me when I’ve done it.

Recently I came across a video of Slydini doing it:

One thing I learned from watching the video was that he used a cup to put the handkerchiefs into. I wasn’t using the cup, so I added that the other day. I was amazed at the difference adding a prop that made no difference in the trick made! All of the sudden people were responding positively to the trick.

The small things make a difference. Sometimes the most insignificant addition or change can make at trick!

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.

How To Be a Good Guest…

Recently I was interviewed by The Variety Artist podcast and that interview comes out tomorrow! If you don’t listen to it, it’s got tons of tips from people way smarter than me. In my episode we talk about creating original material, and some fun stories from my life. One thing that’s important when being a … Continue reading “How To Be a Good Guest…”

One thing that’s important when being a guest on podcast, or at a TV spot is to plan what you are going to do. Don’t come in with and just “wing it”. One this. A few days before the show I wrote down things that I wanted to talk about and my responses to what I thought John would ask me. During the podcast I kept my notes nearby and referenced them during the podcast.

The key is having thought about what you’re going to say. This doesn’t guarantee you’ll talk about those things, but having thought about it makes you a stronger guest. The majority of things that I talk about on the podcast had a note of some sort written on a legal pad in my hotel room.

Preparation is 80% of the key of being a great guest!

It’s a Community…

I’m a frequent traveler around the United States and while I travel I try to meet up with local magicians. I usually do a Google search for the city and the word magician then contact whoever turns up. I’ve met some cool people while travelling.

Last week I was in Wyoming and I didn’t find any magicians on the internet. However while I was in a small town coffee shop, there was a business card board, and I glanced at it and saw a magician’s business card! I gave him a call and we met up.

It was a lot of fun jamming with him, swapping stories of legendary mentalist Bob Cassidy and talking shop!

If you’re a travelling act, look up some local magicians and hang out! It’s good for magic!

Learn To Play With Others…

It’s rare that I work on the fair circuit with an act that I’ve at least never heard of, however this week that happened. They act is a superhero character, and while there’s a lot wrong with his show, the thing that bugs me the most is that he doesn’t know how to work with other acts. being able to share a stage is a skill that will take you far in show biz.

When I arrived at the venue, I introduced myself to him and asked him how long his show was. He told me 45 minutes, and I mentioned that after his show we’ll need to turn the stage, as my show starts 15 mins after his ends. He said he had no gear to move off stage, and I’d have pretty much the full 15 mins to set up.

Well, that’s not what happened. His “crew” put away the front half of chairs. When I noticed this was happening, I mentioned that we need to get them back because I can’t crowd build without them there. They said no problem. This is the point when I realized this guy has never worked a fair, or with another act. The actual content of his show will be it’s own blog post, however I should mention that he didn’t need the space he cleared up by putting away half of the chairs.

His show ran way over his time…by way over, I mean he did 56 minutes and he was going to keep going until I told he girlfriend she needed to get him to wrap up.

This gave me 4 minutes to set up my show if it was going to start on time. Plus they still needed to put the chairs back. This guy burnt my set up time, and crowd build time. I had to start my show with zero audience because of him, normally even if I have 5 minutes to do a crowd build I can make something happen. However, I can’t do crowd building while they are putting out chairs and I’m setting my gear onto the stage.

The moral of the story is that when working with other acts you: Do your time

When you go over time, it really can effect the other shows. If the booker walks by at my start time and sees no audience, due to the other act running super long, it can effect whether I get booked back.

Preshow Warm Up…

Before a show, I try to warm up…but what does that mean for a comedy magician? I’ll get to that in a minute. I got started warming up many years ago when I started working in variety shows with other acts. All of the physical acts like trapeze act, or dancers warm up a lot before the show, where the magicians just hung out.

I had a friend Noelle Wood who does an amazing pole dance act, she’d warm up for an hour to do an 8 minute act. One day before a show while she was warming up, she asked me what I did to warm up. My response was, “try to not get too drunk”. This joke answer, was the answer.

Before a show, I like to joke around and be playful, it gets me into the performing mindset of having fun on stage, but also gets my “comedy brain” warmed up. Here’s a quick example of something that happened before a show that helped me warm up:

It’s this playfulness that gets me into “character” and ready for the show. Sure, if I’ve got something new, I’ll run lines before the show, but it’s important for me to play before the show whenever possible.

PreShow for Non Mentalists…

There is nothing worse than a magician asking to borrow money from the audience and then waiting. I’ve experienced this from the stage as the performer and from the audience watching a show, it’s rarely ever fun to watch.

The problem with borrowing money is that it takes forever, and sometimes it looks like someone else is going to do it so you don’t dig. In the best case scenario the performer asks for to borrow a dollar. Someone immediately takes out their wallet, finds the appropriate bill, holds it up and volunteers it. In this scenario it’ll take 8-10 seconds.

In a more common scenario the performer will ask to borrow money. There will be a pause while everyone looks around to see if someone else is offering it. Finally someone will say they have it, then take out their purse and start digging for their wallet. Once they find the wallet, they’ll start digging for a bill. In this more common scenario it’s 90+ seconds to get the borrowed bill. That’s a lot of dead time!

Until recently I didn’t do magic with borrowed money because there’s too much dead time. Now what I do is I put a dollar in my pocket and go out into the audience before the show. I introduce myself to someone in the audience and I tell explain that I need to borrow a dollar from someone in the show, and ask if they have a dollar. I then explain how big of a time suck it is to borrow money, so if they have a dollar can the take it out now and keep it somewhere accessible and to offer it when I ask. If they do not have a dollar bill, I give them the one in my pocket.

Setting up that person to give me the dollar bill really makes a huge difference in the flow of the show.

Big Stages

The variety show that I was in last night was a lot of fun. A couple of the acts were thrown off by how wide the stage was. The stage was probably 24 feet wide and 8 feet deep. I personally don’t mind a wide stage, but work on them fairly frequently. The picture above … Continue reading “Big Stages”

The picture above is form the venue last night. You’ll notice one of the things that I do is “define my area” on the stage. My case and table create the edges of where I work. This keeps me from wandering the stage to get props if my case or table were at either end of the stage.

Having a wider stage is way better than a narrow stage where you are crammed into. Currently I’m working hard on my show to play larger. I’m not a pack small, play big person. I prefer to use props that fit what I want to do…but hopefully make it play large!

Learn To Play With Others…

Later today I’m performing in a magic show with three other magicians. Personally I like performing in shows that aren’t solo shows. However I’m amazed at how many magicians say that they don’t perform with other magicians. Honestly, I’m shocked that a magician wouldn’t be in a show with other magicians. I think there are … Continue reading “Learn To Play With Others…”

Honestly, I’m shocked that a magician wouldn’t be in a show with other magicians. I think there are a few reasons for this, the main one being ego. A magician doesn’t want to be on a bill with someone better than them. To grow as a performer it really helps to work with other acts, especially ones better than you and get their feedback.

One of the top reasons that magicians say they don’t perform with other magicians when they post about it on the internet is they don’t want their material stolen. This cracks me up. It’s very rare that the people that say this have anything worth protecting from being stolen. I think they say that as a cover for their insecurities about their show.

My advice is to go out and perform, make friends with performers, get feedback, your show will grow because of it.

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!