magician – Page 11 – MagicShow.Tips

Magic and Dinner…

Whenever I book a gig at a banquet I always mention that I do not perform while people are eating. The booker 95% of the time is OK with that and the 5% that aren’t OK are gigs I pass on. However of the ones that book, I would say a good half of them I end up performing while people are eating.

There are a few reasons for this, the most common one is that people don’t consider desert part of the meal. I consider desert part of the meal or at least part of “eating” and it has the same problems that the main meal has for the show.

Those problems are that when people are eating, they aren’t engaged in the show. They can’t laugh and clap like they normally would when not eating. Then once they get used to responding by not responding, they will not respond once they are done eating.

Unfortunately when you get to the gig and people are eating and you’re told to go on, there are really two things you can do:

1: Start the show
2. Don’t start the show.

Both have pluses and minuses you need to consider. Starting the show may affect the reception of your show. Not starting the show may affect your relationship with the booker. Also due to time restraints on the venue, it may not be possible to delay the show, so your option would be to actually not do the show.

In most situations I start the show and plow through it. However you need to do what’s right for you!

Echo…Echo…

Doing a stage show in a room that’s not designed for a show can be rough on the performer. Last night I did a show in a very echoy venue. It’s hard to perform in places like that. I really need to slow down my rate of speech for venues where there is an echo.

One of the things that I need to remember is to keep my rate of speech slow and take a lot of pauses at the periods and commas. That will help what I’m saying not step on the echo, and let the whole audience get what I’m saying and have time to process it before I talk again.

One helpful thing I did was walk around the venue while I was mic’d to hear what I sounded like. Sound does change a lot once you have a room full of people, however it gave me a feel for how the audio might sound.

The key is to be aware of the situation and not to complain. The event can’t remove the echo from the room, so you’ve got to be a pro and deal with it.

The Shrinking Card…

When I was a teenager there was a trick that came out called Diminishing Returns by Mike Powers. This is a great trick where someone picks a card and the whole deck shrinks except for their card. Then the whole deck grows and their card shrinks. For the finale their card visually grows back to … Continue reading “The Shrinking Card…”

It’s a great trick and I did it for quite a while. Recently I was messing around with some cards and ended up playing with a similar gaff and here’s what I came up with:

This is a fun little sequence for the shrinking of a card. There’s not much to it, and I might write it up for Vanish Magazine in the future.

Make it Bigger!

One thing I’m trying to do is make things play larger, so it’s easier to see them from the back of the theater. I think this is something that’s really overlooked by many magicians. Sometimes you can’t make something larger, like when you are doing Miser’s dream, the coins size will max out to a point when they are no longer believable as a coin.

One trick that I love is the Coin in Bottle, however it does play fairly small. The nice thing is that the trick has an audio component to it. The audience can hear it rattling around inside the bottle. I really liked the idea of creating an impossible object that I could give away. My idea was to do a tennis ball in bottle:

The use of the topit worked great in a live setting, but not so well in a video. The other method I used a sponge tennis ball that I had cut in half and hallowed out. I would just smash the bottle onto it, collapsing it under the bottle as the other real tennis ball popped into view. Both methods had advantages and disadvantages.

I no longer do this trick in the show as I’m lazy and putting the tennis balls into the bottles was a pain in the butt and not worth the pay off. For me the thing is to keep thinking bigger and actually trying to make it play bigger!

Production Value and You

One of the things I noticed while watching Shawn Farquhar’s show the other day was his use of production value in the show. It’s something that a lot of magicians, especially ones who come out of the comedy world don’t use enough of. It’s also something that adds a lot to the show.

For example he uses different lighting for different parts of the show, not just a general wash. This adds texture to the show, however it’s something that you can’t do in most non-theater venues. Some higher end corporate events or conventions in ballrooms will have lighting options. I’ve only encountered this a few times in hotel ballrooms.

My opinion is to design a show that works both ways. So it piece will work and play with a general wash, however when you have the option for lights, you can use it.

I keep a thumb drive with everything a theater could want on it in my case. This has all of my cues from lighting, video to audio, as well as the audio files. I always have it, so if I have someone to run the lights, I’m good to go!

Show Flow…

Frequently on internet magic groups people talk about set lists. I’m always amazed at how many people just make up the show order as they go. They justify this as selecting their show to what the audience will like in the moment. In theory this is a good idea, but your show will lack tightness, … Continue reading “Show Flow…”

Having a set list and following it allows you to work on your show as a show, your segues get better, your prop management is better. You will have less wasted motion, than if you are randomly grabbing a prop. This gives the audience a sense that you know what you’re doing.

I really feel like my show started to grow as a show, not as a collection of acts when I started doing it according to a set list. This doesn’t mean you can’t vary the list occasionally, but you strive for a consistent, preplanned show order. This has helped me enormously as my career has grown and from when I’ve started working in venues that want me to submit a set list for the theater crew.

Put your show down on paper and learn it like a show!

Cutting Up Jackpots…

One of the things that blows my mind is when I hear a magician say that they don’t hang out with other magicians or performers. You learn so much from other performers, more that that, there’s the sense of community. You aren’t alone out there doing you art, other people have the same struggles, and successes!

Yesterday there was a fun get together of variety performers. There’s nothing like getting a bunch of us together and swapping stories. In the carney world they call it “cutting up jackpots”. Hanging out with other performers is also good for your soul.

One of the things that makes it helpful is that I’m entering a new market and a lot of these people work this market, so hearing their stories of their experiences really helped me view my struggles in perspective.

Go hang out with other performers!

What’s Your Plan B?

Recently I worked with an act and the airline lost his luggage, and he had to perform for two days without gear. He’s a pro, and was really flustered, I think more at how the airline handled the situation than specifically about his missing gear. His shows were great, but it got me thinking about what my backup plan is.

Sure we all can go to the Walmart and put together a show, and I hear performers say that’s their back up plan all time. That’s all good, but whatever is in your “Walmart Show” is material you really need to practice. It should be your “B” show, meaning you do it every now and then. You have jokes and bits, not just do tricks.

This made me think of what I can carry onto a plane, that’s will play big. I’m putting together a list of things so I’m prepared for when this does happen. I also want to do it on my terms, meaning, I have a plan and I’m not scrounging.

The easy starting point is to figure out what card tricks would play big on stage.

1: ACAAN
2: Card to Pocket
3: Card Memorization

These are tricks that have already been in my stage show in the past, so I have good routines for them. These also are very different in texture, they don’t feel like the same trick. Those three tricks are about 12-15 mins. Right away I’m 1/3 of the way to a 45 mins show.

Now to build upon the card tricks to fill in the show. I could add some mentalism:

1: Blindfold drawing duplication
2: Impromptu Book Test
3: Cue Card Confabulation

These three tricks also have different textures and will bring the show to about 30 mins. I can make the the cue cards with the pad of paper from the drawing duplication and I will have the coins from the blindfold, I can use them for a coin trick:

1: Coin Under Watch

I’m going to have to be careful to space out coin under watch and card to pocket as they are both “transportation” tricks. This is not a big deal, I just need to be aware of it. This is going to bring the show to about 33 mins.

There will be room for some small gimmicks, so I can add these tricks:

1: Thumb Tip with mismade bill
2: Dye Tube

Now that I’ve added these two tricks, that puts my show length at about 39 mins. That’s almost a show. Let’s add a couple of small props to the carry on bag:

1: Rubik’s Cube trick
2: Torn and Restored Newspaper

That’s going to bring the whole show to 45 mins.

This show’s carry on list would be:
1: Jumbo deck of cards
2: Regular deck of cards
3: 2 pads of paper
4: Roll of duct tape
5: 2 Coins
6: Book
7: Thumb Tip
8: Mismade bill
9: Dye Tube
10: 2 handkerchiefs
11: Newspaper
12: 2 Rubik’s Cubes

The pack list isn’t very long, and all the props when put together don’t take up much space, and would play well on a stage. All of these are things that have been in my show in the past, so I know the material and have routines for them.

Is this my dream show to do? Nope, but it’ll work in a pinch, and I think it’s a better option than buying some junk at the hardware store and trying to figure out what to do with it!

Be Social…

One of the things that I think is important to do with magic is to be social. Hang out with other magicians, see what they are doing and learn from it. When I was starting out, there was no internet, so that’s how new tricks got around, someone learned it in another city and they … Continue reading “Be Social…”

Simply knowing what other magicians in your market are doing is HUGE. Personally, it let’s me know what tricks not to do in my show. It also let’s me know who someone is talking about if they saw a magician can can’t remember their name.

Improvised Card Magic

Last night at the Seattle Magic Club, I got talking about “improvised” card magic. What that means is magic where you don’t have a formal plan and kinda figure it out while you are going. I got into doing this style of trick through some books by Justin Higham. It’s an interesting style, and it … Continue reading “Improvised Card Magic”

The 75% Production and The Trick With No Method

It’s an interesting style, and it works out your brain while you perform. In a nutshell, what you are doing it looking for things you can do while you are doing other tricks. Let’s say you are doing Triumph and when you spread the cards at the end, you notice 3 kings together in the deck, that’s something you may be able to use later in an improvised trick.

The key to this is that you don’t always do something. For example, let’s say I have the three kings at the bottom of the deck, but the 4th never comes up, then I don’t do the trick.

While talking to some of the magicians about this style of performing, one commented that it’s probably hard to think that quick. It is, but the more you do it, the easier it is. Also when you remember that no trick is an acceptable outcome, then you can’t lose!

I recommend you check out Justin Higham’s books on this and try it out!