magician – Page 12 – MagicShow.Tips

From an Idea to a Physical Trick in Under 18 Hours

Last week I was hanging out with some magicians and while we were jamming we stumbled upon an idea. What we were doing with this idea at the restaurant wasn’t very sophisticated, but we got the general idea down.

The next morning I got up and made a quick 3D model of what we wanted the trick to look like. I printed it, and it wasn’t quite right. I banged out a Version 2 and it still needed a little bit of tweaking. Within 18 hours of having the idea, and me sleeping about half of that time, I had an ideal working model!

In their current form, they look like a Tenyo Magic product and the next step will be to have them made in metal.

Being able to produce these in a physical form tells me a lot about the idea and how it will actually work. Versus it basically dying in a notebook. Knowing how to use a 3D printer is a game changer for magicians!

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about his before, and I’ll say it again, we live in an amazing time to be magicians. You can watch videos of old master magicians perform, or the new upcoming magicians on YouTube. You can stream a magic lecture from your favorite magician without leaving your couch.

While all of this is great, I also thing an important part of being a good magician is “jamming” with other magicians. Not just demonstrating tricks, but playing with magic. When you play and start “riffing” with tricks, some amazing stuff happens!

Go out to your local magic club, meet some people and start jamming, you never know when you’ll stumble upon the next big magic trick!

Yesterday I had a guy come up to me after a show and tell me how much he loved magic. This is great! He was telling me about how he loves watching magic on TV, and how sleight of hand is his favorite to watch, he especially loved Shin Lim on America’s Got Talent.

Then things got a bit interesting. He told me how he loved David Blaine, and remembers actually seeing him do street magic in Seattle. He told me about how he saw him levitate four feet off the ground and reach his arm through a window of a store!

The only problem is that I’m betting he didn’t actually see that. Those were things that happened on the TV show, not in real life. The way the guy told me, I believe that he remembers seeing those things happen. He very well may have run into David Blaine in Seattle who showed him a couple of tricks, but not reaching through a window.

It’s great that a magician connected with this guy and put amazing memories into his head. We all do this on some level, audiences memories tend to forget things, or remember them wrong over time. Many magicians use this to their advantages. Look into what you currently do and see what you can do to make the memory even more amazing than the real thing!

Go With The Flow

Recently I was performing a close up gig for a bunch of teenagers and a great group. When I finished they thought I as the best magician in the world (I’m not). What made me 200% more amazing than I normally am was that I wasn’t afraid to go off script.

This was one of the shows where everything that could go right, did! What I mean by that, is I do a “coin under watch” routine. I load the coin really early in the routine. It’s risky, as it has a lot of time to be discovered or fall out. Well, about halfway through the trick one of the kids says, “make it appear under his watch” and points to the guy who I had the loaded watch.

A miracle was about to happen.

When things like this pop up, I can’t get excited and immediately make it happen. I need to make it look difficult for me to do. I laughed it off telling the kid that it would be amazing, but I’m not that good. Got slightly deeper into the routine, and then made it appear under the guys watch. The kids when crazy!

The entire set I did for these kids, they would request things to happen that I already had set up. To them it must have felt like I could do anything, to me it felt like the audience was psychic!

Small But Mighty…

Yesterday I did a gig that was for only about 15 people, so it was a large close up show or a small platform show. One of the things with shows like this, is that it often lacks the formal feeling of a formal show. People can get chatty with you and I tend to be a little less formal with them.

With this many people, it’s easy to connect with them, and for them to connect with each other. I can spend a bit more time with someone if something interesting is happening. I’m still doing my show, but I feel it’s easier to play a lot more.

When performing for a bigger group, playing can be more difficult if it’s verbal. The audience can’t hear the person, so you either need to mic them or repeat what they are saying. I’m all for playing, however sometimes, it’s just not as practical as thers.

Getting It Out Of Your System…

There are ton of magic tricks, or ideas that have been in my head for years. I haven’t done them, or built them because I know they won’t fit my performing style, or because I don’t have a method that’s any good. Every now and then I try to make these tricks happen at least once to get them out of my brain.

One trick that had been in my head forever was doing a Multiplying Billiard Ball routine. Eventually I put together a routine and did it on a tour of over 90 shows. By the end of the tour the routine was really good, however I also decided that I don’t want to do that trick in my main show.

Then there are times when I begrudgingly put together a routine simply to get an idea out of my head and I end up liking the trick. A good example is my version of the “tossed out deck”. I hate the trick, however ended up coming up with a good routine and method that’s staying in my show.

If you have an idea, make it a reality, even if it’s a bad one. It will make you a better magician and performer…or at least clear up room in your brain for a new idea!

Desired Reactions…

Recently I worked with an act at a family show that didn’t really have a clue as to how to perform for kids. His idea of a good routine for kids involves them screaming. By screaming, I mean that he told them to scream as loud as they could. It was basically 7 minutes of kids yelling and rolling on the ground. Luckily his act was after mine, so I didn’t have to deal with the aftermath.

The screaming didn’t have any theatrical purpose, other than to make kids scream. There was no reason, like it made the magic happen, it was basically, “hey kids scream and do it whenever you want”. It really gives mixed messages to the kids in the audience for how to behave for the next act.

Some people may defend the performers, saying something like, “if the kids had fun, that’s all that matters”, but that’s wrong. It’s wrong thinking because it there were more than just kids in the audience. There were adults and the adults weren’t happy with it. Essentially the performer rolled back the clock on all of the audience training that this particular audience had gotten over the years. It hurts the venue in the long run, I wouldn’t take my kid back to that.

TLDR: Mindless yelling isn’t a desired reaction from kids.

Making a Trick My Own…

A few years ago Bicycle Playing Cards changed how they make their playing cards. While they are still the standard, they are crap compared to how they used to be. A deck of cards will last me about 45 mins to an hour when roving, where before they’d last all day.

As a result of this, I ended up having a ton of cards kicking around that I can’t use after a gig. I wanted to figure out how something to do with all of these cards, so I’m learning to rip a deck of cards in half. This isn’t easy. After about a month I can do 22 cards, with best being 28 cards. I’ve got a long way to go to fifty two!

Now that I’m working on this skill, I’m starting to think of what to do with it. Yesterday in the car I thought of a trick. Why not do the split deck, but instead of the stupid patter line, “I asked someone to cut the cards and they did” when you introduce the cards, I can just rip them in half.

This creates a unique trick that very few people can copy. It adds some texture to the trick as well, because I can talk about learning to rip the deck. Also it’s going to be a harder trick for anyone to copy because of the time it takes to learn to rip a deck of cards in half.

All it takes to make a trick better is taking an extra step forward and adding one thing, plus new scripting and you’ve got something unique!

Stage Time is Gold!

When I was starting out performing in comedy clubs when I was 21 years old, a piece of advice I was given was, “whoever gets the most stage time wins”. I totally agree with that, the more you are working, the better you get. It also means that you’ve had more that’s gone wrong and you’ve figured out how to get through it.

One of the first markets I really started working 20+ years ago was the retirement home market. The nice thing about these gigs is that they take place during the day, and they have a constant need for entertainment. You can get a ton of flight time with your show in this market.

I don’t do many of the shows in the senior market anymore, simply because I’m too busy performing in other markets. However I recently just did three shows in one day on a single campus for a retirement community. It was fun, and those three shows added up to some pretty decent money.

If you’re interested in performing in this market, I wrote a book about it. This book is called How To Perform For Seniors.

This book takes you step by step through marketing the show, booking the show and actually doing the show. If you’re just staring out, or looking for a place to break in a new routine, this is a great market to work!

Slow It Down…

Whenever I’m critiquing myself the most common note I have is to slow down. What on stage feels like 5 seconds is probably closer to two on three seconds. Time seems to drag on when you are in front of a room full of people that are staring at you. Over the summer I worked … Continue reading “Slow It Down…”

Over the summer I worked at a festival with another magician and each time he did a trick, he only displayed it for a second. Here’s an example, he did a Blendo type trick where multiple handkerchiefs turned into one. However once they became one he only showed it for about a second before he put it away.

The audience needs time to process what has just happened. By displaying for only a few seconds and then putting it away, they don’t get to appreciate what has just happened. You need to hold up the magic, and PAUSE, then put it way. That pause need to be long enough for someone to look at the final picture, then mentally compare it to the initial picture in their memory to understand the final result.

TLDR: Pause to show the effect