magician – Page 19 – MagicShow.Tips

Always Have a Trick in Your Pocket…

One thing that I often hear magicians say is that they never perform for people unless they are paid. That’s bunk. Personally I usually have a deck of cards in my pocket, not because I want to show people tricks, but it allows me to practice when I have unexpected downtime. Stuck in the … Continue reading “Always Have a Trick in Your Pocket…”

Stuck in the drive thru line at the bank…I can bang out a few practice false shuffles.

Recently I was picking my agent up at the airport in Billings, MT and her checked luggage as well as about 30 other people’s luggage were left behind in Seattle. That meant a long wait (over 2 hours!) to file their baggage claims.

She had taken my banner as “carry on” to the plane. So I popped up the banner and did a show for the people waiting!

It really made a difference in the people’s day! Also the trick that I’m doing in the above video was published in an issue of Vanish Magazine from a couple of months ago.

In addition to a deck of cards that’s usually in my pocket, I have an impromptu show that lives in my wallet. This show is short at about 15 mins, but it’s got a beginning, middle and end. This isn’t just a series of tricks, it’s a show. I highly recommend you have show you can do from you wallet. It doesn’t need to play for 500 people, but a good, solid 10-15 mins of close up. The book The Impromptu Mystifier is what got me to put this show together and in it the author gives a great frame work for how to structure the show.

I’m not saying you should force your magic on anyone, but you also never know when you’ll be in a position to perform.

Louie

Finally Seeing an Act!

When I was a teenager I remember in a issue of Magic Magazine (I think), I saw a picture of Mondre performing. The picture has stuck in my head for over 20 years. Last week I was able to work with Mondre at Wonderground in Las Vegas! I had a blast hanging out and chatting … Continue reading “Finally Seeing an Act!”

I had a blast hanging out and chatting with him.

I also love that his act didn’t disappoint me. I’ve seen many shows that I read about as a kid and when I finally see it as an adult, the show is a clunker. Here’s a video of Mondre that I found :

This also brings me to something that I think is lost on kids today, which is seeking out shows. When I was a kid there was no youtube, I had to actually ride the bus for hours to see a show. When seeing a show it had value and a lot of it. I really took in the show, it wasn’t just something that was happening in the same room as me.

My advice to anyone who wants to be a magician is to go out and actually see shows! Go see any live show, not just magic, not just national acts…go see every single show you can!

Louie

Be Content Creator, Not a Content Consumer

Right now we live in a world that needs content. With YouTube, Facebook, etc the amount of content that gets consumed is amazing. Sure you can go on Instagram and do the snapchange and do alright, but that’s all it will be in just alright. We’ve all seen it… So the trick is to … Continue reading “Be Content Creator, Not a Content Consumer”

So the trick is to create content, how do you do that? One easy way is to create around topical things like news, or a holiday. For example the other day President Trump said the reason we’re having out of control wild fires is that we aren’t “raking the forest“. That was my starting point for this quick trick:

I have less than an hour into the trick, and most of the time was spent driving to the hardware store and back to make the appearing rake and then walking to and from the park to record this.

Here’s an example of some content I created based on a holiday a couple years ago:

It’s not hard to create this way. The downside is that when you do this stuff has a shelf life. Material based on the news is a few days to a few weeks. If you create content based on a holiday, you’ve got a week, but you can recycle it every year or every few years.

So go out and think of a trick!

Be Seen!

One of the hardest things when performing for a group in a banquet hall without a stage is being seen. Here’s a picture from a corporate gig I did recently. I sat down in a chair at the back to take this picture. Can you see the person up front talking? Look close, you can … Continue reading “Be Seen!”

One of the hardest things when performing for a group in a banquet hall without a stage is being seen. Here’s a picture from a corporate gig I did recently.

I sat down in a chair at the back to take this picture. Can you see the person up front talking? Look close, you can really only see them from about the shoulders up. What can we learn from this picture? If you magic is happening below shoulder level most of the audience cannot see it.

There are two ways to solve this visibility problem:

Hold all of your props above your head: The problem with this is it makes doing sleight of hand really difficult and looks strange.
Bring a your own stage: This is most obvious solution. However not always practical, especially when flying. So I travel with a folding stool. This fits in my suitcase and when I stand on it makes the show much more visible.

Next time you are at a show, even one with a stage, sit in the back and watch the act or speaker before you and see what you can see. You’ll be amazed at how little can be seen even with a stage!

Louie

Dusting Off Tricks

I’ve been fascinated by the Any Card at Any Number trick since I was a teenager. I’ve developed and published several methods of doing it. I was going through an old notebook and found this version that I was doing in the early 2000’s This version has a few interesting things going for it, … Continue reading “Dusting Off Tricks”

This version has a few interesting things going for it, like the imaginary deck premise and that’s it’s pretty easy to do. It also have a few things not going for it, like having to use the “magician’s choice” force for the suit selection, the deck can’t be handled by the spectator and it’s uses for another trick and very limited (but not impossible).

This version I call the Imaginary Card at Any Number and will be published in an upcoming issue of Vanish Magazine. Hopefully someone will use the trick as a jumping off point for their version of the trick. For me the method for this trick had me work to eliminate the weaknesses and come up with a better versions. My current version doesn’t have the weaknesses of this trick.

Louie

I Saved the Show!

Last night I did a corporate gig that I wrote a post about packing for a couple of days ago (Click here to read the post). The gist of the post was that I had a feeling the venue for the gig that I was flying to wouldn’t have a PA, so I packed my … Continue reading “I Saved the Show!”

Much to my surprise the venue had a PA and a sound board! Then I plugged my audio into it and learned that the sound board didn’t work. The venue’s PA only had one XLR input and I need 3 channels. So I used my street show PA as a mixer and monitor:

Please take note that the jumble of wires on the floor is mostly the venue’s cords, not mine. I simply ran the audio out from my Roland Street Cube EX into the XLR input in the venue’s sound system and I was good to go!

One thing I’ve learned as a full time performer is your ability to be problem solver will make your very valuable to your clients. The booker of the event was in the room when I was trying to figure out why the sound board wasn’t working, and when had the audio up and running. She complimented me on my ability to find a solution.

So the moral of the story is be a problem solver!

Louie

Custom Built Props…

We live in a very exciting time to be a magician. Right now it’s super easy to get custom made props cheaply. This means your show doesn’t have to look exactly like someone else’s. For example the Evaporation trick…don’t want it in orange Sunny D? Easy, I can make it in almost any other bottle … Continue reading “Custom Built Props…”

Click here for details on custom Evaporation bottles

This goes with pretty much any prop, you can print out decals on your home inkjet printer and add them to props. Then you could customize off the shelf props that use generic product names to have “brand names”.

Here’s an example from my show. I do a soap bubble act and all of the props were made from “found materials”, thing that I repurposed to use as props. The props don’t remotely match is color or general look. I spend about 45 minutes one day designing them to print on my 3d printer.

I printed them out and got a set of props that not only looks better than what I was using before, but works better than what I was using before. If you don’t have a 3d printer, there are plenty of services that will print out your projects for you, there are even libraries that have 3d printers you can use!

Basically in 2018, there’s no real reason to have props that are cobbled together (unless that’s the look you are going for).

Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

National Magic Day…

Today is Halloween and also National Magic Day, it’s also my least favorite day to do magic shows. The main reason for this is costumes. If you read my post from yesterday (click here to read it) then you know I don’t wear a “costume” upon request. If my show worked better with me dressed … Continue reading “National Magic Day…”

However, I’m not talking about my costume, but costumes people wear. People act strange when you put them in costumes.

First of all if you are performing for people wearing masks, it makes it very hard for them to see…or talk. you can’t hear them laugh, they have tunnel vision and can’t hear people around them laugh. So they are in their own little world. It makes it very hard to unite the crowd if they are all in their own little world.

Next, people tend to try to act out their character. This makes doing a show rough, because it’s hard to connect with someone pretending to be Catwoman. That also creates a situation that’s hard for the audience to relate to.

All of that said, I have one gig today, it’s an afternoon gig. For me this is key, kids are still in “daytime mode” and the adults shouldn’t be drunk. This is my preferred type of show today.

Louie

Special Requests at a Gig…

When you’ve been performing long enough, you will get requests for things outside of your normal show. These can be simple things like “can you use the CEO in a trick” to more complex things like can you write a whole show on a specific theme/topic. I’m not going to really talk about the … Continue reading “Special Requests at a Gig…”

I’m not going to really talk about the writing a whole show, as that’s really a specialized thing and either you do it or you don’t. I don’t.

I’m going to talk about smaller requests. Recently I had an request at a corporate gig where they asked me to make a small gift appear and give it to someone. I could do that, however I talked them out of it.

Why?

Simple, the gift will have more meaning from someone the recipient knows than from me. I could make the gift appear while doing a trick with the event organizer, then present it to the recipient, which would have a lot more meaning. However that ends up being the end of the show, I don’t want to follow that.

I want the show to end strong, not on something I really have no control over. If the person who is helping me with the trick where the gift appears is a clunker on stage, then it drags my ending down.

The way I see it, for a corporate gig I’m hired to do the show I’ve done a thousand times (and my pricing reflects that), not to do a something I’ve never done before. I just don’t get enough of these requests to make it worthwhile to having as a part of my show.

Probably the number one request I get has to do with costuming. The organizer will call and say, “our event is yellow themed, can you wear all yellow?” My response is to explain to them that, “I wear certain things because it makes things more visible, so if I use a yellow handkerchief in the show, you won’t be able to see it if I wear yellow.” However I ‘ll gladly wear it, if they provide the clothes (the must meet certain requirements like pocket space, etc), the tailoring, and I must have them a month before the gig so that I can practice in them. Also there additional practice time is billable, and if something doesn’t work with the provided clothes (like yellow on yellow) then we can either drop it from the show (shortening the show) or they can pay for a new prop in a different color.

I’ve never had anyone agree to the paragraph above, however if they did, I would gladly make it work. I think that people who aren’t performers don’t realize how much effort goes into something as simple as wearing a different pair of pants. If a pocket is too narrow, or the cut wrong, I can’t sneak something into or out of my pocket smoothly. Then I may stumble on it, drop it and people think I’m not a good magician, when the reality is that it’s not me, it’s the costume.

So the moral of this post is: Do your show the best you can!

Louie

Magician’s Love a Deal…

A week or two ago magicians started noticing that the Walgreens Drug Stores in the USA stared selling Jumbo Bicycle Decks of cards. They also started buying a ton of them when they were on sale as a “buy one get one free” deal. Then came the realization that the cards were the new … Continue reading “Magician’s Love a Deal…”

Then came the realization that the cards were the new thinner stock jumbo cards. By “new” I mean the stock they changed to a decade ago. This thinner stock is harder to use than the old stock which was at least twice as thick as the new stock. The same magicians that were hoarding the cards were complaining about how they were useless.

These cards have tons of ways to use them.

Practice with them and you’ll be able to handle them like the old stock. I’ve been using the new stock for years.
Make a “double deck” where you essentially have two decks in one.
Make a pop eyed popper deck
Think outside the box. The advantage of the thinner stock is you can make some interesting gimmicks without having to “split” the cards. Here’s one of the things that I made:

This is a flap card and my design was based on FLAP by Hondo. In the future I want to make a card that has two changes, so shows a total of three cards if you include the card it starts one. My plan would be to use this for a reveal of the cards for the classic “Tossed Out Deck” trick.

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