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…”

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 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.

Get Them Invested…

For the last seven days I’ve been performing at a fair that’s about an hour from my house. That means I was able to drive to the fair instead of flying and that allowed me to bring some bigger props. One of the bigger things that I brought was my flea circus. The biggest challenge … Continue reading “Get Them Invested…”

For the last seven days I’ve been performing at a fair that’s about an hour from my house. That means I was able to drive to the fair instead of flying and that allowed me to bring some bigger props. One of the bigger things that I brought was my flea circus.




The biggest challenge I have doing the flea circus as a roving act is there’s a portion of the crowd that I stop that only wants to know if there are real fleas. That’s it, and the second they learn they are real, they will walk. I personally don’t hold this against them, however I goal is to get them invested, so they don’t walk.


What I started doing last week was a much longer talk up to the first actual circus trick. In this talk up I do the Haunted Deck card trick, which is a “demonstration” of a flea training technique. There is no card picked, the flea simply moves the cards. During this talk up, the crowd builds, that anchors in people, so it’s harder for them to leave.


Another thing I’ve been doing is having the crowd say things. This gets them invested into the show, they’ve put energy into the show. Between the talk up and more participation they amount of people that walk once they realize there are no fleas is much less. I’m happy about that!