Years ago I heard Jerry Seinfeld in an interview talk about how comics say they should have fun on stage. Jerry’s thought was you shouldn’t have fun, you should be working your butt off onstage. What I think he was getting at was that there’s actual work at being a comedian. There’s a lot more than simply going up there and having fun.
I totally agree with him, you should always be working onstage, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun or play while you’re up there. Sure there are some acts where looking like having fun isn’t what they’re going for, but the majority of acts aren’t that.
One thing I try to is to look like I’m having fun, and it’s usually easy because I am having fun.
The audience can feel it when you’re having a good time!
One of the things with marketing magic trick is figuring out the most efficient ways to make them in bulk. Making a single prop is pretty straight forward, you go step by step. When making in bulk the challenge is how many steps per unit do you do before you move onto the next unit.
For something as simple as opening up these Chinese food take out boxes for my Take Out Box trick, I found that doing it in two steps was the fastest and easiest for me. This all goes back to sleight of hand, and the idea of economy of motions.
What’s the most efficient way to move a card to the top of the deck? Is it a pass where you’re moving half the deck or the side steal where you’re only moving one card? A lot of times the situation, your skill level and confidence with the move will dictate which is more efficient.
Recently I saw a show and a performer did a trick with a Rubik’s Cube. The trick was good, the routine was good, but there was a bump in the road. The person that was brought onstage knew how to do a Rubik’s Cube and that led to some awkward moments where the performer didn’t really know what to do.
The performer handed a mixed cube to the person from the audience and asked them if they could solve it. The person from the audience said, “YES” and started to speed solve it. The performer stopped them from doing the solve and moved on with the routine.
Personally I think the performer missed a great moment where the person from the audience could have really shined! Let them have their moment, and celebrate it! Once they get the glory you can move on with the routine. Being a generous performer, you get all credit for what the person from the audience does, plus the credit for whatever it is that you do!
Frequently in magic groups on Facebook someone will say they want to sell a trick and want advice. There’s a lot of bad advice (in my opinion) that is then given. One of the things is to go straight to Penguin Magic with the idea, however they usually won’t produce your idea, you’ll need to make it and send it to them. Last time I looked into it, their terms weren’t the most friendly to the creator. You were making product, sending it to them and they would pay you as sold.
A better approach would be to go to Murphy’s Magic and pitch the idea. If they like it and want some of it, they’ll be a couple of options, like you could sell them the idea, they could help you with manufacturing, or you could just sell them the finished product.
Of course by that point you should have done your homework and know how much it costs you per unit to make, and how long it takes you to make them in quantity. Also if you’re self producing, you’ll need to be able to fund making the first batch of your trick as most accounts are on NET 30, so you won’t get paid for a month.
Then you need all of your collateral, so ad copy, art, instructions, etc. Usually you’ll have some of this done before you pitch the idea, but not always. For example my Take Out Box was something that was in my show for a while, so I had tons of video of it that I could pitch it with. Once I had interest, then I went out and started getting all of the other stuff in line.
Personally I’ve made a choice to not mass market thru big magic distributers for most of my products. My reasoning is that going direct thru magic shops I’m able to make more per unit and since I hand make almost everything I sell, it makes more sense to sell a few less units, but make more per unit!
A couple of months ago I recorded an interview with Cris Johnson for The Professional Magician podcast. We were going to talk about more businessy stuff, but we ended up talking about how I work on my show.
When I was starting out, no one ever told me how to work on my show…and I bet if I asked a room full of magicians how they work on their show, the vast majority really won’t have an answer beyond some generic “I practice”.
I came up with a system to working on my show that I call the 6R’s. Each step begins with the letter R. I’ve presented this as a lecture that I’ve presented to groups of performers around the country. A couple of years ago I did one for the virtual KAX Convention and have a recording of it.
If you’d like to learn the 6R’s to working on your show, you can get access to video for $5! Simply use the Add To Cart button below
6R’s To Working On Your Show $5
Once you order, I’ll email you the download info withing 24 hours.
When I was in the Detroit area last week I went to the Henry Ford Museum and there’s the original Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile there.
This car is super cool, and I’d be excited to see this version on the road now, but they kept improving it and it get better and better ever few years.
I’m sure my show is “good enough” but I try to keep improving. Last week I added a joke to a routine that I’ve been doing for over 15 years! I’ve also cut a lot of bits that have aged out of the routine over the years.
I never think of any routine as finished, there’s always things to add/cut.
One of the things that I noticed in the pictures of me performing at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo was how small I looked on that stage!
I’m guessing the stage was 16 -20 feet wide by 8 feet deep. That isn’t that big, I’ve definitely worked on stages that size or bigger. However the pictures I’ve seen really remind me how much bigger props matter.
Yes, you can fill the stage with personality, but you if you’re presenting a magic show and they can’t see the magic, your personality will only carry it soo far. At some point you’ll stop being a magician and become a stand up comic or monologist.
A couple of days ago someone asked in a Facebook group for more info on how to get gigs performing for seniors at things like retirement communities and my book was recommended!
I used to perform 1-2 senior shows A DAY on the weekdays when I was younger, and would go on road trips where I would perform up to 5 seniors a day for a few days in a row!
I still love performing for seniors, however my current performing markets make it hard to do very many of them anymore. But I have a blast when I get a chance to do them!
Here’s a taste of one of my shows for seniors from a few years ago:
On Saturday I performed at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo in Grand Rapids, MI. This was a fairly unusual situation for me performing as the audience was standing, there was no seats. For me, the challenge was getting people to stand for 30 minutes. A standing audience is very different from a sitting audience.
It was also a family audience that wanted edgy, which is a very fine line to walk during your show. I was able to do a lot of bits that I wouldn’t normally do in my show as they’re slightly too edgy for a general audience, but worked great for this crowd.
This was an audience that was ready to see a show, and there were great audiences, and we packed the space with people standing. If I ever do one of these again, I’d probably take more tricks that have a lot of build up, and a singular payoff, versus routines that have multiple smaller effects.
For example I brought my object in ball of yarn that’s 8 minutes and has a couple of mini tricks before the final trick a the end. I should have done my blindfold which is also about 8 minutes and has a single reveal at the end.
Last week I performed in the Moisture Festival in Seattle and had a blast. One of the acts that I worked with was Paul Draper. I didn’t know a ton about him, I think we both did a virtual magic convention together a couple of year ago.
It was a blast seeing him, he’s got a lot of energy onstage and is very likable! Being likeable is 99% of the game!
One night Paul hosted the show I was in and he’s also a solid host, who kept the show moving. This is an important skill when the show has 9 acts plus the emcee!
If Paul is performing near you, check him out, you can learn a lot by watching him!
-Louie PS I did interview Paul Draper for the Moisture Festival Podcast and you can listen to his episode here: http://www.magicshow.tips/moisture-festival-podcast/the-moisture-festival-podcast-paul-draper/
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/oscar-mayer-weinermobile-drone-wienerfleet-FT-BLOG0617-a153de88245847b19ec8f05e964d3408.jpg)
