When I’m in the bay area, or near it I always try to visit the Magic Garage! It’s always the great to visit and chat with Will Chandler and he also makes an amazing Old Fashioned!
What’s fun about the Magic Garage is that it’s got magicians who hang out there who do all sorts of magic. From close up to parlor to illusions and magicians of every skill level!
I love hanging out here and chatting magic! It’s one of my favorite spots that I pop into!
-Louie
Last week at the fair my good wireless mic system stopped working and I was using my back up wireless mic system. When I used it the first day it was intermittently cutting out, so I switched to the sound company’s wireless handheld and that was doing the same thing. That told me it wasn’t a hardware issue and I finished the day using their wired handheld mic.
Overnight the sound tech did some research and learned that vertical metal poles (especially aluminum poles) can affect how wireless mics work. At the stage the wireless receivers were on the other side of a stage wall that was made up of vertical poles!
We moved my wireless receiver to the stage side of the poles and everything worked perfectly! I’m glad that he did some extra research to figure out why it was doing that and now we both know how to solve the problem in the future!
-Louie
Well, after about a decade my Sennheiser EW 100 G3 mic packs stopped working properly. Over the last 10 years I have sent them back to Sennheiser to be repaired and repaired them once myself.
With the help of Mark (the sound tech at my stage this week) I managed to diagnose the problem, it’s my 1/8 audio input that needs to be replaced. If I send it to Sennheiser to be repaired, it’ll cost about $250 or more. I’m thinking that money would be better put into a new wireless system, than into a 10 year old system.
While at the event I luckily had a back up wireless set with me!
These aren’t as nice as the Sennheiser ones, but they are helping me get through the gig. I don’t normally carry a back up wireless set, but for some reason I threw them in with my gear for this gig. I can use a handheld to do my show in an emergency, but prefer not to.
-Louie
I’m still working on the Linking Pin and Thumb Tie routine and it’s slowly making progress. I started this in mid-February, however I’ve only done it about 30 times. For me that’s a pretty fresh routine. I haven’t figured out where all the moments are.
I wrote a couple of new jokes and changed it so there were three magic effects in the routine instead of three and took it out to an open mic the other night. It can be challenging at a bar open mic when it’s in a big room and there are 13 people there and only two of them are actual audience members, the rest are comics waiting to do there time onstage. In my opinion most bar open mics are to figure out how to do something onstage and just work that part out, you’re not there to try to have your set crush. Yes, you should try and ideally it’ll crush, but you should be bringing things that need work, not polished material.
Here’s bad video with bad audio of the trick:
The trick went well, but more importantly the new jokes worked and I added another penetration, so there are four instead of three in the in the routine. There’s actually normally one more at the end that I didn’t do because I “got the light” and had to wrap up.
The intro to the trick I think needs to be tightened up and be a bit more clear. That comes with time and rewriting and reworking. I think by the end of the summer this will be a strong piece in the show!
-Louie
PS If you want to learn more about how I work on my shows, check out my download The 6 R’s To Working On Your Show!
Next month my daughter graduates from College. She had an opportunity pop up to work in a circus this summer where she’ll be doing a 4-7 min act. She’s done solo stuff in my show and she has two different escape acts that she can do. The circus will be fairs and festivals, so she’ll be typically doing three shows a day. We’re working on adding a third escape act so that she can do a different act each show. That will solve the problem of repeating the same act all day. She can do that if she wants, but she’ll have options.
One of the important things is that all of the escapes feel different. They all have a different texture, it’s not just three comedy “in and out” escapes or first she escapes from rope, then the next show chain and the final show handcuffs.
I just finished up making all of the props that she didn’t have her own dedicated set for.
Now the next step is rehearsing it and writing some new jokes.
– Louie
Once again my 3d printer saves me a big headache in getting something made! I need a holder for two Flic Buttons that someone from the audience will use to run a music cue for me during a comedy escape. I spent about 5 minutes designing a simple holder and then hit print!
Here’s what the finished prop looks like:
The piece on the left is the cover, however after putting the Flic Buttons into it, they pressure fit into it, so I don’t need the cover as they won’t fall out.
It’s really worth your time to learn to use basic 3d design software like TinkerCad even if you don’t have a 3d printer. You can design things and then email the file to someone else to print.
-Louie
I was setting up a school assembly show and was about to put all of the props that I have in my pockets or hidden on my person and decided to take a pic of it!
Here’s the prop list:
A lot of magicians are afriad of using their costumes for stealing or vanishing props. I use my costume for both! When you start to consider your costume a prop, it opens up a lot of things you can do!
-Louie
It brings me soo much joy to see other people use the tricks that I’ve released. Here’s Todd Bogue’s promo video and my Straight Suit makes an appearance!
Todd does the Straight Suit better than anyone (including me) and I’m honored that he uses it in his show!
Also his promo video is a good example of how using high def video and clear audio makes him look super professional!
-Louie
A few days ago I had an agent ask me if I could make them a new version of my promotional sizzle reel. They wanted a version without any text. For context here’s the previous version with text:
The previous have two kinds of text, it has title cards and captions. The agent wanted neither of those. Luckily I kept the video editor project saved, so it wasn’t a huge deal to go back and cut out the text. I think in a sizzle reel, the text is a good transition piece and adds some context to things. However if the client wants one without text, I’ll make them one!
Here’s the new version:
Ultimately the goal is to get work and if someone wants something specific to sell my show, I’ll gladly make it for them!
-Louie
One of my the routines that I’m working on is a Walnut to Glass routine. My starting point is Pete Biro’s Nutty Surprise. I’ve added a devils hank for one phase and a hat load for the finale.
Here’s a picture of the end of the routine on my normal table:
Working the routine on that table is hard because there’s not a lot of workable space due to the trim on the table. After working on it a few times, I remembered I had a larger table that I could use. And here’s what the end looks like on that table:
The second table is about the same width as the first one, but without the trim, it has more usable space. The second table is also deeper allowing more room once the hat is on the table.
The next challenge or decision I need to make for the routine is whether to use a bottomless glass for the routine, or just a regular glass. I like Mariano Goni‘s version of the bottomless glass in his trick Nut Waltz. I won’t be doing this close up with people on top of the cup, but still a little bit worried about people being able to see it. I guess it’s something I’m going to have to actually try for people and either have it pass or get busted.
-Louie
