stage magic – Page 36 – MagicShow.Tips

Flag Magic Done Bad

One thing that drives me nuts is how performers use and treat the US flag in their show. I’m not the most patriotic person in the world, however one thing that stuck with me from school as a kid is when we learned about the US Flag Code. The Flag Code are rules that define the US flag, but also how to display and handle it. Once you learn it, you’ll see violations everywhere from flags hung backwards at the grocery store, to displayed on vehicles wrong (FYI, flying it from the middle of the tailgate of your pickup truck is incorrect).

Now let’s get to performers using flags. If you do the bag you put silks into and then that turns into the flag, technically you’re violating:

§ 8 (h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.

However using the flag as a receptacle isn’t seen to the audience, but does that make it right?

If you do mismade flag, its it neatly folded before you load it into the change bag, or do you stuff it in there? And then at the end of the trick, what do you do with the flag? If you put it in your case, do you make sure no other props get set on it?

A few months ago I worked with a band who had a flag hung from their singer’s mic stand.

Unfortunately the flag is hung upside down! This is a big NO NO for hanging the flag. There’s a very specific reason to hand a flag upside down and it is:
§ 8 (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

If you use a US flag in your show, you should read and know the US Flag Code and follow it!

-Louie

Gimmicking Post Cards

I do a card trick that I call “choices” where the audience narrows down cards by eliminating them until there is one card left and that matched a prediction that I have made. The overall presentation is about me making bad choices in life, and honestly from a presentation standpoint doesn’t need to be a card trick, it could literally be anything that’s narrowed down.

Since it doesn’t need to be playing cards, I was trying to think of what I could replace them with and decided to use postcards.

You can read more about the postcards on a previous blog post here.

By switching props from jumbo cards to slightly smaller postcards I can add an additional way to show the postcards all to be different. I should note this routine at its bones is essentially Al Koran’s 5 Star Miracle. One of the things that I added to the postcards was to cut them short, so I can do a riffle display to show them all different.

This little bit allows me to show them a bit more freely. The postcards are soo visually different that if I spread them all in a face, I think the repeating pattern would be more obvious than with playing cards.

Now I need to make a choice and figure out if I want to keep the presentation as is, or try to write something new.

-Louie

Creative Problem Solving at the Gig!

One of the holiday parties I did this month was a HUGE event with 1,600 people. One thing the event planner didn’t give me was any sort of credentials to get in and out of the building once the event started. I honestly didn’t think about it until after my roving set and I was going to move that gear and clothes to my car to make packing out after the show quicker.

Luckily the green room was for all the “vendors” and I happened to be chatting with someone from the security company. I asked if the security at the parking lot door would let me back in and he said no. His suggestion was to call the event planner and ask for a lanyard. With the event underway and an event this large (it took up two floors of the convention center!) they last thing I want to do is bug the event planner for a lanyard/badge. They’re probably dealing with a lot of problems, like catering issues or whatever.

Here’s the solution I came up with. I learned that the security company was all retired cops and they all knew each other. I took a picture with the guy I was chatting with and got his name and number.

When I tired to get back into the building I was stopped by security how pressed me about me not having a lanyard with a badge. I showed them the picture and told them to call Jeff and he’d vouch for me. As soon as they saw the picture, they let me in!

Sure, asking the event planner for a badge is 100% reasonable. However I try to be easy to work with and minor problems myself. That’s a big secret to success in entertainment, be easy to work!

-Louie

Smile Harder!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do show wearing a mask, but recently did one!

This was a show at a senior assisted living facility and many still have mask policies, however most allow you to take it off while performing. This show didn’t allow me to take it off during the show.

Performing while masked makes connecting with the audience soo much harder! One thing that I do is I smile soo much bigger than I would do in a normal show. People can tell when you’re smiling while wearing a mask, but you need to smile BIG to have it play further back.

Also the show that I do at senior facilities can be done as a “no contact” show with no audience volunteers onstage or handling any props. This is a good option to have for your senior show as its not always an option to bring people onstage.

-Louie

When The Stage is the Floor

A common thing when performing in ballrooms is that your performing area is the floor. For whatever reason there is no stage, or the stage is unusable. Working on the floor is like performing standing in a hole. Pretty much anything held below your armpits can’t been seen by the second row.

Here’s my “stage” from a recent gig:

To add some height to my show I travel with a folding stool.

I stand on the stool for a lot of parts of the show to elevate me to make my hand held props much more visible. It also makes ME much more visible to the audience and makes it easier to connect with them as I can look them in the eyes.

A folding stool is cheap and easy to travel with. Get one, put it in the trunk of your car and you’ll always have it ready to go!

-Louie

Get the Event Flow Schedule!

Here’s a huge tip when performing a events, always try to see the event flow schedule and take a picture of it! Here’s event flow that I from the banquet staff at the hotel:

I took the picture right after I arrived at 4pm and I was supposed to rove for an hour at 5pm and do an 30 min show after dinner at approx. 7pm. If you look at the schedule, that’s not what’s on the schedule.

For starters, I was scheduled to rove from 5pm to 6pm, but the event didn’t start till 5:30pm. Shifting the roving 30 mins isn’t a big deal as I there was going to be a gap between that and the show. However they had the show listed as 90 minutes and I don’t do a show that long for a holiday party. This was quick to clear up with the booker, and they confirmed they were only expecting me to do 30 mins.

The shift from a 7pm show to an 8:30pm show could be a challenge if I had a late night gig after that one. One thing I was doing this year was only one show on each Saturday in December, so they were buying out my night. This is great for the client, so they don’t have to worry about the show running late and me having to leave. I confirmed the 8:30pm start time and said “no problem“.

I did leave the client a business card with my cellphone number on it and told them that with a gap that long I’m not hanging out in the banquet room, but they can text me and the show can start in 15 minutes.

Lucky me, I got a text at about 7:15pm and the show started at 7:30pm! As a super bonus, they were a great audience!

The takeaway lesson from this year is having companies buyout my Saturdays nights is the way to go. It’s less stress free for me and the client. They can throw almost whatever at me and I can say, “no problem” and mean it! Everyone wins!

-Louie

Changing Card Tricks

Inspired by Vitaly Beckman’s An Evening of Wonders show, I’m trying to think of ways to eliminate playing cards from my show. Not taking the card tricks out, but trying to figure out other things to use and use them in a context that makes sense. One of the tricks that I do is essentially a card prediction done with jumbo cards and the premise of the bit is the choices that I make in life. I think the trick would work with postcards, and could keep the theme of making choices. With travel postcards from different countries, there is a lot of visual contrast between the cards.

These cards are 4X6 inches which is a little smaller than jumbo playing cards. I needed to commit and buy five sets of them to make the gimmick set of cards or the trick.

Hopefully it works!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Matthew Laslo

On this episode we welcome in the youngest person we have interviewed Matthew Laslo. We learn about how he started in magic, what it was like being the only magician in his town and where he looked to for inspiration.

Moisture festival podcast with matt baker, louie foxx and matthew laslo

He tells us about all the people who has helped him a long the way and some of his great success’s including multiple TV appearances and a crazy trip to China. We also learn how he came to be a part of the touring Broadway style magic show called Shazam. A great interview with a fantastic young performer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Visual Obstacles

A couple of days I wrote about the podium struggle at a gig, but that’s not the only challenge at the gig. After I had set up, the event planner filled the front of the stage with prizes.

These were to be raffled off after my show. These create a huge visual distraction and barrier between the audience and me. Also, I was standing when I took the picture, so if you were sitting, you’d be looking up at them and they obscure more of performing area.

Not being able to see the whole performer does make a difference. Bob Fitch once told me “Acting is in the feet“, and while I’m not exactly acting, seeing as much of me helps. This is also why you want to try to avoid doing a low show. If you were sitting on stage left, anything I did that was below my belly button wouldn’t be seen.

You can read a post about removing stage monitors I wrote a while ago here.

During the opening of my show, I do something at events like this that no one thinks of. I ask the audience to turn their chairs so they are facing the stage. You’d think that would be instinct if your chair wasn’t facing the presenter, but hardly anyone does that until you mention it. While there’s that minute of shifting chairs, I looked at someone whose view was blocked and asked if they could see. I pretended to hear them say they couldn’t and I told them I’d fix it and started setting prizes on the floor.

Also I have verbal bits I do while people are moving chairs, so the show has started and was able to do them while moving the prizes.

Ultimately you need to know what you need for the show to work and for it to succeed and do your best to create those conditions. There’s nothing worse than a bad show that’s due to conditions that aren’t your fault.

-Louie
PS the show went great!

Podium Struggles

Holiday parties are a wild west of show set ups. Many times you have some who isn’t an event planner running things and it’s their first time running an event. I did an event last week where I came in and got set up on the stage.

My first challenge was to get the ballroom staff to move the podium off the stage. As you can see from the picture above, I was unsuccessful. I asked if they requested the podium and was told “no, but everyone wants one“. I told them I can’t do the the with the podium in the middle of the stage. They said they could move it. I told them, “great, so you’ll have staff ready to move it when I’m introduced?” They told me that they didn’t have someone to do that, so I then explained that I can’t start until it’s moved, and the show has a firm end time, so any time hunting down staff cuts into the show and the value the client gets.
That led to the compromise of putting it on the corner of the stage.

In case you’re wondering, no one used the podium.

Why didn’t I move it?

Simple, it’s not mine. I don’t want people moving my gear, and I extend that same courtesy to equipment that’s not mine. Also there is someone on staff whose job it is to move the podium and sometimes there are union issues where I’m 100% not supposed to move it.

This is a case where I can see a potential headache for my show and speedbump for the event. Sure, moving a podium isn’t a huge deal…if there’s someone to move it. When I presented why simply finding staff to move it which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but actually is potentially a big deal.

I guess the moral of the story is explaining why after the initial NO answer can help them see the problem.

-Louie