| Tips for Travelling With Your Show! My “summer season” started early with a 10 day outdoor fair in Southern California in February. Normally my outdoor season doesn’t start until March or April, so I’m out working on my tan early! Amazon Lockers: Most cities have Amazon lockers and they can be a lifesaver if you’re flying to a gig or staying at an AirBnB. Amazon Lockers are around town at things like gas stations and grocery stores. You can order things to be delivered to them the day before you get into town and everything will be waiting for you. No more running around to stores to get things you don’t fly with. For example, I’m at a 10 day gig, and will use probably 20 decks of cards. I don’t want to fly with them, it’s too much weight, so I simply ordered two bricks of cards to an Amazon Locker and they were there waiting for me. Cash: I always try to have $100 on me at all times for emergencies. That will get me to the next gas station and it’s handy just pay cash for your portion of dinner if you go out with other people. I also try to have five $20’s as it’s more versatile than a single one hundred dollar bill. AirTags: These are GPS trackers that work with iPhones (there’s an Android equivalent). It’s always nice to know that my show that’s checked luggage made it on the plane! |
 |
| Roadside America: This is an iPhone app and website that has all sorts of quirky and unusual things around the USA (and a little bit of Canada). It’ll help you find cool things in to see or do in the area you’re performing in. Magic Clubs: When I travel to cities I look up local magic clubs and try to visit them. You can find lists of them on the S.A.M and I.B.M. websites. AreoPress: This is a small little gadget that makes great coffee and is easy to travel with! All you need is ground coffee and hot water. No more gross hotel coffee! Hope there’s a tip in there that makes travelling with you show a little more fun! -Louie |
Tag: stage magic
3D Printing Magic
I can’t imagine life without my 3D printer! There’s many props that would have neve seen the light of day without it. Right now I’m working on a batch of my Take Up Reels.
These are the the first lock of the Take Up Reel that locks the string long. These would have been impossible to make without a 3D printer, or at least impossible to have at a reasonable price!
If you haven’t played with 3D printing, you can play with design software and try to make something without having a 3d printer. Websites like Tinkercad.com are easy to use. If you’ve never played with making your own designs, go to one of these sight and play with them, you’ll be surprised at what you can make!
-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!
Familiar Feeling and Crushing It!
What a difference a day makes!
On Saturday and Sunday I was struggling with my show at a venue that was very different from what I perform at. Then on Monday, I was performing at a convention for 550 people and the whole show felt really natural and easy.
Honestly, there’s a lot to be said about performing in a venue you’re used to. By venue, I really mean that the audience was seated for a show, versus a transient, standing audience who weren’t planning on watching a show.
You should always challenge yourself and try venues and situations that you don’t normally perform in. It makes you a better performer, or at least a more knowledgeable one. Know why your show doesn’t work is as important as knowing why your show works.
-Louie
Sharing a PA!
One of the things that I do when I share a PA with other performers and there’s no official sound person is take a picture of my settings.
This allows me to turn my channels down when I’m not performing. That way I don’t need to worry about something getting on my mic’s wireless channel or my music getting bumped and playing.
Turning down or muting any active channels you’re using is a courtesy for other acts you’re working with. It’s easy to do and if you take a pic, that pic is reliable to reset you audio.
– Louie
Brent Fiasco
Last weekend I was working at an Oddities Expo with Brent Fiasco. Brent crushed his shows and does a great street style show. He does a solid crowd built, and a great job of uniting the audience.
In his 30 min set, he does four routines. He does three routines in the first 12 minutes and one in the last 18 minutes. The show does a good job of building the crowd in the first three routines and then selling the “big trick” and prolonging it as long as possible in the last 18 minutes.
Brent’s show is a great lesson in how to structure a street show and he also does a great job of living in the moment. If you get the chance, his show work worth checking out!
-Louie
Standing Audience
This weekend I’m working at an oddities expo in Phoenix, AZ. I did one of these last year in Michigan and with this one being my second one, I’m viewing it with a different lens than my first one.
The first challenge is that the audience is standing, there’s no seating for them. Here’s my view from the stage before the expo opened.
With no seating, getting audience members to commit to the show is very different than if they were seated. This is really street performing on a stage, versus a stage show.
In the last year I’ve been transitioning my show to be more of a theater style show, so this was a challenge for me material wise. Each show the first day I made some changes and it’s gotten better, but it’s still got a long way to go to hit hard for this situation.
I’d love to say how hard I killed, but I didn’t, I’m doing OK and treading water. If I did more than one of these events a year, I’d probably get way better at it, but with only one, improving the show for the venue is slow and difficult.
Today I’ll be better than yesterday.
– Louie
Hook For the Giant Linking Pins
One of the things that I’m trying to figure out for the Giant Linking Pin / Thumb Tie routine that I’m working on is what is the presentation hook. It’s the why am I showing this to the audience. This is usually the hardest piece of the puzzle to figure out when creating a routine.
I’d been doing it as “the first trick I ever learned“, but artistically, that’s pretty lazy. That premise is a good placeholder to get the routine onstage, but it’s now a good long term one (usually).
It hit me the other night, I personally have a needle phobia (in a medical setting). I could use that as the hook by saying that I did “exposure therapy” starting with carrying around safety pins in my pocket and eventually moved up to the giant pins. That tells the audience something real about me, and gets an unusual prop (the giant safety pins) into play.
I need to play with it more, but I think it’s a good idea…
-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!
More Thumb Tie Work
I’m liking the thumb tie routine that I’ve been working on the last two weeks. There’s a lot of big laughs in the routine!
One of the challenges in writing for this routine is that a lot of the “comedy” comes from me and the guy onstage being stuck together. I want to make jokes, but the reason for the joke funny can’t be because it’s “gay”. What I mean by that is if the only reason the joke gets a laugh is because it implies one or both of use is gay, I don’t want it. I personally don’t think anyone’s sexual orientation should be the punchline of a joke. That and I don’t have any sexual content or inuendo in the show.
The jokes have to be about the situation that the guy and myself are in. Writing with rules can be harder, but ultimately I think it will make a better routine.
-Louie
Sharing the Stage With my Own Props!
The last ten days I was sharing the stage with another act that used a lot of magic tricks. One of the tricks that they used was my Snake Wand Surprise!
I always love seeing my props out there in other peoples shows! This is the first time I’ve shared the stage with one of my props used by someone else. It’s a good feeling knowing that people are out there using my stuff and making a living with them!
-Louie
Still Figuring Out the Thumb Tie
The last week I’ve been working on a thumb tie using electrical tape. The routine is starting to figure itself out, but I keep noticing dead spots or spots where the blocking is rough and hard for the audience to see.
One place in the routine that’s both dead time and not really audience viewing friendly is when the guy on stage cuts the tape off my fingers. About half the time they try to cut into the gimmick, which obviously is no good. Then I also have to make sure they don’t cut my thumb! While the whole process probably takes 5-10 seconds, it’s a hot mess onstage.
My solution has been to hand the guy the scissors, then take them back, but with my now free hand and cut the tape off my left hand. It gets a laugh at the surprise of my hand being free! I can cut the tape off my thumb really quickly and while facing the audience.
I think this is the solution!
-Louie