For every show that I do, I have a written set list. I know my show, but I always have one. For my main show, it’s taped to the inside of the lid of my case. Recently I was in a show where I did three five minute spots, so the list was written on a piece of paper inside the bin on my table top.
I do this for a couple reasons, for my main show if I’m repacking it, it’s easy to go down the list as I pack to make sure I have all of my props. For unusual configurations of my show, it makes sure I have all the correct props set. It also takes brainpower out of what I’m doing, I can glance at the list and know what to do!
While I was in Canada last weekend I was chatting with some magicians after the Harrison Greenbaum show and someone mention there was a guy about an hour away that was making vanishing birdcages and gave me his phone number. I called him the next day, and was invited over and got to see some of his cages!
These cages are great and since he’s not mass producing them, he’s open to doing custom sizes. The cages have a great action to them and look great!
I’m very fortunate to have gotten to see these cages and I’m on the list for a cage the next time he makes them!!!
Talking to people and then following up on opportunities when they present themselves is one of the biggest secrets to success. Not just in prop hunting, but in life!
Last weekend I drove up to Canada with my buddy Chris Beason to see Harrison Greenbaum‘s show. I had heard a lot about him, but never really have seen him perform. I had seen a version of his lecture at an online magic convention.
In the show he did six tricks in 90+ minutes. That’s about one trick every 15 minutes. He doesn’t get 15 minutes out of the trick in a traditional sense. Before tricks he has stand up comedy that segues from the previous trick to the next trick. This is the way to do it, none of the routines feel like they’re dragging out.
Harrison’s show is also very much in the moment, and he does a lot crowd work (talking to the crowd, ad libbing with them, then using that info in the show). This makes the show feel like you are definitely seeing a unique show that will never happen again.
Watching Harrison’s show is a good lesson in how much you can do with a huge personality and very minimal props. He doesn’t just stand in one spot, he moves all over the stage and really fills the space. It doesn’t feel like a bar show that happens to be on a stage, it feels like a stage show that happens to use smaller props.
In my tech sheet that I send out for stage gigs, one of the things I ask for is a corded microphone in a straight stand. This is my emergency microphone, in case something strange happens with my headset mic. I ask for the mic to be muted on the mic, no the soundboard. If I need to use it, I simply grab it and switch it on. I don’t need to ask a sound guy to hand me one or switch it on.
Here’s my emergency mic at a large corporate event sitting behind their projection screen:
I don’t always get a corded mic, less and less venues and sound companies have them. I frequently travel with my own handheld mic with a switch, however I don’t travel with cord. I’m OK with a wireless handheld as an emergency mic, but prefer a corded as if something is causing interference with wireless, I definitely won’t have the same problem with a handheld.
The middle show of the three city tour I did last week was a cabaret show. This show was themed, and the theme was “cults”. I don’t normally do themed stuff, but came up with a way to use cults to get into something that’s normally in my show.
The premise was that my wife and I like cult documentaries. Then I had a list of them, someone picked one and it matched a prediction and that led me into my cat routine.
One of the jokes that I wrote that my wife didn’t like, but I did anyway was the final cult was “blue oyster”. It got a great laugh in the show! I think the demographic of the audience that night really helped it play, and my wife wasn’t really who that joke was for.
It was fun to do a bit of writing for something I don’t normally do. I also kinda like the premise of cult documentaries and I think people relate to them as they’re popular now. I may try to play with the premise a bit more and see if I can come up with something that I can use in my normal show.
Last week I did a little three city tour, in two states over three days. I performed at a casino in Redding, CA, a cabaret in Seattle, WA and a comedy club in Spokane, WA.
The first show in California was a logistical challenge and it really shouldn’t have been. I flew into the Redding airport, however my flight was over 2 hours late, so when I arrived the rental car desk was closed. They said they’d honor my reservation for the next day, unfortunately I was only in town for something like 20 hours and didn’t need a car the next day.
The casino was about a $20 Lyft ride from the airport. After I got checked into my room, I remembered that I needed to go to the store for a couple of props (this is why I rent a car). The casino isn’t really near anything, and the closest store was about a $23 Lyft ride each way. I needed a bottle of juice and two bananas, so a $3-$4 purchase, but $50+ if I figured in the Lyft prices.
I just happened to notice a poster in the casino for their comedy night and comedy night was that night. It had their headliners listed for the month and I knew all of them…except for the headliner that night. Then luck stuck, I happened to walk by the comics as they were checking into their room and I chatted them up. We knew all the same people, and I managed to convince one of them to give me a ride to the Walmart for my props!
This is why you make friends with other performers and put out good energy into the world. You never know when you’ll need to lean on a network of people!
On Saturday I performed my show for a sold out audience at the Spokane Comedy Club! When I’m performing at on the road at a public show, I always try to reach out to the local magic club. The Spokane Magic Club turned out in force for the show! It was great having them in the audience.
These daytime shows are a lot of fun to do. Years ago when I was in my early 20’s I opened for Brad Upton at a lot of comedy gigs. At the time I was doing a lot of school assemblies during the day. Brad mentioned that being able to get paid to do entertainment during normal people’s workday was like finding gold. At the time, I didn’t realize how correct he was. As I’ve gotten older and when I’m home, I got to bed at 9pm, the later gigs are more work. I still love doing them, however these 4pm shows I’ve been doing at comedy clubs are great, I’m done by dinner time!
Here’s my 55+ minute show from Saturday in 44 seconds:
Another thing that’s fun is that these shows put kids into an environment that is normally just for adults. That gives these shows a special energy that you don’t get at a community center gig and leads to amazing shows!
When I was 17 years old I won a magic contest at a magic convention. I don’t remember if there was any cash in the prize, but there was a lot of magic donated from the dealers. One of the things that I got was Shimada’s Stevens Greater Magic VHS tape. That tape introduced me to magic Shimada. One of the acts that Shimada was famous for was his parasol act.
I’ve always thought that producing parasols looked great and better than a more modern umbrella. I think that people connect umbrellas with the self opening feature and less so with a more Asian parasol. Yes, I understand that umbrella and parasol mean the same thing, and intentionally using them to refer to different things.
Parasol productions are very cool, visual and fill the stage, however I don’t think most routines pass the “drive home test”. That’s were people in the audience talk about the tricks on the drive home. Parasols pack small and pop open and everyone knows that. That’s the weak spot in parasol productions.
OK, so I’ve wanted to do a parasol magic for years, but is doesn’t really fit my personality (and costuming). Then the other day I was at the store and saw some cocktail parasols. I bought a couple of packs of them and started playing with different ideas of things to do with them.
Here’s a packet trick from the 1980’s that I came across.
I think Nick Trost’s Mexican Monte is a pretty solid routine. Here’s me doing the routine and my thought on how to improve it:
It’s really a small change at the end, and I think Nick really nailed it with this one. I’d change the patter, but it’s good and worth checking out if you find one at a magic swap meet!
On Friday I’m performing in a cabaret show called Morbid Curiousitease. I don’t do a lot of these burlesque shows anymore, for several reasons, but the one I’m going to talk about to today is because they are usually themed. It makes sense, if you’re putting on a monthly show, you need to have people performing different acts. I think it’s easier for a dance based act that’s 3 mins to come up with a new routine every month that it is for a talking act. I’m not saying its EASY for a dance act, but I think it’s easier than for a talking act.
I took this gig because the producer is cool and I want to support them. They also said that I don’t need to follow the theme, however I’m looking at this as a challenge. The them this month is “cults”, so I need to either create something specific for this show, or figure out a way to make something I already do fit the theme.
In my morning writing, I’ve been jotting down ideas and I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to do. Here’s the routine:
“My wife and I love watching documentaries on cults. On these cards the names of five docs about cults that we’ve watched. Give me a number between one and five…”
Remove the number selected and show the other ones, then put all the unselected cards away.
“You picked Apocalypse Meow, which is a cat cult! Cats are really little furry cult leaders. I really think they missed the mark, it should have been called A-paw-colypse Meow! They’re charismatic, even after they’re A-holes to you, you still want their love and you gladly clean their toilet!”
Direct attention to an oversized envelope that’s on your table.
“I put a picture of my wife’s favorite cult leader in here, let’s see if it’s the same as the cult you picked…”
Open the envelope to show the picture of a cat!
“Who belongs to the feline cult? What’s your tiny cult leader’s name?”
That’s it, it’s an intro that then gets me into the routine I do about my cat. I’m only doing a 10 min spot and that routine is 7-8 mins. I think I’ll close with my rope routine that I can connect to the cat routine as “my cat’s favorite trick”.
There you go, it only took about three mornings of writing to figure that out!
