One of the things I find myself doing from time to time is wandering through craft stores. Usually I’m doing this because my wife wants to go to one, but… I’ve found a lot of useful stuff wandering the rows of scrapbooking, wood, paint and random other supplies. Poster board, too.
It’s odd, but in the US we tend to purchase most of our magic props. Outside the US, aside from the basics like rope, cards and the like, magicians tend to make their own magic props. Of course, big illusions are usually outside the capability of your average hack magician (with the exception, perhaps, of the inexpensive yet effective … um .. effects by creative folks such as Andrew Mayne ) but look through some of your magic books (remember what I’ve said about books?)… are there one or two tricks which require props you could put together with some basic hand tools, glue and craft skills?
Try rolling your own!
Tags: books, cheap advice, cheap magic
Hey Kids! A very Happy Merry Jolly Festive whatever it is you do during the cold, dark winter months from all of us… ok both of us… here at the Tobias the Adequate show to all of you. Yeah, even you there.
Here’s some Cheap Advice and a video:
I you purchase a book with a title like “1001 Tricks To Do With a Thumb Tip / Himber Wallet / Svengali Deck / Stripper Deck / Disembodied Gorilla Head”… this does not mean you have to do all 1001 of the tricks.
Be prepared to not use 80% of the material you read in books. Hang onto those books, though, because there will always be two or three things in there which you can use, and the gigs you get doing those things will pay for the books.
If you find a book which is totally and utterly non-usable, think eBay or any place that buys books. Properly bound magic books are almost always small-print-run publications. This means, to book sellers, that they are rare. You might just recoup more than 10% of your initial outlay.
Store your thumbtip in your pocket vertically or horizontally, not perpendicularly. Your social life will thank you for it.
and to make up for that last bit, here’s a somewhat festive video:
Tags: cheap advice
Magicians carry a miniature “reality distortion field” with them, theatrically speaking. When you tell someone you are a magician, they automatically assume you are going to be able to do things which most “normal” people can’t do.
“Magical realism” combines what we agree to be “normal” with aspects of magic or “not normal” reality to convey a deeper understanding of reality. More than a few magicians have expressed the idea that what we do should combine a sense of what’s possible with what’s impossible. Other magicians and mentalists prefer to frame what they do within the bounds of what’s possible, making their magic realistic.
So a question I’d like to put to you today: Do you like your “stuff” to be Realistic Magic or Magical Realism?
Just something to think about.
Tags: advice
“The Hook brings you back…” – Blues Traveller
No matter how much pretty stuff we have to show our audiences, they have to, at some level, care about what you’re doing on stage if they’re going to stick around.
Sometimes it’s easy. You ask someone if they want to see a trick and they do. Great. They care enough to be amused for a minute or two.
Sometimes you have to present a compelling reason for people to stop and watch you play with your toys – at a Festival show, that’s the way things are all the time. Your audience can stop and watch you, or they can go twelve yards and watch someone else.
So how do you “hook” them? There are some easy answers, to be certain. And just because they’re easy does not mean they aren’t valid, or useful. Crowd noise draws more people to see what the hubbub is about. Peril (or implied peril – such as fire) gets people’s attention. The exposure (or presumed exposure) of a magic “secret” makes the audience co-conspirators rather than a passive group of people watching…
What’s your hook? Or hooks? What happens if you take one of your favorite bits and try changing the hook? Can you make something that’s not ostensibly dangerous… dangerous? What if you make something dangerous not dangerous but show the crowd the “secret” (whether that is the secret or not)?
What are your hooks?
Tags: cheap advice
(Editorial note: This was posted originally from my Droid Phone and apparently said phone did not agree with my post. I’m discussing that issue with the phone now.)
A while back I was talking to another performer regarding … another performer (yes we do that, anyone in any indistry does that) and he said, of this other performer, something I had a hard time getting my head around.
“He just doesn’t really like people.”
I was boggled. Bewildered. Just really confused. Not liking people? So why is he up on stage again?
For me, at leat, the key to a being a successful festival performer, the Most Important Thing … is that you have to like people. Performing a show in front of a bunch of people, drawing and keeping a crowd in a show where the majority of the show is your interaction with the people who are watching you is impossible if you aren’t able to interact with those people. And if you don’t like people, at least in general, they’re going to know it.
Tags: nuts and bolts
In his feature article in Genii magazine, Mac King once said that if his luggage was lost during a trip, he could put his act back together with a quick trip to the Woolworth’s.
I got to thinking about that – so long as I can get to a hardware store I can put together
Tags: nuts&bolts
A little quick story time – I’m not dead. Just… busy. More forthcoming!
“Do you do birthday parties?”
As a magician, you get this… a lot. Or at least I do. And to be completely honest, I don’t do a lot of birthday parties… because the show I have is not really a “birthday party show”.
It took more than a little tactless examination of the show I’ve created to come to the conclusion that no, this is not an all-purpose act. It’s designed, for better or worse, to be very effective in one specific implementation, and that’s outdoor fairs and festivals.
Please don’t get me wrong: there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing birthday parties. There’s nothing wrong with being a “Birthday Party Magician” – thousands of magicians make a fine living at that.
But isn’t it a good idea to work out a show which … suits the venue?
(Clearly there’s more to be said here…)
