Christmas round up, thoughts on magical capatilism and the meaning of names

It's been a month since my last gig. The intention was to spend this time learning new material, honing what I have and separating the wheat from the chaff (or at least working out what effect works best where). We all know where good intentions lead.

 I've not been idle, but I haven't worked as much as I should have. I've reread "Seriously Silly" and taken some notes on where to improve my kids act. I really think I can put together an amazing 50 minutes show. I told my friends about the educational aspect of the show and the way I wanted to encourage a love of learning and they were impressed. The kids loved trying on my hat and steam punk goggles so I think a mad steam-punk inventor will be a good character. I just need a name, someone suggested "Doctor Dean Q.ED". This isn't bad but I thought maybe of resurrecting the title of "Professor" as used by so many real and fictional magicians in the past.  Costuming this will be interesting. I think I'll be using my tailoring skills a lot for it. I've always wanted to make a Steam Punk outfit but the expense put me off, but now it's an investment:)  There are some books I may grab in the new year to this end. A  friend of a friend has written he definitive steam punk costuming guide with a lot of projects in it. Also there's apparently a book out there on making steam punk soft toys which could b handy for making a little 'side kick'  to use in appearing and disappearing acts.

  Now here I've touched on two things which I need to think about my full act. One buying stuff. I have a fear reaction at times which I try to sure with cash. Even though I have many wonderful books into which I've only delved a little I will panic and buy more effects and books at times. Now some things I simply had to buy, such as new cards and some props for kids magic. A selection of gaffed cards is always handy to have about in-case I see a cool effect in a book that requires one and I want to try it out straight away.  So with the Christmas gifting season upon us I had to think long and hard about what to put on my wish list for my family. I am lucky in that my family are very generous and so are many of my friends. My oldest friends chipped in for buying 'The Berglas Effect" as an early Christmas present for example.  However my wish list is more as an aide to me than it is to others. I decided not to get any more card magic stuff.I simply have too much here which I've not read yet, or fully worked on. I craved "drawing room deceptions" but have yet to try the harder slights. I lusted after the "the berglas effects" but am only now finding the time to go through it. So this part of my blog is aimed at any relative newcomer to our wonderful craft. |Don't feel like you must have ALL books and DVDs in magic, there's too many. Before going out hunting for new material please do have a good long look at hat you already have, you may be very surprised. So I popped a fun book about magic anecdotes and thoughts and some thread and balloon stuff on there. I'm not expecting any of it at all (everyone has already been far too generous ) they're simply there to remind me that after thinking long and hard these are what I need next, and not some flashy new card effect.

HEAR THAT any of my friends who found this blog? you've all been far too wonderful already, NO presses this year, you've given me enough :) The wish list is just an aide to myself on what to get next AND mentioning it here is for other new comers to have a  think about. Are we tempted to try and BUY wonder and  astonishment instead of creating it?

The second thing I hit upon in the kids section of this long post (note to self, stop blogging whilst medicated!) was that of name. Now with my good friend Harvey I perform as "Cane but Able". IF I am to go full time I may need a performing title to go solo. Many years ago I came up with "The Masterless Magician". I was happy with this, it implied a magician who has no master, or so I thought. Any of my friends with a background in martial arts (or watching Jackie Chan films) understood the name. However others thought it implied I was not masterful, that I was a bad magician. Now it makes no difference ether logically my interpretation of the name makes sense over theirs. The fact that the public can mis-understand this name means it's a bad one. So now I need a new name for grown up magic as well, unless I use 'Cane but Able' as a solo performer too. any ideas?
So yes if you have any input on these ideas feel free to comment. For my part I'll be taking a book home to Wales do study during the few peaceful moments there and plan to thrash some magic out next week and in between Christmas and New Year

First Restaurant Gig

Just got back home after my first restaurant gig. Again I had stressed about not having enough effects and found myself 'over stocked'. So how was it? I'm still trying to decide. The first table responded very well (despite a warning from the manager that they they tend to find something to complain about every time they went to the restaurant) I decided all tables would start with Wee Wee Mentalist as this would let me gauge the sort of people they were.  The effect was incredibly well received. as was the follow up "Do as I Do" . I moved onto some mind reading before closing with Serial Killer.  I used this as a special trick for one person  who did not like magic as it has a comedy element of the magician being upset and crazy. Over all I had strong ractions and was well recived indeed.

The next table was interesting. 2 older couples. One man and both ladies responded very well to the Mentalist and some mind reading/invisible deck work.  cartomancy was well received as well however one member of the party was constantly looking a little stand offish, he didn't like being fooled. So I switches to some basic slight work as I figured he's appreciate sheer skill over story telling and emotional effects.

A table of three ladies provided much fun for me. I worked the emotional angle building rapport and then talking about gestalt mind sets. When I performed the invisible deck one of the ladies was connived is had influence the other with body language ad claimed to have spotted little signals that she should pick the 2 of hearts. This worked well as she was happy with herself and convinced I really did manipulate her friends subconscious mind. We returned later and performed Cartomancy. They were impressed but the same lady again wanted to see me perform cartomancy on myself. She shuffled the cards but I still managed to pull the appropriate card out in time :)  Now this table got interesting. I felt like all three enjoyed themselves, they did seem to genuinely connect with me. The manager insisted they did not like me however. All my tips were going in a bucket fro Children in need (As well as the staffs). They made a point of leaving a large tip for the waiter and putting only a few coins in the bucket. the  barman insisted that they then came back and put more in however and friends of the manager sitting on the next table insisted that they spoke highly favourable of me. However the damage has ben done. the manager felt that the table did not like me,. I have to keep reminding myself that they did and all evidence points to it. HOWEVER when I first thought they didn't I was happy ith my reaction. I didn't think "I'm crap at magic I quite" I thought " rght time to hit the books, I';vie done a party a festival and 2 kids parties as well as this gig to try ALL sorts of close up magic. Now I know I need to work on the restaurant side and if it is my personalty then I need to work on that, but not too much as I've always been VERY well recivend in the past". I thought about taking the next month to relearn  some effects and study presentation better. Now I know that they DID like me I still intend to work on these things but trust my own presentation a bit more :)

Other tables went well but I learnt the following...

Restraunt magic can be V slow at times.

I have plenty of effects, so I can now start to trim the fat

whgen you get a bad reaction 2nd hand it might have been VERY distorted..

SOme people truly aprciate sheer skill, I need more effects like the ambitouse card

THe practise is worth it :) my Erdinas is V good now

and now an exhausted dean craves sleep. night night internet

First large party of smaller kids...

I've just gotten back from performing what I could say was my first real kids party. My first kids party was more like an initiation for 4 young men to more adult close up magic which they loved  very much. This was more of a classic kids party, 11 girls aged 9 and one little brother. As ever I stressed like mad before the gig mainly worrying about not having enough effects. With adults in smaller groups I can just use a regular Vanilla pack of cards for many different effects and keep them entertained for ages. Also when doing close up I only need a small selection of effects before moving on to another group. This time I was working to a larger group all seated in front of me. Not quite stage magic, more street magic or platform magic. Therefore this time I would not be able to use lots of cleaver card effects, the plot had to be easily followed by all the kids and the magic had to be seen with care taken to avoid participants blocking the view.

  I kicked off with letting the kids play with the Magic Flying Wand. I knew from my time at the kids festival that the birthday girl loved this gadget. She even asked before I finished unpacking if I had brought it with me so I knew I was onto a winner. When the kids had calmed down and got them selves comfortable I turned on a Plasma Ball. I asked if they understood about electro statics and induction and some actually knew what I meant. I placed a low energy light bulb onto the plasma ball and it lit up this got a nice audible gasp from the crowd. I explained that the plasma ball and he wand used electro static  science and that magic was knowing things that others did not. There fore when they learn new things at school they're learning - and here I paused and let them finish with the word "MAGIC" being shouted out. Wary that they may try to open a low energy bulb I went on to talk about mercury explaining that it's in thermometers and bulbs and if one breaks they needed to (and here I paused again and let them yell out "call a grown up!"). See magic, educational and fun and hopefully made the kids even more keen on learning.

My science and public health talk over I launched into some silk work. I started with a colour changing pair of silks again and two kids back to back. One seeing a red and blue hanky the other seeing a green and yellow. I changed the colours with my back turned to the audience and they assumed I just had two sets of hankies. I then changed it in front of them resulting in a gasp ad applause. IT felt great realising they were on board with the show.

Next came the Crystal tube. I wish I could just use Silly Billy's script word for word as it has great results but that would be cheating AND one part of it doesn't translate over the Atlantic .  Luckily in his wonderful book "Seriously Silly" he adopts a "teaching you to fish " Strategy.We both use a red, yellow and green hankies  and relate them to traffic lights, Green is go,  an red is stop, so when the kids yell stop I just freeze for a few moments whilst they get a laugh. Yellow is tricky, in the states they say it means SLOW DOWN and Silly Billy starts going into slow motion, wonderful stuff. BUT here in the UK it means "GET READY" So I mime getting my props in order, it gets a laugh but being able to go slow motion would have been more fun. As silly Billy suggests I failed on the first attempt due to a lack of magic words. The kids starts yelling out all sorts of magic words, I said we couldn't use "Abra Cadabra" as the magic circle had a copyright on it (An the same went for any Harry Potter words). Instead I said we needed to yell "Wibbly Wobbly Deans got a big Belly!" THEY LOVED IT. With the new magic words the silks tied themselves into a knot and again I  Got spontaneous applause. This is a great example where a book that teaches you how to think and plan and present your own effects wins over a set script.  Even though I knew the original script would not work the book gave me the tools to work out my own routine.

The final silk trick again used ideas from Silly Billy. I already have a fun silk vanish which I augmented with his ideas. MY normal vanish begins by placing a very large white hanky into a change bag, saying some magic words and revealing the hanky has now shrunk! I then vanish the hanky. However NOW When I vanished the hanky I mime it flying towards a party popper (streamer) I then shoot this at a girl with shoes and socks on. I tell them the streamer has shot the silk to them and get them to take their shoe off. Then I get them to take their sock off and place a peg over my nose before revealing the silk in their sock. Vanishes always make me worried because to me they look pretty obvious, but then I was totally fooled before I knew how they were done so I guess everyone is. It boils down to confidence and I've vanished silks to some pretty tough audiences who couldn't work it out.

I moved onto some giant card work performing DO as I Do before everyone took it in turns to predict if a card was black or red for Out of this World . I then performed an effect I developed for the party. I took Darren Godding's superb Lazar Card discovery and tweaked it for the audience. Instead of a selected card being revealed by a laser burning a hole through it whilst in the pack I used more party poppers. I explained it was safe whilst donning my steam punk goggles and hat. The birthday girl did not look convinced so I dressed her up in the goggles and hat (again thanks to David Kaye's Seriously Silly ) and shot the popper at the pack she held aloft. She had selected the ace of diamonds and when she opened the pack all the cards were BLANK apart from the ace of diamonds which had  holes punched through it and a little burning caused by the party popper. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!

To wined down the show I gave one of the girls a  balloon 'Mouse' .This is a model where a mouses head is made and the rest of the balloon left untwisted.I then reached into a bag and got one for each child. Getting them to pinch the ends of the balloons I snipped the ends off and got them all to sing happy birthday before giving the birthday girl a '21 mouse salute' . All the girls let the balloons go and the mice flew everywhere to much laughter.  My final trick was something I was pretty proud of. Whilst taking time out yesterday  read a little of this months "Magic Seen" magazine.  They had an article on balloon modelling and I wish I had managed to learn more than "worm" "snake" and "eel" and well as "poodle". I knew if the girls asked for a swan or crown I was sunk. The article gave me a cracking idea though! The author suggested handing out the balloon animals at the end so the kids would not be too distracted by playing with them during the show.  He also suggested making models up in advance so you were not there spending an hour making things. To get around the lack of variety I got hold of a cheap pack of modelling balloons and made over 35 poodles! I then weakened the seams of a bin bag and placed the poodles in it. After the mouse salute the girls sat down awaiting some new magical treat., I asked if they wanted animals or Rubbish (Garbage). I KNEW at least ONE girl would yell for rubbish (again thanks to Seriously Silly going into child psych 101) so I quickly got the rubbish sack and pulled at the weakened seams and made it rain balloon poodles  over them. The scream of delight made the hour of balloon modelling worth every second! It was fantastic!. I then let the kids take it in turns to be photographed by he mums in my top hat and steam punk goggle whilst making little alterations to poodles or showing a few elastic band tricks.

I was commissioned for half an hour and performed for nearly 2 hours in the end. Yet again I was worried about a lack of material, yet again I was worrying for nothing. All I can say is if you want to perform for kids you NEED "Seriously Silly" by David Kaye. It removes all the fear as he explains what works for what age group, how to handle unruly children and how to adjust your mindset to make any effect work for the kids.

What else have I learnt? Still great with kids of any age and that THEY DO ENJOY LEARNING STUFF

make a list, it pays off :)

I do not need as many effects as I think I need

I NEED to get my own change bag AND goggles :)

Coming up with new spin on effects is fun and rewarding. I need to spend more time enjoying myself by playing around with ideas and props, it really is work as well as fun.

ALWAYS respect the fact you're in someone's  home, double check where it's ok to put your gear (I  always do this but it's worth mentioning) and ALWAYS double check with goggle maps where your going

I still love magic and I'm good at it. All the kids loved the show and the mum was most impressed again :)

A huge night

Last night 's gig at the Minories was over all really good. We showed up a 5.30 and explained hat we would perform for between one and a half to two hours and would begin sometimes after 6pm We have learnt from other gigs that it is not a good ideas to begin too soon. People attending the event or venue need some time to feel settled and o greet friends before being interrupted by a magician. Also a gig  goes better when you  have a 'Critical mass' enabling you to leap from group to group and not just wait around for more people to arrive. We explained all this to the event organizer who was more than happy with our plans. We also agreed to try  stage magic later in the evening.

After 6 I launched into action approaching a couple of parents and their child, aged around 10. Wee Wee Mentalist proved a great ice breaker. the youngster then  trotted off leaving me to perform Cartomancy for the parents. Both effects went down very well. Wee wee Mentalists appeal is something I've often wondered about. I suppose we all like the appeal of something that looks magical, and the mentalist's mind going from blank to showing the chosen card does defy explanation for man y people. But it can't be dressed up as something  plausible but amazing event, its an obvious trick, which many magicians claim are not popular. Cartomancy again provided a strong reaction, I performed it around 5 times, each time provoking a strong response of astonishment. i will admit I began chickening out and did not perform Ambitious card. However Serial Killer provided a strong reaction (difficult to find a spot with enough light for people to see the blood splat on the card though).

  The other close effect of the night was Once Upon A Time by Guy Hollingworth. This story telling deck of cards uses simple slights to turn a a pumpkin into a carriage and rags into ball-gowns. The slights are easy, the hard part is remembering WHEN to do them. I performed this effect for 3 groups of children on an antique card table under a tree. The whole experience added to the feel of magic for the children watching, and they loved being able to turn the cards over to see the transformations.

The stage show was highly anticipated by the children. I planned three effects. A simple colour change silk trick where two children were placed back to back and one was shown a green and yellow scarf. I then turned away from the audience and walked to the other child and asked her the colour of the scarves which are now blue and red. I repeat, the children believing i changed the scarves colour whilst the audience thought i was just grabbing other scarves whilst my back was turned. finally i walked towards the audience and the scarves changed in front of their eyes.  Next I performed the crystal tube effect where silks knot themselves by being blown through a tube. These effectes were both very well received. HOWEVER my final effect bombed! I performed Big Deal using kids to cheat their dads at cards. A few things went wrong. One the cards were not big enough (even though they were jumbo cards). The lights behind us were too strong, also hindering the view. Finally blocking. Controlling the audience so they they did not obscure the view of the audience. MY good friend Darren is a superb director and playwright and actor. I asked him to watch the performance and he gave me these critiques, Very useful indeed. I think I'll avoid doing stage work without giving it a little  more time and giving Daren a chance to look the routine over. But a basic check list will include making sure lighting doesn't obscure the routine and that everyone can see what's going on. It seams as though street performance including working to a group comes natureally to me but stage craft needs work.

Luckily I was approached by a family who had seen my work before and wanted to see something new and special. h was just what I needed to stop me dwelling on the stage card trick not having any impact. It also let me indulge in Do and I Do and Out of this World. After this I felt buoyant enough to do some Ambitious Card work. I loved every second of it.

So over all. Stage work 2/3 . I need to work on stage craft, it cant be improvised  like my street magic and close up magic. Once Upon a Time is a fantastic kids effect and suitable for many occasions. Cartomancy is a powerful close up effect and stage work is a possibity for me, but I can't be complacent and need to work through it more with Darren. Finally my Ambitious Card is good, and i need more faith in myself. The rest of the night heped with that but Ill blog it later :)

Also, when working at an outdoor event maybe a classy looking lamp is a good idea :)

First Kids Party

A day after deciding that I wanted to go pro with the magic I received two offers of gigs. Both of these were for kids parties. Untrodden ground for me, whilst I have performed for kids at the festival children's parties are a different mater. When strolling around the festival I perform many sets of 5 minutes of magic to each small group of kids I come across. However at a kids party I have to perform for the entire length of the gig to he same group of kids.The party was for a 12 year old boy's birthday and his mother requested I turn up waistcoated and top hatted.  I decided to play it safe and offer my services for 40 minutes or so. My plan was to split the set into some gambling cheating tricks (teaching the group about the perils of gambling) and then my rapport and mentalism effects. I was then planing to close the show with Darren Gooding's fantastic Lazar card reveal that we used in Wivenhoe Funny Farm.


  I researched performing for children with David Kaye's "Seriously Silly". In this seminal work the worlds most successful children's magician explains how to perform to each age group. He warns that at 12 children are very confrontational and will often assume they know how a trick is done. EVEN WHEN THEY DON'T. I opened up with a quick colour change silk. My plan was to treat them as adults BUT to use a childrens effect to grab their attention first.  This effect uses no TT but they KNEW I had a TT just a very good near invisible one. Then one tried grabbing my hand to check. I let him knowing my hand was 'clean' and remembered the warning that all children will grab your props regardless of what their parents say. With this in mind I launched into my gambling routine linking Four Site, Big Deal and Aces High. This wen down very well. I then tried to use my rapport deck. However one lad  wanted to shuffle it, hence ruining the chance to use it for Out of this World. I had a choice,  be a meany and not letting him shuffle, and showing the deck was rigged, OR letting him and leaving the effects behind. I let him shuffle, deciding to switch tack and use other tricks such as Card In Hand. I continued holding court, keeping the boys interested and engaged. I finished with the lazer reveal rick. The  boys loved getting dressed up in the steampunk "safety  gear". The Mum took plenty of pics for their parents.


After the show I discovered I had worked for 1 hour and 40  minutes. The mum was thrilled with my performance and asked for business cards to hand out. So what was learnt. KISS Keep It Simple Stupid! I need to ensure the effects are 'tamper proof' and don't need so much stacking. Also that i have MORE than enough material and even though I don't need it and can wittle down what I plan o use, having the bank of effects means I can often get myself out of trouble. I have a good rapport with kids and they like the fact I don't take myself too serously and let myself be made fun of. And finally kids LOVE playing with props like my hat and goggles and they are often just as keen to show you a trick as you are to show them. I just hope everyone else has as much fun as me. According to their mum they did :)

A life totally kippered and then made good again

this last week and a half has been something of a , well, not trail of fire, nor an epiphany as such, more like some horrible soul destroying surgery that was needed to help you heal  and reach your true destiny.  As some may well know I'm not just a magican, I work at a fabric shop called Fabric8 as well as sewing for myself and others. I had hopped one day to become a full time professional tailor or fashion designer and do magic on the side. Or more likely be a part time tailor and part time magician. All this whilst being disabled. Last wek I performed some rather good close up on the second night of the Leopold Thorn event (I was ill on the first night)., The following Sunday my world collapsed. A customer came to my home very unsatisfied with some work I did. IT turns out I had over stretched the lining when I pressed the garment (when I was ill). I was devastated. We parted company as friends and I as cheerful as I could be (not very) when it was pointed out even when I make something fantastic I worry  and stress about it. Tailoring wasn't making me happy any more, what is more after 10 years of making things here and there, never too much as I was  limited by what I could earn I STILL hadn't reached a point where I could support myself on my dressmaking. I simply couldn't put in the hours needed as my back could not take the strain, the pain caused by this was making me depressed and stressed without realising it.  IT was then pointed out that when I perform  magic I "become Alive" and sparkle. and so I decided at that point (with help from some wonderful people) that it was tie to close the chapter of my life dedicated to tailoring an become a full time magician.

  It's odd that deciding to dedicate myself to magic left me a little depressed. I LOVE magic but didn't want to give up one something I spent a lot of my life working on. I'll still use the skills I've  acquired though, just not for making regular clothes for customers. As if to reward me for making a tough choice the universe seems to have rewarded me. The benefits agency are helping me with the business side of things and 2 people contacted  to book me within moments of each other (one from seeing me perform at the Leopold Thorn gig). A local events management company has booked me as well and a disability charity are interested in my work. SO full steam ahead I feel. Every now and then I have to tell myself  I'm doing the right thing, that I'm not some pie in the sky fool dreaming of show business. BUT I think this really is the next logical step for me, and thanks to the support I've received from some great people I'm sure this will work out for me. Normal  less self obsessed blogging will resume shortly :)

Jumping off a cliff...

I have a pretty bad habbit. Jumping off a cliff with a box of spare parts hopping to make an areoplane on the way down.  Last Thusday I attended Wivenhoe Funny Farm with my good freind Darren Gooding. We were hopping to pimp his Leopold Thorn Event.He devised a rather awesome trick.  A spectator picks a card. It's shuffled into the deck and a lazer  hits the deck. The cards are looked through the cards and all were unscathed bar the seleted card which is burnt. Much theatrre and pantoomine surounded the effect such as steam punk goggles and heavy safty gear. When darren explained the effect we both agreed a simple card force will surfice and the burnt card would be pre burned and hidden in the deck. However when we arived  at the venue Darren mentioned about the speator looking through the deck for the chosen card. Initally we thought of shuffling the orginal card to the back of the deck so the specator would come to the burnt card first. However this seamed risky. we'd have to remove the seleted card before the lazer hit the deck.  As it happened I was thinking earlier this week about how I need to include more palming in my slights. Unfortunatly I deided to work on palming AFTER the Leopold Thorn Lectures next week. I had READ of the tent palm and understood the theory but had not tried to perfom it. So on stage I performed my first ever tent palm. Fortunatly my generally increase in knowledge of off beats and misdiretion coupled with the fact my hands big enouygh to hide a small buss behind meant the effect worked flawlessly. The mechanics of the effect were siple enough buut Darren's performance sakills meant we reieved a sutibly enthusiastic resoponce. ANd the klady who chose trhe card did ask to keep the deck, so thank heavens we did ditch the hosen card :) I think the night shows that my lose up skills can translate onto  platform/stage magic quite well, ubt also how good acting and story  telling ois as much a a part of magic as slight of hand, if not more.

  Fortune favours the bold it  seems. On the subject of misdierection I'm in Holland. It's relevant stay witrh mre. Right after the Funny Farm I had to go home sleep for an hour and walk to a bus stop at 2 am to catch a bus to the airport. Now I was tired, so easily onfused. Much like a muggle I suppose. IT was dark outside and th bus took a different route to the airport trhat I normally took. My tired mind would opasionally be confused and then jump out when i THOUGHT I reconised a part of the journy. I felt a moment of comfort, and then back to the bewildewremnt of the new juorny in a semi trance state. It made me thoick of the syrthem of a magic effect. We show something familier, then do soimething strange and then familier befdore doing soemthing really starnge. Those momanets of normality in an effect right before doing somrthing strange throws the mind out, Just as Mine was thrown out of kilter on the journy to the airport. Someything to think about I feel.

 Right basck to my Holliday. Anyone know of good magic shops in Rotterdamn?

Dean dah Street Magician

Yesterday I took a trip into Colchester to help promote the Leopold Thorn event at Colchester Art Centre. My plan was to take a few flyers and the custom made deck that Darren had made with he details of the play and generally amaze people and hope they feel inspired to come along to the event. I also took a vanilla regular deck and a deck set up for Wee Wee Mentalist and my home made DarkSide Deck set up for Serial Killer as well. As I stood in the middle of town I again felt the nerves about approaching anyone. I looked for someone I knew having learnt from experience that once I'm started approaching people is easier. I kicked of with a lady who runs a cup cake stall (I buy cakes there for my co-workers from time to time, I'm not some sort of cake obsessed weirdo,,, who am I kidding) and performed the Darkside effect and got a strong response. I left flyers and then buzzed the customers of the pancake stall (are we seeing a food obsessed pattern here). I hit the crowd with the Ambitious Card routine which got again a pleasing strong reception. Determined to flyer and poster Colchester we hit a Theatre a pub an art venue and a few shops.

In thee theatre two nice ladies seemed enthralled with initially the Ambitious card and then We Wee Mentalist. I recalled how some people love to keep the playing cards they signed for effects. This is one of the any strengths of the Ambitious card. I made sure to let the lady who did not sign the card to still feel involved. I did this by getting her to stay "Stop" when riffling through the deck for the LePaul's Bluff Pass. However remembering how people Love to keep a signed card I then moved onto the second lady and performed Wee Wee Mentalist. Thus leaving both participants with a signed card from different effects one of which had the details for the Leopold Thorn Event on.

At the pub I repeated the performance again for two participants. Both seemed impressed and kept looking at their signed cards. We decided to try postering a skater fashion shop seeing as they had posters up of varieas alternative events. there was a group of about 5 younger guys (late teens early twenties). One was the obvious Alpha of the group so I got him to take a card ready for Ambitious card. I started with a joke by saying "Take a card, any card" whist sticking one card out and constantly manoeuvring it to where his hand was. This little touch went down well I then settled down and let him select a card fairly. I then recalled a magazine article which had a great touch for getting everyone to feel involved. "Write your name and what you call this guy behind his back" whilst pointing to one of his friends. This got as laugh and I proceed with the effect, Everyone was staring at the cards not just to see the effect but to find out what he had written. It was the sort of macho humour that appealed to them. I said before how I have a hard time relating to "Mainstream Cool" guys but I've learnt a bullish display of skill as opposed to the more subtle effects seems to go down well. This wasn't "Challenge Magic" where I was inviting them to catch me out, it was just a laddish joking about display design to impresses, and each 'rise' of the cards did just that.

So to review the day. Approaching crowds may be scary but it works out. All the practise has lead to a new found confidence which comes across to the audience quite well I think. And it really does pay to involve everyone in the effect.

4 leggs good 2 leggs bad....

I'm an atheist/agnostic (can't b bothered into getting into the many long and tiered arguments over wther you can be a true atheist or that atheism is a faith etc etc). Why do I mention this? well I'm not particularly crusading over it, I don't mind what anyone else believes (unless it leads to them harming others or forcing their beliefs on people without their consent).I get rather frustrated when people bleat out their beliefs and slogans like sheep but when I heard a girl who had been a strong Christian and had since become an Atheist bleat out "Religion is for the weak minded" my blood run cold. I've never liked to hear people who chant things without really thinking about them. Too me the greatest villains in literature are the sheep in Animal Farm who let them selves be led into the chorus of "Four Legs good, two legs bad"

So why bring all this up. When reading the words of magicians I admire I sometimes find them saying things which I always say. This always makes me feel like I'm copying them blindly even though I thought of it independently. Such examples include

"Go enough is not Good Enough" said by me years ago and then read in "Our Magic" by Devant and Massklyn
"don't use the word spectator, but participant" Paul Daniels.
Ironically though I did fall into this trap in one regard. I was somewhat dismissive of the Magic Circle. I knew very little about them BUT Derren Brown doesn't rate them. I looked into joining up anyway seeing as the paying public treat any magician who is a member as some sort of speciality. I'd allways put off joining as I feard the examination but looking at thier notes them seem really cool. It's not about complicates slieghts but about performance mainly and they seem to have a very constructive attitude. So i'm going to bite the bullet and join up soon. I'm already going through thee paper work to join Equity (for the insurance if nothing else) and intend to pop down to a public open show in November for the circle. Once there I'll see about how I can join without knowing anyone there :)

prepping and performance

The Burlesque gig went quit well. I was not performing magic but it was still good experience in performing as a whole. One thing I took away from the experience is that the audience responded very well to interaction something which is at the heart of good magic in my opinion. After all if the audience does not feel like they are part of proceedings then they may as well be watching from home. This doesn't mean that they have to be directly involved with an effect, they could be there to serve as witnesses to the events that are unfolding. So from now on I'll endeavour to try and make everyone involved as a group, and stress the importance of people being there maybe along the the lines of gesturing to the main participant and saying "You can all help him understand what's happened later on" etc.

This week I have managed to try out a lot of material 'in the wild'. Cartomancy performed very strong, my patter is a lot smoother now (whilst not a rehearsed constant set of lines of dialogue I keep a mental list of key points that need to be noted and in what order they need to be said. This allows me to tailor the way I get the points across as I see fitting for the environment I'm in). I broke one of the big rules and performed the effect three times at one table as an experiment. The effect relies on a Koran Force which means sometimes when a participant says "Stop" I hand them the card that is already face down, and other times I hand them the card that's in my hand or about to be dealt. THe over all effect is one where a playing card is revealed via a scratch card and matches the card dealt. This therefore means sometimes the card is seen first (face up after all) and THEN a scratch card is revealed, other times the scratch card is revealed first and then the playing card which is face down. I was curious as to whether a group of muggles would spot the inconstancy and seeing as I was amongst friends and not paying customers I decided to experiment. The results were suprising. No-one commented on how the two reveals were somtimnes in different order. As a result I know feel a lot happier about performing Cartomancy where there is a chance being pressured into giving a repeat performance.

I also worked on my Ambitious Card that night as well as a few forcing effects. I've decided that whilst my riffle force has yet to land me in trouble I need to learn a few more (I currently have 4 different forces that I can use but I think I can improve on them a lot with practise). I did however invent a new 'Lift' for the routine. Whilst using standard slights I have not come across this combination before so now I need muggles to experiment with.

So today I'm left at home with a very bad back but a desire to learn more effects. I foresee an afternoon of coin magic ahead to help me out of those situations where people yell "show us something without cards".

gig tonight

A little nervous but not in a bad way. Maybe it's when excitement and nervousness collide you feel like this. I'll be comparing a burlesque gig tonight with Darren. We've gone through a few lines, a few routines but ultimately most of what we do will be sorted out in the 5 hours between us turning up at the venue and us going on stage. However this is a great opportunity to promote the lectures based on Leopold Thorn. So beforehand if times allow and during the interval I'll be performing ambitious card with a deck that also doubles as fliers for the event. Maybe it's just because I'm more nervous about comapring, or maybe it's because I'll not be engaged as a magician exclsuivly but the magic really isn't worrying me at all :)
I'll be doing a bigger blog tomorrow about spending waaaay too much money on a book :)

yep, that went well.

The kids festival this year was every it as good as the last. I again started preparing far too many effect and then made myself scale things down and also to make myself last all day I decided to have two sets so I could swap props half way through the day.
My main set consisted of :
Vanilla prepped with Wee Wee Mentalist
Vanilla preped with Here then There (which could be used for mind reading
Invisible deck
Elastic bands for Elastic trickery

The second set had a TT, and a change back with two sizes of red cloth.
Vanilla deck but intended for ambitious card.

And for the performance tent
Cup and Balls
Fly Stick
and One Upon A time.

The new elastic band magic went down VERY well with the kids. My first attempt fell flat but my Girlfriend suggested changing y patter, emphasising the where the band was (the ban flies into the hand of the spectator). I attributed the effect to the innate magical ability of the child I was performing to. again this went down VERY well. Empowering children, Silly Billy (David Kaye) has made the fee of his book and Essential Magic Conference worth the cost already there. One note however. I joked that the young boy (about 8) may find a use for controlling elastic by being able to control the elastic in his underwear from no on and magically dress himself. He laughed, his sister laughed his mum looked at me as if I was a terrible fiend. It seams in the prudish United States of America you can make underwear jokes to kids but here in the UK making such a joke has you branded as a pervert.

Wee Wee mentalist as ever rocked. as did Here then There. The change bag I combined with the TT and some cloth. I explained what happens to naughty children and placed the large cloth in the bag, waved my hands and turned the bag inside out to reveal a tiny piece of cloth, I then picked it up and vanished it with the TT. Two quite hard nosed 10 year olds suddenly exploded with excitement, and when I brought the cloth bag it was noted that I could not have just dropped the cloth on the floor and that my sleeves were rolled up and my hands empty. It didn't just baffle or amaze them it enchanted them!

Ambitious card got a look in using specially printed cards made by my good friend Darren Gooding which advertise his lecture on the mysterious Leopold Thorn . This was even filmed by a camera man, I fluffed one bit but made a joke of it being eddied out, even if it isn't I think it will come across as deliberate and the tricks flow remained.

All of this time I was telling people where the story tent was, explaining about the wonderful Willow maze and the story quests! I also told them when I was on. Part of me was almost wishing I wasn't as I was nervous about Once Upon a Time. BUT I don't want to get into the habit of 'Bottling out' and so dutifully informed people where and when I would be performing even though a cowardly part of me was almost hopping for an empty tent (this part is now well and trying dead I might add)

The story Tent is probably the most interesting pat of the day. I planned to show off the Fun Fly Stick and let the kids play with it (accepting that the Mylar component would get trashed). I also planned to perform 'One Upon A Time' by Guy Hollingworth. I may have blogged of this before, it's a way of telling fairy tales with a special deck of cards with pictures. Pumpkins become carriages and bowls of porridge become emptied as if by magic. I moved EVERYTHING I had to the tent, including my magic case and change of costume. I was initially dressed as a generic Cyborg Alien

I took the name Darth Dean fully expecting the kids to call me Daft Dean. I was not disappointed (thanks again to David Kaye's Seriously Silly) but in the tent changed into my normal more comfortable clothing

I got to the tent half an hour early planning to run through "Once Upon A time". whilst using basic slights the number of slights and having to remember where and when they are done makes this effect even more of a pitfall than the ambitious card. However after only being in the tent for a few minutes I had company in the form of a group of young children. I had a few choices.
Send them outside
Continue a silent run through with them in the tent
Quickly re-order the deck and just live without a final practise
I decided to take the last option. If I needed to practise again right before the gig then I should have practised more before hand. as nervous as I was I had to man up. I give the kids the Fun Fly Toy whilst trying to mentally prepare for a moment. Soon the tent was packed and it was time to begin. I was worried about nothing it seams. The kids were literally over awed at one point. One girl trying to understand how a puff of smoke turns into a fairy, or how the rats turned into the coachmen, a young boy exasperatedly yells "Because he's a magician, he can do magic!" Once Upon a Time almost took me to the 30 minute slot I wanted to fill. I could have ended it there but the kids wanted more magic and I planed to deliver. I explained how the cups and balls was the oldest trick in the world (A matter hotly disputed actually), They watched the effect with a genuine air of reverence, asking questions polity and seemingly flattered that I was willing to show them such a grown up and respected trick. I finished by putting one gaffed cup away and letting them play with the two remaining cups. They asked why I only had the two out and I just explained I only needed two for the next effect. They passed the cups around before handing them back. At this point I performed Solid Penetration and lets the cups fall through each other. They FREAKED out. They wanted more magic, in fact they wanted REPEAT magic. Wee Wee Mentalist is back in fashion it seams, that poor fellow deserves a raise.Out came the change bag again and the TT and hankies were shrunk and vanished. I then performed some more Elastic Band Magic before teaching a very simple band trick. As I was leaving a young lady asked for one final card trick, out came Cheek To Cheek. again, it performed very well.

And then a very tired magician clashed his outfits, his neodandy waistcoat and top hat blended with his cyborg hit-man jacket and he left the festival knowing his work was indeed done.

So what did I learn.
Practise is worth it, keep it up.
I am very good at handling kids and magic to any audience is rewarding.
MAKE A LIST of what I need,I left props at home that required a friend to nip home and pick things up for me (I owe him many beers)

Don't! Leave home without it!

I think we all have our favourite effects. it may be one we're very proud of because of it's technical skill. It may be one that we have spent hours honing the presentation of. It may simply be one that gets a HUGE reaction. Wee Wee Mentalist falls into the last category. Every Saturday that I work at Fabric8 I make sure to prep a deck with a few cards for Wee Wee Mentalist. The kids LOVE it (and the parents appreciate their children being entertained for a few minutes whilst they shop). I came to relaise I was hidding behind this one effect. Infact I would struggle for few seconds to think of an effect I could do with a vanilla deck. As a result I decided to force myself to try different things. I left the cards for Wee Wee Mentalist at home and instead launched into Card in Hand, Here then there and Ambitious card. WOW, huge reactions from all of these AND my ambitious card yet again proved itself to be a powerful effect. I left work thrilled and totally reinvigorated.

kids festival ahoy

I'm starting to get into a new routine which I enjoy. Waking up and making a cup of tea and then 30 minutes of going through 'The Royal Road to Card Magic'. This is a very old text on card Magic which Richard Paul Wilson (He off the real Hustle and not he with one foot in the grave) has made an accompanying DVD set. It's interesting because I now know a lot of slights and effects and so expected to not learn much new material for a few days. However chapter 1 taught me something I wanted to know for a while, a Full False Shuffle! I've been able to control the top packet of cards or the bottom packet of cards for over a year now, but this book/dvd shows you how to shuffle a deck without upsetting ANY of the cards order. Most exciting. THe first chapter also had an interesting mental effect I 'll try out on the next available muggle. Is there a danger that 'll learn too many effects and get myself muddled? Unlikely, after all I can contain whole universes of information regarding Science fiction so now I can fill my head with something more, well I wont say useful as my knowledge of sci fi and the parables within have gotten me through some tough times. I certianly don't plan on becoming a trick-a-holic though. I'll just run through the course a few times and just select the effects that work best for me.

I have 10 days before the Kids-festival. That's ten days to work on 'Once Upon a Time' and 10 days to work on my thread work. well I won't be complaining of being board any time soon :)

that went not so well

I had a rather shortish notice gig again. 2 weeks notice. I used the time to run through my regular routines and learnt a new effect "Cheek to Cheek" . I had a few misgivings when I realised the event (A stand up comedy night) did not seem to be attracting many pre bookings. When we arrived I got kitted out and stocked up paisley magic waistcoat with decks....

Vanilla deck set up for "Do as I Do", "direct mind reading" and "Out of this world"

Invisible deck (to use with the above for an overall rapport, spiritual feel)

Cartomancy (with scratch cards and leaflet)

Vanilla deck with a "Wee Wee Mentalist" ready to go

Darkside -Serial Killer set up.

I felt like I was over burdened whilst also ill prepared. Maybe I was just hiding behind my props. I performed a few effects for the receptionist and the bar staff whilst waiting for punters to arrive, thee were well received. Interestingly enough, the bar staff reception to WeeWee Mentalist was OK, but not the usual blown away response I tend to get. Possibly my anxiety was colouring my performance, or maybe they just didn't like that sort of trick.

I continued to wait for the 'punters'. Comedians showed up with their support crew of friends and family but no actual public customers for a while. This was a problem as I'd intended to start table hopping BEFORE the show, to warm people up. Then the comedy began. There was not a single person there who was not a performer or there with a performer.

In the intermission I tried approaching the family of the acts. I performed Cartomancy to one group, this was well received but the other friends and family were nipping in and out of the green room. there was literally no-one to perform to. I approached the family of one of the events organizers, had a friendly chat and performed the serial killer version of Dark Side. The whole effect was lost when the spectator failed to realise the great big blood splat on their chosen card. Was this the lighting or was it because I failed to engage the spectator, to make them take an interest in the magic, or was h just a little Dim. We shall never know BUT it is something I'm going to take on board and take more care of lighting and take more care to ensure the spectator is on the ball.

Reading this it sounds like a bad disheartening night. but it wasn't really,. The comedy was good and it gave me a lot to think about

I Need to slim down what I carry

I need more confidence in my Vanilla work

I need to be aware of possible lighting issues

I need to make sure the participant is ENGAGED

I need to rehears more so that my 'patter' is fluid, BUT also that I have the confidence to change it on the fly without leaving out pertinent information for the effect.

housekeeping and catching up

It occurred to me that I've been serious about magic fr just over a year now, and if I learnt at a steady rate of one effect a week I'd now have over 50 effects to call upon. Many effects do not make you a good magician of course, BUT it makes it more likely that you'd have a strong effect suitable for any occasion. It made me realise I've not been practising and rehearsing as much as I should. I perform weekly at work on any young kids who need entertaining whilst their parents shop, but even then I'm just using the same old effects time and time gain. Basically I've fallen into a rut. I decided to take a good hard look at the problem. The solution has been remarkably easy.
1) My magic practise area always had junk on it making it hard to sit down and study

2) My magic case was frankly a disgrace with props and cards just shoved in out of the way. I've now sat down and re-labled custom decks and packs of gaffs to make it easier to prep in a hurry

3) Time, I've been busy with many things in my life, and magic has been put on the back burner

Points 1 and 2 are just matters of housekeeping ad I feel much better for sorting them out. The 3rd point is more involved. DO I just make magic more important and push aside all other aspects of my life? or is it better to become more organized in all ways myself, freeing up time for magic whilst not letting other matters build up in my head to become insurmountable obstacles later on? Slowly I'm putting all aspects of my life in order so on days such as today when I can't walk I can instead colla[pse in my chir at my desk and study and practice and rehurse. on that matter. I'm trying to dedicate at least 1 hour a day to dedicated magic work (as well as my usuall practise in front of the TV when watching things with freinds. this can be 4 different things

Research:- finding out what effects are out there, what slights there are or learning more of the history of our craft and those who have come before us.

Study:- Actually learning new effects and slights. Also making any gaffs or other equipment.

Practise:- Going through the motions of slights and effects (this often takes place whislt doing something else such as watching TV)

Rehearsal :- Running through a complete set from start to finish speaking allowed any patter and recovering from any mistakes and not just starting again from scratch. This is very important, often I like to just speak naturally and unrehearsed when performing however having a mental script made up of highlights can ensure no verbal misdirection is missed out.

I'm trying to go through all of these stages in all my levels of disability. I want to make sure I can perform any effect when I'm in pain or impaired in any way, whilst sitting or standing, be it at a desk or a bar or even on the floor. And if I can't rework an effect so I can perform it in any circumstance I need to note where and when I can and cannot perform it. WHY am I so concerned with practising in different states? If I can work out WHAT I can do, WHERE ever I am and to WHO ever I am performing to and in WHICH physical state I may be in, and then organize myself so I know WHEN I'm meant to be doing all this - I should be on the right road

So much Data

This month may go down as being he m0ost important month I've had in magic. And I've not learnt single new trick, move or slight. I've finally subscribed to the British based magic magazine MagicSeen . I have always enjoyed this mag and find it far more engrossing than Genni or Magi (both are fine publications, its just MagicSeen, being UK based seems to have much more relevant stories). As well as being a constant source of information and inspiration the magazine carried an advert for the "Essential Magic Conference". The conference is filmed in a proper studio in Portugal with 33 of the best magical minds giving talks and demonstrations. These are streamed live to your PC as well as an interactive chat room. I was intrigued and then paid attention when the Magic News Wire Podcast
started talking about it. I paid my 70 Euro and signed up. Probably the best money I've ever spent on magic. I found the whole thing fascinating informative and inspiring. these people have kept their love and passion for magic alive for years and survived in the harsh world of the entertainment industry as well. It's hard to single out any one speaker, although Paul Daniels was enlightening as always, and David Berglas was fascinating. The talk by David Kaye (a.k.a Silly Billy) was also a revelation. I used his tips on performing to children the very next day to great effect. I believe you can still sign up for the conference and watch all the videos on-line and receive a box set of DVD's as well. I highly recommend it.

what a month

The longest I've gone between blogs, but it's been a packed month. I traveled to Germany for massive goth convention and saw some of the most amazing costumes. I also performed a little and tested out a wonderful 18th century styled piraty waistcoat. The waistcoat was designed and made by a good friend and was specifically made with the storage of effects in mind. the pockets are perfectly possitioned to store two packs of card in each and to reach them whilst sitting down.
I also travelled to Nottingham to see my friend Nick. He's simply a fantastic magician, many times better than myself. He showed me some fantastic self working effects as well as showing me some of the gimmicks and gaffs he's gotten lately. He also helped me with a few colour changes.
On the subject of gimmicks and gaffs I finally found the time to create my own Darkside Deck. The deck and dvd are created by Lucas and costs around £20 and is worth it. You get a deck a marker and a dvd showing many different effects that you can do. However for each effect you have to mark up the deck a different way. So to do all the effects you need to spend a few hundred pounds or make your own decks up. Instructions are given for this but Lucas tries to put you off saying that it wont work as well as the deck in the pack. This may well be the case but writing does not show up that well on a blue back bicycle deck and so many of the tricks stand a 50-50 chance of not being suitable for which ever deck you get. The effect from my home made deck is great for teen/horror magic. You tell a story about a serial killer who left a blood encrusted card at the scene of each crime./ You mention that the blood on the card was not the victims but that of a previous victim. You then fan the deck face down and let the spectator select a card. You slide the card still face down next to them and flip the deck and fan it face up. the cards look normal. You then ask the spectator to turn over their card to reveal the card is covered in blood.

Reaction

From adults and mid teens alike the spectator gets a little freaked out. Certainly works even better when built up over a few minutes. So far I think it's been worth the time taken to make the deck. Will probably present one to the local Sinister Magician as it suits his style as well as using it maybe on a tarot deck whilst providing some entertainment during the interlude of a play I'll be working in October. (the play is about the greatest and most illusive of historical figures in magic, Leopold Thorn)

Another gig!

Fool Us with Penn & Teller has come and gone. I shall withhold blogging about the day until the show has been screened so as to not spoil anything for anyone./ All I will say is Tellers work was hauntingly beautiful.

My Magic partner has managed to score us a new gig. This time we were performing at the same gay wine bar that gave us our first ever gig. The Pride Wine Bar, Colchester . This was to celebrate their first anniversary. However seeing as their grand opening came a month AFTER they opened their doors this means it's still only been 11 months since our first gig. I approached the gig with a certain degree of confidence as it came pretty close to the last very successful wedding gig. I was starting to feel the nerves right before hand though as I had not managed to dedicate enough time to practice in my mind. However I was sporting a lot more effects than the first time they had seen me and a new waistcoat!

This rather funky paisley waistcoat has a lovely metallic gleam and more importantly 4 internal pockets for stashing packet tricks and decks. THe left pocket is extra deep for storing cards and makes a good home for the "Wee Wee Mentalist". Aremed with a more organised storage system than last time, knowing I could be a lot more graceful getting to my effects meant I was much happier about the fluidity of my performance.

The night did have the initial trouble of our first gig, a low turn out. In the first hour we had already performed for 3 groups of people and that's all that was there. THe night soon picked up and I am delighted to say I found 2 groups of people who loved the higher mentalism effects in my routine. I find all magic a joy to perform with and the wonderment of a quick colour change or the ambitious card is great to share with people but for me the deep emotional connections made with Cartomancy, Out of this World, Dark side and other rapport effects simply can't be beat.
This night I faced a demon of mine. Coolness. Blaine is Cool, Brown is Cool, I am not initially straight way instantly Cool. Most people who take the time to know me rank me as a 'cool and groovy' person and ironically for a fat ugly guy I have no fear approaching women, or groups with women in them. It's the group of LADS on their own that gave me some concern. How do I relate to a bunch of Cool guys when I'm a fatty in a waistcoat. There is nothing cool about me, interesting yes, intriguing, maybe, but not Cool. Whilst having a breather outside I came acroos one of the group of young men. He was feeling a little down and so I forgot about the magic for a moment and switched into my normall caring human being mode. We chatted for a while and he seemd to take comfort in my company. I began running through the more slight of hand routines I had explaining that I needed to look busy. HE seemed genuinely impressed before we headed back in and I went to reload and reset (after 2 hours I might add). WHen I came out again I suddenly realised HOW impressed he was./ HE was waxing lyrical about this Cool Guy doing Magic who people Had To See. Thus i went into y slight of hand set and gabling set. By now others were joining in. People were leaving thier tables to atch the specticale of the performing fatty. As I began exhausting my repitore I asked about who believes in real magic, or the mind and soul. Everyone was still interested and so I sat down and took my time as I went into my rapport routines, at my own pace, commanding attention, not demanding it. Suddenly I felt like a real magician again, doing the magic I loved AND making others love it.
So what have I learnt.
1)Do as I do is still a good effect, provided you have a table handy
2) There is intreast in the mentailsm/rapport style of effects
3) the Ambitious card is universally loved. It's worth working on
4) the slight of hand effects can naturally lead into mentalism/rapport
5) People were genuinely in wonder and fascinated. I appear to be a good magician. This is worth the time and effort and I must continue the work.

Idols

This was always going to be a good month. It started with the wedding gig I performed with my partner, then A chance to see Paul Daniels LIVE, and a week later mentalism with Chris Cox. THEN I get tickets to see Penn and Teller perform for FREE when they record "Fool Us". An expensive but magic filled month.
Everyone says to never meet your idols. They're wrong. The whole day was inspirational. A morning walk through the V&A followed by the science museum before bumbling around Covent Garden. The gig itself took place in an upside down inflatable purple cow on the South Bank and I managed to get me and fellow magic geek front row seats. Paul Daniels performed what can only be described as a compendium of greatest hits. I wont go into them all here but I must single out the chop cup. Paul Daniels chop cup routine is considered one of the finest in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-8VnTK4G8

In one performances I THINK I MAY be able to spot ONE load. MAYBE. I don't watch other magcians to see if I cna duduce methods, I watch them to see true art and what hard work can do for your skills. However I little piece of me was thinking thus "he's not a youngster any more, that was 26 years ago, he's 73 now, don' get your hopes up" Yes he's 26 years older BUT e's had 27 years more practise! I was right on top of him and I couldn't see a SINGLE move (and I was looking)

Aside from technical skills his presentation wasn't at all dated. He thoroughly up to date and yet retained classical elegance. The Lovely Debbie Mcgee was, well, lovely. She looked stunning, carried herself off with grace and bantered with Paul and the audience in an easy happy manor. Both true professionals.

Chris Cox was a lot more different than I thought. I still enjoyed it immensely but considering how impressed I was with the interview he gave at the Magic News Wire I was expecting something more cerebral. He was friendly and fun however my friends picked up on one problem. He played the same joke magicians often play of pretending to have messed up a reveal only to have a fresh different reveal (eg Card In Hand). The problem is he played this so often that when something DID go wrong no-one knew how to react. People reacted with good humour but the impression my friends got at the end of the night was that he kept on making mistakes when he only made the one. It's just his performance style got everything muddled in their memories. However the man's show was well tailored to his audience. everyone seemed to really love him as a character and and respond very well to his brand of mentalsim. I suppose thats th ultimate magic trick. to give people what they are looking for, even if they don't know what it is they want. I know I've certainly had to adjust me performance away slightly from what want to perform. I still perform that way in private mind and hope one day to be in a setting where it would be appropriate to do it in public :)

yep, that went well.

The wedding gig last night was AMAZING! I had a good time my partner in magic had a good time and the audience apparently had a fantastic time. EVerything went very smoothly but I came away with some useful information to smooth things more.

Do as I do - No good when standi9ng. If I prepped a deck to kick off with Do as I do then I need another deck good to go for a set of standing tricks. I need to work on two versions of each routine, one standing, one sitting.

Wee Wee Mentalist- EVERYONE loves the Wee Wee Mentalist! Need to keep a good location for where he can hide until needed.

Cromancay- All handling of this effect were very well received

Darkside-This is it- again, loved by all BUT do not perform on the very drunk

invisible deck _ scary good

The Disappearance- again very well received. HOWEVER it would be nice if I could have a second version prepeed and good to go. Time to start playing with a lazer printer.

Ambitouse Card- n effect I've ignored f late. Big mistake, this was incredibly well loved and seen as a real feat.

I think all in all I was overly worried about not having enough material for each routine. what I have is enough in length, now I need to weed out the weaker routines and replace them with stronger effects. This crowd cared less for mentalism and were more into classic slight of hand so I'm glad I prepperd up for both in mind. I didn't get the classic "show us something that's not card magic" BUT need to add some none card work into the repertoire. Eugene Burger's way of handling potential hecklers worked a storm(Secrets and Mysteries of the Close Up Entertainer). Don't see them as the enemy. Se them as bubbly people who want to be the centre of attention for a little bit and just let them, respond with grace and civility and humour them., Do this from the very very start and actual heckling/trouble doesn't even begin to happen. I took one VERY drunk guy and showed him some gambling magic, explaining how it worked. For this I used "Big Deal" where you openly show yourself dealing from the bottom for one hand, and then deal from the top the second time, the second time having stacked the deck gives you a far better hand. Because he was "Watching and learning" he wasn't acting up at all, not trying to catch me out by insisting the cut the deck every second. He thought he was learning a magic trick to scam friends with instead of participating in a bigger magic trick that left him baffled.

In conclusion. Awesome time. MY love of magic has never waned a bit of late I was begging to doubt my chances of making a living from it (and hence lapsed in the study of the business side of magic) this has now changed :) as I said before, if in doubt,t suck t up and get a gig, I think it's Kill or cure. Even if all bar one group hated me the reaction of one positive would be enough to make me study and practice to make things work, a positive reaction is THAT powerful. And I had a LOT of them last night so I don't think I'll stop smiling any time soon.

Why I blog

A very quick glance suddenly made me relaise I neglected 3 VERY strong effects, Wee Wee Mentalist, Four Sight and Oil and Water. hmm which goes where?
Oil and Water in Classic Slights
Four sight in Gambling
Wee Wee mentalist, anywhere which will appreciate a happy cute routine.

The Calm before the Storm

Well today is Gig Day. I'm swaying between calm and confident and terfied. I don't know why I'm worried though. My retuine went down very well at the charity gig I did and the effects have just become smoother since. I also have a few new effects I believe are very strong. The following isa list of what I plan to do for each group, it's more for my benifit than anyone elses BUT may be usefull to others..

Classic slight set.

Card in hand
Here then there
Ambitious card and or "The Disappearance"

Mental/rapport set

Do as I do
Direct mind reading
Invisible deck
"Cartomancy" and Or Out of this World.

Gambling set
Big deal
Aces High
Direct Mind Reading
3 Card Monte' and or Ambitious Card

I ay well read through my blog for half an hour just to remind myself what works well with what

Hectic but happy

Been a while snce I blogged but trust me, much has been happening in my magic. Too begin with I got older (though I don't act it). To celebrate another complete orbit of Sol I was given some rather niifty gifts. A BEAUTIFUL deck of picture playing cards, The Master Push Off DVD,By Andi Gladwin Cartomancy By Peter Nardi and The Dark side Deck by Lucas.

The Master Push Off is an instructional DVD for performing a for of double lift. Very worth while I'll go more in depth about this in the future. The dark side deck is hard to talk about without spoiling the effect. I'll post a video about that next week as well. However Cartomancy is one to talk about. An interesting effect mixing a measure of control with a deck and little scratch cards which reveal a certain card. I've performed the effect for many friends, muggles, magicians and inbetweeners. There was a certain discord about how best to reveal the cards at the end f the effect (the scratch card revels a playing card that matches the card selected). I have yet to make up my mind fully whether it is better for people to turn a card over and then scratch off a scratch card or if the scratching should come first and then the card revealed. However there was concensses that my story telling behind the trick needed a LOT of work. This is the power of honest friends. I've reworked the presentation and hopefully Will be able o report back on the best way I presented the trick after my next live gig this Thursday.

On the subject of my gig. I was very worried that I had not enough material (which is rubbish as I haven't forgotten any effects) and I've been perfroming some magic each Saturday at the shop so I am in practise. But I wanted to become a little slicker, a little smoother. Trust me, if you're struggling with achieving a level you're happy with after a year dig out your initial learning materials and re read or re-watch., There's nothing like going back to the beginning again to polish off any rough edges.

Research and fun.

I haven't had much chance to rehears this week, although I have practised a LOT. (practice being the act of working through moves or even a whole trick/effect, rehearsal being the running through of a whole mini act including patter). I picked cup a book from Amazon for a friend and am promptly reading it before handing it over (with their blessing I may add). The book by Devant and Maskelyne Our Magic . The copy I have in my care is a 1946 reprint of this rather interesting book first published in 1911. I've been reading some more contemporary magical theory/philosophy books recently and it's amazing how little has changed as to what is seen as good magic. It all seems to boil down the old saying, it's not what you do it's the way that you do it.
To further my research I've treated myself to seeing two great magicians live in London.
Paul Daniels and Chris Cox have two different styles of magic but both had something in common. They both work very hard at their magic. It will be good seeing some professionals in person even if they aren't performing close up work. More research and fun will take the guise of hanging out in Covent Garden. For those who are unaware of this home to the street performing arts It's a market selling over priced goods to tourists and very overpriced soft drinks where street performers juggle, dance, play instruments and perform magic. It can be a very civilised way of spending an afternoon, the only problem is some performers get very aggressive when asking for tips (one insisting that anyone not intending of giving him at least £5.00 was morally obliged to leave before the grand finale. I'll be taking about £15 to feed the performers, hopping they'll settle for £2.00 each. One this is certain, event hough I'll be very polite and play along with any part of their act and will certainly not reveal any method or state that I can do any of their act better I will still be comparing myself to them, just to see how far along I've come. I'll just have the good taste not to mention it there then come home and blog it :)

The insanity of guilt

I love magic. There I said it. Don't ask me WHY I love it, what aspect of it intrigues me, I love it all. From the intricate devices to the cleaver subtle movements to misdirection and drawing an audience into y our world, magic fulfils my loves of gadgets and engineering, martial arts and physical training, story telling and mythology and interacting with people. Maybe that's the truth, I love magic because I love people. How can love be a bad thing? Love as we've seen in sad tales on the magic glowing box in the corner of the living room (or taking up the entire wall of the living room if you're a wee bit chavish) can be twisted or lead to insaine behavour. This is my problem today. I'm ill. not at deaths door, a mild-ish tummy bug which in turn has flared up a few joints and made movement rather awkward and very painful. As a result I've taken the day off from my one day a week job in a very lovely fabric shop. There is no need for guilt, the manager (I loathe the term manageress, it seems almost demeaning to indicate her gender, as if she needs some sort of excuse for being a woman, she is quite frankly the best manager i've had (i've only had a handfull but I can't think of anything that could be improved) anyway where was I? the Manager yes, she hired me KNOWING i'm disabled, knwoing that alittle illness can stop me going iun. heck they know my dedication to work having gone in against doctors advice after a heart truma and a head injury. BUT still I can't settle down to use the time i have productively because I enjoy myself doing magic so much, i feel like i'm cheating on them.

I've spoken to a fellow crippled friend on the matter. He points out the common belief some people have that us disabled folks SHOULD feel guilt all the time and should allow ourselves no fun, even if it'#s something that is free or as good as and in no way indicates that we would be well enough for work. This is insanity. However I feel more able to let myself practice magic by reminding myself this too is becoming a job. Also keeping my mind occupied stops me dwelling on the illness and pain, resulting in a faster recovery. So there it is folks, rationalisation. Time to hit the books in-between the peptobizmol shakes and codeine sarnies :)
This is why I blog, well I blog for a few reasons
1) To help me organise my thought (see all of above)
2) to sort of publicly set my goals, to help me focus towards them
3) to share information of books and effects I've found useful
4) To share my beliefs on the heart of magic.
5) to serve as a record of my journey through magic from only being able to do a few fuzzy effects with a joke trick deck to a working professional. Maybe one day this post will help another magician wrestling with some of their inner demons.
take care internet, I love you

a most productive day

This has possibly been one of my best days in the field of magic. Let me start by expalining a flaw in the personalty of my younger self. I loves to plan, to research, to look for inspiration, but often left the actual DOING out, or at least until i t was very close to deadlines. I got out of the habit -mostly- and possibly went a little too far the other way. I sometimes feel bad 'just' reading a book on magical theory, or on organisation, or just arranging a line up of effects or researching character.
I've been reading Eugene Burger's "Secrets and Mysteries for the Close Up Entertainer" and was pleasantly surprised at how much of this great guys philosophy meshed with my own. I've often felt like a fraud because i only know around 20 effects. This guy went to work with 6 effects, but they were AWESOME. Each effects was remarked on as 'Closers' by other magicians. I already decided I wanted to cut the wheat from the chaff with regards to my repertoire . Here he makes a distinction between knowledge base, effects one may know and repertoire, effects one performs. This it was that I spent a wonderful day going through the gambling section of effects with my index cards (have I spoken about them already?) working out the best order of effects and deciding which ones should remain. Now I probably should have had a gambling film on in the background (the Sting, or maybe Maverick) BUt i really needed to watch the Tim Burton Alice, and thus I've also been thinking more about tie-in in my performing style with the gambling effects and the mad hatter styled persona. A very fun and enjoyable day working on my craft.

Focus

I have a day more or less to dedicate to magic. I simply don't now where to begin. I feel I need to learn a few new tricks not because more is better but because it will stretch me slightly. I've been practising the same tricks and slights for a while now so maybe I need to just reach a little further. I know have Jay Sankey's 'The Disappearance' and have managed to perform in at home a few times. So maybe a few run through of this before looking at more coin work is in order for the day. The trouble with magic being seen as a hobby by many is I feel guilty 'wasting' a day on it. I have a paying gig soon, I need to be awesome and blow people away. For this I need to hone what skills I have and acquire new ones and it's a good idea to start when I have 7 weeks to go and not 7 hours. So why do I feel like a foolish child when I plan to settle down with my books and magic case for the day. No doubt once I make myself begin I will feel fulfilled, I always do, but I just thought I'd share the reason whey I have trouble starting to do anything creative at times.

London Collection and Devel's Picture book.

There are many genuiuses when it comes to card magic. Eugine Burger bounds to mind and Daryl is a walking compendium of the sum of card magic. However, when it comes to perfoming with style I think Guy Hollyworth and Derren Brown leave all others standing in the dust. Derren Browns 'The Devil's Picture Book' was made just after he began appearing as a psychological illusionist on our televisions. He explains in the video how he has moved on to pure psychological effects now but still enjoys card magic. His skill is breath taking, but his presentation is something to be truly admired. The way he takes a very old classic trick 'Out of this World' and adds his own elements of mis direction really shows us the benefit of working on a effect over and over again adding and subtracting until it feels right. As with other instructional video files it follows the classic 'Show a trick explain a trick' format. The explanations often punctured with conversations with a fellow magician where they occasional talk of their own philosophy of magic.
Guy Hollingworth's 'The London Collection' follows a different format. It follows Guy through the streets of London at night where he performs tricks for the camera (no spectators insight). For 30 minutes the viewer is treated to delightful magic with a charming presentation against a the wonderful backdrop of London at night with a quite subtle piano playing in the background. When the camera follows Guy into his home he explains each trick in great detail. The benifit of this different format of all the tricks displayed first means that if You just want to relax whilst watching the definition of perfect card magic you don't have to watch the explanations on fast forward whilst feeling guilty for not wanting to learn everything at once.

So why have I mentioned these now. Both videos have been in my collection for a long time. I bought 'The Devils Picture book' long before I bought Mark Wilson's Course (putting the horse before the carriage maybe). It's to do with inspiration. Both videos can really stir a sense of inspiration in us, however they both can show how far we have to go as well. I highly recommend watching them, but do so knowing you are watching two masters at the top of their profession.

An interesting issue

I've been practising ready for a Wedding party in April. Now many magicians have said it's not always a great idea to perform amazing flourishes. These can either alienate an audience, or make the magician look like a show off or even just make an audience assume all tricks come down to slight of hand. That said there are few basics of card handling that appear useful. Springing the cards from hand to hand is according to Jay Sankey a superb way of letting it be known that there is a magician present when approaching a group of people. Like wise being able to perfom a basic ribon spread and turn over does not appear to be showing off and is the level of handling you'd expect from anyone who professionally uses cards for any reason. My Ribbon spread was appalling. After a few nights of practice it's much better, and on a velvet mat it looks quite eligant avery time i spread the cards. But after an hour pracitse I leaned back and started iddly double lifting. I sudenly noticed that every 3rd or 4 attempted ended in a treble lift. this is not good. Apparently all the pressure used to perform fans and spreads makes the card stick together and this a few dribbles are in order to separate out the cards. So there's the top tip for the day. After a few spreads take a moment to dribble or spring the cards. these are all useful flourishes but also will help any follow up slights out by separating the cards out for you.

In the Wild

This weekend our local Goth club held their 'Valentines Day Massacre'. It was basically a gangster and molls fancy dress party. I decided to forgo the pinstripe suit look and instead made a waistcoat covered in hearts and took along any tricks that I deemed 'hustle like' (thinking of Titanic Thompson the con man)

The Three Card Monte went down very well with no-one working the method and showing genuine surprise and astonishment. there was none of the dreaded 'That's clever' and just more of 'that's amazing/cool' and so on. I broke in my new Invisible Deck (in BLUE!) and the decided to experiment a little. I could have switched into the 'Poker cheating' routines such as Aces High, Big Deal, Four Sight, my Card Reading/Mind Reading and so on. However I found a pair of participants who seamed to be deeply into magic. When outside the club I started talking to them about how some tricks can build up a rapport between a group of people, and how this can form a sort of gestalt consciousness that enable a group to do things one person along could not. I opened with Do as I Do (a trick where the participant takes half the cards and mirrors the magicians movements of selecting and returning cards into the pack before placing one packet of cards within the other, revealing all the facer up apart from 2 face down, theirs and the magicians. Normally the trick is finished with the deck face up HOWEVER I'd already decided I was going to finish on the very strong Out of this World as such I dare not show the deck face up, so instead I reversed the finish so the deck was face down and the revealed cards were face up, not quit as strong finish but in my mind worth the trade off as it will re-enforce the idea of all things being fair and above board later as they'd held onto the deck. Next I went for the classic Direct Mind Reading which involes using facial expressisn to 'read;' a selected card, this was again to build on the idea of working together and of psychological effects. I then pulled out the invisible deck. I did my normal "thick of a card, oh here it is upside down I've been making you think of it". As you may have gathered from my tone I now belive this was a mistake. It would have been better to say "I've been thinking of a card, I'm sure YOU can divine it, subconsciously, clear your mind then look at me, your mind will remember us talking all evening it will pick up on what card was on my mind." That would have enforced the gestalt ideas much better than the line I'd used. I used to use the second line all the time as I said I didn't like magicians showing they were smarter then the participant, I liked the participant realising they were smarter than they thought they were. Somewhere on my magical journey I'd gotten lazy, or even maybe a little bit of a show off. This is why it is so important to review yourself, to perform in the wild and take note of what can be better. As it happened the young lady was still impressed, even though I miscounted and as a result pulled out the same suit but off by two cards. I didn't realise the missed opportunity to incite a little more wonder until the next day. I am reminded of Derren brown's Absolute Magic.In this amazing work on the presentation of magic he talks about how being a God like figure who can just make miracles occur can alienate you from your audience, making you devoid of meaning and substance. however, becoming the hero like figure taking the audience on a journey through a magical world helps the audience connect with your trick. This series of tricks were chosen to try and build to a strong finish by building on the ideas of the trick the came before. However I should also have been taking the participants further down the magic rabbit hole, showing them the world I choose to inhabit from time to time. Much like I locationally do when I take a friend to London, we may go to places they've been many times before, but I try to let them see the city anew, through my eyes, and to feel like they are not just in a crowded over priced metropolis, but the strange ethereal world that I see when I visit the great city.

I finished on Out Of This World. At least here I managed to put into practise some higher thought. A quick overhand shuffle gave the impression of the cards being well mixed (taken from Derren Brown's Devil's Picture book). they did not know what was to follow so the impression was strong enough for them. I talked of Masqline trying to use magic at war (this part was true). I then bastardised history but saying HE showed Churchill this DEMONSTRATION of learning to trust instinct after the mind has been properly prepared to work on a different level (the level we magicians inhabit). The trick WAS performed for Churchill, but by an American Magician named Paul Curry. I then let them take it in turns saying if they believe a card to be red or black. A new touch here was to ask the lady to chose twice now and then, and to leave her boyfriend to miss a turn once in a while. this took this as either a sign of her having greater powers of perception or because I'd stacked the deck and could tell what each person was going to say next, and knew that he would say something wrong. They were completely blown away and It felt good to have touched them so deeply. But now, through performing this series of tricks I can make it even more powerful next time.

A final note, I was asked to repeat a trick shown a few months before. I know that's meant to be a bad idea but it was Out Of This World and the chap who requested id had spent months thinking of the trick. He decided the lady I performed it with was a confederate. Again I performed it with the new added convincer of a shuffle. He left dumbfounded declaring me a witch. I've been doing Wee Wee Mentalist a lot latly, and it felt good to conect with my preferred style of magic. Maybe that's the final lesson of the weekend, a holiday from some effects is really good to help you fall back in love with them.