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 :)