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 :)