yet another gig

Ok, So I've been watching too much dynamo and hence thinking about music in magic. Music simuler to this  does inspire very strong emotions in me at least, maybe it will be worth practising to it for a while to see if it helps me connect the emotions to my magic.

Last night was a gig, a slightly different gig than normal. This time there were THREE of us. Each with a different way of presenting magic. The gig was another wedding party (this one also based some time AFTER the wedding). Before hand i was quite calm, pretty confident. This confidence faded a little before hand when I realised that I's had plenty of PRACTISE but no real REHEARSAL. The difference being practise will involve running through individual slights or  effects whilst rehearsal links them all together  for a short routine. I always like the idea of free styling, however having a basic form from which to deviate would have been useful. As a result i was over laden with decks of cards, and felt concerned about constantly switching decks. Everything went down very well including the first outing of "Super Fly".  The main lessons of the night involved not having to rely on many many decks and controlling the audience. A girl asked for  a  repeat of the Wee Wee Mentalist. Now as it happens  I had set the deck up to enable me to do as such, and so I did. This was a mistake, there would have been more magic if I went into SuperFly instead, but using the motive of the stick man mentalist. I realised this and so when asked again later on by a chap who witnessed me performing the effect on a girl in his group I changed tack. He was a Challenger, of this there is no doubt. I handed him the deck to shuffle and examine, Then he selected a card and I went into Ambitious Card. Everyone was blown away, himself included. I had performed an entirely different effect than he wanted, but  one that two him was more impressive and cemented the idea that the first effect was very cleaver and not just a simple self working gimmick.
  Over the past few weeks i've focused on very simple flourishes, including a simple Drag Fan. This was time well spent, being able to offer participants a card from an elegant fan made me feel better and show a touch of professionalism to the people involved. 

The sewing work is STILL going on, the grand make over of the studio, and my life, has yet to take place. posts will be updated when they are though

a little faith

Life has just gotten a little more stressed. We had to evict our lodger. As a result our income has taken a dive. this income was just being used for savings, however we are saving for a wedding. SO now I really need to be gigging and earning. Most of  my life I've had little income but managed to live for little money. This now has to change as this path leads only to stagnation. So I have to spend a LITTLE money, work hard for MORE money, save some and invest some. TO this end I'm still buying the first years EMC lectures (already done) and paying for a spot at a wedding show on the 20th of January. \I'll also still be redecorating my studio and trying to remain positive and stress free. All stress and worrying about money will do now is emotionally clog me up, making me feel guilty when I do things related to magic (such as practise). I'm planing  on using this as a driving force to push on with the magic. Updates are more likely to follow as of next week ill be eat, sleep and living magic :)

impossible

Nick showed me a great new trick. It fulfils my need for effects that can be performed with a shuffled unprepared deck. it's called Impossible, and it's a pretty good description. Three piles of cards are made, 5 cards in each.  The participant takes one pile at random, cuts to a card. this half of their pile is put on any one of the remaining piles, then the second pile placed on top finally the remainder of their chosen pile placed on top. The chosen card is turned invisible, removed, rotated and kept away from the deck.  The cards are shown face up -several at a time- and the chosen card appears to have  vanished. The magician counts the cards down spelling the work IMPOSSIBLE (for a dyslexic this is the hardest part of the effect) on the "E" a card is shown face down, the magician names  the card and turns it over, it is the selected card.

I performed this in the wild last night. It was very well received by magicians and muggles alike. The scripting received some help from  friend, the beats and the structure were improved as the night went on. My handling was ok, but could be slicker. must remember people associate slickness of the hands with compitant and impressive magicians, and not just card sharps and jugglers like I do

Ideas can come from anywhere

I decided some time ago to stop buying kids magic sets/books/tricks. Initially I thought they may be a cheap way of learning some basics, however they were always substandard quality and as it turns out no more cheaper than buying a professional version. I have also started to realise that some "beginner" level books have a LOT of things I already know in. However it was a Beginner book, Mark Wilson's complete course in magic, that made me realize the importance of flourishes (in that they improve your over all level of slickness).
It was during a moment of possible arrogance of over sight that I paid no real attention to Michael Ammer's "Easy to perform card Miracles".  I didn't want to learn EASY things, I wanted to learn some of the things  that dazzled me at the magic club. Darren  did show me some things from it though, and so I thought I'd give it a go. If nothing else I figured it would be good  to cover the basics again. This set is amazing.  It doesn't just teach you effects with the slights required but also puts whole routines together., The teaching style is fantastic, for me personally it's perfect.  Already it has shown me an improvement to Big Deal. IN my version of the effect dealing from the bottom is explained and demonstrated slowly using four kings. Then I ask the participants to try and catch me out, they fail, and I reveal 4 ACES. cute yes, However it does mean everyone sees ONE ACE in their hand during the first round of dealing . Someone has commented on this (my boss who is a poker player). By replacing the aces with a royal flush the method becomes less obvious!. WHY didn't I think of that? This  shall be a valuable source of wisdom I think.
Other slights are tought , ones I've not heard of. I suspect they are little used in the wider magical arsenal, however may prove useful when devising my own effects.

It's good to Geek

Had a fun afternoon of magic geekery. Darren popped by and we talked briefly of our up coming show before a little day trip to a DIY store for some styling inspiration. Ultimately we settled down and went through Dave Forests 2wofaced DVD. We were keen to hone our close up acts whilst the lessons from the last gig were in our mind. I've wanted new material for a while and so has Darren, and whilst we're mainly in the market for "impromptu" card magic the 2wo faced DVD has been a source of great material in the past. Darren found a few effects he wants to work on before he hit on an amazing idea for my set. 2wo Faced has an effect called "Super Fly". IT's where a  fly drawn onto a card locates selected card. A crudely drawn character finding a card, sounds familiar? Whilst the method used is  entirely different to Wee Wee Mentalist it is in the same theme, hence why I have discarded it in the past. However I'm now working on a set of  other effects the wee wee mentalist can help me with, and as Darren pointed out I could just as easily draw the mentalist as a fly (after an initial experiment I think the mentalist is easier to draw).
 I have also sourced some impromptu effects. So my challenge is to learn "super Fly" by Friday for Electr[o]cracy and one impromptu effect.. This really does show though the benefit of just geeking out with friends as you never know  where the next  good idea will come form.

As for ideas coming from different places. Flourishes!. Initially I wanted to avoid them. I was going to be mainly a mentalist when I set out in magic, and hence not wanting to appear that any effects were down to slight of hand. However I'm mainly becoming a 'Card Guy' and According to research by Richard Wiseman a few flourishes can increase the impact and sense of magic in a participant. Reluctantly I started researching some simple flourishes. Mark Willsons opus "Complete Course in Magic" makes a compelling point. BY practising flourishes you will increase your handling ability of cards, hence making slights easier to pull off and giving a more polished performance. All this even if you never perform the flourishes. So time to practise.

new additions to a gig

Had another very positive gig last night. It was a close up gig at a garden party and was quite different from other gigs. To begin with I had a different close up partner with me. Initially this was going to be a group outing of four magicians. My regular partner, a chap I've not gigged with before and Darren, who I have performed stage work with, both comedy and magic. Due to other commitments only Darren and I went to the gig. Before hand Darren had the idea of working through the "The Four Card Trick" together in tandem. He suggested this could be a good opener. I liked the idea of us introducing ourselves to the party en mass, and then splitting  up and managing different groups of people. This worked beautifully. I found people engaged with the close up magic much more readily. This idea wouldn't have been feasible in all the gigs I have done in the past, we were fortunate that everyone was assembled in one spot. However if circumstances allow I think this opener can add greatly to the magic.

On my first set I flubbed "Wee Wee Mentalist", and effect I had picked up instantly and had never failed. This was upsetting but I bounced back instantly. It just goes to show how important practise and rehearsals are. Rehearsals cover what you do if things  go wrong. I SHOULD have used the Invisible Deck to show how I'm a better mentalist than the stick man. 

I found myself falling back on  Wee Wee Mentalist and Ambitious Card an awful lot. I had to make a concerted effort to use Here then There, Do as I do, Serial Killer (which went down AMAZINGLY well I might add) Also did  Mind Reading and Invisible Deck. I was prepped for Cartomancy but there was too much noise and no available space to perform it. I also didn't have enough table space for Out Of This World.

At the  last gig I decided I needed more quick fancy effects that I could perform with a regular shuffled deck, such as Ambitious Card and Card in Hand. IN that case it was because I was dealing with people who were the worse for alcohol. This time I think I could have done with these effects due to noise and space considerations. There exists a DVD of such effects, however I shall consult my arcane Library First.

Despite all these things the gig went very well indeed. We had very positive feedback and left feeling rather jolly. I did not have my normal pre gig terror, I was worried this was over confidence however I think it's more confidence and experience. However I need to prep my props for the gig a few days in advance, not the day before as this time I had to spend the day before the gig and the morning of the gig day itself looking after my girlfriend.  But overall a fantastic night

que the montage music

I've been studying the Book Of Magic Bullocks hard lately. This book  has no real effects BUT does have some killer slights. Without a doubt it#'s the best guide to performing "The Pass" I've red. It recommends building up muscles in your hands with certain exercises. it also recommends training montage music from Rocky (it actually helps). As fun as it is knowing I'm working towards one of the 'Big Boy' slights I am itching for new  effects to add to my repertoire to stop it feeling stale (well stale to me at least). I think I'll be settling down with Tom Stone's Vortex again., IT has some lovely new effects however these too are  in the  the 'Big Boy' league.  It's always nice to learn a new slight whilst learning a new effect, however  THIS effect uses misdirection. Now you can practice the double lift or the Erdinase easily enough, you KNOW when the participant can see or not see the slight so you know when it's good enough, BUT how to you practise mis -direction?