Saturday, July 13, 2013

long time no blog, but plenty of magic

woah, almost 2 months without an update. I've taken  on more work at "the day job" which has required my undivided attention.  That said whilst I've not spent much time working on new material or even practicing, I've been gigging like mad. Most of these gigs have been free or nearly free but it's all flight time.

I've performed at a garden party for a village fete, a home school group again, a kids party n the countryside, as a warm up/promoter for Darren's epoch making "cabinet of Leopold Thorn", a Steampunk Birthday party among other gigs.

Tonight was another Tea and Sympathy gig. The theme was "Mexican Wrestling and Day of the Dead". I decided to decorate the room leading to the magic chamber again, this time using a LOT of U.V. I've wanted to experiment with UV a lot and thought this would be a perfect excuse to try it. Mexican day of the dead involves brightly coloured "candy Skulls" and I wanted something that really "pinged". Also a lot of Spanish and Lati9n American art involves bright florescent colors. The surreal and ethereal game "psyconaughts" involved a Spanishy/Mexican level  that used these bright colours and a totally black  background to depict an artists dream. I wanted to create a dream. As with other gigs I set up a projector and a sound track. I used my wealth of obscure knowledge to pick a film that fitted both the day of the dead theme and Mexican wrestling. The  sound track was a Mexican techno band. The room was flooded with UV and candy skull pictures were ut on the walls. Darren had the genoiuse idea  of taping florescent card to show the door way. This was a safety feature but also added to the "door to an other worlds " effect. HE even added glowing foot steps. I also  set up a bubble machine complete with UV bubbles.The over all effecdt was sureal and dreamy. IT was just as I imagined, and I was very happy with how quick we set things up.

As with other gigs where I didn't have time to learn much new material I panic bought magic. "Worry Dolls of Doom" and a self foldng bank note. The worry dolls of doom is a lil fidly, but packed a nice punch. However I destroyed part of the prop by accident. THe self folding bill had an ok reaction, I think I need to build suspense into it more. I performed
Wee weementalist and twilight angels (but not as much as normal)
Out of this world
IMPOSSIBLE
Direct mind reading (with invisible deck follow up)
Serieal Killer
SPike through arm
Ambitouse card.

Over all i was very happy. I had NO dead responses at all. I also had 2 moments of "enchantment" ALllthe above effects worked well and different groups of participants reacted more strongly to some points than others. At the end of the evening a young lady asked if I could put the spike through HER arm. Everyone seemed very shocked and impressed with the result. IT turned a very good night into an excellent night

I spent a lot of time and money preping for this gig and got paid very little. However all the equipment I bought were things I wanted for  along time. I now have a bubble machine, a UV bulb, UV reactive paints for prop making. MY folding bank note broke and I had to go through my dvd;'s to find out how to fix it. I thought I could have MADE my own note and saved some money, however it was usefull working with a purchased one first to get a feel of the prop. Also going through the videos reminded me how much I like Brad Christopher. IT's inspired me to make some props and start learning new magic.
So summing up on the financial aspect of the night I'm reminded of Stan Alan's talk at the Essential Magic conference..."what did LAnce Burton get from winning FISM, nothing! what did he get from preparing for FISM, EVERYTHING!" thIS GIG...
Got my creative juices flowing again,
taught me some basic UV principles (including things to watch out for such as "magic/invisible tape GLOWING under UV)
An investment in non magic party props (bubble machine, paints etc)
Confidence in my painting
confidence in my ability to hold an audience
 SO well worth the time and  money

Things to think about.
Learn to use a basic editing program to blend movies and music and to edit movie scenes
Find tapes that glow in different colours for the door ways etc
UV is fun, learn some UV magic
I still get a littlen urvouse at the start of a gig. I need to realize people think my magic is WORTH seeking out. Next gig tell the DJ to announce the magic is on and to send people up
find better storage soloutions for props and prop building equipment, it's worth the investment.
and I LOVE MAGIC

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Saying yes to stuff.

Had a great day on Monday with a Wedding Gig.  I worked with a pair of stacked decks preped  for Wee Wee mentalist, Twilight angels and then some impromptu magic effects (Impossible, ambitious card etc).  Had easy time approaching the groups of people and judged which effects for which people. Strangely people kept asking to see the tricks the noticed other people saw, so I only seemed to use about 5 effects all night. After reading old entries of my blog I went with my gut and trusted my personality. IT worked very well. At the end of the night the wedding venue manager asked for my card, wanting to recommend me to other wedding couples.
  When I got in I found an email from a lady who's kid had seen me perform. The young lad wants to demonstrate what he's learnt to me. They asked if I ran workshops.  The next day whilst at Tea and Sympathy I found that workshops were one of the main sources of income for the shop. I decided to hold a magic workshop. I guess all the good feedback is making it easier for me to put myself out there more. This was the first bit of me "saying Yes" to something.  The shop needed a poster quickly. Normally Darren or Inge would make posters for shows. But I had to make one myself, and come up with some "copy" as well. Thus I knocked my own up. Quickly in a basic art package. Ok it's nothing special, but it did the job. Instead of putting it off  I managed to get it done.  If I'm going to make a living as a magician then I need to get involved in these workshops and gigs and be prepared to do my own adverts and "copy". Accept it's not great but will improve over time.   This attitude of getting stuck in is paying off. I've been booked for a primary school's prom. I got this gig because of the reputation I've been building up and the connections from doing small gigs here and there. Slowly, but surely it's all coming together :)



Friday, May 17, 2013

The Impossible Magician

A little part of me was worried that I'd hit the high point of my career early with "the Night Circus". However the gig I've just gotten in from was also quite exceptional. It may have lacked the drama and theatre of the Night Circus but it was still magical.

  This latest gig was a kids gig. I was slightly concerned, whilst I have a natural affinity with kids and can normally keep their attention well, the last two kids gig of 2012 had problems. In one an adult had messed with the props, and in the second I had two VERY disruptive kids. Part of me started to wonder if I had strayed from my early, and successful roots. When I began with kids magic I had no props and no real balloon skills. I had to adapt my close up and adult magic and make do with a sack of balloons. I now have more magical props and can make a wide Variety of balloon models. The first kids gig with these props was stellar  (the kids wedding show last year and the second gig was smaller, less intense but still good.)  I then had the two problematic shows. Of course I've also worked the kids festival 3 times as well and did very well at a school gig.

  My main problem with all the props is one area of life I often fall down on. Organization . My props migrate or get badly packed away. I end up having to buy multiple replacements which is not a good thing. It is rather ironic that kids magic tends to earn you less whilst the materials for it cost more. This time however I ran through EVERY part of my routine in the morning, and placed things into my case as I finished with them. This worked very well.  I then thought long and hard about where the props would be placed when I was finished  with them, what I needed to do to stop kids (and grown ups) messing with them and generally thinking everything through slowly.

It all worked perfectly. I managed to set up in record time (two trips to the car) and my table was in good order. I opened with the "Magic Colouring book". it drove the kids wiled, they were shy to begin with but were yelling and screaming in minutes. I MUST make my own one of these days

I then moved onto the colour changing hankies, initially changing the colours with my back turned, before doing it in front of them, teaching them that it was more impressive with the magic wasn't hidden.

I moved onto the main bit of my materials, where I've tied together many effects. I started with "Milk AutoGo" using the the fluids of "concentration, hard work and imagination". This had a subdued response  so I went onto the diminishing milk with the fluids, before turning the fluid into a silk. Both the diminishing milk and the fluid to silk got MASSIVE receptions !. The silk then shrunk, which again got good reactions before vanishing into pot of bubbles. The bubbles then sent the silk to someone's sock. The kids LOVED the bubbles, they were jumping up and down, popping them, they also loves the silk shrinking, the comedy of the bag having a hole in worked VERY well. I then went to the Silk tube and a coke bottle vanish. I finished up with "once Upon a Time, Proffesoers nightmare and some close up.

I also held a workshop with my version of "the Misers Dream". All in all I giged for over an hour and a half and didn't have to break out the balloons. I had parents telling me the y enjoyed themselves, and the kids were thrilled, including a few kids who struggled to concentrate normally.It seems at every gig at least one parent will tell me they've never seen their child sit still for so long. Is this why I'm the impossible magician? not quit. I managed this gig after a full day of helping out at the superb "Leopold Thorn" and with a foot that is gradually getting worse AND an hours drive. I also  did a little juggling, explaining how it should be impossible for someone with nerve damage to juggle. Parents seem to like that little touch.
In short as I left, with the sound of amazement still in my ears, the warm glow of turning a cynical kid into someone who at least WANTS to believe in magic, I felt like a hero of sorts, Like the character I portray at kids party, a mad man out of time. it felt good, to quote Sigfreid and Roy "what a way to make a living"
SO things I learnt
Organization works
Kids love the magic I have
Parents acept the kids love close up as well as platform
It really is worth me spending more time working on  routines, and developing areas of potential comedy




Friday, May 3, 2013

The Night Circus comes to Colchester

I have blogged before about how not every gig can be your best gig yet. However this one was. For me it was a night of experimentation, chance taking and learning, as well as one massive boost of confidence.

A local T-shop called Tea and Sympathy converts into a nightclub once a month. I love attending these nights as they appeal to my love of surrealism and the ethereal. The very idea of a teashop/boutique suddenly becoming the venue for music and games is it's self nicely strange. However all this is amplified by the nature of the shop itself. The shop is infact two premises knocked into one, as a result it winds and weaves. Rooms lead to other rooms, spiral staircases lead to rooms with low slopping ceilings and tiny door ways you have to bend down to get through.   The two ladies who run the shop are VERY creative (I first performed to mass crowds when I when they ran the children's section of  Colchester Free Festival). The event they hosted this month was based on the book "The Night Circus". It's a book I've looked at before and felt a compulsion to read and so was quite glad to have an excuse to sit down and go through it. The ladies also asked if I, along with my friends, would like to perform. Magic was afoot.

The original concept was for me to perform close up magic through the night and 3 small "parlour" scale shows. The close up did not bother me, I'm very confident in my close up work, but I was a little worried about the parlour scale. I would have muddled through but as my foot is injured I decided it would be best to stick to close up alone. This was a departure from me, the first of a few that night. Normally I did what was asked of me, I didn't try to tweak the conditions too much. I then asked if I could take over a small room at the top of the building. It's the room that requires you to bend down and go through a short walk way so it had an Alice in Wonderland quality to it.  In previous nights the top floor was somewhat neglected and so I was not expecting this to be a problem. The room that lead to my arcane chamber was due to have jam jars containing scents in it, a  nod to a part of the book. This  was another departure  I was about to engage in setting a scene. I set up a laptop computer with a projector. I selected the films of Georges Méliès. To me these fitted the period and the surreal nature of the night.  I suspect the seed of this idea came from reminiscing with a friend about an 18th Birthday Party I arranged nearly 20 years ago. I created a false  ceiling in black about 9 foot off the floor that covered an entire sports hall. I then strung fairy lights under it to create a stary night. I thought I'd never do that now, it's impossible, but younger  me felt much more was possible.




My arcane chamber was decorated with some velvet over the window, my card table, a plasma ball and stools (which I brought from home). Amongst other preparations was a separate sound track to the loop of films, the themes from Mirror Mask and Coralline (more strange circus inspiration) and a few filigree globe fairy lights.

Whether these efforts  got ME in the right mood or the participants I don't know, but what followed was 4 hours of the best magic I've ever done. I didn't have to organise how things worked, small groups of people naturally came in, experienced about 10 minutes of magic and then left to be instantly replaced with more, people were queuing to see me, waiting in the room with the movies. People were every vocal about thier excitement at the magic , not just to me but to everyone in the 'night club'

I didn't have a set routine as such, but tended to perform in roughly this order.
Wee Wee mentalist.
Twilight Angels
Direct Mind reading
Invisible deck
I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E
Ambitious Card
Out Of This World.

Some people returned for a second session. Sometimes they  just wanted to sit in and enjoy the same routine as before, they were looking at the faces of the newer participants just as much as they were looking at me. Other times people returned in a small group, asking for more magic. Here I used Cartomancy, or Serial Killer". Every effect was a storming success. Every effect elicited a strong reaction. There was no filler, no fodder. With the presentation style I adopted (namely my natural one) everything just work
Everyone  was enchanted, me more so than anyone else.

  My own excitement meant I had to balance my emotions carefully. It's like a dream where you are flying, You realise it's a dream and you don't want to wake up, so you have to measure your excitement  control it. I needed the excitement and energy to perform, but had to make sure it was not overwhelming. I get the feeling people like the fact I'm enjoying myself, BUT if i displayed total disbelieve at how well things are going then I could come across as needy.

The feeling of the night was one of true enchantment and magic. A slightly other worldly quality which I  always strive for was present. More than one person said they felt my room was somehow in a different realm, where the impossible ocured (made me VERY happy). The pace was friendly and at a chatty place. Whilst I showed great energy the magic itself was at a not quite sedate pace but certainly not rushed. The MAGIC was why people were there, so the MAGIC determined the pacing of the evening.

At times I felt I was doing the magic for real.

So things I've learnt:

I'm good at magic :)

My natural creativity works with my magic

Whilst I may not wish to make demands, I can certainly make suggestions about how events play out.

Magic with a theme can be fun and more powerful  I should spend time constructing shows (maybe even making props and costumes) for different themes. These can then be used 'of the rack' or tweeked for a specific event. Even if I don't use these themes packages of magic they will flex my creative muscles and teach me what I can and can't do.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Magic Circle

I have to posts in my brain, one good, one not so good. I'll get the not so good one out of the way and then really enjoy the good one tonight.

After 12 weeks the Magic Circle FINALLY got back to me. Well actually I prodded them and they got back. I'm not in. Not only that I wont receive any feedback for a few weeks as the guy in charge of feedback is currently  out of the country. Am I disappointed  Yes. Am I upset, not really. My biog fear was that I would feel foolish and want to give up on magic. Luckily I've had some very good gigs lately  I love magic more than ever. Also I'm currently waiting to find out if I have to have my foot amputated, which is great for giving you a sense of perspective. I know there's a cliché of that not killing us making us stronger but it's something which does work for me at least. I often hesitate telling this cliché to friends as some people get knocked down again and again. However I now know what the Circle is looking for, and I'm pretty sure I can deliver it.

  Until then I have MANY magic books to read. I plan to visit the Circle about once a month, enjoy a day in London, visit the Circle and hang out with the guys there and try to get feedback and help for my next exam. I get the feeling we'll be able to apply again pretty soon (October at the latest).

Getting feedback can hurt. It hurts me when I am not fully confident in my own abilities, my confidence has grown as have my abilities, with a bit of practise every day I think I'll be able to handle what ever they throw at me.

As my Childhood heroes  once said......"We are entombed but we live on. This is only the beginning. We will prepare, we will grow stronger. When the time is right we will emerge and take our rightful place as the supreme power of the universe!"

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Impromptu skills and gigs

If I were being paid a half decent rate for every gig I have coming up in the next 3 months then I could make as living as a magician.  Unfortunately I'm being paid for very few of these, and of those I'm charging a low rate.  However unlike other free gigs in the past these ones are more likely to get me future paid gigs. I'm curently making up costumes for Friday's gig (based on the Night Circus) and dreamingup what I intend to perform. I'm rather proud of myself that I'm actaully getting my costuming done a whole 3 days before the gig!

In other news. I got a very cheap dvd on impromptu magic a few weeks ago. I only learnt one of the effects so far (a pen vanish) However vanishing a pen totally impromptu without any equipment has proved very effective.It's a great way to casually bring magic into the room. Muggles seem very impressed with it and it looks liek it has helped score me a kids gig:)

Sunday, April 7, 2013

the insanity of rating good/notbad

Not every gig can be the best gig yet. Eventually you'll have a gig that wasn't as good as the one before. This happened tonight. It wasn't bad, in fact it was good, it just wasn't great. weirdly "not Great" sounds the same as "rubbish". IT went well, people liked the magic, there was very little trouble (the one person kicking up trouble was dealt with by Darren)
So, for me at least it was an okay gig. I have trouble talking over some entertainment, so again, more short effects,. Also I need to let go of my stacked deck for a while and return to my magical roots of free form magic, where I can sit at a table, hold court and just do effect after effect.

H on the other hand had an awesome night. We tucked him away into the prisons and sent people to him, after a Very little while people started heading there on thier own. He was like a little dark magic goblin to be discovered. He used 2 effects over and over but that's all he needed. So as well as short punchy magic maybe I need more effects like his, longer effects where the one effect is like a bot of theatre, and story telling and showmanship take over. 

Also on a personal note, no more sewing the day before a gig. The pain levels took their toll on me, sometimes the pain perks me up, keeps me alert, not tonight, it wore me down. Early night before a gig and the day before spent either reeding or rehearsing in short calm spurts.

So over all, not a bad night, and i still managed to do some very good impromptu card effects at the end of the night (just to perk myself up)| I had two guys totally puzzeld by ambitouse card. BUT  I wasn't as smooth as normall,  I think it's time I looked into repalcing the LePaus bluff pass. I also need to work on my doule lift, it's been a whilse since I sat, deck in hand and double lifted over and o ver for an hour.

So still quite positive,. I'll work on pracising my slights whilst recovering with TVtomorowe, and hit the books big  time on Tuesdasy.