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 :)