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 :)

yep, that went well.

The kids festival this year was every it as good as the last. I again started preparing far too many effect and then made myself scale things down and also to make myself last all day I decided to have two sets so I could swap props half way through the day.
My main set consisted of :
Vanilla prepped with Wee Wee Mentalist
Vanilla preped with Here then There (which could be used for mind reading
Invisible deck
Elastic bands for Elastic trickery

The second set had a TT, and a change back with two sizes of red cloth.
Vanilla deck but intended for ambitious card.

And for the performance tent
Cup and Balls
Fly Stick
and One Upon A time.

The new elastic band magic went down VERY well with the kids. My first attempt fell flat but my Girlfriend suggested changing y patter, emphasising the where the band was (the ban flies into the hand of the spectator). I attributed the effect to the innate magical ability of the child I was performing to. again this went down VERY well. Empowering children, Silly Billy (David Kaye) has made the fee of his book and Essential Magic Conference worth the cost already there. One note however. I joked that the young boy (about 8) may find a use for controlling elastic by being able to control the elastic in his underwear from no on and magically dress himself. He laughed, his sister laughed his mum looked at me as if I was a terrible fiend. It seams in the prudish United States of America you can make underwear jokes to kids but here in the UK making such a joke has you branded as a pervert.

Wee Wee mentalist as ever rocked. as did Here then There. The change bag I combined with the TT and some cloth. I explained what happens to naughty children and placed the large cloth in the bag, waved my hands and turned the bag inside out to reveal a tiny piece of cloth, I then picked it up and vanished it with the TT. Two quite hard nosed 10 year olds suddenly exploded with excitement, and when I brought the cloth bag it was noted that I could not have just dropped the cloth on the floor and that my sleeves were rolled up and my hands empty. It didn't just baffle or amaze them it enchanted them!

Ambitious card got a look in using specially printed cards made by my good friend Darren Gooding which advertise his lecture on the mysterious Leopold Thorn . This was even filmed by a camera man, I fluffed one bit but made a joke of it being eddied out, even if it isn't I think it will come across as deliberate and the tricks flow remained.

All of this time I was telling people where the story tent was, explaining about the wonderful Willow maze and the story quests! I also told them when I was on. Part of me was almost wishing I wasn't as I was nervous about Once Upon a Time. BUT I don't want to get into the habit of 'Bottling out' and so dutifully informed people where and when I would be performing even though a cowardly part of me was almost hopping for an empty tent (this part is now well and trying dead I might add)

The story Tent is probably the most interesting pat of the day. I planned to show off the Fun Fly Stick and let the kids play with it (accepting that the Mylar component would get trashed). I also planned to perform 'One Upon A Time' by Guy Hollingworth. I may have blogged of this before, it's a way of telling fairy tales with a special deck of cards with pictures. Pumpkins become carriages and bowls of porridge become emptied as if by magic. I moved EVERYTHING I had to the tent, including my magic case and change of costume. I was initially dressed as a generic Cyborg Alien

I took the name Darth Dean fully expecting the kids to call me Daft Dean. I was not disappointed (thanks again to David Kaye's Seriously Silly) but in the tent changed into my normal more comfortable clothing

I got to the tent half an hour early planning to run through "Once Upon A time". whilst using basic slights the number of slights and having to remember where and when they are done makes this effect even more of a pitfall than the ambitious card. However after only being in the tent for a few minutes I had company in the form of a group of young children. I had a few choices.
Send them outside
Continue a silent run through with them in the tent
Quickly re-order the deck and just live without a final practise
I decided to take the last option. If I needed to practise again right before the gig then I should have practised more before hand. as nervous as I was I had to man up. I give the kids the Fun Fly Toy whilst trying to mentally prepare for a moment. Soon the tent was packed and it was time to begin. I was worried about nothing it seams. The kids were literally over awed at one point. One girl trying to understand how a puff of smoke turns into a fairy, or how the rats turned into the coachmen, a young boy exasperatedly yells "Because he's a magician, he can do magic!" Once Upon a Time almost took me to the 30 minute slot I wanted to fill. I could have ended it there but the kids wanted more magic and I planed to deliver. I explained how the cups and balls was the oldest trick in the world (A matter hotly disputed actually), They watched the effect with a genuine air of reverence, asking questions polity and seemingly flattered that I was willing to show them such a grown up and respected trick. I finished by putting one gaffed cup away and letting them play with the two remaining cups. They asked why I only had the two out and I just explained I only needed two for the next effect. They passed the cups around before handing them back. At this point I performed Solid Penetration and lets the cups fall through each other. They FREAKED out. They wanted more magic, in fact they wanted REPEAT magic. Wee Wee Mentalist is back in fashion it seams, that poor fellow deserves a raise.Out came the change bag again and the TT and hankies were shrunk and vanished. I then performed some more Elastic Band Magic before teaching a very simple band trick. As I was leaving a young lady asked for one final card trick, out came Cheek To Cheek. again, it performed very well.

And then a very tired magician clashed his outfits, his neodandy waistcoat and top hat blended with his cyborg hit-man jacket and he left the festival knowing his work was indeed done.

So what did I learn.
Practise is worth it, keep it up.
I am very good at handling kids and magic to any audience is rewarding.
MAKE A LIST of what I need,I left props at home that required a friend to nip home and pick things up for me (I owe him many beers)

Don't! Leave home without it!

I think we all have our favourite effects. it may be one we're very proud of because of it's technical skill. It may be one that we have spent hours honing the presentation of. It may simply be one that gets a HUGE reaction. Wee Wee Mentalist falls into the last category. Every Saturday that I work at Fabric8 I make sure to prep a deck with a few cards for Wee Wee Mentalist. The kids LOVE it (and the parents appreciate their children being entertained for a few minutes whilst they shop). I came to relaise I was hidding behind this one effect. Infact I would struggle for few seconds to think of an effect I could do with a vanilla deck. As a result I decided to force myself to try different things. I left the cards for Wee Wee Mentalist at home and instead launched into Card in Hand, Here then there and Ambitious card. WOW, huge reactions from all of these AND my ambitious card yet again proved itself to be a powerful effect. I left work thrilled and totally reinvigorated.

kids festival ahoy

I'm starting to get into a new routine which I enjoy. Waking up and making a cup of tea and then 30 minutes of going through 'The Royal Road to Card Magic'. This is a very old text on card Magic which Richard Paul Wilson (He off the real Hustle and not he with one foot in the grave) has made an accompanying DVD set. It's interesting because I now know a lot of slights and effects and so expected to not learn much new material for a few days. However chapter 1 taught me something I wanted to know for a while, a Full False Shuffle! I've been able to control the top packet of cards or the bottom packet of cards for over a year now, but this book/dvd shows you how to shuffle a deck without upsetting ANY of the cards order. Most exciting. THe first chapter also had an interesting mental effect I 'll try out on the next available muggle. Is there a danger that 'll learn too many effects and get myself muddled? Unlikely, after all I can contain whole universes of information regarding Science fiction so now I can fill my head with something more, well I wont say useful as my knowledge of sci fi and the parables within have gotten me through some tough times. I certianly don't plan on becoming a trick-a-holic though. I'll just run through the course a few times and just select the effects that work best for me.

I have 10 days before the Kids-festival. That's ten days to work on 'Once Upon a Time' and 10 days to work on my thread work. well I won't be complaining of being board any time soon :)