GIGS! SOO MANY GIGS (well err 4)

My mood has been improving tremendously since Tuesday. Getting friends to BURN me whilst I go through my set improved my confidence, I coin rolled in public and performed "The Four Card Trick" in the wild. I felt so confident in myself that when a comedian on-stage asked me my profession I replied "Magician". When I got in from a very fine night of comedy I had a message to ring my magic partner, Harvey. Harvey is the partner I began with, forming "Cane But Able". I now gig with Darren as well (mainly stage work) and we're all pretty much interchangeable. HE had a gig for us! a perfect gig, set in a travelling casino. My mind was suddenly buzzing with  potential, i was intimidated by the gig, even though it' only 3 weeks away, I was excited by it!.  I suppose the most exciting thing was HOW we got the gig.  A person he knows saw me doing tricks at the local Goth club. they were impressed and sought me out through him. My confidence is restoring rapidly.

I shall also be gigging on Monday. Performing magic to 30 children, all of them around 5 years old. I've had to source new balloons for modelling (£10 for 100) and a new magic colouring book. IT feels like i'm buying confidence but I really think these effects are worth the money. Once I can model more balloon creatures I'll raise my rates for kids parties a little to offset the cost. I'll hopefully blog on Monday with a run through of what I intend to perform, and a list to pac,and then blog after the gig to see how it went :)

very rough night

I feel like my soul has been given a good going over with wire wool. Last night me and my magical mates visited a local magic club.  We saw  a few people's tricks as they explained to us some basic coin work before someone broke out their card magic. I felt tonally outclassed. I suddenly felt foolish for believing I was ready to be a professional magician when this guy was trying to show me things that I couldn't ever follow.  I suddenly had to fight the urge to throw magic in all together out of a sense of shame. Then I calmed down. The guy who impressed us the most was VERY good, I over heard the secretary of the club saying he could have won a national competition.  I remembered how people in the club had already praised us for our people handling skills, these are the things that count for a professional magician. Again looking over the effects we saw, the younger guys made a few mistakes and had to restart, so this isn't even material they themselves can perform flawlessly. we were seeing rough work in progress.

So calming down I'm feeling a lot more secure. I KNOW I'm VERY insecure about how good I am at times, so this is just another blip to be over come. TO make me feel more like I know what I'm doing I'm going back to  basics., It's been AGES since I put a new effect on this blog, it's time to stop reading theory  books and to break out some new effects, if just for my benefit, But I'm going to go back to Royal road to Card magic for them, as well as the Mark Wilson course I think. Just to go over some basics.

Full Steam(punk) Ahead!

In the last blog I mentioned  how quickly things are progressing. Well it's not slowing down!
Too begin with

I've been nominated for the magic Circle (as have Darren though through different means)

Darren Harvey and myself have seen Paul Daniels Live. This was VERY exciting indeed. I saw Paul Daniels last year and was blown away with how skill full he was. Since then  He's had a very bad accident involving his hand but you wouldn't  know it at all!.  We enjoyed all of his effects (and The lovely Debbie McGee also performed some very lovely silent acts too) . The chop cup was fantastic as ever but Paul also demonstrated a new torn and restored newspaper that was flawless. A levitation left us all VERY confused as did the classic 2 chair's routine! We got a chance to meet Paul and Debbie afterwards and they were both most charming, a good night was had by all.

Darren and I returned to the Mid Essex Magic Society again this week. We intended to talk to them about joining (we needed to pass an audition of three effects). However they decided to spring the audition on us that night!, I was terrified. As I've said before I've come to rely on Wee Wee Mentalist and could not bring him as I'd lost my black Sharpie which I use to make refills! I can't say how Darren did or what he did (but I heard applause and good reviews afterwards) I set up my deck for "Do as I do" and "Out of this world" . I also had Cartomancy on me as well.  When I walked in and faced my three judges I started to feel like these may not be enough. I opened with Direct Mind reading and followed with  Cartomancy. Two  of the three judges seemed happy but one remained silent,. I decided to use my Ambitious Card routine. After my performance I spoke briefly about where I thought I was in my magical development. They asked about how many performances I've done in the past and seemed happy yo think of me as a seasoned pro. this felt nice. Darren and I both were admited. on feed back the two happy judges said they loved my Ambitious Card. The third judge complimented me on my people handing skills. I asked for where I needed to improve He said simpyl that my confidence in my slights wasn't very high.

Today I spoke to Darren about this. The judge did not say my slights were bad, just my confidence in them was low. So I got Darren to BURN me whilst performing ambitious card right under hi nose. he said every slight worked well apart from the LE Pauls Bluff Pass. this always needs some mis direction so I felt very good about it. After a very good session with Darren we went along to the Colchester Art Center. there Darren managed to score us a proper Stage Magic Gig.  Darren is a seasoned performer and has a good relationship with the venue, without him this simply would not have happened.

So since last blog.
1) nominated for Magic Circle
2)joined Mid Essex Magical Society
3) improved confidence in Ambitious Card
4) got a full on stage gig, just us  lot doing magic
5) getting paperwork sorted to join Equity

overall things are progressing well. I need to improve my confidence in impromptu magic and re-work my routines. I have the books and  dvd's for this, so practise practise and practise. 

So much going on!

This last month has been truly insane. I have visited the Magic Circle twice now and will hopefully blog about that later. The master plan of becoming a full time magician is in full swing and I have to admit that this is more down to others than myself.  My friends and I have formed a Slight Club which meet around my house once a week. The four of us each have our strengths and the idea is for us to motivate ourselves and learn from each other.  Mr. Leopold Thorn himself (or Darren) has been something of a guiding light in this. I have owned a few web space over the years but have struggled to  keep up to date with the best practises for hosting a site. As the owner if Truelove Tours he had recent experience, With the help of a friend of mine he has managed to host our new collective site of http://nothingupoursleeves.co.uk . He was then given a gig for Colchesters Art Centre's Variety night special. He saw an opportunity to  raise awareness of our venture and a chance to help me improve my stage craft.We had under 2 weeks to devise a show and rehearse it. \We used an initial idea for an illusion that Darren had for publicity the Leopolod Thorn gig. Namley the Lazar pointer reveal. When driving home from one of our slight clubs I suggested we could try to make the effect better by allowing the selected playing card to be SIGNED. No mean feat, but the next evening I was demonstrating our first prototype to him. We then  spent an afternoon just shooting out things to say during the effect, be they jokes, smaller tricks or points of science to explain the illusion. Darren then took all these random sound bites and forged a script. I  truly loved working like this. He had an idea of an effect, we both worked together to make it possible, then using my library of books and dvd's to improve on the original, Then we both came out with jokes and lines for the script then he used his skills in stage craft to make the script work. True teamwork.

  To maximise the potential for the gig Darren even got us business cards made (his design which is rather fantastic) using the photos taken at the photo shoot (he arranged). As you can see from this Darren really s the driving force in us turning pro, NEVER under estimate the drive and determination of a man who hates his day job!

The gig went incredibly well. The political jokes we put in for a simple silk colour change went down incredibly well with the politicians in the audience. Darren handled some kids who came into the show half way through very well. I even heard one ask "is that Doctor Who!"  For me the big surprise was how well the effect itself was received. I thought we would be take as a 10 minute comedy act with a bit of magic, however people did LOVE the magic, we were a 10 minute magic act with comedy! The  best thing is we now know what worked well and how to make the show even better. Also a local event manager has taken an interest in is :) so the future s indeed looking bright, mainly due to being given a gentle push by a mate .

http://www.colchesterchronicle.co.uk/2012/03/04/variety-spice-of-sunny-colch/http://www.colchesterchronicle.co.uk/2012/03/04/variety-spice-of-sunny-colch/

Team Work

Another delay in blogging but I'm glad to report much magic has occurred.  Darren and I visited the Magic Circle and were pleasantly supirsed by the warm welcome we received. The acts we  saw were 4 close up performs, all MUCH better than me, but the level of skill is attainable I believe. I shall blog about this later.

The Project Elmsley DVD has proven it's worth.  I can now perform the 4 Card trick and Dai Vernon's Twisting the Aces quite well.  Wednesday evening was spent in the company of Darren and the other two members of our Sleight Club and I ran through the Elsmley count with them all. We all seem to be getting a handle on it now. Working with a small group of friends is certainly a rewarding way of studying magic. Darren wowed everyone with his rather nifty "Waiving the Aces" as well. between us all I think we're progressing quite nicely. Darren has been a driving force in the other area of magic. As well as learning new material we need to get more gigs and here Darren has been most helpful. Thanks to his effort we have secured a domain name and are in the process of designing the site. This whole magician for hire thing is starting to feel very real.

  Darren has also managed to get a spot on the stage and has invited me up there with him. this again is a lovely piece of team work. Darren was the first of us to have the concept of a laser reveal.  We developed the idea between us, working out elements of humour as well as the mechanics of the effect. (the basic effect is a chosen card is lost in he deck, placed in a pack of cards and held in the spectator's hand. A laser is then shone on the pack and the pack is then opened and spread out to reveal the chosen card now has a hold burned through it. ) We have decided that this effect will form the finalle of our set. TO stir some creativity I sugested it would be nice i f the card could be signed. Darren and I both came up with methds and between us we've ade one work very well. SO there we have it, team work it helps with the following:

Motivation
learning
double checking how good you are performing
Creativity
sharing opportunities to pimp yourself.
support

Rough Month.

Can't believe I didn't manage to post once in January! I managed to damage my spine in a major way over Christmas. This meant I could only  sit at a computer for a  certain amount of time and I felt I really should spend that time doing data entry for my day job.MY   Boss is a really understanding guy (and my manager is also really understanding) so I felt I should  use my computer time helping them out instead of blogging. HOWEVER unlike other times when I was injured this time I managed to get a LOT of magic done.

  To begin with Magic reading. Magic in Theory by Paul Lamont and Richard Wiseman  was a fascinating read dealing mainly with the use of misdirection. Hiding the Elephant  also kept me occupied. Whilst not strictly speaking a magic book and more of a magical history book I believe the modern performing can still learn from it.  The book charts the history of stage magic in the Victorian era and the development of certain techniques and the changes in the public's tastes.  It certianly made for some relaxed reading.

  Brushing up on performance techniques is always good but it helps to have something to perform. I dearly want to join the Magic Circle in the near future so decided to work on a few gaps in my knowledge.  My mate Nick tried teaching me the  Elmsley count but unfortunately I just couldn't make it look neat and clean. therefore I treated myself to the "Elmsley Count Project with Lian Montier"  this was worth every penny. So today I'll be sitting down for a few hours to learn  an effect using the move (well to BEGIN learning the effect).

  Many more things are afoot in my world of magic, a trip to London, a new club and a fantastic new Podcast. However these can wait until  tomorrow.

Christmas round up, thoughts on magical capatilism and the meaning of names

It's been a month since my last gig. The intention was to spend this time learning new material, honing what I have and separating the wheat from the chaff (or at least working out what effect works best where). We all know where good intentions lead.

 I've not been idle, but I haven't worked as much as I should have. I've reread "Seriously Silly" and taken some notes on where to improve my kids act. I really think I can put together an amazing 50 minutes show. I told my friends about the educational aspect of the show and the way I wanted to encourage a love of learning and they were impressed. The kids loved trying on my hat and steam punk goggles so I think a mad steam-punk inventor will be a good character. I just need a name, someone suggested "Doctor Dean Q.ED". This isn't bad but I thought maybe of resurrecting the title of "Professor" as used by so many real and fictional magicians in the past.  Costuming this will be interesting. I think I'll be using my tailoring skills a lot for it. I've always wanted to make a Steam Punk outfit but the expense put me off, but now it's an investment:)  There are some books I may grab in the new year to this end. A  friend of a friend has written he definitive steam punk costuming guide with a lot of projects in it. Also there's apparently a book out there on making steam punk soft toys which could b handy for making a little 'side kick'  to use in appearing and disappearing acts.

  Now here I've touched on two things which I need to think about my full act. One buying stuff. I have a fear reaction at times which I try to sure with cash. Even though I have many wonderful books into which I've only delved a little I will panic and buy more effects and books at times. Now some things I simply had to buy, such as new cards and some props for kids magic. A selection of gaffed cards is always handy to have about in-case I see a cool effect in a book that requires one and I want to try it out straight away.  So with the Christmas gifting season upon us I had to think long and hard about what to put on my wish list for my family. I am lucky in that my family are very generous and so are many of my friends. My oldest friends chipped in for buying 'The Berglas Effect" as an early Christmas present for example.  However my wish list is more as an aide to me than it is to others. I decided not to get any more card magic stuff.I simply have too much here which I've not read yet, or fully worked on. I craved "drawing room deceptions" but have yet to try the harder slights. I lusted after the "the berglas effects" but am only now finding the time to go through it. So this part of my blog is aimed at any relative newcomer to our wonderful craft. |Don't feel like you must have ALL books and DVDs in magic, there's too many. Before going out hunting for new material please do have a good long look at hat you already have, you may be very surprised. So I popped a fun book about magic anecdotes and thoughts and some thread and balloon stuff on there. I'm not expecting any of it at all (everyone has already been far too generous ) they're simply there to remind me that after thinking long and hard these are what I need next, and not some flashy new card effect.

HEAR THAT any of my friends who found this blog? you've all been far too wonderful already, NO presses this year, you've given me enough :) The wish list is just an aide to myself on what to get next AND mentioning it here is for other new comers to have a  think about. Are we tempted to try and BUY wonder and  astonishment instead of creating it?

The second thing I hit upon in the kids section of this long post (note to self, stop blogging whilst medicated!) was that of name. Now with my good friend Harvey I perform as "Cane but Able". IF I am to go full time I may need a performing title to go solo. Many years ago I came up with "The Masterless Magician". I was happy with this, it implied a magician who has no master, or so I thought. Any of my friends with a background in martial arts (or watching Jackie Chan films) understood the name. However others thought it implied I was not masterful, that I was a bad magician. Now it makes no difference ether logically my interpretation of the name makes sense over theirs. The fact that the public can mis-understand this name means it's a bad one. So now I need a new name for grown up magic as well, unless I use 'Cane but Able' as a solo performer too. any ideas?
So yes if you have any input on these ideas feel free to comment. For my part I'll be taking a book home to Wales do study during the few peaceful moments there and plan to thrash some magic out next week and in between Christmas and New Year