Always Evolving

That title refers to my show, or shows. They are always getting tweaked, altered, changed and improved. It seems that the driving force for change is when a performance is good, above average, almost great, or the reverse, when you've had a bad show. I don't ever seem to learn much when a show goes GREAT! But when it's good, or above average or God forbid, bad, then I learn a lot.

I was driving home last night from a series of performances all of which went well. I received some incredible feedback from the shows. One gentleman came up to me at the end of the last show to shake my hand. His grip was firm, and his words were very heartfelt. I chose his grand daughter to help out in the show and it brought so much joy to him and his family that he went out of his way to let me know. It was beyond the regular thank you, but instead he wanted me to know for sure  how important it was to his family.

So while I was driving home, I was reflecting on this and a number of other things that happened. The choice of one volunteer in the show was wrong. It didn't seem to be at the time, but looking back, I made an error. No one would have guessed that. But I realized later if I had picked a certain person, or certain segment of the audience it would have been even stronger.

Also, there was a routine in my show that I've been toying with the script trying to get it worked out right. I feel as if it's close, but not quite there. Imagine my surprise as I'm driving home and I stumble upon the perfect delivery of the material. I had just done 5 performances and suddenly NOW I've got the perfect patter. Better late than never. The good thing is I have two shows tomorrow and I'll be able to use the newer version.

This is the way it goes. Very rarely is a routine a hit right out of the gate. There are so many elements that go into making a strong magic routine. This is why magicians get so angry when 'secrets' are revealed. The secret is only one element of a magic routine. There is the script, the blocking and movement, the audience interaction, the comedy if it calls for that, and many other things that go into the routine but when some idiot reveals a secret it often kills all the work that went into creating an entertaining routine.

For entertainers, what we do can always be improved, it can always be made better. The smart performer is always evolving.

UPDATE: The revised patter that I mentioned above was fantastic. I used it twice today and it played incredibly well!

Relearning a Show

I can't begin to tell you how many different shows I've developed over the years. I'm always amazed at how I remember every detail of the show even if I haven't done it for a while. That is, unless it's a new show that I've only done a few times. Such is the case this week. A new show I developed in the fall that I've presented a dozen times or so but not since December. So now I have to relearn everything. It's not the effects as much as the script. It's a very specific kind of show where the script is VERY important to the overall program.

As I looked over the notes I easily remembered about 80% of it but that 20% can make or break me so I need to work really hard to make sure it's all ready to go for seven performances this week. These seven shows may very well be what I need to lock it into my subconscious for good!!!

My Interesting Ancestors

This past week has been crazy. I've had several shows, booked a bunch of shows, watched as my Carnegie: Magic Detective Blog hit it's highest one day number ever thanks to Harry Houdini's birthday, and I've been working on my family tree.

I've mentioned the Ancestry thing before but it's really taking off. I found the mysterious missing relatives that were part of my Mom's side of the family, though to them, WE were the missing relatives. A cousin from my Dad's tree got in touch with me and we've been writing daily. Actually, several members of my Dad's side of the family are now in touch with me. The interesting thing is, he had no idea that some of them existed, and others he hadn't heard from in 50 years. But again, to some of them, WE were the mysterious missing relatives.

Here is a happy couple, my Great Great Grandparents. Never expected to ever see a photo of them and now I have seen five different pictures of them in a week! I also found a church cemetery in South Dakota where probably half the people buried there are related to me in some fashion.

As of now there are several people along with me working on various parts of the tree. It's rather exciting when you find a new gem of information. The crazy thing is how many people have little parts that when you put them together make up the entire story. It's wild and I've got no idea where it will end up.

Just so you know, there are almost 250 in my family tree at the moment. Some branches go back to the 1600 and 1700s.

The toughest story of the week was finding out the tragic fate of my Great Great Grandfather on my Mom's side who was killed by a train. Though I must admit the ongoing saga to find out the story of my Uncle Charley has been filled with ups and downs. But I think we've got it mapped out pretty well, thanks to my two new cousins.

The Cure for Movie Theatres

I just read an interesting piece in Entertainment Weekly about a Fix for the Movie Biz. (March 18th, 2011, RX For the Movie Biz in the Feedback Section)

They propose: 1. making the seats wider. 2. Stop giving away all of the movie in the Trailers (duh) 3. Start showing Classic Movies in digital 4. And from a Movie Theatre Employee- Don't blame the concession stand. Skip the butter and have some self control and don't get the large popcorn.

UMT Still Gets Requests

In 2005, at the end of the Summer run we closed down The Underground Magic Theatre. My two partners were leaving the area and it was a bit much for me to handle all alone. The UMT as I called it, was a 50 seat theatre/museum/warehouse/office/storage space. When you walked through the doors you first saw the museum and as you walked through you'd get to the actual theatre.

Every year since it's been closed I get calls from people and groups wanting to schedule visits to the see the show. I just got off the phone with someone who was raving over the fantastic performances that she recalled at the theatre and she was sad to hear that it was no longer open.

The funny thing is, since we closed, several other performers in the area have taken the small theatre idea and gone in slightly different directions with it and made something of it. Ours was patterned on the old Robert-Houdin idea of a small intimate theatre with a touch of LeGrand David's Cabot St. Cinema Theatre thrown in for inspiration. Steve Cohen patterned his after Max Malini's hotel shows. I can't say what everyone's inspiration is, as I don't know, but sometimes it's nothing more than the desire to present a unique show in an intimate setting. In my area, Rich Bloch, Glenn Gary, David London, Josh Norris and the members of the Comedy Magic Society; Bob Sheets, Mark Phillips, Brian Curry and Barry Wood are all busy with small theatre shows.

I keep threatening to return to this type of venue, and I have made a few steps forward but my existing performance schedule always gets in the way. I guess it's time to really put the effort forth to get this going.

Releasing The Brakes

Releasing the brakes was a term I first read in The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. The idea was that to get moving, you've got to let go of the brakes and GO! Sometimes we hold ourselves back and just releasing the brakes is all we need to do to see a change.

Well today must have been some kind of 'Releasing the Brakes' day. Though not for me, lol. For my clients. I could not keep up with the phone calls and emails for shows today. I DID get back to everyone eventually but I spent the entire work day on the phone scheduling shows. It got to the point it was kind of funny because I'd think to myself, "wow this day was great but there is no way the phone is going to keep going like that" and then it would ring again! I wrapped things up at 6pm, but just found four more emails for gigs.

It's no secret that my show is popular. It's also not because I have a big head. It's due to constant marketing, promotion, handing out business cards and materials, meeting new prospects, in other words, besides having a very good and entertaining show, it's a lot of hard work that goes into it. Plus it's having fantastic repeat customers that make performing for a living an absolute joy.

I'm very grateful for every client that books and for all the new clients I pick up. Thank you all for days like today and I look forward to bringing my show to your events soon!

First M.C. Gig

Well tonight was a first for me. I actually acted as the M.C./Host for a show other than my own. It was actually quite fun to be honest. Occasionally I did a magic bit here and there but for the most part I just introduced people and kept the flow moving and even had a nice ad-lib joke in there too. Come to think of it, I've done this before on smaller scales, but this was the first time from a stage.

Now that I'm home I've decided to spend some time in the 19th Century again. Actually, it seems that I spend my days in the 21st Century, and my nights and my sleep in the 19th Century. The reason being that I spend so much time devouring magic history books from that time period that it's almost as if I live there. I know I've gone to sleep at night and had dreams of these times and places. Even right now, I can barely keep my eyes open but I know the moment I'm asleep, I'll be awaking in a long gone time. Maybe, I'll bump into Robert Heller and I can talk to him about his type of magic. Who knows. For now, good night all...

First Week of March

Well this has been a busy busy week. The funny thing is, half the week was booked LAST WEEK! And as the week progressed more and more people were calling and had to be pushed to next week. I certainly had a blast, but there is no time to rest. I have to get ready for a performance tomorrow evening where I will be the M.C. of a show. Then things kick in again on Monday with another busy week.

I hope you've been checking out my magic history blog, as I try to make it as interesting as possible. There are lots of articles on Houdini, but also a lot of other performers as well. I love the history of magic and I am constantly inspired by what magicians of yesteryear have done and what they went through.

Recently, I was astonished to find that in the 1800s it was common practice for the magician to actually rent a hall or theatre and take 100% of the risk involved to sell tickets and pack the house. It wasn't until Vaudeville came along that all that changed. Now, in some areas that concept has actually returned.

I'm researching a lot of the old spirit medium acts and discovering tons of incredible material that would still play incredibly well today. The Davenport Brothers, Anna Eva Fay, and even Harry Kellar were all involved in this type of performance. The Davenports and Anna Eva Fay later in life admitted they were fake. Kellar never claimed to be real and even exposed the fakers in his show. But from the spirit medium acts came the Escape Act that Houdini would later make popular. Honestly, the spirit medium acts also gave birth to another style of magic known as Bizzare Magic. And even Mentalism has some of it's roots in the spirit medium days. It's a rich playground to find new performance pieces.

Another person I did a lot of research on recently was Servais LeRoy. WOW was this guy ever brilliant. You have no idea how much stuff I purposely left out of my blogs when I wrote about him. He has a catalog of unbelievable ideas that would play so well for modern audiences.

I've got two big projects in the works and I hope to be able to reveal one of them right here, very soon!