A Recap of My Magical Career In 2020-22

 

From My Summer 2021 Virtual Magic Show called The Lift-Off Magic Show

Let me begin by saying, I totally forgot I had this particular blog. I've sort of gotten away from the entire blogging thing. I switched to podcasting and with that I only podcast on magic history. My podcast is MagicDetectivePodcast.com for those interested. It's currently in Season 4 with 74 episodes and growing.

But I would be remiss if I didn't discuss a few things for posterity sake. Like the last 2 years and the damned Pandemic that swept through the world. It began as the Wuhan Virus or the China Virus because that is where is originated. But the politically correct class deemed such terminology racist. Even though we have referred to viruses by the origin for hundreds and hundreds of years, and then did again AFTER this virus.  At any rate, that really doesn't matter at this point. It began as a pretty harsh virus and mutated into a much weaker one. The real nightmare was how it was handled. History will debate that and many figures who today are lauded for what they did will likely not look well over time. 

The government basically shut everything down around March 13, 2020. I give that date because that is when I did my last in person show that year. Everything after March 13th canceled. And to say I lost a ton of shows is no exaggeration. My summer went from having close to 100 shows booked by that time, to eventually salvaging only 18. And all of those were a new type of show, something called a virtual show.

You see, this government lockdown that was supposed to take 2 weeks to slowdown the curve of the virus, was in place for months(years). They kept changing the goalposts on us. Now, I'm not debating the right or wrong, I'm telling what happened. I'll let history decide.

My first virtual studio. It eventually got more sophisticated.

So this virtual thing, was a live show presented over an internet platform called Zoom. There were other platforms that people used, Facebook LIVE, Streamyard and more. Each allowed various options on how your program looked and the features it could provide. Depending upon your computer and your camera, you could look very primitive or you could look like you had an entire Television production. I would say that my virtual shows fell somewhere in the middle. I was unable to run the higher end software like OBS, but I still managed a visually appealing show with 2 cameras and lots of interesting green screen backgrounds. One of the major selling points of the virtual shows was the interactivity, and this led to a whole new sort of magic.

Interactive Magic. It had actually been around for years, but it wasn't used to a very large degree. However, if you had a decent magic library, you likely had access to some good magic that would work online. And the Interactive Magic were things that the audience could do along with you. I think there were really 2 types of Interactive Magic. The first were tricks were the audience was involved, but to no more of a degree than they were involved in an in person show. For example, they picked a card, they chose a word, that sort of thing. But the other type of Interactive Magic was when the audience had a deck of cards in their hands, or coins, or some of objects, and they followed along with the magician and the magic happened right there in their own hands.

This sort of thing had been popular as far back as the 1980s with Max Maven and his 'touch the screen' routines. These were then picked up by David Copperfield and used in some of his later specials. David even used a version of these interactive routines in some of his touring shows, by providing everyone in the audience with a printed sheet of paper that they would use to do the magic. He's always ahead of everyone when it comes to concepts. 

But now, this idea of audience hands on magic, interactively participating with the performer LIVE, was now in all of our hands. I can't speak for anyone else because I think many individual magicians realized this at different paces. I know some of the first virtual shows I saw used the touch the screen idea. But I didn't go that route. I went with the audience having some cards or a deck of cards or whatever. Why? Because I had a bunch of Jim Steinmeyer's books, the Impuzzibilities series and these were chalked full of those very kind of tricks. I also knew they worked because I had used some on the radio. YES, on a couple LIVE radio interviews, I presented a virtual or in that case an audio magic trick that the audience could follow along with. And it played incredibly well.

So now, I had this new weapon of mass amazement, if I might call it that. And I used it on most of my virtual shows. It worked most of the time. Occasionally I would see someone struggle. YES, that was another aspect of virtual, you could SEE the audience through the computer screen. They could see and hear you and you could see them and if you had them unmuted, you could see them.

I actually had two types of virtual shows, actually 3. I had the LIVE virtual that my clients could buy for just their group. I had LIVE ticketd shows that anyone could buy tickets to. Then I had a third which were recorded shows, that were not live, but customized to each client. This allowed them to show them more than once. It also allowed clients who didnt have internet or strong internet in their building to show their audiences via a thumb drive. 

My live virtual shows for clients were a resounding success. A huge hit with every client. Most clients who purchased one show purchased multiple shows over the course of the pandemic. The ticketed shows were another thing. The audiences who watched the ticketed shows were amazing. But the numbers were never quite there. It was so frustrating to try and sell tickets. I watched as Justin Willman, for example would have 1000+ at a show and have numerous shows a month, sometimes per day. And I couldn't get even 50 tickets sold. Granted, he had a bigger fanbase and better outreach strategy. But I never cracked the code on that. It drove me insane and still does to this day. In fact, I have a virtual ticketed show scheduled for two weeks from now. We will see.

Let's now go to Fall of 2021. I finally got my first booking for a real in person show. It was an outdoor festival and I couldn't have been more happy. Some folks wore masks, some didnt. I didnt wear a mask if I was more than 6ft from a spectator. The shows were overwhelming hits. It was such a breath of fresh air to be in front of real people performing. The audiences were spectacular. I believe all of my shows sold out during the run. I received a great deal of praise and expected this to be a turning point...however....

Then in October of 2021, I was booked to return to the Dulles Town Center Mall in Sterling VA. I drove 600+ miles back to Virginia and was sitting in my hotel, the Saturday before the show when my phone rang. It was the Mall Manager with some bad news. Apparently, there had been a possible terrorism warning directed at 'shopping malls and voting stations'.  And due to an abundance of caution, they had to cancel the event and thus my show was canceled. I harbor no ill will towards the mall, they did what they needed to do. But I was now out a LOT of money. 

A similar thing happened in January with a corporate client. Another high paying gig and they had to cancel, this time due to the covid outbreak getting worse. Actually, I lost ALL my gigs in January. And February faired no better. How could 2022 be worse than the two previous years? Well it was beginning that way. 

Thankfully March of 2022, I finally had some in person shows, along with some virtual shows that helped me to recover to some degree. So to say that the pandemic was a struggle, well, that's hardly touching the surface. Yet I know folks who did hundreds of virtual shows over the two years. I know one guy who did almost 500 in one year, and he was no one famous. Some folks really did well during this time, others lost everything, some lost their lives. I guess I fell somewhere in the middle. I didnt loose my life. I managed to survive over that time. Now the pandemic has been downgraded to an endemic.  I'm rebuilding my business and life, and the future looks bright....well if you don't count on Nuclear War...

Astonify The Virtual Magic Show & Seance

 

The Virtual Magic Show and Seance, known as Astonify, is styled after a Victorian era magic performance. Popular back then were seances, so we have included a virtual seance. What does this mean, 'virtual'. It means, we will be presenting the show over Zoom.us and it will be LIVE. The shows are ticketed but reasonably priced. We sell one ticket per household (though you can purchase as many tickets as you like). The tickets are available at https://www.zoommagicshow.com  By the way, when you do purchase a ticket, you'll be receiving a special packet of goodies you'll need for the show.dd

Of course, if you'd like to learn bit more about Astonify-The Virtual Magic Show and Seance you can simply visit our website at https://www.Astonify.com

Carnegie's Weekly Conjuring!

In early 2017, I started a new project called Weekly Wizardry. Actually, when it began I didn't even have a name. I just knew I wanted to slowly build my online presence via video. So I chose Facebook as my platform and began to put up weekly magic trick videos. The videos are about a minute long, quick visual tricks. The first one is still the best viewed of them all, with over 2500 views as of this moment.

I'm going to be changing the name of the project to Carnegie's Weekly Conjuring or Carnegie's Conjuring soon. For now, here are 4 of my favorites. When the project is complete there will be 50+ videos!

Carnegie Magic At Springfield Town Center

For a second year in a row, I performed at Springfield Town Center for their big Halloween Extravaganza! Last year, I sawed two people in half. This year, the big trick was to be The Spirit Cabinet. But before we could get there, we had lots of other magic to share.

The show started with a few minutes of preshow warmups. And then a huge burst of applause once the show started (thanks to the warmups). We, (Denise and I) opened with our Houdini 3 opener, which is three quick escapes done back to back. This was devised for our Houdini show with Atlas Obscura earlier in the year, and it has played well ever since.

Next came a cute little piece of surprising magic, A Traveling Coin routine using a Coin Casket and Copenetro. You hardly ever see Copenetro these days, and I'm pretty certain I may be the only magician using a Coin Casket. This is a prop right out of the Victoria Era. A little casket that holds 4 coins. The coins vanish one at a time and appear across the stage inside of an overturned glass. Wonderful stuff.

Next we did another audience favorite, the Magic Plumes. Yes, very old school, but I think we have a fine routine for it that always registers with audiences. If you're not familiar with the, the Plumes Change Color, one at a time.

The middle section of the show is all Halloween magic, with ghosts, pumpkins, candy and such. Then we finished with The Spirit Cabinet. However, due to the overwhelming mass of very young kids, we opted for what we called "The AntMan Presentation". So rather than apparently summoning 'spirits', we let AntMan do his thing and ring the bell and tamborine and so forth. It went over GREAT!

The folks at Springfield Mall couldn't be nice and we love performing there!

The Return of the Escape Artist

I really thought by now I'd be out of the escape business. A health issue that started about 10 years ago really put a damper on it so I pretty much dropped all escapes. But the recent request by AtlasObscura.com to participate in their Houdini Escapes DC event, changed all that.

I decided to do a 30 minute escape act with chains, locks, handcuffs, ropes and more. And I jumped in full force, which was a mistake. After the first couple days of rehearsing a serious problem crept up. My wrists and arms were turning black and blue. It was my own fault. I was trying to put on cuffs that were just too tight. This then caused them to swell and I continued to put them on and then they bruised. All the vintage cuffs got dropped because they were too tight. I was really upset about this, but it was unavoidable. However....

I remembered a ploy that Houdini used on cuffs he wasn't sure about. He would have them put onto other cuffs and not on his own wrists. They were still among the mix of cuffs and looked really dramatic, but were not a problem when it came to escaping. So I used a pair of darbies in the middle of several pair of Smith and Wesson and Peerless cuffs. I finished it off with a pair of thumbscrews which can be held in place with a padlock. It made an impressive looking escape.

Houdini used his 'ghost house' to escape from. This was a small black curtained cabinet that he would

kneel into to escape from his cuffs. I used a hooped curtain from a sub-trunk routine. The cuffs came off one at a time and were thrown from the curtain enclosure. The last thing to come off were the thumbscrews which I did in the open.

OH, I almost forgot, the OPENING number! This involved several escapes back to back to back. A chain/lock escape, an escape from a pair of Hamburg 8s, and then a reverse escape. I tossed a 2 foot length of rope into a sack, reached in and came out a moment later with my hands securely tied. It got a good laugh from the audience!

The final escape in the show was the 100 foot rope tie escape which I have not done in ages. I found two people in the audience to tie me up. It took them about 3 minutes to do the tying. The escape took  about 2 minutes. The 100 foot rope tie escape is fun because it's never the same no matter how many times it's done. Everyone takes a different approach to the tying. Some people are very serious about it and do a very firm job. Others don't quite have the knack and I'll need to give them suggestions along the way, like KEEP IT TIGHT and tie it around the wrists, or don't forget this or that. The two people who tied me during the Houdini event did a pretty good job.

So is that it? Have I put the escape stuff back in the closet for good? Actually no. I decided to keep it out and put it back into my show. It's going to be a regular feature. I'll be adding several other escapes as well with the addition of something dangerous to escape from. I already have a couple dangers escapes I can add, so we'll see if I use one of those or get something different. Keep watching!!!!!

When Experience Takes Over

Recently, I was hired to do a show that frankly, I thought would be just like any other gig. But when I arrived I discovered it was in fact for an audience of 40-50 teenagers. For those in the know, most performers would rather step into a den of lions covered in raw meat than take on a room full of 21st Century teens.

I'll tell you why many feel this way by sharing my story further. As the teens entered the room where the show was to be, a group of 8-10 of them greeted me with the following, "magic is fake", "ain't no such thing as magic", "you're a fraud", "you ain't foolin nobody", "this is stupid, magic ain't real". I would imagine that this greeting would unnerve just about anyone. But was I unnerved? No. Because I have been in this position before. I can tell you though that I quickly altered the entire show set. 98% of the material I had planned to do was OUT. I shifted gears into highly visual, stunning material.

When I started the show, I altered my introduction by giving them an explanation/apology. I began with this. "I'm so very sorry, apparently there was some misunderstanding or miscommunication. Some people here are under the assumption that I do sorcery, or witchcraft, or black magic or something along those lines. I do not. What I present is theatrical magic. I create the illusion that magic exists using purely natural means along with psychological principles and other secret techniques."

It was at that point that I brought out a Rubics Cube. I mentioned how a Rubics Cube is a puzzle, and many people think of magic as a puzzle, while some think of magic as real. In truth, it's kind of in between those two lines. Then I tossed up the mixed up cube and when it landed in my hands it was solved. Reaction: blew them away! They were falling over themselves in shock.

Then I presented an audience volunteer trick which had a humorous slant to it. The audience laughed at all the right moments. The spectator was bewildered as was everyone else. Then I turned the tables on them and made the following routine happen in the hands of the spectator, as if they possessed the magic. Again, they were dumbfounded.

The point of all this is, I never could have pulled this off had I not encountered this type of group in the past. I did not treat them as children, I treated them as adults. I did not try and act cool or speak their language, I simply showed them my talent in a manner that I knew they could relate too. The end result was a standing ovation. Yes, a standing ovation from a group of teens who insulted me when they first arrived.

If you're wondering what I closed with....Sawing A Spectator in Half using the Harbin Bow Saw. Kind of a big prop, but has a great surprise ending. It delivered the needed results.

Had I forged ahead with the original show I had planned to do, they would have eaten me alive. I expect that more than half would have probably left before the show was over in truth. But with the changes I made, they all stayed and had a great time. Experience, it sure comes in handy sometimes!

Magic Show Projects for 2015

I'm very excited about a new project that is an offshoot of my Steampunk Illusionist Show. It's a brand new show presented in a very Victorian style. I have always loved the shows of Hofzinser, Robert-Houdin, and Malini. They created wonderful magic in more intimate settings and I've always wanted to create a similar kind of show. There are a number of performers all over the world who are doing that very thing. Many are presenting what are called 'formal close-up' shows. Some are presenting a mix of close-up and magic.

My new show will be a mix of magic & mysteries from the Victorian era as well as contemporary material presented in a Victorian style. Expect to see demonstrations of thought reading, displays of dexterity and moments of manipulation. The show is currently in development, but we intend to have a show that can play in small parlor like venues up to small theatres. Naturally, the theatre venues will have slightly different material. I'll continue to give you updates as we progress. The website is NOT online yet, but should be very soon.

You may notice to subject above says "Magic Show PROJECTS For 2015", well one of those things is finding a home for the parlor version of Astonify. We'd like to eventually set it up as a resident Magic Show. For how long? Not sure, but I'd be happy with a short run to test the waters. I know the area is ripe for this sort of thing. There already is a very long running resident magic show in Maryland, and there is a Magic Nightclub of sorts in Baltimore. I've had friends in the area do a short run with their shows in the area and everyone has been successful. Why? Well, my friends are very good performers for one, and two, magic is really HOT right now. Once the Astonify.com site is up, you can sign-up for our mailing list to find out when and where the show will be.

Illusionist Carnegie Talks about HOUDINI and Magic History on the Radio

January 18th at 10pm PST, 1am East Coast Time, I was interviewed by Jim Tyson for Spaced Out Radio. We talked a great deal about the life of HOUDINI as well as other parts of Magic History. Jim also had some great questions about my career as well. The good news is it's available to listen to online right now! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/spacedoutradio/2015/01/19/jan-18-201510pmpst-history-of-magic-mysteries-of-houdini-w-dean-carnegie

Spaced Out Radio is a new online radio show dealing with the unknown, paranoramal, UFOs and things of that nature. I couldn't help but be reminded of the paranormal part of the show when during the interview the power suddenly went out in my home. I remained 'in the dark' the entire time, but it was still quite fun.

During the last half hour of the show I present a card trick ON THE RADIO. The great thing, because the show is recorded, you can listen to the replay and actually follow along with the card trick. You'll need 9 cards from a deck of cards.

So, if you've got some time and like magic and magic history, give it a listen!

More KidAbra Journal Trivia

 In my last article I mentioned that I've been doing the covers for the KidAbra Journal for a few years now. It's kind of a funny story how that all came about. I had already been writing my column for the Journal and I had mentioned (on more than one occasion) to the editors that the covers could really use a boost.

Cover design, just like any kind of graphic design, needs the eye of an artist. Sometimes, just by cropping a photo a certain way you can take a so-so cover and turn it into a winner. Also, if you're not familiar with certain programs like Photoshop then you will be limited as to what you can do with the covers. I think this was the problem overall. The person working on the covers was doing an ok job, but their abilities seemed to be limited. So I went and did something kinda crazy. I took two of the old covers and redid them and sent them over to Mark & Tami, the editors of the magazine. They were pretty surprised at the difference. I guess maybe they were more than surprised because before I knew it they asked if I would take over the cover design. Here are the two images that I reworked.

Now, it looking back, I actually could do an even BETTER job on those covers, but I just wanted to give them an idea of how, with just a few little tweaks and twists, these covers could go from ordinary to really really cool looking. I think I actually went back and redid Doug Scheer's cover and sent it to him. I think it's obvious the difference in the covers, but I'll point out the changes anyway. In the Shabum cover, I blurred the upper edges of Emanuel's body to give the impression of motion. I also added that weird looking trail behind him to also add the feeling of motion. I changed the background to yellow with subtle hints of clouds. And then I also changed the way his name appears. I put the Shabum name in bold with a burst of color behind it. Then I also put his name in the upper left of the picture with the added words TV STAR because Emanuel is a TV Celebrity in his country.

With the Doug Scheer cover, the photo he provided was enough for an interesting cover as can be seen in the original. But I thought it could be better, so I enlarged it slightly and moved him upwards, closer to the Kidabra logo. I added a background and an odd little sunburst image, which I'm not sure I would include today. And I redid his name in a fancier font.

ORIGINAL LOGO
NOW, a bit if trivia. Do you know who created the original logo for KIDabra? It was Ralph Metzler, known back then as Ralph the Great. Ralph and I shared an office and studio for many years and I was with him when he created the first logo. It was an excellent logo and truly showed off one of Ralph's many talents.

A few years ago, I changed the logo. But NOT very much. I really only changed the font. I would have preferred to alter it more, but Mark Daniel wanted to continue with the spirit of the original, and I don't blame him. So the image at the top of the page is the newer version, and the older version can be seen on those issues of the Journal with Shabum and Doug Scheer.

WHY COVERS ARE HARD
The main reasons that covers are hard is because performers send unworkable photos a lot of the times. Sometimes they are slightly blurry, sometimes lo-res, a LOT of times they are not a good size. You would think given the fact that they are all entertainers, that they'd have great press photos. But that is not the case a lot of the time. This is NOT a dig on anyone who has been on the cover of the magazine. I understand, you're so busy with creating, selling and performing the shows, that getting photos is one thing too many on the list of things to do. I get it, I've been there. BUT, really, you should do it anyway. Get GOOD photos and professional ones at that. Also, keep in mind the format of a magazine cover when you're selecting images for a possible cover. Magazines are done in portrait. I can't tell you how many people have sent landscape photos (photos where the content is very wide on the page rather than tall on the page). If you send a landscape photo, it's either going to get severely cropped, or rejected. Now, having said that, the right cropping can really turn an ok image into a great one.

I can think of two particular landscape images that we received for cover shots. They were great

images, but they weren't going to work for covers. And I had no other options, those were the only photos so I had to make them work. One of them was Gary Shelton's cover. His original photograph was wonderful. It had Gary with a fantastic smile along with his rabbit. But it wasn't going to fit on the cover without being really small and looking really odd. I cropped it tigher, but then in order to keep the rabbit in the shot, most of Gary was OUT of the shot. So the poor bunny got cut. But then, the next problem arose, without the interesting rabbit, the photo lost some of it's appeal....no offense to Gary. He still had a great facial expression, but it was the white background that was not helping matters. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I put in a tree behind Gary and kept a little of the white. Then I tilted him backwards a bit. If you look at the photo to the right he is leaning towards the rabbit. But if you remove the rabbit, it looks like he is hunched over. So by tilting the image the opposite direction, it made his already great smile look even more jovial. The end result was one of my favorite covers.

Another photo, which to be honest, isn't really landscape but more square, was the one sent by Trevor Lewis.  Ok, it is a tad bit wider than it is longer. Anyway, it's a great photo and like Gary's above, IS actually a professional photograph. But due to the width of the shot, it was going to get cropped. So I cropped and cropped.

The next problem was the background. Whenever I tried to put a subtle background in, it seemed to clash with the flowers. So I changed the color of the flowers and put a complimentary background image in. The result was a really cool cover with Trevor.

I bet you don't know what the hardest cover of them all was. Which one do you think? It was the Bruce Bray cover. The reason; no one had a good photo of Bruce. You see, Bruce had passed away tragically, and though there were hundreds of photos of Bruce in casual settings, there were no photos that would work for a cover. OH, and apparently, Bruce had professional photographs taken, on more than one occasion. But they were locked into his computer and no one could access them. So the

cover was on hold until someone could turn up a good photo of Bruce. As fate would have it, I was the one who found the image. It turned up online actually on the website of one of Bruce's clients. They had taken a hi-res photo of him and posted it on their website and I came across it. I asked them for permission to use it which they gave me. You have no idea the sense of relief and jubilation from all the KidAbra people that a good photo of Bruce was discovered. I knew Bruce, but not near as well as everyone else did. However, I totally understood the excitement of finding this photo. Bruce was a close friend to many and a first class children's entertainer.

I pulled the background from the photo and used just the image of Bruce for the cover. I can't say it's my favorite cover because I wish I had cropped it a bit more. At the time, I was so happy just to have a picture of Bruce that would work that I didn't really think about much more. Also, I guess my skill set has improved since that cover. I certainly do learn something after each cover.

I can't say that every cover is a home-run. I know one critic out there who doesn't like most of them, lol. Actually, there are a couple I don't like, I preferred a different version over the one the editors chose. But that isn't to say they are bad, it's just that I liked a slightly different version. All in all, I think they hold up well. The real goal is to make the magician look their best and to have a cover that makes people want to open up and read about that performer. If I've done your cover, I hope you are pleased with the results.

Let me add one thing. IF you are a KIDabra member and are a budding Graphic Artist and would like a shot at doing covers, please contact Mark Daniel. This can be a great opportunity to develop your skills and create a portfolio for yourself. I would gladly step aside if there was someone else who had the desire to do it. I've certainly learned a lot in the time I've been doing covers. My graphic design skills have improved as well as my abilities with Photoshop and other programs. So by all means, if you think it's something you'd like to do, contact Mark. His information can be found in the inside of the KidAbra Journal or you could go to Kidabra.org

Now, look below to see all the covers I've done. Hope you enjoyed this little peak behind the curtain. By the way, one of those images is actually a 'backcover'.

My Column Coming To An End 2015

I just submitted the final 4 columns for my All Things Magical column that I write for the KidAbra Journal. The Journal is the official magazine for members of Kidabra International. It's basically an association of Kidshow performers. Seven years ago, the editor Mark Daniel, asked if I would consider writing a column for his magazine. He had heard through the grapevine that I was very creative. I decided to give it a shot, thinking at the time I might write for a year, maybe two. By the time my column finishes it will have run for 8 years total.

I created a number of really interesting tricks for the column. I also gave the readers some of the effects from my own working repetiore. A couple times I veered from trick writing to book reviews and the occasional essay on magic.  It was 'ALL' Things Magical afterall, I figured I could write whatever I wanted. Only one time in the history of my column did something NOT get published and that was an article I wrote about a dear friend of mine. The main reason it wasn't published is because Mark felt there was more to add and frankly, so did I. That one, never saw the light of day, but will likely make it into print down the road.

I think my column was the only one in the magazine that was sent in completely finished and formated. That was a fairly recent change however, like within the last few years. Prior to that I just mailed in the photos and text and let them do it.

By the way, in 2010, I took over as the Cover Designer for the magazine. NOT an easy task either when you see some of the photos I have to work with!!!!! But I think the covers have looked really good for the most part. There were one or two that I wasn't thrilled with, but the editors preferred those versions over my favorite versions. I guess that's what I get for sending in a couple different versions to choose from.

I want to add, Mark and Tami Daniel have been so great to work with over the years. They put out a first class magazine. Even though it's supposed to be for kid show performers, the magazine is filled with columns on marketing, sales, promotion, showmanship and so much more. It really is a magazine for Professional performers.

Eventually, I will gather up all the columns and put them into a book, but not right now. I've got too much on my plate for that. Before any sort of book comes out, I'll actually be manufacturing and releasing one of the effects from my column.

I'm guessing my columns will run out some time by mid year 2015. So if you get the magazine, you'll still get to enjoy my column a few more times before it's gone.

New Promo Video/Commercial

Here is a new promotional video for Carnegie Magic. Actually, it's a new Carnegie & Denise video to be honest. Lots of old footage and some new footage as well. We must be crazy because we are working on two totally different styles of shows at the same time, Modern Illusion Show and Steampunk Illusion Show. Oh well, you do what you've got to do.

If you are interested, Denise and I will be performing at the Historic North Theatre in Danville VA on November 1st. We are very excited to be returning to the North Theatre again this year to perform for the area residents. We will be debuting our Disectolator Illusion, FINALLY!

Public Appearance Tomorrow Oct 4, 2014

Come on out to the Joe Gibbs Youth For Tomorrow Event in Gainesville, VA. I'll be performing there tomorrow at 11am. I'll actually be debuting my Disectolator Machine, which can be seen above. If you come to the show you'll get to see this crazy illusion in action!

Look forward to seeing you there!

UPDATE: Poor me threw out my back this morning carrying this prop down the steps. I have been in terrible pain all morning and through most of my show. Sadly, I did not use the Disectolator in the show. I hope to use it at my next public show on the 18th of October.

I Never Rest or How I Spent My Vacation

After three none stop months of shows, I decided to take a week off to visit my folks. My visits always seem to have some work related thing involved. My Dad and I build props for the show and typically my Mom is busy sewing something for the show. Over the years my Dad and I have built a sub-trunk, a tip over trunk, a number of smaller effects and refurbished a few older ones. My Mom has sewn mostly drapes for my tables, though one time she sewed a bag that I use in a magic routine. And this time she sewed another bag, but a very special one for my show. I wrote an article about it over at the Magic Detective site.

This time my Dad and I set about building an 'illusionette', which basically means it's not a large scale illusion, but rather a small scale illusion. This particular one involves cutting my arm into three pieces and then zig-zaging the center section of arm up and out of the way of the others. It's a wonderful effect.

The photo to the left is a very early construction photo. The upper boxes and sitting on the middle box and the lower box was not started. All the magic happens in the upper three boxes, but due to the shape of a persons body, you have to do something to increase the height of the three boxes to be sure they are level or fairly close to level with your arm.

The next photo you'll see all three boxes stacked together. The center box has a door which opens to allow you to see all the way through the box. The row of boxes on the top is, again, where the magic happens, the other two are just to raise it up.

Quite a bit of work went into the building of this piece of apparatus. The great thing about working with my Dad is that he and I continually double check with each other before moving forward. So if one of us measures, the other goes back and double checks it. This saves a lot of having to go back and do things over. When I'm building stuff on my own, I take a similar approach of double and triple checking measurements and making sure I've followed all the proper steps before I cut/saw/or glue something. Needless to say, even with all those precautions, this prop did throw a couple curves our way. Even when we thought all major construction was finished, I discovered another 'flaw' that needed to be fixed.

When I say flaw, I am not referring to anything we did wrong, but rather, a design flaw that was left out of the original plans. There are actually quite a few things left out of the original plans that is up to the builder to figure out. We departed ways on a couple things, one of those was the way the blades were designed. The blades that are described in the building plans would have been troublesome at best. The blades designed by the original creator solved a host of issues, so we went with the original blade design. If you're wondering what makes the creators design better, well it's the fact that the metal blade has two pieces of wood running down the side edges. This makes the blade more durable (prevents it from getting bent accidentally) and it also acts as a guide for the inner box when it's sliding upwards. 

The photo below is a shot of the box with the blades inserted (no arm included however) and the middle box zig-zaged. As much as I was thrilled that the major construction was complete, I had no idea until I got home how much work is yet to do. Besides some sanding and painting, there are some internal 'fixes' that must be done. Plus, this prop will be part of my Steampunk Show, so after the base coat of paint, I have to figure out the steampunk design for the illusion. Right now, I'm only planning on steampunking the upper row of boxes. When the prop is finally complete, I will post a photo of it on this blog and probably over at my Steampunk blog.

MORE
OMG, This prop is driving me insane!!! Just when I thought I was done, it's pulling me back in! It's truly amazing to me the intricacies of these kinds of props. I'm looking at the insides, the guts, and I'm wondering "why did we cut that board the way we did?" "why did we go with bolts and wingnuts instead of glue?" "why was I so slow and deliberate with most of the building but then rushed on two things, both of which now are flawed". Why why why? But with every error comes a solution. With every defect, comes a better way of doing it. As it turned out the wingnuts was a brilliant idea as it makes traveling easier. As for cutting a board the way we did, I know exactly why we cut it the way we did, but looking at it now, we didn't need to do it that way.......but we made our best guess and went with it. Did I mention above that the construction was finished? Not hardly. I think the construction will be done tomorrow. I need to cut two boards and install them. The blades are finished and will be painted tomorrow. The center box will get it's first coat of paint and stain. The lower box should also get it's paint job done tomorrow with any luck. The upper row of boxes will remain unfinished for the time being. They require more work and attention.

MORE STILL
OK, as of now, the construction is officially finished. But again, more fine tuning. The prop is about 95% finished so you can finally get a view of the completed project. Believe it or not, everytime I say this thing is done, I realize there is another tweak that needs to happen. NOW, I've got something else to paint, so tomorrow, more painting. I also decided to add two more decorative things to the prop, but that is an easy fix. When it's done, it will still basically look like the image below. Hope you enjoy it!

The 2014 Summer Tour is Complete!

I finished my Summer Tour this morning with 3 back to back performances. I had plans to come home and celebrate by going to a new restaurant for lunch and then going to the movies! But a sinus headache overtook me and instead I was in bed at 1:30pm and only just started feeling better a short time ago.

Each Summer, I finish with at least one new routine that I call 'a keeper'. That means I like the routine so much it goes into my permanent repertiore. This year, the Big Fish routine is definately a keeper. It's strictly for younger audiences, but it plays so well. It is a story based routine, and I actually wrote it up for the KIDAbra Journal, so you can read about it there if you are a member of KIDabra International. Another routine that is a keeper is called The Magic Hat, which is one of the few dealer items I have and I basically came up with my own way of doing it, which is another way of saying I never bothered to read the instructions, lol.

The routines from the Steampunk Magician Show that will be keepers are: The Stand-up/ComeBack Coins, The Time Machine, Magnetized Cards, Marco's Find The Lady, and the Snake Automaton. Hmm, that's most of the show, lol. The other routines that I used were already keepers. Well, actually, two routines got cut. The Mustache routine which was a take off on a Rune Klan idea was scratched early on because it wasn't getting a very strong response. The Sword Through Neck also got scratched due to technical difficulties and never made it back in the show.

Believe it or not, there was material that never made it into the show. The World's First iPad routine, never made it into the show. I expect that to really be strong, but I just never had the right spot to put it in. Also the Shoeshine Box routine never made it in the show either, which was a disappointment. Magnetized Cards almost missed getting in the show, I added it the last week of the tour. I've done that routine before but not in this kind of setting. I was very pleased with the reaction to the magic in Magnetized Cards.

So 8 new keepers out of the shows this summer. I think that might be some kind of record for me. Work now takes a shift in a different direction. Hope you all have a safe Labor Day Weekend and please, please, please be careful, cautious, and aware during Sept 11th this year. There are some really sick people out there and it's become painfully obvious we cannot rely upon the Fed Govt to keep us safe. So watch out for yourselves and your families and report any strange behavior to the local authorities. 

First Traveling Underground Magic Theatre Show Debuted Today!

It's always nice to get the 'first one' out of the gate. This year's Traveling Underground Magic Theatre 'The Steampunk Magician'. It's a VERY COOL show. However, I have to say that the show I did today was not quite the full Steampunk Magician show. Rather, it was a good solid magic show with a few steampunk routines thrown into the mix.
Show is called

Why was it NOT the full version of the Steampunk Magician. Mainly due to illness. I caught some sort of cold about 2 weeks ago and it's been dragging me down. I spend my free time resting or sleeping trying to recover. But it seems to no avail. Today I almost lost my voice during the show. OH, the illness has caused me to be a bit delayed in introducing a couple routines. I need to finish building a table for the new Time Machine routine and there are parts that have not yet arrived for the new Shoe Shine Box routine. That being said, I still have plenty of material so there was no shortage of fun stuff to see. I think the problem will come when these two routines are ready to put into the show because I'm going to have to take things out that are playing really really well right now.

The show opened with a routine I am calling Whif Whaf. It's a ping pong ball routine...for those who might not be aware, when Table Tennis first made it's debut in the late 1800s, it was referred to as Whif Whaf and also as Flim Flam because of the sound the balls and paddles made. Eventually in 1901, the name Ping Pong was trademarked and it became the office name for table tennis.

My fun take of the Die Box is next, filled with historical references and jokes about the 1860s (when the trick was invented). I have never used a die box in my 30 years of doing magic because it seemed like a very out of touch/dated magic trick. But when you give the prop some context, it suddenly is usable and quite fun to perform.

I'm not going to give away the entire show, but I will say my Temporal Accelerator has finally made it's way into the show, and the Mustache Trick has a nice spot in the show. The show ends with an effect with an automaton. But I won't say what kind, as I don't want to give away the surprise. I will say, it delivered the punch I was expecting.

The first show ran about 53 minutes, so about 8 minutes over. I'll have to drop something from the show to get it down to 45 minutes and I might need to pull a couple things to get the larger Time Machine routine and the Shoe Box routine in the show. But so far, I'm off to a good start!

Another White House Easter Egg Roll Memory

Tomorrow (Monday) is the Annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. I've been fortunate enough to perform at this event numerous times. A couple years ago I wrote about one of the funnier moments at the Easter Egg Roll and I thought I'd take a moment to share with you yet another one.

I'm not certain of the year, it might have been 2002, not sure. At any rate, I had created this show called "The Festival of Magic" along with my good friend Ralph Metzler. Together we presented this show of magic and comedy. We had taken the show to a number of small venues in the area and we always had a blast.

Kristine & I going through Security

I had the crazy idea of bringing the show to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll. So I called them and we worked it out. We had an unusual schedule of shows however. Some were on the White House Lawn and some were on the Ellipse, the area that is between the gated White House Lawn and Constitution Avenue. The Ellipse had numerous events for those folks that didn't have tickets to be on the Lawn but yet wanted to partake in the festivities. The only problem was, moving the show back and forth between the two locations because you had to go through security each time.

So, the morning of the Easter Egg Roll, we get the itinerary and find out where we'll be. Just so
happens we are on the Big Stage first thing in the morning. This is exciting because traditionally only the celebrity acts are on the Big Stage. So, there we were, Ralph, my assistant Kristine and myself performing an illusion before several thousand spectators. What could be more fun?

Dean and Ralph

Well, in the middle of the routine, an announcement was made that the First Lady was about to speak from the Balcony of the White House. Suddenly, as if by magic, that audience of  several thousand people vanished! They went scurrying up the hill to see the First Lady. We were still mid-routine when they left, lol. Ralph and I kind of froze and my girl Kristine was inside some box at the time. We just all started laughing and said, "Oh well!" and kept laughing. Such was our first show of the day, lol!

The rest of the day was fine and thankfully, our audiences stayed with us! In later years, my friend Ralph would play a bigger role in the Easter Egg Events by helping to coordinate performers and even was able to get the White House organizers to put up a 'Magic Stage' for magicians only. This kept the magicians in one location and prevented the back and forth from the Lawn to the Ellipse situation that we suffered from in 2002. Those were fun times.

To Read About Another Funny White House Easter Egg Roll Moment, click the link below
http://artistofmystery.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-white-house-easter-egg-roll.html

The New Steampunk Show Continues to Take Shape

I can't recall if I've mentioned this show on this particular blog. But for some time now I've been developing a Steampunk Magic Show. But more than a magic show. The desire is to actually create a magic play of sorts. In the mean time we are working out material, testing costumes and enjoying the process.

I've presented a lot of the material already but it always can be improved. And there is nothing like a video of the show to put it all in perspective. Our most recent performance garnered a standing ovation. But it was not without some holes.......these known only to us. One of the things that became apparent from watching the video was 'scale'. Many of the early performances were more platform based performances or small audience performances. But if you put this material in front of a large group, several hundred+ then it becomes apparent that the scale is a little small.

Thankfully, that is an easy fix and we've already begun to alter the material for much larger audiences.

The next issue is converting some existing material over to steampunk. My philosophy is 'why re-invent the wheel?'  So I'm taking routines from my Artist of Mystery Show and putting it into the new steampunk show. An interesting thing has happened when I did that. The material for Artist of Mystery began to grow. In other words, I began to discover and create new material for that show. So basically, we have TWO really wild shows to offer.

One of the shows this week was actually a dual show. Meaning, we did Artist of Mystery in the first half and Steampunk in the second half. It was quite strong. But now, it leads me to some new ideas, new ways to further develop this program. By the way, if you are interested in checking out the show you can go to www.SteampunkIllusionist.com

No More Goal Setting Continued

My previous post I mentioned I was not goal setting anymore. I used to make a new goal list every year. This year, I am NOT doing that. Mainly because I already have last years list. So the headline was used more to get you to LOOK at my article. I am not making a new list, but I can make adjustments to the old where needed.

One thing I did, was remake the covers to my Goals Book. I wasn't going to do it, but I still wanted the book to feel fresh, even if I wasn't going to be remaking the entire thing. You might notice there is a tag line at the bottom of the book. I do this for my own amusement, and this years is 'The Time Travel Year'. It has more to do with my emphasis on a new show than anything.

My goals are divided up into three sections: Career Goals, Personal Goals and Crazy Goals. The Career Goals are pretty obvious I think. Anything related to work is put under career goals, whether it's doing more shows per year, moving into new markets, anything like that. Personal Goals are things like weight loss, reading more, becoming debt free, that sort of thing. Finally, for me are the CRAZY Goals which are basically things that are more long term goals but not necessarily things that have to be done this year. Though I must admit, having looked over the list of CRAZY Goals, it's now time to move some of those things into other categories and get them accomplished.

One VERY IMPORTANT thing to do at the end of the year, if you are a regular goal setter like me, is to make a list of all the things you accomplished. I seriously have a LOT of goals and I know it will be impossible to get all of them done in a year. But I can look over the list and see how many I did get done and how many I'm close to wrapping up. It helps me to stay motivated and is an extra charge of energy for the new year! One thing I did not realize, I had actually been keeping the 'Accomplished' list for the past several years in the back of my goals book. Imagine my surprise to see how many more things were done than I realized!

So there you go. Probably the last tip I'll give you on goals. I don't like to reveal too much as it's often times lost on people. IF you are truly serious about goals and goal achievement then you'll understand everything I've said and be moving forward on your goals. If you have never set goals, there is no time like the present. Best of luck to you all!

2014 No More Goal Setting!!!

That's right, for the first time in ten years, I'm no longer going to start the year out with a 'new' list of goals. For the past ten years, I would begin in December, and sometimes sooner, to create a list of goals for the coming year. I would put these in a special book, specifically devoted to goal setting. But many of the same goals simply got moved into the next year. Something was wrong with this whole idea....

Actually, I was close to figuring it out last year. I also think I made more progress last year than any year in the past. I usually do knock a few goals off the list. But I have SO MANY, that it's staggering. Instead, this year, I'm simply adding -14 to the 2013 book. So it will be 2013-14. No need to waste paper. BUT that isn't all I'm doing.

What I did in 2013 and will continue to do this year is create more of a map, or plan for the attainment of the goals. Rather than simply 'list' them. By creating a plan of action or course of action, I think I can do more to knock out major goals.

I would encourage everyone to write down your goals for the year. If you only have two or three goals, then you don't have to follow my system. Two or three are easy to go after. 30 goals, well that's another thing entirely, and thus the reason for creating the action plan to move forward on them.

Please, do not think of goals as New Year's resolutions. No one keeps New Years Resolutions! Goals are entirely different and meant for the entire year, not just one day or one week. There are many fine books on Goal Setting and perhaps one of the first things you should do this year, if you've never worked on a goals list before is to pick up a copy of a book on Goal Setting. Go to Amazon.com look up goal setting. Take your pick from the list. Personally, one of my favorite books, not just on goal setting but on success in general is called and 'The Success Principles' by Jack Canfield. I have personally give out over 20 copies of the books to friends, that's how important the book is to me. I even own the audio version of the book. It's fantastic. Check it out on Amazon, I think you'll be very glad you did. Next time I write, I'll let you know the progress on this 'action plan'.

Summer 2013 Tour Always Gives Unexepected Surprises

There are many reasons why I love to do so many shows in the summer (usually 100+). The obvious reason is the boost to my income. Hey, I'm practical and take advantage of good times as best as I can. But there is another reason. The summer shows are usually a mixture of old routines and new routines. And of the new routines at least one and sometimes two become gems that stay in my regular line up.

A few years ago I created a goldfish production that was so popular it stayed in my show and actually went back into the show this year. It's also getting a slight make-over and will going into my new Steampunk Show.  Last year, was The story of the Great Pinetti and the routine that went with it. This also stayed in my show and was written up to be a children's book (looking for an illustrator now as I simply don't have time to do it).

This year there were three routines that I'm keeping. One is a signed card that ends up in an impossible location. It's fast and completely baffling. Winner! The next is a card trick that I have done in one form or another for more than 10 years. The trick is called 'Cards Across'. To my mind, the single best version of the Cards Across was done by Mac King. His routine defies description, but it's absolutely hysterical. I understand that Denny Haney had a version that was also quite funny and it is now being put out on the market by Scott Alexander. I've seen a video clip of this and it truly does look very very funny.

But I don't usually like to do things the way others are doing them. I tend to try and find my own way of doing it. If fact the method to my version is something I'm unclear about. It's not any method that I know of in print, but it's certainly MY method. The premise for the trick is what has always bewildered me, but this Summer I came up with an idea. It started as a way to get a quick visual joke into the show and then I incorporated that into the cards across and it worked. It played fine, not really over the top, but not poorly. It was good and I was happy but I must be honest and say I
 didn't think it was going to be a keeper. Then today, the rest of the routine popped into my head. It was the missing parts to the routine. The extra visual mid way through the effect, the additional jokes and a brand new kicker ending! Winner Winner! And it will be in both my regular show and the Steampunk Show.

The final routine was also a bit of a surprise because it was one that I had also done for a long tme. But I was forced to change an important detail of the trick. The trick was a borrowed ring trick ut I very rarely found anyone who either had a ring or if they had one they were not willing to lend it. So I opted for a slightly different borrowed object. This new object allowed me to change the ending so that instead of returning the borrowed ring to it's owner unharmed, I could return this borrowed object in a completely different state. It gave the routine a stronger magical moment because of the change in items. And once returned to the audience member I told them it was now their Good Luck Charm.
Well, fast forward to late October and I run into someone who not only saw my show during the Summer, but she also was one of the one's who received the 'Good Luck Charm'. She told me, "I still have the Good Luck Charm, and I'm keeping it forever". That is the kind of response, every magician hopes for months after their performance. Needless to say, that routine stays as is!

Except for the last few lines, I wrote this piece in early September, but never published it. So here it is, just a little late :)