Houdini Painting Stained Glass

I never know what will inspire me. I've been wanting to do a new Houdini painting but had nothing in my head. Then yesterday I saw a picture of a stained glass window. So I decided to try a painting that looks like a stained glass. It's on canvas, not glass, though the finished product would look killer on glass.

It's certainly a fun painting and has a really cool look to it. I chose a profile just to keep Houdini's facial features simple. I could have blocked all the facial features but I don't think it would have looked like Houdini. So instead I went after the technique that is used in a lot of stained glass windows that have figures of people on them. The faces and hands are usually painted and added to other colored glass.

Blackstone Profile

I just finished this about 10 minutes ago. I wanted to do more of the profile paintings and this time I did a caricature profile of Blackstone Sr.. I've painted Blackstone a number of times, but I really like the look of this.

I'm keeping the red background for the 'old time' magicians but I think I'm going to switch to a different color for the modern age of magicians, IF I do anyone from the modern age. Once again, this is acrylic on canvas and the size is 16x20.

Update: For most artists when they sign their painting that means it's finished. For me, when I sign the BACK that means it's officially done. I usually put all the information on the back such as medium, size, name of painting, date completed and such. I may alter this painting slightly, though I have not yet made up my mind completely. If I do it will be in the next day or so. IF I don't do it by then I'll sign the back and it will be done.

Backstage

Most of the people who read my blogs are magicians, but I do have a few friends who read that aren't. With that in mind I thought I'd give the laypeople a backstage view of what it's like to be a magician. First off we deal in illusion and the biggest illusion starts with the job! This is about 90% business and 10% performing. That might be different for performers who work through agencies, but for a person who does most of his own bookings, the majority of my time is spent with marketing, advertising, designing flyers, postcards, posters, answering calls, making calls, selling shows, and about a gazillion other little things.

Ok, before I loose you, let's switch over to the magic part which I'm sure you'll want to know about. The performer arrives before everyone else, and depending upon the size of the show we may have to put up a sound system, possibly lighting, backdrops and the like. Then comes putting the props, tables, illusions and other bits and pieces together. Come showtime we ramp up the personal energy, crank out the show, make people laugh and entertain them and then take the bows. If time permits we can shake some hands after the show and sign autographs. Often though we are time crunched and we've got to pack all that stuff back up in half the time it took us to set it up because we have to be somewhere else or we need to be out of the building by a certain time. Once the vehicle is packed more often than not it's on to the next destination or if you're lucky it's home. The show lasts 30-90 minutes depending upon the size of your show. Add at least an hour to that for a small show for load in and even more for load out.

Of course you might be thinking, 'yeah but you make a lot of money from the show so it's worth it'. Well first, yes it's worth it regardless because you don't usually do this unless you love it. But the price you get paid diminishes once you figure in the marketing that went into that show, the mailings, the office time, the rehearsal time, the prop design and creation or the prop purchases. If you have an assistant or two that figures into the price as well. Suddenly that 'big check' isn't so big. That isn't to say I'm complaining. It's just the reality that any business has to deal with and this is a business just like any other. This business just happens to have a glamorous side, but maybe now you can see that the glamor is tiny compared to the amount of work that goes into the show.

Oh, and the show. Sometimes it takes years before material in the show is really great. There are times when a trick is rehearsed for a very long time before it even gets in front of an audience, so there is already a huge time investment. And if it's an original routine, there may be prototypes and experiments that precede all of that. Show's aren't put together in a day. A lot of blood and sweat go into making a routine into something special. Sometimes sadly the entertainment value that we seek in a trick never quite makes it so it gets dumped. That's a tough thing when you're dealing with a piece you've invested so much into.

A great example for me was the Steel Straight Jacket. Now there is a prop I'd wanted for years. Once I had it, I thought it would be a piece of cake to entertain with. Ummm, hardly. It was a big pain in the you know what. I worked that thing to death trying to figure out the right way to do it. I tried comedy, I tried high drama, I tried talking through it and not talking through it. Eventually I began to stumble upon the right combination, but to be honest, it's still a work in progress.  It plays really really well now especially when I compare it to the early days, but it can always be better. The day I'm satisfied with it is probably the day I'll pull it from the show, lol.

But that's all part of the life of a performer...

Ancestry +

During my last post I mentioned my new hobby of searching through ancestory.com. What an amazing site, though I'm finding it has some limitations. But still for the amount of things I found, it's truly a priceless resource. The photo here is of a house, not just any house. This is the house that my Grandmother lived in in 1920 with her parents, brothers and sisters and her Grandparents.

How did I find it? The 1920 Census had the address listed and I then looked it up on GoogleEarth. I expected to find a vacant lot or a parking garage or industrial building. I never expected to locate the actual house. Now I'm not 100% sure this is the actual house, but looking at it, I'd say I'm 90% sure this is it and if it isn't then it's still the lot where the house had been. The house in that photo is of the style of home from that time period and it's certainly at least 70 years old if not older.

UPDATE: Talked to my Dad who said he actually remembers the house when he was a kid. So I found the right one.

Ancestry

My Great Great Grandfather from Norway

Over the past few weeks I've been doing tons, and I do mean tons of research online and in books on Houdini and magic history. In the course of that research I found a site called archives.com. I have to admit I was not thrilled with that site though because every step along the way they wanted me to pay more money for information, so I quit and went a different route.

One of the last things I did look up while I was there was some family information, just to see if it would show up. I found a record for what I thought was my grandfather but wasn't really sure. I did that about two weeks ago. Well for whatever reason on Friday evening I got the urge to check out the family history/family tree and I decided to try ancestory.com. Imagine my surprise after just 30 minutes how much information I was able to turn up. In two days time I have parts of my family dated back to the 1600s! And other parts dated to when they arrived here in America.

I found some relatives in Norway, I found relatives here in America I didn't know about. It's wild how much information is available. Most of the work is done through census records and you can view and print the actual census records (something archives.com wanted you to pay more just to see). The photo is of my Great Great Grandfather who came to America from Norway in 1869. When you go back that far in years you end up with more and more Grandparents from each side of the family. You figure in  your immediate family you have your grandparents on your Fathers Side and Mothers side, that's two sets or 4 people. But your parents have grandparents so that's 4 more on each side or 8 more people. It keeps multiplying from there as you go back in time. It's pretty wild actually.

The archives.com system is set up so well that it almost becomes like a video game to see how far you can go. It's quite addicting. Needless to say, today I'm taking a break from the fun and getting back to work, more mailings to work on, more preparation to do for 2011. Looking forward to an exciting year!

Routines I CAN'T Do

Maybe I should say I won't do them. Some of them I want to do too. The Bowling Ball production. What a beautiful effect and done by EVERYONE! Cardiographic, also a great trick and frankly fits my character well, but everyone is doing it. Though I think a different take on it might be ok.

The Losander Table is another effect I totally love but at this point with so many people doing this, I am afraid I'll have to opt out for now. Sadly there are a whole series of great tricks that I just won't go near because they are being done by so many other performers.

My feeling is you have to offer something different or you have to do something so well that you are clearly the best at it. Look at it like this, if all the magic performers are doing the same routines, what does the buyer of entertainment do to differentiate? The buyer looks to find the cheapest act. That doesn't help anyone.

I've also noticed for illusionists it's often the smaller tricks that everyone goes away talking about, yet those seem to be the ones that they put the least amount of time in. Instead they are doing the standard routines. I often wonder what would happen with a straight jacket escape if it was really played up for what it is, stressful, confining, constricting and near impossible to escape from. But what you see instead are performers using jackets too big, getting out in under 10 seconds or using the jacket as a comedy routine. The moment it's used for comedy, the 'tough escape' part of it goes right out the window. Granted there are a lot of comedic moments possible in the routine, but all out comedy for something as powerful as the straightjacket, I don't know. I've written a lot about the SJ in my older blog and it's something I love and hate. I hate that it's over done, but I think in the right hands it's still powerful.

All the magic above is powerful, don't get me wrong. But the first thing any act has to do is get past the buyer, they have to please the booker, they come first. The audience actually comes second as strange as that sounds. If you don't please the buyer/booker, you don't work and no one sees you.

I'd put the following routines in that mix:

Interlude Illusion
Origami Illusion
Sub Trunk
Modern Art
Orange, Lemon Egg Canary
Torn and Restored Newspaper
Any sort of Russian Roulette Knife Stab

those are a few off the top of my head, I'm sure there are more

Uggh! Not Again

That statement is actually for TWO things. 1. SNOW. It snowed here this morning. The dusting was three inches, thanks again Weather Folks for getting it wrong. I'm not ready for a replay of last year 2. Car Problems. This Van of mine is driving me nuts and draining me dry. The latest, it won't start. It turns over but won't start. This will be the fourth time it's been to a mechanic this year. If next year turns out the way I'm hoping, then she's gonna get either replaced or I'm going to get a second vehicle.

Fortunately, all the times I've had problems I have yet to miss a show. But it's certainly been trouble. I'll have to have it towed tomorrow.

That's ok though. It could be worse and I'm sure it's something minor. At least it will be done in time for the weekend.