For my summer gigs that I flew to, I tried to rent cars less this year. It’s mostly because they just kinda sit there all week while I’m performing. Most places I stay within a couple of miles of the venue. That means I can walk or use things like the Lime eScooters to get around.
Normally I’ll take an uber/lyft to load in and out of the venue. However the last fair I did, it the ride share wait time was a lot and was super busy when I left, so I tried putting my case on the lift and zipping up the road to the hotel. Much to my surprise it worked!
I’m going to say that it’s probably fairly dangerous to do this, however in a pinch it worked for me. With that said, DO NOT DO THIS!
Last week I popped by the Portland Juggling Festival’s public show. The show was a mix of different levels of performing experience, and lots of styles. Like a magic convention there are a lot of acts that were really arty and not really real world acts. They’re acts that I can’t imagine building a show out of, but could work in a variety show. Then there were the working acts, and you could really tell the difference between them and the acts that aren’t out there performing all the time. It’s a tightness in the show that I notice.
The headliner of the show was Jay Gilligan. He did an amazing act that solved what I think is one of the problems with a juggling act. That problem is that most juggling patterns really look the same to someone who doesn’t know juggling. Jay basically juggled 3 balls (he did more than that), but did them in very novel ways there were very different looking, even when it was just a basic 3 ball cascade.
His closer was juggling three balls in a cascade slowly and it was amazing! I don’t want to ruin the ending for you. It an amazing ending!
What Jay did was take something very standard and figure out a way to make it look very different. How can you do that with magic? They guy who invented the sponge bunnies did it when he turned balls into bunnies. Jonathan Burns did it with his cheese card trick. There’s a lot of room out there to reimagine standard magic. Go and do it!
In a box of used magic I found an almost 30 year old letter from an established professional magician to a newer magician. It’s notes on the newer magician’s show, you can read them below:
The notes are pretty spot on, and great advice. I love that the older magician took the time to write up the advice so that it’s easier for the newer magician to implement the suggestions!
Personally I love helping magicians be better, and I think it’s something we all should do!
On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we welcome in Salamandir (yes. That’s his real name). Salamandir talks with us about growing up playing music and how his exposure at a young age allows him to pick up any instrument and play it.
We discuss his abilities to fix instruments, his love of incense and even get insights into the first Moisture Festival. A great conversation with a fascinating person.
Over the summer I worked at a fair with a hypnotist and some other acts. One night during the hypnotist’s show, the drummer from the band that was next onstage started bringing his drum kit onstage and setting it up! This is a huge breach of etiquette when you are sharing a stage with another act.
The thing is when you perform at fairs there are really two types of acts, acts that are professionals and acts that aren’t. The community acts are typically acts that are newer and just haven’t ever shared a stage with another act and don’t know the rules.
While it’s annoying a hell when someone tries to set up during your show, it’s also a teachable moment as they obviously don’t know that they shouldn’t do it. When it happens during my show, I simply mute my mic and firmly say, “This is an active stage and you need to get off of it right now.“
No discussion, just that said firmly.
Then after my show, if they don’t apologize to me, which they will about 90% of the time, then I explain to them during someone else’s show 100% of the stage is theirs…unless other arrangements have been made. I usually ask/mention how they would feel if I went onstage and started setting up while they were performing.
When I was going through a box of old magic stuff, I found this envelope and 1/3 page flyer from Dell O’Dell. What I love about this is how fun it is. There’s little jokes, like having someone pull off the stamp.
Then in the lower left corner it says to touch the bell with a cigarette. When held up to to the light you can see that her signature it attached to the bell. I’m guessing that the when heated the signature will burn or become darker.
Last spring I picked up a Porter Case. This is carry on luggage that converts to a luggage dolly. I haven’t needed to use it, until my recent trip to Canada to get on a cruise ship.
Here’s the case in its three positions:
After using it to get from home to the airport, the airport to the hotel, and the hotel to the cruise ship, I’ve decided I like it! Since they haven’t made these in a long time, the challenge will be to find another one as a backup.
I was playing around with some cards the other night and came up with a very 1980’s feeling packet trick. The effect is you show four aces. The ace of diamonds changes to a two of diamonds. Then the ace of clubs changes to the three of clubs. For the finale, the ace of hearts turns into the four of hearts, giving you a one (ace), two, three and four.
This trick uses a series of Ascanio Spreads. I’m not going to go teach that move here, but you can look it up and find a tutorial for it online.
Here’s the starting order of the cards:
Hold them face up in your left hand in dealing grip. Do an Ascanio Spread to show four aces, putting the four card block on top of the packet .
Do a second Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of diamonds is now a two. Put the four card block top of the spread.
Next do a third Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of clubs is now a three. This time, you will switch places of the middle two cards. I openly displace them, and then put the four card block on top.
Finally, do a fourth Ascenio Spread to show that the ace of hearts is now the four!
That’s it, there’s really not much to this trick, and it feels like it needs an ending. I have played with having the backs change colors and have a method for that, but I’m not really happy with it.
Additionally, I’d be surprised if this sequence had not been created before. It seems fairly obvious that this result can be achieved with just Ascenio Spreads.
After a summer of performing, I was doing some prop maintenance and noticed how gross the ropes I use have gotten!
Going through your props a couple times a year to clean them up or replace things that get worn out is a good thing to do. It’ll keep your show looking fresh and not beat up.
The final day at the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians (PCAM) convention was a show day for me. I skipped the card clinic in the morning to prep my show for the afternoon. Here’s what I look like before showtime (I’ll add the after later in this post)!
The show went well, it took a few minutes to warm up the audience, but they were great!
A lot of magicians are nervous about performing for magicians. One way to look at it is that they are just people, and in theory, if they’re at a magic convention, they are magic fans. That should give you a head start, as they’ll likely appreciate what you’re doing, unlike a dentist convention.
Here I am after the show, a sweaty mess!
After my show, it was a dinner break, then wrapping up the evening was the One Handed Cut A Thon and the Bag of Tricks contest.
The One-Handed Cut-A-Thon was for whoever could do the most charlier cuts in a minute for the first round and the most in 90 seconds for the final round.
I made it to the final round, but unfortunately, I didn’t win. I did win the Slickest One-Hand Cut award!
Then it was the Bag of Tricks contest. In this contest you get a paper bag with about 14 items and you have to come up with an routine using only those items. You have to use all 14 items or you get a deduction. All the bags were the same, except that each bag had one wild card item, that was different in each bag.
I entered as a team with Mike Norden. Our wildcard item was a tiny smock.
We ended up getting second place, but it was a ton of fun!
The PCAM convention was a ton of fun, and it’s really a family there. Everyone is cool and open to hang out with anyone! I highly recommend this convention to anyone!
