More Festival Magic

Had another festival this past weekend that I was planning to do magic for. Due to a series of events, I went from having the potential to perform for three days to performing for about 4 hours.

The festival kicks off Friday afternoon, runs through Saturday, and ends Sunday evening. I had an obstacle course race that I signed up for back in March on Sunday, so I knew that day was going to be a loss anyway. A few months ago I scheduled a follow-up doctor's appointment for an ear infection I had been fighting since a Spartan race last October (go to the doctor early, kids) for the Friday afternoon, so I took a loss on that day too.

No problem, that left me with all day Saturday to hit the festival. I did pretty good in one day the last time, and that was with lousy rainy weather. Things would work out well, right? I kept procrastinating getting in touch with the festival organizers to arrange permission to perform. I meant to do it immediately following the last festival, then weeks and months passed and I still hadn't done it. I don't know why, other than a complete lack of motivation and discipline. Which is weird, because this is something I actually want to do. It's not like I'm trying to find the motivation to go the gym or something. Anyway, I digress.

I finally emailed them about ten days before the festival and ended up never hearing anything back one way or the other. I decided to take the approach of "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" and just go do it anyway. I arranged with the owners of one of the business on the street to set up in front of their place to perform. I was all set to go, and then two days before hand one of my day jobs called and asked if I could work from 3 to 9 because the person who was going to cover me had a death in their family. Couldn't say no to that, so there went my Saturday.

I was really tempted to just call the whole thing off, but I knew in the long run that wouldn't be a good idea. I ended up setting up from 11 to 2:30 and just doing my best. Unlike last time, I wasn't really able to pull a good crowd. I had maybe one decent one, but that's about it. Fortunately I wasn't trying to get a crowd and pass the hat. Instead, I pretty much was just presenting the Invisible Deck over and over again with a tip jar, which is basically what I did last time. It was nice because when I got people to stop I could cut it short if they were done after that one, or move on to a couple other things if they were receptive. I went long a couple times, but most people just watched the first trick and were ready to go.

I did notice that while I got a decent amount of people to stop, I didn't get a lot of them to pay. The ones that did pay only gave a dollar each, while last time I got several fives. I'm not sure why that was. My theory for the ones was that I didn't seed the tip jar with any fives this time. As far as not getting people to transition from watching to tipping, no idea. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wildly different than last time and I was getting cash left and right then. I think it was just a different crowd.

I had at least four different people tell me I should go on America's Got Talent which really made me laugh. I wish I could have told them that the trick I was doing had been on AGT several times to see what they said to that. Still, it was nice to hear the compliment. I talked to a guy for a little bit who knew a little magic from when he was younger. He showed me his French Drop that his friend taught him years ago and asked for my critique. It was actually pretty good! I showed him a couple subtleties, he complimented my FD, we talked about David Copperfield a little bit and then he had to go meet his friend. Really nice guy and probably the highlight of my day.

All in all I had a lot of fun. It wasn't a financial success, with me making a whopping $16 and then spending ten of that on a Cuban sandwich and chips from one of the local restaurants for lunch. Still, I made more money than I would have sitting at home, I got some business cards out there, and most importantly I got more practice in front of real people. Best of all, I only blew the ID once this time, ironically immediately after thinking "Gee, I haven't screwed up at all this time!"

- Andster

The Envelope Concept

I was dicking around on Reddit the other day when I found a post on r/magic that I think is one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time. I'm going to quote it below in case the page goes down or gets edited for some reason.

Hello guys,
I wanted to share with you a concept I stumbled upon once which instantly appealed to me and got me great reactions as soon as I started applying it. I don't recall where I found it sadly, it might have been in Apocalypse. If you know anything about it, I'd be super glad to know more about the origins.
Basically you've got an evelope on the side of the table you're performing on. It's in full sight since the beginning of your performance or effect.
I usually do it as a finale for my ambitious card routine. After making the S card rise to the top multiple times, I make it vanish from the deck.
I point towards the envelope and tell him that there's one card inside (the spectator can feel the card if (s)he wants). I emphasize on the fact that it was in plain sight since the beginning and I never touched it. You know the drill.
That's when I give him the envelope, tell him that the card is inside and ask him to keep it with himself but tonever open it. That way we both created the longest magic trick ever. By never opening the envelope, we have created something impossible that will potentially live on forever.
It is extremely strong, leaves the spectators with a very personal object and it is basically bulletproof since the only possible scenarios are:
• The S doesn't want to cooperate (heckler, suspicious type) and opens the envelope on the spot. His signed card is inside. Applause for you.
• The S cooperates but opens the envelope later (curiosity), at home for example. His signed card is inside. Your reputation is still untouched.
• The S never opens the envelope and you've achieved an awesome experiment.
So, I don't want to talk about method here since it's not the point of the subreddit anyways but I wanted your thoughts and opinions on such an effect/concept. Its origins, other applications you could think of?
I'd love to see more theory discussed here on /r/magic without revealing anything. Just to see what everyone thinks and the ways they'd do certain things.
Thanks for reading!

First of all, unless there's a switch or a load that's not described here (which I feel like there has to be, but what the hell do I know?) this sounds like the cleanest card to envelope that I've ever heard of. I really wish the OP knew where he found this, because I would love to look this up.

I really love the idea of a trick that plays out over the course of days, months, or years. This honestly sounds like something Andy from The Jerx would have come up with. If you like this style of effect, definitely check out his site for more of the same. It's definitely not for everyone, but something like this can really make a lasting impression on a spectator.

As pointed out by the OP, there really is no downside to the effect. If they open the envelope immediately, the card is inside and everyone claps. If they open it later, it creates a second moment of magic. If they never open it, they have a permanent reminder of the magic.

I also like an idea posted by someone else in the thread:

I would present it as such: "I want to give you a choice. In this envelope there is only one card. I am claiming this is your signed card. You can choose to doubt me and open it, but that will ruin the magic, OR you can keep it closed forever; and whenever you feel that this world is devoid of wonder and magic you can pick up that envelope and feel the magic inside." or something like that.

I think if I were to ever perform this, that's the route I would take. I really need to start sourcing a clean card to envelope effect because I really want to try this. If anyone can point me in the right direction or tries this themselves, I would love to hear how it went.

- Andster

AGT Catchup and Other Stuff

Boy, I'm way behind in watching AGT. I watched the one hour special of talent acts from around the world the other night, the last judge cuts this morning, and I'm in the middle of the first live episode right now. I don't have a lot to say about it at this point, especially since it's been so long. I did get it spoiled that Piff made it through, which makes me happy.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get around to writing about Fool Us. That's an amazing show, and if you're not watching it, you should be. It's recently been renewed for a third season, which is awesome. Looking forward to lots and lots of new episodes. One thing I've been thinking about: I would pay a decent amount of money for a "magicians only" DVD set of the show. Something where all the people, whether they fooled them or not, take us through what they did. Not necessarily "I used a gimmicked deck and here's step by step how to make it," but even something like "I used a gimmicked deck, it's got a magnet in it." Some of the shit that I see really gets me, and I would love to know the workings behind it, even if just to say "Aw shit, that's brilliant!" If anyone reading this has an in to make this happen, make it happen.

I've been thinking the past couple weeks that this blog has kinda turned into me watching magic on TV and writing about it. It wasn't my intention to be a magic TV review blog. I do have stuff I want to say, and I find myself not getting around to it because when I do write it ends up being about what happened on Don't Blink or live blogging a three week old episode of AGT. I think I'm going to pull back a little on the talking about TV magic and get more into talking about theory and some other stuff that's been on my mind.

Until next time.

- Andster

AGT Catch Up

I'm a couple weeks behind on the Judge Cuts episode of AGT, so I'm going to attempt to get them watched soon. My DVR is running out of space. I lost like three episodes of Fool Us that I saved to rewatch and write about, so there's that. I'm starting this off with last week's episode of AGT, with Marlon Wayans as the guest judge.

I feel like I've done too much act by act commentary, especially since it all boils down to "They're good, but it's not my cup of tea." I think I'm just going to keep the commentary to magic and variety acts, or something that really catches my eye.

The first magic comes in at about an hour, with Dana Daniels doing a bill to egg. His act got cut up a lot, so it's really hard to get a feel for how it was going. I can see where Howard was coming from, saying that at some times it felt like he was at a kid's birthday party. I wish I could have seen his act straight through. Don't know if it would have made a difference in opinion or not, but it would have been nice.

After using the golden buzzer to put a ventriloquist through, we went to commercial and came back to Oz Pearlman. I really liked his performance. I know the part with the cutout is a marketed effect from Penguin that I can't remember the name of. I think Oz does a great job of taking small tricks and filling the performance with his personality, something that I'm working to do better myself. He is the textbook example of it's not the trick, it's the magician.

Ok, only two magic acts this week, no danger acts. It's time to start cutting.

Oz Pearlman went through, which is fantastic news! Can't disagree with that at all.

Dana didn't make it through, but a contortionist who's act I liked went through, so mixed emotions on that but I think I agree.

The Mountain Faith Band went through. They were pretty good, I suppose.

Triple Threat went through. I agree with that decision, they're very good.

Animation Crew is going forward as well. I really liked their act. Both of them, in fact. I look forward to seeing more.

And finally, a singer whose name I didn't catch. I did like the song he sang though.

Well, it's now midnight. My plan to double down on AGT tonight is not looking good. I'll pick back up again in the morning, maybe.

- Andster