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

Don't Blink

Finally making myself sit down and watch these to clear some more room on the DVR. I'm kinda pissed that I didn't do it sooner, because I'm only to the first commercial break of the first one I taped (I missed the first two because I didn't realize I go the channel) and I really like it!

Don't Blink is not the usual magic show that follows one magician (David Blaine specials) or the same group of magicians (Close Up Kings), but instead is more of a random assortment of magicians. It reminds me of Masters of Illusion on the street. Some of the magicians I recognize, some I don't, but all of them are very good.

The magic is fast paced, with many different segments in each half hour episode. I appreciate that because I'm all for eliminating the dancing and prancing and putting more magic in. To be fair, their opening segment shows quite a bit of stage illusions done on the street so there may be more prancing in the upcoming episodes and I just haven't got to it yet. Regardless, it's a fun show but it may just be because I'm easily entertained by pretty much any magic.

I do have to say, watching shows like this makes me feel better about my sleight of hand because I can spot some of the palms and switches and stuff a mile away, but it completely flies over their spectator's heads. I think that's something important to remember: You feel like the sleight is very visible because you know you're doing something fishy, the audience doesn't suspect anything so they don't see it. You still have to be good at the sleight in the first place, but it's nice to see that the feeling of "Jesus, how can anyone not realize I have a card palmed?" really has no merit.

I feel I'm digressing too much. That's a story for a different post. Don't Blink is a fun show that's worth a watch. Thursday nights on Pop TV. Check your local listings. I should be getting paid for this shit.

- Andster

AGT Judge Cuts Round Two

AGT is leading off with magic tonight with Aiden Sinclair doing a tossed out deck routine. It was very well received by the judges and audience. I got nothing bad to say about it. I am curious if he just got lucky that they all picked a different card, or if he used a method that allows that. In my limited experience with the tossed out deck, you usually name off the cards and then have people sit down all at once, giving a sort of dual reality in case there's a duplicate pick. I don't know if having two judges put their hands down at the same time could be covered by a "Oh, you must have looked at the same card," patter line.

This singer was good, though we only got to see the tail end of her performance. Shirley Claire is talented as well, especially for an 87 year old woman. Personally, I don't think she has what it takes to carry a Vegas show so I hope she doesn't take away a spot from someone that could. This next singer, Daniella Mass, is another very talented person. Again, I really don't care about the singing, but I don't think I could be mad if she went through.

I don't care for the puppet guy. I'm not sure why, I don't think it's just because of the singing. I just don't really care for it. I get that he's funny to some, but it's not really funny to me. I think I'd put him above a ventriloquist, but that's not saying much. I have friends who listen to Jeff Dunham on the radio. I don't get that. Without the visual of the puppets, it's literally a man talking to himself in different voices.

Benjaman Yonattan, the blind 14 year old dancer. Even I'm not a big enough asshole to talk shit about this kid. He's good at what he does, though it's still not something I personally would like to sit and watch for extended periods of time. I do have to wonder how much of the audience and judge love for him is because of his backstory, though. Would someone with perfect vision doing it exactly the same as him be viewed the same?

We've got a few more dancers coming back from commercial here. Only seeing a couple seconds of their acts makes it hard to really get a feel for it. It's okay, I'm not missing much.

We've got a guy named Wes doing a straitjacket escape. I do not remember him from the auditions. I liked his presentation of the escape though, getting out before a naked picture of him was revealed. This goes back to what I was talking about a few weeks ago, not all escapes need to be (or even should be) death defying. It was funny, engaging, and I liked it. The only thing I think took away from it is that he had to come out already in the jacket. I get that it's because of the time constraints, but I am less impressed when you escape from something you tied yourself up in.

I do remember Uzeyer Novruzov from his first audition. I liked him then, and I like him now. These are the kinds of acts I can get behind. I hope he goes far just for the sake of having something different.

I missed the name of this next singer, but he really is good. He's another that I don't really care for, but I can't be mad if he goes through. The Cragilewis Band is another one that falls into the same category. Aaaaand there's the golden buzzer, so they're going on.

I didn't really care for Dr. Danger's act this time around. Driving through the fire walls was neat, until he fell over. The jump was lame, and the flaming cowboy hats was just odd. I think they're not gonna make it through, but if they do they're going to run into problems doing their act at Radio City.

Dance groups time. Another group I don't care too much about, but I do like them more than singers. I really liked DM Nation, thought I still don't know that I would want to sit through a whole show of it. It was more that they were good enough to make me stop doing a crossword puzzle in the other window and actually pay attention to their act. The Chippendoubles was just confusing and not good. I'm not sue how they got through in the first place.

The hypnotist Chris Jones is back. I don't know if I've written about him before. He did not do well at all tonight. I suppose that's the risk you take doing hypnosis. I'm on the fence about this act. My mother was a clinical hypnotist, so I've been around it my whole life. I know it can work for relaxation, pain relief, smoking cessation, etc. but I also know it works because you want it to work. You can't hypnotize someone against their will, which is why a lot of these shows and stunts just don't work for me. As I said, I'm on the fence about this particular act because of what he did with Howie in the first audition. You can guarantee that he wasn't just playing along, especially when Mel and Michael Buble weren't going with it tonight. All that aside, this is my favorite hypnosis act ever. It's long, and I apologize for the ad but I love it.

Scott Heierman the drag comedian was funny the first time, but he bombed this time. I feel really bad, because I really liked the act. I'm sure he's going home which sucks, because I was looking forward to seeing more.

The choir is up, and despite being a singing group, I didn't really hate it. This is another case of not wanting to watch a whole show of it, but being entertained enough to pay attention to the act.

All right, elimination time! Let's crush some dreams!

DM Nation is going through, which I agree with. Eliminated a couple other dance acts, which I also agree with.

Benjamin is also going through. God for him I suppose.

Ladder balancing circus guy is going through, while cutting Chris Jones and the straitjacket guy. I think I agree with this since I love the circus act and Chris didn't have good luck this time.

Daniella Mass went through, though seeing who they sent her on stage with it wasn't really a surprise.

The puppet act is going through, cutting Dr. Danger and Aiden Sinclair. Sucks that a magician got cut, sucks more that the lost to a puppet.

The choir made it through in the last spot. They were good tonight, but like I've said a million times about a million acts, I'm personally only a fan in small doses.

That's it for this week! I wish I could swap Aiden Sinclair for one of the singers maybe, but hey I'm not a judge. Looking forward to next week.

- Andster

Masters of Illusion

Finally got a chance to watch the couple episodes of Masters of Illusion that I had recorded. Rather, I made myself have a chance because the DVR is getting full and I need space to record UFC this weekend since I have to work.

Before I get into what I thought, I want to say how cool it is that there's so much magic on television now. I've got AGT (which is not strictly magic, but still features a lot), Masters of Illusion, Fool Us, and Don't Blink recording right now. I have a recording set for Troy: Street Magic whenever it airs, and Brain Games (another that's not strictly magic, but still features a lot of magicians). I know I'm missing out on other shows like Wizard Wars and The Carbonaro Effect, both of which I've seen and loved, I just don't watch regularly mostly due to time and DVR space. I'm sure there's more out there that I can't think of at the moment.

My point is that there's probably more magic on television now than ever before. When I was growing up I had a yearly-ish David Copperfield special and occasional World's Greatest Magic shows with Mac King's School of Magic. Then David Blaine came around, and the Masked Magician specials (which I will admit to watching, more because I just wanted to see magic and less that I gave a rat's ass about how things were done). But even those were yearly, at best. Magic back then was rare and occasional, and I love that it's becoming more mainstream and popular. I am a pretty firm believer (I think, I'm sure if I write in depth about it I'll change my mind three times) that there's no such thing as bad press, even bad magic is good in the grand scheme of things, etc. etc.

I'm going way off my planned topic. TL;DR: There's a shitload of magic on TV now, and I love it.

I have very limited knowledge of stage magic and illusions, so a show like Masters of Illusion is not something I sit down and try to critique, it's more something that I just enjoy watching. To be fair, that's pretty much what I try to do with all magic shows since who the hell am I to be playing critic? They're the ones on TV, I'm just an asshole with an opinion sitting in my living room.

I love watching all magic and Masters of Illusion is no different. I'm not the biggest fan of magic boxes, and the prancing and dancing with assistants is something I don't think I could personally do without cringing so hard I implode. So, obviously, some of the acts aren't going to be my cup of tea but I still find them cool to watch.

Some of the highlights of the first couple episodes were Barry and Stuart doing what appears to be a handling of Andy Nyman's Diceman that I really enjoyed and Murray Sawchuck with a vanishing watch to impossible location routine. This is the second time I've seen something end up in a sealed can of food (Piff's appearance on AGT being the other) and I'm kinda digging it. I would like to try to find out more about how to do that. I think the loading of both items seems kind of awkward to me, but I still don't get how it goes in. I know "something" is being done and I'm pretty sure I can spot when, but it still gets me.

From the second episode, I liked Ed Alonzo's act. The guy doing the CD manipulation was very technically skilled, but I felt like it was too obviously carefully concealing things and loading and whatnot. Felt more like juggling than magic. Nathan Phan was very entertaining to me, and I think a prime example of not needing the biggest, newest thing to be good. The props don't make the magician.

Keeping in mind I know very little about stage illusions, I have to say I would like a trick like Greg Gleason's more if he didn't have to randomly put on sunglasses to do it. I think that should be a rule for magicians: If you need to do something to alter your appearance for the trick to work, don't do the trick. I think the exception to that is dressing like an assistant to slip offstage. If you suddenly need to put on a mask or a hooded cape, everybody out there is thinking "That's not him anymore." I guarantee it.

I can't put my finger on why, but I feel bad that Dean Cain is hosting this show. Regardless, Masters of Illusion is a fun watch. It can be cheesy, not everything is great, but I really like watching magic and I think this is a great way to see bits and pieces of a lot of acts I might otherwise miss. I don't know if this is a review or a critique or what. I guess just the ramblings of an idiot watching magic tapes. But you know what? I'm gonna keep doing it.

- Andster