It Is A Magic Show After All!

you can take the lamest piece of shit imaginable and through good staging and a well developed character you can have a great performance piece.

Well, if you do this you know what you’ve got? A lame magic performance. It might be entertaining, but it isn’t magic.

If all I want is entertainment, I’ll go to a good strip club, grab a gin and tonic and watch naked women with big gozangas strut around. Now that’s entertainment.

(Actually many years ago – in days when I did periodically go to a strip joint, I watched a stripper, Miss Nude Canada I believe, disrobe and do a magic act – buck nekkid. It was nearly surreal and, at first, you didn’t know where to look, but that was resolved quickly. Put it this way – I have no idea what the tricks were…..)

If you’re doing a magic show – do good magic. There’s plenty of excellent tricks. Tricks that actually fool the audience when performed well. Now, when you add staging and character attributes you really have something.

Don’t ever let anyone sell you on the – there’s no bad tricks, just bad magicians bull shit. There are tons of bad tricks and your audience, the laymen, are actually capable of real human thought. If you’re depending on this just blows right past laymen, get a new trick. It probably won’t.

Do yourself a favor and download these clips of Whit Haydn performing four terrific routines.

Notice particularly, the clarity of the effect. I’m sure no one watching was confused at any point. The magic is technically well done, the character well developed and the staging is flawless.

I still think Whit’s a tool, but he’s a hell of a performer.

Take care………

Drivel & Drool

Goodbye Glenn!?
Glenn Bishop recently announced he would quit his blog(s) to focus on other things. I suspicion we’ll see him back, as these damn things get in your blood.

As I have said before, I think he’s one of the good guys – somewhat mercurial, but so am I. It was, apparently, important to Glenn to make peace with a couple of the Castle regulars that he had issues with. That appears to have gone well and I’m glad for him.

Keep in touch Glenn!

Worth A Read
I’m glad to see MagiCentric back on his game. I felt the Haydn/Bush thing really blew his doors off and I really doubted his ability to come back. Recent posts have put that fear to rest. I particularly liked this Post on originality. He’s one of the few to get it.

I’m so tired of originality for the sake of originality I could scream. You know what I mean:

….and the third coin magically flies from the left hand to the right…..and the deck is now blue! Huh?

There’s no need for me to repeat what he already said so well. It’s worth a read.

Learning the Vernon Wand Spin
I had a heck of a time learning the Vernon Wand Spin from the written directions (the spin only, not the ball vanish), until I ran across an excellent clip on Dave VanVranken’s site. Check it out here. It really helps in the learning process.

Thanks Dave