Script Opener 04

For a long time magicians claim to use otherworldly powers to make their wonders happen. Those masters of fooling only fool themselves to believe the modern audience would believe the charade.

We all know, there are no ghosts, no monsters and no demons...

And yet, if the light is dim enough, they come crawling out. The ghosts concealed in the folds of a curtain. The monsters under the bed and the demons hiding in the shadows.

It takes a brave heart and an open mind to face these unknown creatures. And I think you got both!

For a long time magicians claim to use otherworldly powers to make their wonders happen.

Magicians like me. Allow me to show you some of those wonders.

Script Opener 03

It is an honor to be here. It will be an honor to fool you. If you let me.
Magic sadly is only as magicial as you allow it to be.
If you choose not to enjoy being fooled, you will not.
However if you choose to enjoy being fooled there is a good chance you gonna have a great night.

Its up to you to enjoy, its up to me to fool you. I worked hard to make it happen. Let me show you:

Script Opener 02

Great to be here. I realized I got the best job in the world. Its my job to lie to you. And its your job to believe me. And when both of us do a fine job. We both benefit by having a great magical adventure. Here we go with the first step. Or as we say in the business, the first trick:

Script Opener 01

Hello there, I'm ______, and I am a magician. Which is a weird thing to say. As we all know, there is no magic. So technically speaking I should introduce myself by saying: Hello there, I'm _____ and I am an actor playing the part of a magician.

Because then everything makes sense. I lie and you choose to believe the lie for the duration of the act. Just like a movie. We choose to believe the actor is a secret spy trying to save the world.

And while I am not saying that I am a secret spy... I could be. Being a magician could be a great cover.

So let's save the world. Here is the first trick!

Before you buy!

There is no Holy Grail. Every trick has weaknesses. If you cannot tell the weakness from a trailer, stay away from it. The reasons for not seeing it is either that crucial parts have been cut or that you are not experienced enough yet to see the weakness. If you are reading this blog the first one probably applies to you. If you see the weakness, then you have to decide if it is something you can live with.

Example: Volant by Alan Rorrison


If you played around with the gimmicks involved, you know that you need that exact necklace and that it might not suit your style. And that the necklace cannot be examined. Not even parts of it. If you are confident enough to be able to deal with that and if the necklace suits your style, then by all means get the gimmicks and the handling tips by Alan.

However if you have no fucking clue how it is done then one of the two points above apply to you. Actually the second point.

And that leads to the logical outcome. If you cannot tell the method from the trailer, you should never buy it. Basically the exact opposite of what is the norm nowadays. Magicians buy the stuff they cannot figure out. You should never do that!

Because the actual method's weakness may not be manageable by you or, you are simply not experienced enough to handle it.

Here is another example: Smokin Flash Silk by G Sparks


I really don't know how this works, nor do I care. But I know that I am probably not able to do the trick justice. If even the man himself cannot do anything but a cringe worthy demonstration.

And as a general rule. Stay away from cards! You do not need more card tricks!

WMF Oliver Eduard Bahm

Oliver Bahm is a magician from Illingen in Germany, which is near Stuttgart which is in the very south of Germany. Pretty remote place and in my opinion very backward.

Oliver Bahm has made a reputation on Facebook by being the creator of a group call "Trickerfinder" which translates to "Inventor(s) of tricks"

That group basically sells other people's creations. Most of the selling is done by Oliver Bahm himself.

But he has a sneaky way to get around the usual publisher rights and to avoid legal responsibility. By basically changing every word and by slightly changing the method / effect of the trick. According to what he claims. I don't know that for sure, but I have good reason to doubt that.

I have a couple of screen shots of some magicians communicating with him where he is offering to sell unaltered copyrighted ebooks. But those are just screen shots and the deal was never made.

So in terms of copyrights he is in the legal zone. Morally of course not. Aside from that, his performing persona is very, very unlikable. I wonder how he gets gigs. Very much up the high horse, looking down. But this may be due to the location he is in.




He clearly wants to be more than he is. He clearly thinks of himself more than he is. And he certainly doesn't give care about what others think of him.

He also has that practice which I really despise of having multiple cloned websites with different regional names within to indicate that he comes from there.

Most recent case. Alexander de Cova has a pretty good book series in German, called "Burners" really good books. Really good. Oliver Bahm actually claims via is Facebook group to have those books as pdf. And those that what to look at them should contact him. He even goes as far as saying that further distribution is not allowed. How dense is that man?

He clearly knows it is wrong to do that and has since removed that statement. Which is a clear indication of him being aware that this behavior is wrong.

I'm sure he will say it was a gag and nothing like that is true, but we all know better. His track record is not in his favor.

WMF Evan Era

Meet Evan, a a world-traveling entertainer, filmmaker, and father from Louisville/Crestwood, Kentucky. A very likable chap with a complete misunderstanding of magic. To him magic is nothing but a puzzle that requires explanation. Or so it seems. Evan has a YouTube Channel and over a million subscribers. Let that sink in. so over a million people get a notification when he is about to explain magic. But not his own ideas... no, mostly beginners tricks, but also store bought tricks. None of the things he "teaches" are his own. All the creations of others.

And I feel very strongly about that particular thing. If you just ruminate the creative effort of others you are nothing but a parasite. And a parasite Evan Era is. In the strictly technial sense. He just gains from those ideas and my guess is that he doesn't pay the creators any royalties, nor credits them.

Among the stuff he reveals are the Diminishing Cards, the Zig Zag Rope, the Magic Butterfly, the Water Crystal, Sword through Balloon, the Four Dimensional Trunk and the Card Zig Zag basically the whole Tenyo catalog up and down.

But not only that, also the classic Pen through Bill, the Knife through Arm, Sword Swallowing, the Appearing Cane, the Neck Cracker Gimmick, Several Fire Gimmicks, basic Spoon bending, the mirror glass, and he also reveals the Himber Ring.

The business model is obvious. His income is the videos themselves. That is a sound way of making some money. But he does it under the pretext of teaching magic. And he is not.

His is not teaching... he glosses over the method, with his limited understanding of magic, he regurgitates what others have said before him. He adds nothing new, shows no understanding of effect, structure and composition of a routine. Its just a dealer demo with an explanation.

And he sucks at sleight of hand. His videos are cut, mainly before the actual effect. This maybe a cut done for the purpose of pacing, but also reveals his lack of understanding magic.

Evan is this weeks magic failure.

"It fooled me"!

Penguin Magic's newsletter...

"Fooled me bad. And not just once. More like 100 times!"
"I performed this live on stage the same day I got it, then non-stop."
"Almost everything is a magician fooler. I love this!"
"I have no idea how it's done, and none of my friends do either."
"A prediction trick that'll get you a standing ovation."
"For the first time ever, she was TOTALLY FOOLED."
"This trick fools magicians bad. Then they cry. It gets weird."
"That fooled the %@#& out of me!"

I sense a pattern in the force. Did you get it? Did you?

Yes, most of them are CARD TRICKS...
Nothing wrong with that of course. For the most part.

Some people died

One being a mentalist, the other one an optimist. And what is so sickening is the fact that honest tweets, post and prayers are being undermined to further the personal agenda of certain magicians who start their message by dropping "I", "me" and "my".

"I couldn't have been so great if it wasn't for him. Btw... See my new show at the casino tonight."

Name-dropping is low. But ego-dropping is lowest.

Hey there, long time no see

Man it was good to not care about the magic community for a while. I feel much much better. For the last few months I have been concentrating on a lot of new projects. My theater is running well. I lost 36 kilograms, I created yet another 90 minute close up show. This time based around the magic scene of the 1900s. Very "Jules Vernesque" in style.

I have not read any magic forums, I have not seen any magic news. Listened to no podcast and basically didn't give a flying fuck about the community. I feel like my batteries are back up to 100%. Awesome!

Now back to some magic topics: I have been going through what is new in terms of magic products. So Sans Mind released the VAPR Watch. A watch that blows smoke. So I guess its a cool little gadget for those who don't mind having a HUGE block of something on their wrist.

Sans Mind had their own little crowd funding thing going on to get the initial watches funded.... or something like that. It seems like Sans Mind has been selling those watches at Blackpool but failed to send them to all of those who participated in the crowd funding campaign first. If that is true.... bad business practice.

Coming up next... A magician who deserves the award of this blog's title.

Blackpool where magic and stupidity meets

So Saturday night, and a former marine soldier and boyfriend of a magician thought it was a good idea to to climb the roof of the main Winter Gardens cafe. He did survive, he fractured his pelvis and broke his wrist. At least to my knowledge. At least something happened at Blackpool this year, that is worth mentioning.

Status

There may have been a huge lack of posts for one year. And I'm afraid will be like this.

Truth be told: I was and am too fed up with the magic community. I decided to stay away. And it turns out it has been way better on my mental health, but even better on my magic. I concentrated all my magic effort on my theater. I have four running shows, two shows on hiatus and one show in production. I've been busy. During Christmas I did two to three shows a day, adding up to about 70 shows. The aftermath of that exposure of course is more shows. So the last few months I've been performing mostly. It is an intense time in my life, where I got little time and little interest in the magic community as a whole.

And posting on this blog was a huge time sink. All the research that went into a 200 word post was often a week or so. I don't have that anymore. Nor am I in the mood.

Is this the end of this blog? Perhaps? I'm not ruling out to return one day. But so far.... farewell!

WMF Steve Gaudet

Go to 15:25 to see Keith Barry's version of the spike trick.



Alright, now that you've see the trick, watch this:



A copycat! His name: The Amazing Raven, a performer who's real name is Stephen Robert John Gaudet. He's a tour manager of a hypnotist called Reveen. So you would think that he knows about not taking other people's material. If you look at some other acts of his, you'll notice that nothing really is his own. You will see a lot of The (not so) Amazing Kreskin bleed through as well as some other well known mentalists.

Watch him fuck up the Magic Square by clicking here. In case you don't know what was supposed to happen. Within 60 seconds he was supposed to fill in the numbers in a grid. I do a Magic Square in my show. 23 seconds. So 60 seconds is more than enough not have an error. But he had an error. He was not able to subtract 20 from the target number. So naturally he fucks up. And needs another 60 seconds to get himself back on track. The only redeeming thing about that performance is his assistant Whitly holding the board that he's writing on. Man, she is a piece of eye candy,,,, Kudos! If you clicked the above link you can see the entire show. And I dare you to watch this in one go. You cannot.

These things happen if you don't practise and rehearse. Which is what I accuse Steve of!

His production quality is good. Too good actually as all the screen, the music and the light makes it appear that Steve Gaudet is a professional. He clearly is not... or should not be. He maybe a wonderful human being, he maybe a great tour manager, but an even decent mentalist he is not,

Here is another video. Him doing hypnosis. The guy is clearly a stooge.This is clear to even the most brain dead spectator. Steve Gaudet make is look like he is able to hypnotise a random guy into becoming a juggler. Which he does. Then the stooge juggles, way too good to be believable. With knives!

Is there any need to be that "false"? He does some routines that I cannot place. But I have a hard time believing that he came up with any presentation by himself. Except maybe that atrocity of a hybrid monster that is Svengali and Tossed Out Deck. Stealing material, sucking at basic performance skills and failing to understand mentalism, as the limits of believability were clearly broken, make me announce the following. Steve Gaudet, you are this weeks magic failure.

But in order to be more on the constructive side of things, here are some pointers.

Put your spin on the classic routines! Do not take other people's work and sell it as your own! There are a few simple steps to take in order to create you own presentation. Start with a premise on why you are able to do what you can do! If you solved that the rest should get worked out.

Rehearse your material! This means (among other things) going through the motions so often, that you can do it effortlessly.

If you wanna be a mentalist, make sure you are believable. If you cannot figure out what feels real and what clearly is not, then you should get the help of those who can differentiate. Those usually are other mentalists,but they wont help you as you are stealing their material. But a good producer can do the same. Get help!

Has the Shwood lost his focus?

Short answer: It seems so!

Long answer: Brian Brushwood has long been of a thorn in magic. His heart may be in the right place, but his actions are not helping to get that message across. I'm talking about his long running YouTube series Scam School. The premise of that show is to "scam" other people into buying you a drink. Naturally he covers magic on that show. And exposes it. Most of it is harmless. But once in a while he fucks up. The exposure of the Invisible Deck comes to mind.



But now he's "teaching" a retention vanish of a coin. It absolutely is exposure and NOT a scam to get a beer. In fact that little premise of the show is completely omitted this time. It would have led to a scam if a duplicate coin was loaded under the spectators drink. And the bet would be that "if I can get the coin under your drink without you and me touching the drink, I get that drink that you are having."

Then doing the NOT a vanish but a switch for a transparent plastic disc which is then dropped into the spectators drink. He looks inside, it looks like the coin is in the beer. But a little magic and everything is as it should be. That would be a scam.

It looks like Brian has lost the focus on what to do.

Brian! Get help! Get a research team! A creative team!

Connecting the tissue! Part 4 of 6

This is a continuation of this

Have a rewarding running trick!

Similar to a running gag in a comedy show a running trick is a trick is about repetition. There are two main ways of doing it. The first one is to attempt a certain trick over and over again, but failing. The Second one is to repeat a minor trick over and over until it becomes increasingly better and better.

Both ways need a rewarding finish. All this interluding stuff needs to add up to something.

Here is an example for the first way. You declare to perform the famous cut and restored rope. You show the rope, you cut it and then comment "This is the easy part. The next part.... well I'm working on it." Then you toss the ropes in a bag next to you.
Later you get out another piece of rope and cut it, this time you do a knot to get them back together and toss the bundle in the bag.
A few tricks later you attempt it again, Cut the rope, it is then visually restored but just as you take your applause the rope breaks again. You toss the pieces in the bag.
And finally you attempt it again, you cut and restore the rope. Being confident you take the bag, rip it open and from it all the pieces have become one long rope. Knowing the magic apparatus out there will make you understand that this routine is a self worker.

Here is an example for the second way. You borrow a 10 dollar note from one spectator and then another 10 dollar note from another spectator. Fold both together, then unfold, both have fused into a 20 dollar bill. So far the setup.... now you show two little bags, one red, the other one blue. "I'm gonna place the bill into one of the bags, then the first guy gets to guess where the bill is. If he's right, he gets to keep the bill. If he's wrong the game continues." Of course the spectator guesses wrong.
You do your next trick and after that you come back to the bills. "Now it's the second guys turn, red or blue? It was in the red one, maybe I put it there again, but I wouldn't be so stupid would I?" So he guesses and is wrong.... This can go on an on. Now for the finish.... "I'll make it easier." Now the twenty is openly placed into the blue bag. "You both get to choose. You can either trust me and take the blue bag or mistrust me and choose the red one. But whatever you get, the other guy gets the other bag." The choice is made and both open their bags at the same time. Both find nothing but their 10 dollar notes. Methodwise a TT gets your far ahead.

A running trick doesn't connect the tricks, but gives the impression to do so. It creates the illusion of a well thought out show. Try it, if you have nothing else.

The above image shows German magician Kalanag doing the Water from India running gag. The rewarding finish is that the bucket that supposedly holds all the produced water is dumped out and a rain of confetti goes airborne.

Connecting the tissue! Part 3 of 6

This is a continuation of yesterdays post, It all starts here.

Use the same props over again!

A really simple way to make your string of tricks feel connected is to reuse your props. As simple as this maybe I've seen magicians putting away the cards, getting out some coins, putting away the coins getting out a different deck of cards. It blows my mind. Switching decks.... sure thing, if it is not obvious. Best would be to do your card trick, do your deck switch (if you have to) as you are getting out the coins, then placing the deck to the side. After the coin trick you pocket your coins and continue with the "same" deck of cards.

Here is another example. The magic wand. The magic wand is more than a bit of motivation and more than a power claim. It can connect the tricks.

Here is an example from my repertoire. I do coin tricks, card tricks, using a lighter for a bill change a key and other stuff. Later in the show I do a trick with "random" objects. I ask my audience for stuff and I get out my lighter, my coins, the key and a single playing card. The audience has seen them, but now they are back. It even reminds them of the tricks they have seen 30 minutes ago. The reintroduction of the props for a different purpose connects the tricks in a subtle way.

This is no hard science. This is a simple devide that is underexplored. Try using it!

Please don't confuse this with reusing the same method or the same gimmick all over again. That is entirely different.

Connecting the Tissue! Part 2 of 6

This is a continuation of yesterdays post, either below this one or here.

Foreshadow the end!

The ending is what people will remember most in a show. So the ending needs to be special. Aside from being the strongest trick you do it needs to feel like a rewarding ending. One technique to do that is to foreshadow the end. You basically tell your audience what is going to happen, but not right on the nose but indirectly.

Here is an example from my repertoire. "I love old magic books. You find so many cool tricks in there that unfortunately you cannot do anymore. In one of the tricks - for example - a gentleman's handkerchief was borrowed. Usually his initials where sewn into one of the four corners. That was then stuffed into a pistol and then shot across the stage into a small locked box or some other impossible place. Nowadays nobody has a handkerchief with the initials sewn in. And a loaded pistol... the laws have changed. But I found an old magic trick that I can do...." 

Then I proceed to do that other trick. But in that story I have put in a few thing. First something about me, digging into old literature making me a bit more interesting, also answering the common question where to learn magic. Also it tells them something about my regret of not being able to perform such a cool sounding trick which pays off, because I just foreshadowed the end. 

My last trick of the show indeed is "Silk to apple" There a silk cloth is being signed then the silk cloth in being stuffed into a Nerf Gun and being shot across the room into an apple. 

So when this happens near the end, People get excited as they recall me telling the story about my regret of not being able to do the trick. It feels wonderful in the brain. People feels smart about being able to pick that up and it connects the show. The ending trick is not just a stand alone trick anymore. It feels like all has been building up to that. The ending feels rewarding and it tells people that it really is the end.

Of course you can foreshadow a lot of things in your show. But if you use that technique too much in becomes "unrewarding". However If you decide not to use this as a device to enhance your ending, because you may feel that your ending is strong enough I urge you to try it somewhere else in your act. Sometimes a natural spectator's response will help you greatly. Like you borrow a ring and you want to make it appear in a locked box. You do your magic method business, hand out the box and all you need to do is to make that "ring" disappear. But right before you do that the spectator says "If you can make my ring appear in the box that I'm holding, that would be a great trick."

This happened to me more than one time and it is a great moment. "Yeah that would be a great trick.... and I'm sure you all, but especially you would go crazy and applaud like there is no tomorrow.... but I'm not that good!" Basically unbeknownst to the spectator he did the foreshadowing him-/herself. I don't need to tell you how to go from here.

More tomorrow...

Connecting the tissue! Part 1 of 6

When you create a show, the least you can do is to string your tricks together, one following the next. The tricks get stronger and stronger and the strongest one is the one you end your show with.

It's a no fail scenario based on the dramatic device of raising the stakes. But a boring one.

You have to create the impression of a show that is more than that. Having created and performing five 90 minute shows I have a few tips for you.

Create loose ends!

People love it, when things come together and hate it when things are left open. In magic you can use that to great dramatic effect. 

In a simple mind reading routine for instance you can write down a city, lay down the piece of paper and then have a city named.... you nod and address the next spectator to think of an animal. You write down the supposed animal and lay down the piece of paper on the table. So far you smell the one ahead nature. You do that as often as you like, but in the end you don't have somebody think of something. Instead you are getting a psychic impression. You write that down and look at the paper. You shake your head in disbelieve saying "Nope, that doesn't make any sense!" and then place that piece of paper far away but still in view. Now you reveal the remain pieces of paper to be a correct and be done with the trick.....

Surly people are interested in the last piece of paper that you lay down. It is a loose end. It feels unresolved. Two or three tricks later something might go wrong. Seriously wrong. Maybe a freely named card was not what you wrote down on your giant prediction banner, but instead the King of Spades is named. Now you return to that piece of paper you left on the table earlier. You remember it suddenly... "Yes, now it makes sense!" Have a spectator pick it up and read it. It says "Sorry about the wrong prediction, of course it was the King of Spades.

Can you see how this plays much bigger that the two tricks just strung together. They are connected. The show feels connected.

More tomorrow...

Hello There!

Two months of not posting... such a dick move of mine! I'm such an asshole...!

Now that I got that out of the way; How are you guys? I've been busy. The development for the new show is done (the main reason for me not posting btw) and the show is in rehearsing stage. 24th of April is the first show.

How many card tricks do you do compared to the many you know? My guess is that you do about 2-3 per show of a standing repertoire of 5-6 out of a pool of about 40 card tricks. If that is the case raise your hand.

To all of the others... Stop buying card tricks!

Check out this 99 cent trick being sold on T11's Wire!...



well more of a technique in a project that has been years in the making. At least according to the 20-year-old creator John Bendewald. Is this supposed to be a convincing Second Deal? It doesn't even look like the top card is being taken at all. The fingers don't even give an indication they they are supposed to take the top card. The right hand thumb goes clearly under the top card which has weirdly been angled off from the deck.

If it sounds like I'm being over analytical, that is because I am. The Second Deal is one of those techniques, that if you do it well you can do it under scrutiny. If you suck at it, (like me) you better need a good reality outside of the move misdirecting from the move.

For instance. You just made the four aces appear by changing a single card into the four aces. The reality is different. Only three aces are there but thanks to Alex Elmsley it looks like four. But you planned ahead the missing ace is on top of the deck.
      So you drop the four card packet on the deck and then deal them out. The fourth card is the X card and the fifth card the last ace. So I can deal out three aces regularly giving me enough cover to do the one Second Deal.

Also the main idea has been done better before. Check out Card College and hell, even The Expert at the Card Table will do!

The magic bar!

René Lavand has died. The Magic world is in imminent peril to dropping the bar he's raised. We have lost another great one. Also Dean Dill. What a tragic weekend for magic kind. Both were respectable performers and have pushed the magic art. One more so than the other.

But now that the bar has been lowered again, this is totally acceptable again:



Help Us!!!