I'm taking my old profession, magic, and combining it with my current profession, marketing, and seeing if I can make something happen.

I found myself in possession of a magic book from the 50s that's in the public domain. It has some good effects in it and would be a good book for someone just starting out in magic. I could just sell it as-is, but I decided to add some value by doing two things:

1. Going through and hand-picking the best effects -- I ended up with about 15 good ones.

2. Add some video tutorials.

I started with just three videos (french drop, false shuffle, and a force) but they turned out so well I think I'm going to do maybe a dozen more -- they really make a big difference in learning the trick.

I also decided that I'm going to write up my method for doing the drinking straw through card and sell it for $15 as a downloadable PDF file. I came up with the trick about 20 years ago after reading the description of Petrick and Mia's straw through card -- my way is completely different. And, dare I say, superior. Cleaner handling, and the spectator can actually hold the straw after you penetrate the card. Do it completely surrounded -- including someone laying on the floor and looking up if you like.

No hype, baby, just a cool trick. The reason I never released it before was because I created the trick based on P&Ms description -- and it wasn't until a few days ago that I realized it would be okay to release my version. =:)

I'll post a link to a video demo of the trick as soon as I have it ready.

Jay

The title for this comes from Tom Frank's latest blog entry -- it was thanks to that blog that I found out about the Smoke and Mirrors show just a couple days before it happened. (See the link to Tom Frank's blog, Coming Through The Haze, to the left.)

Just a quick note before getting into the review -- the problem with doing something like this is the potential for hurting someone's feelings. I don't know any of the performers and I don't have any vested interest in giving them a "good review." (And since I'm a nobody, they probably don't really care what I think, anyway.)

That said, I and my family liked *all* of the acts. There were some things we liked more than others, naturally, but as a whole, the show was worth the ticket price and the 4-hour drive. So if you read this and think I'm being unfair about an act or effect, feel free to let me know -- it's not my intention to pick apart someone's performance.

My wife and I and two kids (ages 8 and 11) drove over a snowy mountain pass just to see the show. Despite getting lost in Everett (I looked at the MapQuest map, but neglected to actually write down driving directions) we found the place in plenty of time. The theatre was very nice from an audience perspective -- very steep so you don't have to look around the head of the person in front of you. Of course, that creates sight lines that aren't so good for some effects, too.

Oh, I said the theatre was nice but that was despite the fact that the seats were about an inch too narrow for a widebody like me. Yeah, I could lose some weight, but if the fattening of America doesn't stop soon, theatres will have to make adjustments. (Note to other widebodies -- the seat on the left aisle end is wider -- it doesn't include the little flip-up tray table thingie.)

On to the performance. To be honest, it was because of reading Tom Frank's blog that we drove two hours (one way) to the show. If he wasn't performing we probably wouldn't have bothered -- but we would have missed out on a really good show. Other than bad sound at the beginning (cheap mic? EQ set really badly?), Tom Frank's MC chores were a nice addition to the show. Well, the stuff with Adam Gerky (Gurky? Gierke?) seemed a little forced (although the blow-off was good) but that could be because we had no idea who Adam was. That's what we get for living on the wrong side of the mountains, I guess. =:)

Frank did a card trick with a kid from the audience and in relation to some of the patter's phrasing I heard my son whisper to my wife, "That guy sounds like Dad!" So that means either that I still got it -- or Tom Frank sounds like an ex-magician.

One other thing about the MC (and this is not butt-kissing although it may read that way) -- Tom Frank's linking ring routine is the *first* one I've ever seen that I genuinely liked. I've seen a lot of linking rings in my day, and some have been good, and some I've enjoyed for the technical aspects, but this one was just very cool. The patter and the moves worked with each other better than I've ever seen. One of the things I liked about the routines was that a big deal wasn't usually made when the rings linked -- they were unlinked, then suddenly linked, and then maybe a half-second later unlinked again. It was about 5 minutes of poetry (literally and figuratively) with real magic happening.

First act was Vaclav, the love child of Alice Cooper and The Great Thompsoni. Being a fan of both, I was intrigued from the first step of bunny-clad feet onto the stage. His opening effect was Gene Anderson's Torn and Restored Newspaper and that *always* kills. The restoration is so picture perfect that it's almost impossible not to get a great reaction. (Unless, of course, you let your adrenaline get the better of you and do the restore with too much gusto -- thus ripping the restored paper as it appears. Vaclav didn't do that -- I'm not saying anyone ever has, but I'd still be embarrassed if it had been me.)

Most of Vaclav's act was done with a helper from the audience -- no talking, just some music and Vaclav's deadpan delivery. The effects were mostly standard stuff, but done with Vaclav's "theme" stamped on them they fit nicely into his "wooing" of the lady from the audience. Vaclav made another appearance in the show (unscripted?) and I'll tell you about that later.

Next on the bill was a peformer who has toured with The Great Virgil, Don Brisbane. If I told you that his act consisted of cutting shapes out of newspapers you'd probably yawn (at least mentally). But a good indication of how his act really played was shown by my 11-year old son's comment at the end of the act, "He's good!"

I would imagine that Brisbane's act could have played 50 years ago -- and quite probably did. 50 years from now, I'm not sure -- I wonder whether people will know what newspapers are by then (of course we were supposed to have personal jetpacks by now, too, so...). I'd be interested to know the history of that act.

When I hear the term bizarre magic I think of withcraft and warlocks -- and that's not my cup of tea. So I expected to just "get through" Master Payne's act in order to see the next one. Oops! I'm an idiot.

Master Payne told the story of Twisty Pole, a jester who was trying to steal a big silver ball (I think it was a jewel or something -- I forget) from two dragons. The story was engaging, the magic was mysterious, and my kids loved the fact that rice spilled all over the floor (I'm pretty sure they noticed the magic, but the mess was what they mentioned afterwards). I was impressed by Payne's performance and promise not to have a kneejerk reaction toward bizarre magic in the future.

Now we get to the pirate act, Telemus. Okay, I'm not sure he was really a pirate, but if he was going for a different look -- he needs to work harder. =:) This was the first act with stage illusions and the first act where the sight lines mentioned earlier could be problematic. We didn't really "see" anything during the sword basket illusion, but I caught a flash of an arm when I shouldn't have and we were about 2/3 of the way to the top seats. The best part of that illusion was when Telemus got into the basket -- that's the part that convinces the audience the assistant is gone.

Telemus closed with the substitution trunk. The only problem with that trick is that I've seen The Pendragons do it -- know what I mean? Telemus did it nice and speedy, however, and didn't mess with ropes on the case which can make the trick drag. Basically, his act was cool -- a couple good, solid, illusions.

And then it was time for intermission, during which Vaclav came out and roamed the aisles of the theatre interacting with members of the audience -- undressing one man (okay, just his jacket), throwing a boy over his shoulder and carrying him to the upper row of seats, doing a watch steal, doing a girlfriend steal, etc. When the lights dimmed to start the second half he ran backstage to a round of applause for his antics. His impromptu performance made the 10-minute intermission fly by.

And now for something completely different, a female magician! As Tom Frank pointed out, there are too few of those around. And I was glad to see at least one on the bill so that my 8-year old daughter could maybe see herself doing something like that. Kate Arnold appeared on stage in jammies and a bathrobe and upon hearing a phone message saying to get ready for a night on the town, turned her back to the audience, dropped her robe, and was wearing a full length sparkly evening gown. Unfortunately, she only had one shoe and that one wouldn't cooperate for a while -- flying around on its own and such.

One of the best things about Arnold's act, I thought, was how she took "stock" effects such as a Zombie and cut and restored rope, and "tweaked" them so they were completely new tricks in the context of her routine. She had a really good stage presence and I still don't know how she made that other shoe appear on her foot. I knew it was coming, and still didn't catch it. Argh!

Philemon Vanderbeck was next and the first thing I found out about this guy was that he doesn't pronounce his name like the book in the Bible -- what, he has to be different or something? (For those of you who have never seen the man, that was a joke.) I wasn't sure what to expect, but Vanderbeck's dry sense of humor and delivery was perfect for his effect -- vanishing, appearing, and solving a Rubik's Cube magically. I know, "always leave them wanting more" but I wish he'd done at least one more effect.

Wrapping up the show was Brian Cook with a manipulation routine and a couple illusions. The manipulation revolved around his gloves changing colors (more times than I expected) and the appearance of yellow balls over and over again. It would have been cool if, at the end of his routine, he would have been showered with hundreds of yellow ping-pong balls, ala Captain Kangaroo. In fact, he could have them created with his contact info on them and then when they bounce into the audience people could keep them. Oh, man, I'm getting hit right now with all kinds of ways you could make use of a ping-pong ball business card...

Back to the review -- Cook ended with the appearance of his assistant and then her mutilation. Since this was a family show, fortunately that was bloodless and entertaining. I guess you could make the argument that the assisant vanished rather than being cut into four slices, but either way it was a great-looking illusion.

And that was it for the show -- I wanted to say thanks to the performers afterwards but my kids pulled me outside so they could ride the firetruck. They really liked the magic show -- but if there's a choice between chatting with strangers and riding a firetruck, well, it's not even a fair fight.

Like I said at the beginning, this was a great family show with some great acts. It's very cool to see the high caliber of magic from a "local" magic club. Congratulations on a fantastic show.

Jay

If you look back at the post before this one you'll spot a *slight* gap in time. Okay, longer than slight. In that amount of time I should have mounted my comeback and have signed a multi-year contract for a new show on the Las Vegas Strip.

Hmmm...

Who would have thought being a Dad and making a living would take up so much freaking time?

So my plans have changed -- I'm not planning on doing magic as a business any time in the near future. However, I am planning on doing it as a hobby. If I can figure out how to do that. You see, I typically don't have "hobbies" like normal people do -- if I'm going to be involved in something I tend to jump in with both feet -- and then try to figure out some way to profit from it.

My family and I are planning a move sometime in the next six months or so and we're in the start of our "weeding out" phase. I have a few boxes of magic stuff that I've hauled around for the last 15-20 years and am going to get rid of most of it. These are a few of the things I'll be keeping and working on...

• Okito Box


• Chop Cup


• Cups and Balls (maybe)


• 3 Shell Game


• Couple Trick Decks

Well, and a few more "props" than that, but I can't think of them right now. On top of that, I'll be "keeping" some stuff that doesn't really require any props, such as rope tricks, regular card tricks, Gene Anderson's Newspaper Tear, some mentalism stuff, etc.

My goal is to have enough stuff to keep me occupied as well as be able to actually do a small show if the opportunity should arise.

I did spend a little money on magic stuff in the past couple weeks (crap, it's already starting!) and I'll tell you about that soon.

Jay

Thursday - Oct 17, 2002
I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I'm fairly embarrassed with myself. I didn't spend enough time rehearsing and so when it came time for the show I chickened out and did only ONE new thing and a bunch of juggling.

The audience liked it, everyone had fun, but I blew a great chance to really "switch gears" and not fall back on my old tried and true stuff.

The one memory stunt that I did revolved around a 10x10 grid of 4-digit numbers. I had people call out the X and Y coordinates and then told them what 4-digit number was in that location.

The only problem was that at least a couple people (they told me afterwards) thought there was some "formula" that told me what numbers were in a given location. Technically that's true, but it turns the memory stunt into a trick that's not nearly as impressive (I don't think).

One twist I threw in that got a good reaction was to have five people call out X/Y coordinates while someone (behind my back) wrote down the numbers at those locations. That gave us a 20-digit number which I then quoted back to the audience.

So, I need to figure out how to "play" the memory stuff correctly. I know it would be really easy to create a very boring memory show so I need to figure out how to keep that from happening. :)

I'm also doing some heavy-duty evaluating of my abilities and the direction I'd prefer to head. I'd rather do corporate stuff but my background is in kid/family shows, so jumping completely from one to the other probably isn't reasonable.

I just spent a couple hundred bucks on a magic marketing course. I know, I got suckered, right? Well, that's not what I think so far...

More about what I got and what I think of it soon.

Sunday - Aug 04, 2002
Okay, I have a "kind of" show booked. It's only "kind of" because it's for a church potluck -- and it's the church I go to -- and it's for free.

But, it's the first step in my master plan. Hehehe! I'm doing it for three reasons...

1. I need to get back in front of an audience.

2. I need some current testimonials.

3. I need a friendly crowd since I'm trying new stuff.

This show is going to be a "memory" show, not magic or juggling like I've done in the past. I have about 20 minutes on stage and this is my tentative set...

400-Digit Grid / 40-Digit Number
Tom's Trained Brain (my 8-year old shows off)
Memorizing a Magazine (current issue of Saturday Evening Post)
4x4 magic Square

I'm calling the show "The Jennings Family's Trained Brains." If I can figure out something for 6-year old Chelsea to do then I'll add her to the act, too.

Thursday - Jul 11, 2002
When I look back at what I was doing 15 years ago I feel kind of depressed because I was doing good shows, but I just couldn't do enough of them to make a decent living.

And that's because I thought that if I did a good show that the opportunities to perform would just "happen."

The amount of promotions and marketing I did was embarrassingly small, but at the time I didn't know any better. It pretty much consisted of calling a company to find out who was in charge of their picnic or holiday party and then mailing them a brochure. That was it. No follow-up, no nothing.

No wonder I was struggling.

Over the past few years I've read a lot of marketing materials, and will *not* make the same mistakes again. I've read a lot of good things about Dave Dee's marketing materials but haven't ordered his "main" course. I did buy his Bootcamp tapes and have listened to them multiple times and they were *well* worth what I paid.

I also have Dan Kennedy's Magnetic Marketing course and can't speak about it too highly. Between those two I think I'm ready to market my show the way it should be marketed.

Okay, I also have to admit that I bought the "Millionaire Magician" ebook and have just started reading it. I'm a "little" embarrassed about it because it sounds like a scam, but with the number of testimonials he's gotten for it I figure I should at least take a look at what he has to say. I'll stick a review of it up here soon. (And if I end up making a million dollars you can bet you'll hear about it!)

One of my next tasks is to write the marketing materials I need to generate leads (and shows). But before then, or maybe at the same time, I need to figure out which show I'm going to start pushing first.

One thing I'm kind og wondering about is how to position myself -- on the one hand I'm a newbie, but on the other hand I have a *lot* of performing experience. Unfortunately, all my testimonials/referrals are more than a decade old so in that regard I'm starting from scratch.

As much as I hate free shows, I may do a couple just to get some testimonials. The local senior center is having a grand opening soon (new building) so maybe I should contact them. That kind of thing could get me some free press, too.

I'm also thinking of offering to do a show at the next church potluck. That will allow me to try out some new stuff in front of a friendly audience. And I could get a testimonial from that, too.

Monday - Jul 08, 2002
I don't think I'll be satisfied with the type of show I used to do -- routine done to music, produce doves, silk stuff, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I might put something like that together, but *not* as the main course.

I could really get into mentalism, but don't like some of the baggage that goes with it (personal preference). Something similar is memory work, ala Harry Lorayne. I've been doing that stuff off and on since I was a teenager so I wouldn't have to start from scratch.

I'm thinking I need to put a few different shows together. Yeah, I could get by with just one, but I'd rather be able to work more shows, at least at the start. So I've come up with a list of the type of shows to focus on at first...

1. Family Stage Show - Something that would go over for a company picnic or Christmas party, maybe a fundraiser, etc. Maybe one or two illusions that I could do with the dogs or kids, otherwise good ol' platform magic.

2. Adult Stage Show - Similar to the first, but where it's pretty much adults in the audience. This is where a mentalism/memory show might work.

3. School Show - In my past life as a magician I did a lot of school shows, and in those days you didn't have to have a "theme" -- it could just be entertaining. But now they want drug and alcohol shows, gangs, etc. Bleah. I'm thinking of putting together a memory show that would teach kids how to memorize stuff for tests, etc. Obviously not for lower grades, but it might be cool for 5th grade and up.

4. Memory Workshop - Not really a show, but a 2-hour workshop for corporations to teach their people how to memorize names and faces. I envision this one as possibly turning into my cash cow.

Did you notice there are no close-up shows listed? Two reasons: first, I enjoy stage stuff more, and second, I have this nice little shaking in my hands that's really noticeable at close range. It's a genetic thing, I think, since my younger brother has it, too. (Or maybe we were both abducted and tested???)

I really think the memory stuff will play a big role in the future and I've started focusing on that more and more. I'll tell you what I'm doing to "practice" in a day or two.

As far as the family shows go, both kids are practicing their juggling and I'm in the middle of trying to figure out what kind of illusion would be good to use with kids and/or dogs.

Saturday - Jun 29, 2002
Oh, man. I can't believe it's been over a year since I wrote the introduction to my "Back in the Saddle" series.

And am I back in the saddle? No, but I at least kept the horse in the corral rather than letting him back out into the wild. (Okay, enough of that analogy. Pretty soon I'll be wearing a belt buckle as big as my head.)

A month after I decided to start this thing a monkeywrench was thrown into the works -- okay, two monkeywrenches. My wife and I got a call about a couple of kids that needed a new home. We'd been on "the adoption list" for a few months, but were told we'd have a transition period of 2-3 months once they found some kids. Well, the "transition period" in our case was less than a week and we instantly went from zero to two kids.

So, everything except a crash course in figuring out how to raise two kids went out the window.

However, after a year together things have settled down and now, more than ever, I want to get back into performing. My goal now is to replace my real job -- working 60-80 hours per week means some days I don't even get to see my kids while they're awake. And that's *not* why I wanted to get kids.

Besides, I've always had this dream of having a "family act" and now I have the raw materials in place. In fact, last February we did our first show together at a local Kiwanis Club Talent Showcase. My wife and I juggled and the kids helped with the dog tricks. And they did great! They both said their lines like they were supposed to and neither one of them suddenly got "shy" like some kids do.

It bodes well for the future...

I may have to work long hours as a performer, but if the family is involved in some of the shows then we'll have plenty of time together actually doing something, rather than sitting around watching TV, etc. And the kids will be learning skills that will help them no matter what they decide to do when they grow up.

I want to work with people again (as opposed to sitting in front of a computer screen for days on end and communicating via instant messages), I like performing, and this will give me a chance to build something *with* my family.

Next stop, the game plan...