Magic and Manners

A friend of mine asked me to review and edit an article that he wrote for a local magic club's newsletter. The topic was manners and etiquette for magicians. This led me to thinking about my own views on things magicians do to other magicians that irritate me, and the biggest one for me is someone asking "How'd you do that?"

Now with laypeople, usually it's just an immediate response and you can take it as a compliment. However with magicians, it's always an actual request (if not a demand) to know how you accomplished your feat. Now I understand that in magic we all feel like we're insiders and thus are entitled to know the secrets to things. I mean, we already know a lot of secrets about a lot of tricks. However, just because you're a magician, doesn't mean you have any right to know how I did something.

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Google Analytics and Why You Should Care

So while I was on my daily random internet search, I came across a link to a few videos that go into detail on Google Analytics and how you can make it run more efficiently and what you can do with the data.

The website is called AppSumo, and for a short period of time, their $99 Google Analytics videos are completely free. 

Now I went in to this a bit skeptical. What's the big deal about Analytics and can it really help me in a real, tangible way? The answer, as you will find if you watch the vidoe, is absolutely yes! Most of the videos are short with a few that reach ten or eleven minutes, but the content in them is absolutely priceless. The interviewer is very clear and he ensures the entire process goes step by step so even people who get frustrated with things (like your's truly) can follow along while feeling completely at home in new territory.

Some of the things you're going to learn are:

• How to set up and track goals
• How to get tangible results with the information you receive
• How to get Google to look at things that matter to you
• How to find out which marketing campaign is or isn't working
• Find out who is sending you the most traffic
• Find out how many people are hitting your goals

It's easy and the videos take less than an hour to watch, but the information in them is great. So, what are you waiting for? Head over to AppSumo and get started!

~Cameron Rivers

IBM “Legends of Magic & Comedy" Show

With all of the changes and issues with the 2011 IBM Convention in Dallas, Texas, one of the best things that happened was the closing gala show titled "Legends of Magic & Comedy."

Beginning with Jeff McBride, performing his fantastic mask and card manipulation act, as well as his miser's dream. With his high energy and extremely visual magic, Jeff was a natural choice to start off the show, and he energized the audience immediately.

Next, Michael Ammar and his wife Hannah performed a staple of Hannah's great-grandfather's magic show; the Willard Spirit Cabinet. It was an amazing display and Francis Willard, Hannah's mother and Willard's granddaughter, was visibly moved by the routine.

Walter "Zaney" Blaney introduced his daughter and granddaughter who performed his world famous levitation, an effect that is still as amazing as it is perfect.

Next, Tom Mullica presented his Red Skelton Guzzler's Gin routine to rounds of laughter and applause from the audience.

Johnny and Pam Thompson presented their "Great Tomsoni" routine to a standing ovation.

Another tribute routine had Darren Romeo and Gay Blackstone performing Blacktone Jr's famous floating lightbulb routine.

At the end of the night, everyone left with a feeling of awe and appreciation of those magicians who have come before us, both the performers on stage and those who can no longer be with us. The closing show of the IBM 2011 convention captured the spirit of the convention.

2011 IBM Convention In Review

The 2011 International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention in Dallas, Texas kicked off with convention chairmen David Sandy and Roger Miller announcing Dallas as the “Reinvention Convention”. What does that mean, what were they re-inventing, and did they pull it off?

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Magic and the Allied Arts

So, this post is inspired in part by this video (sorry, apparently I can't imbed a direct url) as well as the wonderful conversation that happened over on r/magic.

Now, I stand by what I said in the above discussion: by watching and practicing other forms of art and performance, it makes you a better magician. In the above video, the most obvious things that you can take away are the costuming, the staging (blocking, lighting, etc), and the music. If you take any of those things out, the video changes context drastically. Don't believe me? Try watching it here (mute the video on the right, the one with the performer).

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Williams Magic Mobile Magic Shop

A week ago or so I got a call from the president of the Order of Aggie Illusionists as well as an email from John Mavrick, the current president of the Austin S.A.M, both of them telling me about some guy who had a travelling magic shop and was going to be stopping in College Station. It just happened that I was going to be in College Station on the day that this magic shop was rolling in, so I went to check it out.

Now I didn't have very high expectations; I was expecting something thrown together and half-assed, but when I saw the setup, I was amazed.

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A month to go

Well, it's getting around to being that time of year again. Yes, I'm talking about the Sherwood Forest Renaissance Festival!

Once again I'll be performing out at the festival, and once again here I am panicking about my show. I suppose panic isn't really the best word, but I am fretting a bit. I still have to solidify my show before the first weekend of faire (February 19th) and it's really hard to get motivated to do so.

So, instead of working on my show like I should be doing, I'm going to go ahead and give a brief go at talking about routineing.

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Reality-Distortion Field

This is another crosspost (it's not my fault that there are so many awesome blogs out there!!!) from The Four Hour Work Week.


Take a few minutes to read the post on The Four Hour Work Week about Bill Clinton. Done? Did you watch the video? Watch the video. Ok? Ok.

Did you notice the extreeme difference in George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton? Did you notice that even though you're watching something that is over a decade old, that when he started talking to that woman that it felt as if he were talking to you?

I loved the line about Clinton not seducing women but seducing everyone. We could all learn something from watching Bill Clinton.

Think about it. If you have a performer who gets up there and does the show, and is wonderful, then good; fine. But what if you get up there and make an emotional and personal connection with the audience? Who do you think will be remembered as the better performer? That's the real trick.

So take a look at this very well thought out article and see if you can't apply some of the techniques therein to your own life and your own performances and watch the results.

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Crosspost

Today's entry is a crosspost from Why Am I Stuck in Magician Hell. 


The sad thing is that I did this during the TAOM 2010 Close-up competition but my room moderator said it was too late to enter. The conversation went something like this:

Me: John. John! Can I enter? I can win with what's in my pockets right now!

John: No, unfortunately.

Me: But I have pocket lint!!!!

*Names may or may not have been changed.
**Me is meant to represent me, and not you.

Half Price Books

I recently took a trip to Half Price Books, a used book store chain, where I found a copy of Harry Lorayne's Close Up Card Magic, a first edition none the less, for seven dollars. This comes after finding a complete set of Card College for under thirty dollars two years ago, as well as various other books (The Complete Course in Magic by Mark Wilson is always a popular find).

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Contact Juggling

So this is an awesome contact juggling video that I saw a few years ago and just rediscovered.

http://www.break.com/index/contact-juggling.html

Check it out!

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Diversify

One thing that is true in almost all aspects of life is the need to diversify. Your investment portfolios, your education, your life experiences, and yes, even your magic.

How many magicians do you know who only do cards or only do coins? BORING! To be a great magician, you need to diversify your skills. How do you go about doing that? Well, let me show you.

STEP ONE

The first step to diversifying is to identify what it is that you do already and what you'd like to move on to. For a large majority of us, cards is what we rely on. They are safe, easy, and have about ten million different things you can do with them, but hand us a coin and we're doing a David Blaine style shuttle pass. 

So what type of magic do you do now? For me, it's mainly cards.

So what type of magic do you move on to? That's a more difficult question. I'm moving in the direction of coins, because there is a feel that there is a coin/card dichotomy in magic, but the real reason I'm moving that way is to learn a new skill set that is completely different. 

So if you only do coins, move to cards; cards to coins. Mainly do mentalism? Try moving on to some card stuff. Impromptu magic your specialty? try coins. And everyone should try the cups.

STEP TWO

The next step is the hardest. You will be starting over almost as a complete beginner. Yes, you may know how something is done, but your fingers are going to be stupid and fumbly (yes I did just make that word up). Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, try to remember the hard work and wonder that you had when you first started learning magic. 

Try finding that one really impressive routine you've always wished you could perform and go at it!

STEP THREE

Now that you have a basis in your new area of magic, try finding ways to incorporate it into your old magic. Cards and coins make a wonderful matrix; mentalism and cards makes for some strange and eerie effects.

Now get out there and show off your new skills.

You're covered in Beeeeeeeees!

http Check it out. Just a fun little clip from Penn and Teller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gysIuQRK7eA

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Impromptu magic

Something that I've always felt strongly about (though I haven't ever really pursued it to any extent) is that a magician is someone who can, at any moment, perform for someone.

Now when I say that, I don't mean that you should always have a deck of cards and a coin on you (you should though). No. What I'm saying is that at any point you should be able to take something that is laying around or that someone has given you and be able to perform with it. Not only that, but you should be setting up situations where you can perform impromptu effects.

One example is from Michael Ammar. He said that he used to go out with nothing but a pocket full of rubber bands. He'd drop them on the floor at the places that he and his group would be and wait until someone asks to see some magic. He would protest, saying that he didn't have anything on him, and then he would feign spontaneity and pick up the rubber bands and start performing.

Another example is from myself. One of my favorite impromptu effects is the paperclip bend. To make sure I can perform it, I'll sometimes carry a few paperclips and leave them laying around places. This ensures that there's always one available.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that not only should you be able to do something with anything someone hands you, but start setting yourself up for incredible moments of magic that seem completely un-prepped.

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Charlie Caper

Check out this guy! One of the most entertaining performers I've seen in a long while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4R_ub_cAGw

Daniel Chesterfield

It looks like Blogger won't let me embed YouTube videos, so here's the link to one of the best David Copperfield spoofs ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqiNL4Hn04A

Card Collections

One thing that many magicians do is start collecting cards. I know that I have and while it's not an extensive collection by any strech of the imagination, I love getting interesting playing cards.

So I figured that I'd go through and find a bunch of cool/interesting/odd playing cards that you could add to your collection and links to where to find them.

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United States Playing Card Company on trick decks

The United States Playing Card Company produces some of the best playing cards in the world. From Bicycle and Bee to Aviator and KEM, the one thing that everyone who knows anything about cards knows is that the USPCC produces great quality cards that are easily recognizable and are perfectly normal.

Now, it used to be (and has been on and off for a while) that you could order trick decks of cards from the USPCC, but most of the time nowadays, you can't. It seems that being the top card company in the world and selling gimmicked decks doesn't really mesh with corporate, and I can understand that. You don't want people thinking that the cards you provide to casino's could be marked.

But apparently, the USPCC is teaming up with David Blaine and are releasing three specialty decks on October 31st.

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David Blaine and Criss Angel

There has been a lot of controversy in the magic community over David Blaine and Criss Angel. The controversy spreads from which is a better magician, to how they have hurt the magic community at large.

Now, my opinion, and this is one that is shared by very few magicians, is that both Angel and Blaine have done amazing things for the magic community and that we wouldn't be where we are today without them.

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Criss Angel being a dick?

I know that for many of you, the news that Criss Angel was being a dick recently isn't going to make you do a double-take. But someone forwarded me an article where it seems that Criss went off on two other magicians who happened to be at the Luxor, going so far as to have them removed from the property. Geeze, what a dick!

There is another side to the story, a side that the brief article I read didn't really cover, and I'd like to speculate on.

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