A look at what’s coming up on the site…
Back in the 1980s when I was a full-time magician most of the stuff I did was not original.
The “magic to music” stuff I usually did to start the show was original, in a way, but I was still creating an “original” routine that consisted of tricks that others were also doing. And then the “talky tricks” were mostly from David Ginn books and the like. And I usually did them just as I read them.
Sidebar: I don’t find anything wrong with doing that — buying a routine and performing it. If it fits you and you like it, go for it. On the other hand, at some point you may want to start doing stuff that’s uniquely you…
After my 30+ year hiatus away from magic, I decided to get back into performing and focus on mentalism. A few years later I had some good routines going — but they were still not MY routines. For example, I love Marc Paul’s Summing Up, and Nod to Pocket Watch by Looch is awesome, but the more I thought about the performer I wanted to become, the less routines from other people appealed to me.
There are a few non-original routines that I will probably continue to perform, but for the most part, I want to do routines that are unique to me and my life experiences.
Sidebar: When I say routines, I generally mean the presentation. I don’t feel the need to come up with original methods. Who has that much time? So if I can come up with a presentation that uses Summing Up to illustrate my eclectic life…
In the last couple years I’ve been working on more personal routines and since I’m not a “full show with a pocket full of billets and a Sharpie” kind of guy, I need props. Not props that look like a Dragon Pagoda, but things like this:
Those are cards I use for an OOTW-based routine I call Two Extremes, referring to my life in Alaska and Arizona. Depending on which deck I’m using (which depends on the venue), I’ll perform either Jon Armstrong’s version or John Bannon’s version.
And here’s a look at the ESP cards I created for the billion routines that can be done with those kind of cards — I decided to go with desert-themed cards to match the state I now live in.
And yes, they’re marked on the back, although that card shown in the picture isn’t, so don’t get frustrated if you can’t see it. 😉
So those things are “props” but they don’t feel out of place to me — not in the context of the stories I’m telling.
How Is This A Sneak Peek?
In the title of this article I say this is a sneak peek — that’s because I’ve been thinking about creating a course showing how to come up with ideas for what you want to say to an audience, and then show how to use free or cheap software to design the necessary props, and then pointers on where to get those things turned into physical objects.
While I suspect the finished course will cost a few bucks, I’m going to post at least some of the pieces here, available free, so if making your own props interests you, be sure and subscribe to the site to see the info as it’s released.
When you have props that are specific to what you’re relating to the audience, I think it bumps you up a notch over the people just using playing cards or other generic items.
