After attending the Celebration of Milt Larsen in Los Angeles, I took the opportunity to visit the Magic Castle on July 25th. This was an excellent occasion to visit our clubhouse as it was the first night of the annual Future Stars of Magic week. It was an inspirational evening watching Magic Castle Junior Members, and a few former members, present magic, comedy, juggling, and even some vocalizing in the various showrooms of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.
The Junior Program at the Academy of Magical Arts (AMA) was founded in 1975 when Diana Zimmerman turned her vision of a Junior Society into a reality. This wasn’t an easy accomplishment as the AMA board of directors wasn’t too excited about the prospect of adding a juvenile mentoring program under its magical umbrella. However, as those of us who know her will attest, Diana is a force of nature who achieves and realizes goals that others might think of as impossible or at least unlikely. Zimmerman has been running, overseeing, and promoting the program ever since it was launched. The Junior Membership Program is currently in the very safe hands of Steve Barnes and David Doyle. Diana Zimmerman had already achieved recognition for her magical skills and established herself as the premier lady magician of the ’70s.Her work set the stage, and led the way, for women to become featured performers and ditch their customary “box jumper” roles.
Diana was preparing to pitch her ideas for a Junior Magic Castle Program to the AMA Board of Directors when she sat down at the Owl Bar and discussed her pet project with Cary Grant. He instantly turned into an eager supporter of the program and enthusiastically backed Zimmerman in that fateful board meeting that night. That is how the Junior Membership got its start. I was on the first committee dedicated to establishing the Junior Program, this initially involved the initial auditions to select the first young performers for inclusion in the program. The auditions were held at the historic Masquers Club just a few blocks from the Castle, and I was overwhelmed by the quality of the talent we saw that day. The Junior Program has helped develop and mentor some of the finest young magical entertainers in the last 48 years. This list includes esteemed performers such as Dirk Arthur, Bill Goodwin, Neil Patrick Harris, Christopher Hart, Kevin James, Mark Kalin, and Michael Weber.
One of the many perks for Junior Members is the “Future Stars of Magic” week that take place every year. On these occasions, the lucky magicians get to showcase their talents several times a night to the famously enthusiastic Magic Castle audiences. It is always a special time to visit the Castle showrooms and feel the excitement that permeates our clubhouse. I truly wish there had been this kind of opportunity in my teenage years to hone my craft, this is why I was such an avid early supporter of Diana Zimmerman’s “radical” notion. The timing was right. Diana was passionate about the Junior Society and along with Robert Dorian, she created the entire blueprint for the society that is still going from strength to strength.
The Magic Castle Junior Society is a very special organization which sums up its vision, “The mission of the AMA Junior Society is to provide mentoring for gifted and dedicated young magicians between the ages of 13 & 20 year-olds, through exposure to leading industry professionals. We help develop magical interests and prowess, provide performance workshops designed to improve knowledge & technique, and a network for meeting and interacting with those of similar interests.” If you are interested in further information about membership in the Junior Society, please contact the AMA Junior Society committee at: juniors@magiccastle.com. Last year a new international membership for the program was launched allowing young magicians worldwide to share the outstanding lectures and events featured by the society. This could be the ideal way for someone miles away from Hollywood to learn from or with the very best.
Now let’s return to my Magic Castle visit last month and the Future Stars of Magic Week. I immediately want to apologize for the fact that I didn’t get to catch all the shows. On a busy night I was delighted to catch one Palace and two Parlour shows in the company of my friend Ray Anderson. Ray is a master magician and an AMA Performing Fellowship Award winner. I was interested to discover what an inspiration Anderson has been to the younger generation of magicians in so many ways. Ray summed up the Future Stars Week in this way, “It was heartwarming to see the next generation of magicians putting in the work it takes to hone their craft. The talent, creativity, and diversity of these fine, young performers was inspiring.” I can only echo Ray’s words.
However, before I move on to discuss the acts that I saw, I would like to list the names of the other performers featured in various showrooms throughout the week. All the talk I heard from guests was how much they enjoyed every performer that night and for the entire week. Performing during the Future Stars week in the Close-Up Gallery were, Kenshin Amagi, Jacob Martinez, Bill Goodwin, and Mathew O’Neill. In the Parlour were, Gabriella Lester and Zac Swan. In the Palace were, Matt Marcy, Josiah Bunde, and Sean Radar. The Peller Theater hosted Blaise Serra, and Michael Campion. Which left Griffin Barry to perform his awesome bar magic and close-up in the Library Bar. All of these performers contributed to a fresh and triumphant week. I only have one question. With this much talent at hand, why aren’t there two Future Stars weeks at the Castle every year?
The first act we saw was Gabriella Lester in the early Parlour of Prestidigitation. There has been quite a buzz in the magic world about Gabriella recently. I can understand it. Lester has a lot of charm, a nice easy style, and she performs strong magic. I enjoyed Gabriella’s act immensely; I am sure we will see a great deal more of Ms. Lester in years to come. All she needs is the stage time to fully develop her onstage persona and the sky is the limit. It was fun to see what the fuss was about, and I can see why there is so much interest in Lester’s work.
Performing the late show in the Parlour was Zac Swan. I wasn’t familiar with Zac, or his show, so I sat back ready to be surprised. The first surprise was when Zac began his set by serenading us from the backstage area. Zac performed his comedy magic and burst out into a live song. Fortunately, Swan has a fine voice! His cheerful enthusiasm covered any “cracks” in his blending of music and magic. His finale skillfully incorporated some great Broadway tunes and multiple predictions.
The Palace of Mysteries show featured two Juniors and a popular graduate of the Junior Society in times past. Matt Marcy was a perfect host for the show, as a former Castle Junior, Marcy made a perfect advertisement for the program as he performed some classic magic with enough hi-tech trimmings to make them new to the audiences. He was smooth, funny, and a very skilled emcee. MCing a show is NOT the simple job that it sometimes appears to be when you are watching a pro like Matt.
The first act Marcy introduced was Sean Rader. For a few minutes, I wasn’t sure where Sean was going as he blended juggling and magic. Suddenly I got onto the correct wavelength and was delighted to see earlier moments in the show turn into callbacks. The performance was original, highly visual, and above all funny. I suspect Sean will develop a very strong presence in the magic community. I can’t wait to see where he goes with his work.
The second performer in the Palace was Josiah Bunde who had put together a themed act based on his home state of Hawaii. Bunde has a very engaging personality, and his charm covered a few misfires in his theme. Josiah took a large stone from his shoe and performed a very nice salt pour using sand. After Josiah’s performance, Matt Marcy returned to the stage and performed an exceptional Floating Table routine to close out the show.
That is my rundown about the 2023 Future Stars week. I was also pleased to let our younger readers know about this amazing opportunity. I recently filmed my “Magic Castle Re-Visited” seminar about the earlier times at the Castle. I swapped Castle stories with Steve Spill, Howard Hamburg, Mike Perovich, and Diana Zimmerman. Each guest helped to explore different facets of our clubhouse. Diana and I had a delightful chat about the origins and early days of the Magic Castle Junior Society. I am making this video available throughout September at no cost. The video is available to view on my Vimeo Site. https://vimeo.com/lewinenterprises/magiccastlerevisited?share=copy
Sadly, there are no hard and fast rules you can apply to shaping or improving a comedy magic show. What is perfect for one person can be disastrous for the next. The only real fixed rule is that the more you perform the better chance you have of really improving your show. With a manipulative or illusion show a mirror and a video camera can go a long way towards refining and perfecting your performance. It is one thing to master the mechanics of the magic you are performing, however, putting comedy into the mix definitely complicates the rehearsal process and introduces an X factor. Constant performance is the only key that allows you to incrementally develop a timing that incorporates the inconsistencies that live audiences bring to the table.
Fifty years of making a living mixing magic and laughs have definitely given me some heartfelt insights into the process of making this particular synergy work. The decade I spent headlining in comedy clubs was a wonderful training in making sure that the comedy in my show was as strong as the magic it contained. It is one thing to get laughs performing magic but quite another to really master both individual disciplines and achieve a blend that doesn’t sell either element short. The good news is that a strong comedy magic act can be immensely commercial and highly bookable. Lay audiences love to laugh; in fact most of them far prefer the experience of laughing to that of being fooled. Many magicians tend to forget this reality point; we particularly enjoy the experience of fooling and being fooled or we probably wouldn’t have become magicians in the first place; lay audiences are much less unified on this point.
What I want to do in this article is to set down a few steps that are well worth considering for the performer who wants to take his or her act to the next level. These steps and observations are based on performing experience I have made during a lifetime in magic and also spending quality time with world-class performers. I truly believe that serious thought about them will improve the quality of any comedy magic show. Do not forget though that however beneficial it is to thinkabout things, it is only by putting those thoughts into application that you can really move forward. While these steps are primarily directed towards improving a show for a lay audience the basic principles hold true for performing to an audience of magicians. However, in this regard I will pass on some great advice I was given by the great Ken Brooke; “If you want to be a professional, never trust a magician’s response to your show or you will end up cutting out the bits that real people enjoy the most and adding things that mean nothing to non-magicians.”
One important thing to remember as you improve your act is that a strong magic show is never a static thing. It is the sum total of the person you are at the moment you are while performing it. I have seen many fine manipulative acts that mold a perfect 12-minute show and then continue polishing that same performance for decades. This really doesn’t work in the comedy field, and yet I see many comedy magicians who take the same approach. Times, attitudes and sensibilities vary very quickly when it comes to “funny” and need to be considered on an ongoing basis. “The Baffling Bra” may have been a viable piece of material a couple of generations ago but is scarily out of tune with contemporary times. No, I am not influenced in making this statement if you tell me, “It still gets laughs in the show!”
One of the chief complaints about comedy magic shows from serious bookers/buyers is the outdated nature of much of the comedy incorporated in the show. The last thing you want to do when presenting yourself as an entertainer is to look like someone who is out of touch with mainstream or contemporary audiences. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel, but you do need to realize that a great deal of comedy magic is very dated and needs to be freshened up. You don’t need to burn your Robert Orben books but you might want to seriously limit your jokes from it and then update them! Saying, “My act works the way it is (and always has) so I‘m not going to change it,” is a sure fire way to avoid improvement.
Molding your performing persona.
There are two basic ways to settle on a performing persona for your comedy magic show:
1 Create a fictional and larger than life character and run your material through that lens or filter while performing. Be prepared to be two very different people onstage and offstage. A perfect example of this approach is the outrageous character that Jeff Hobson has created so successfully. Mac King establishes himself as a “hayseed” character and turns this misconception to his own advantage almost instantly. When I was growing up I used to marvel at the wild onstage antics of Ali Bongo, to meet the quiet and reserved gentleman behind the “Shriek of Araby” was quite a shock.
2 Take your own personality and enlarge it so that it assumes the vehicle for a stage-filling entertainer. This is the more common, and I would suggest easier route. If you meet Michael Finney offstage you are basically talking to much the same person you were enjoying onstage; he is just a little bit more so when onstage. Justin Willman and Michael Carbonaro are perfect examples of magicians who project their offstage personalities adapted perfectly to their performing environment. Many of the more exaggerated magical performers still fit into this category fairly easily; from Tommy Cooper to Amazing Johnathan the “what I am is what you get…” approach is clearly part of their appeal.
Take a good long look in the mirror and view your videos before deciding if you are more suited to doing funny things or saying funny things. Maybe it is a combination of these two approaches that you should make your goal while you perform your magic. Do you plan on performing “situational comedy magic” where the nature of the magical elements in your show does the heavy lifting in getting your laughs? Do you plan to tell a stream of jokes that keeps the audience laughing while you are performing your magic show? At an early age I became a big fan of the late Billy McComb and the seamless way he combined really strong magic with traditional stand-up comedy and I personally chose this route and have never regretted it.
Once you have adapted your performing persona then you need to use that as the template to shape the rest of your personal style, such as costume and material. When you have established a good persona you are well advised to keep it as a solid and consistent one and it isn’t worth damaging the integrity of it just to accommodate a one off joke or trick. Look for something else that works just as well but allows you to remain in character. There is an unlimited amount of material out there to choose from and one of the weakest reasons to select something is because it works well in someone else’s act. It is a nice goal, but not particularly practical to have every element in your show 100% original, however, if you can integrate something into your work that is true to your character then it gives a holistic originality to the act in general.
Working with, and knowing, as many comedians as I do I am constantly bombarded with negativity about how “stock” most magicians’ material is. Sadly there is way too much too much truth in this opinion for me to defend our community too vigorously. Comedians usually work endlessly to update and perfect their comedy while comedy magicians are often more interested in adding a new trick. One easy solution to this is to make sure your persona is unique and not fall back on any stock smartass magician stereotype.
Shaping your material.
Opening.
One important thing to realize is that your show begins before you say a word or begin performing any magic. Famously the most vital thing to remember is that a huge part of your audience’s opinion about you is formed during the first 60 seconds they are watching you. Therefore what you a wearing, how you look, and your overall attitude as you hit center stage is of key importance. You must exude confidence and competence as you walk out from the wings to begin your show. No matter what your chosen persona is going to be, the audience need to grasp it immediately and then you can successfully be off and running in that first 60 seconds.
Other vital aspects of a good opening can involve the correct music and lighting to set the tone of what is to follow. Certainly a good spoken introduction is an important consideration that influences your opening. Have a short and effective introduction printed out on a small card for the emcee to read, and then try and make sure that he says it rather than reads it! Don’t fall into the trap of letting the emcee, “Just say anything” or you will almost certainly hate the result. If you don’t care what he says about you then why should he?
Make sure your microphone is working and turned on! Bad sound at the top of your show can be a short cut to looking amateurish and awkward; don’t be so caught up in your props that you cease to remember that your microphone is the most important of them. I could continue with variations on themes like this for quite a while but I think you probably are getting the drift of what I am lumping into concept of the “opening” to a show.
First Trick.
The first trick in your show needs to be a very strong one. In many ways it needs to be stronger than your closing effect, which should be more geared towards the role of achieving applause. That first trick has the most important job of all as it has to establish your style and personality with the audience. Everyone will have a different idea of what does that the most effectively. General rules of thumb are that it shouldn’t require bringing an assistant onstage with you and it shouldn’t be too long or to complicated. My old mentor Billy McComb used to swear by doing a fast visual gag effect upfront because he didn’t think the audience was particularly focused at that point. I am very fond of a “sucker” or “explanation style effect such as the Color Change Silks or Spotcard. A “story” type of effect such as The Six Card Repeat also achieves this result very nicely.
The one important caveat I would apply to any trick in this opening slot is that you should be able to perform it without needing to look at your hands or the props you are using. This allows you to keep in eye contact with the audience at all times. There is no better way to establish a good rapport with your audience than putting a smile on your face and letting your eyes scan the entire venue and encompass the assembled crowd. I am certainly not implying that you shouldn’t look at the props you are employing when you want the audience to specifically focus on them, that is just good stagecraft.
Feature Trick.
Somewhere inside your act needs to be a feature trick. By this I mean an effect that achieves a particularly strong reaction and one that you aren’t afraid to spend enough time to fully explore. This effect can be handled like the centerpiece that your various other tricks frame. It is particularly nice if this effect is one that evokes some strong emotional response from your audience. Comedy magic generally triggers very little emotional response, and allowing one item to appeal to the heart as well as the mind and eyes is very strong theater. Emotion is greatly to be desired in performance. The touching concept that all lay audiences are thrilled with the experience of mystery and being fooled is simply not true: some audience members are and many more are not.
By having several tricks that function as feature effects you can rotate them in your shows and build up a series of shows that are primarily the same format but appear quite different to audiences. Once you have started to build up a repertoire of strong feature effects you can begin to re-examine and revisit them, a good technique is to see how much you can speed up their presentation without losing the impact. Over time it is inevitable that feature effects become somewhat bloated with jokes and business that can be pruned and tightened to good effect. When you have reinvented and retuned them they can be placed back in the act surrounding a new feature or signature trick.
Signature Trick.
As desirable as it might be it isn’t really possible to set out to create a signature effect. These wonderful gifts have a way of arriving in your act and it is your job to discover if one is lurking under the surface of your show. A signature trick is one that fits your style and personality so well that audiences identify you with it, and it with you. It is the strongest piece of performance branding that you can achieve and the sign that you are finally becoming the performer you always wanted to be. Usually these are strong magical effects that have a powerful impact on those watching. However, they can also be a unique little trick or gag that just “clicks” with your audience in a special way.
You will know when you have found a signature trick because people talk about it more than other effects in your show–sometimes even effects that you consider much stronger. When you see this happening it is important to really focus on this effect and work on how to showcase it the most effectively in your show. Always take it very seriously and be aware when it arrives that you have moved to another level as a performer. I am not saying you have to make it a heavy sell in your show, just be aware that it is different from the others and treat it that way.
I found my signature trick in the Linking Finger Rings. This was the trick people wanted to discuss after the show; this was the effect that bookers requested I include in my performance. To this day I never go onstage without being prepared to perform this trick, even if I have absolutely no intention of including it in my show. It is just special. This one routine has resulted in more re-bookings than any other item in my repertoire. It has also resulted in more standing ovations than any other effect, in spite of the fact I almost never close on it. Finding a trick that does this for you is like discovering the pot of gold under the rainbow. Be on the lookout for it!
Linkage.
Nothing shows the difference between an experienced pro and an inexperienced magician more clearly than the way they link the tricks together in their show. If you watch a magician who has the opportunity to perform frequently you will notice how seamlessly they glide from effect to effect. Very often a less experienced performer will seem to present a trick, stop, and then begin another. There is an enormous difference in the reaction of an audience to these two different performance styles. Sometimes, of course, a real pro wants to draw a line or place a period between two tricks and he deliberately breaks the trajectory of his show. He does so, however, in a very deliberate manner totally planned and carefully executed.
Please note that I am not specifically talking about “good” or “bad” performers in the previous paragraph; I am primarily referring to the amount of stage time that the performers have under their belt. It is not easy to add the “linkage” that can make a show run smoothly and effectively. It takes a great deal of practice and planning to create the words, jokes and business to bridge the more obvious tent poles in an act. The first step towards success in this endeavor is to observe the way entertainers you admire tackle this task and then watch less experienced performers. Note the points in the less experienced performer’s show where the energy suddenly dissipates. Then look at the written script of your show (you do have one I hope!) and co-ordinate the “linkage” to make your show glide along as smoothly as a P & L Reel.
An analogy that is always worth thinking about when taking the long view on your show is the time honored one that compares it to a journey. It isn’t just the final destination that counts but all the steps and stages of the journey that get you there. Linkage is the invisible element that makes things go smoothly and cleanly from point A to point B, whether it is a joke, a suitable line of dialogue or a fast and unexpected piece of magic. Linkage will improve things greatly in any show since nothing is more jarring than a sudden awkward pause that lets your audience hear your magical gearshift grinding.
Closer.
Even the best show must come to an end, hopefully before it has overstayed its welcome, which means you need a strong closing effect. It should be a powerful effect that has an obvious applause point at its conclusion. Many performers, and I am certainly one of them, would agree that it is wisest not to end your show with a spectator onstage with you. The reason behind this classic stance is that getting the spectator offstage and back to their seat in the audience causes a delay and visual diversion that takes the attention away from the performer and results in diminishing that all important applause. I have certainly seen performers break this “rule” and have a great closing ovation. However you need to know your timing and have a strong trick and even stronger stage presence to pull it of really successfully though.
Another well-established “rule,” is that a closing trick should not tax the brain too much–because thinking people don’t applaud as readily. I have mixed thoughts on this theory I do believe that it is probably easier to get an audience on their feet and cheering with something more visual than cerebral. My long time closing effect is The Torn and Restored Newspaper. I perform a slow motion restoration and cheerfully inform the audience that the slowing down of the effect makes it much more difficult. While this may not be strictly true, the slow motion, and stage-by-stage restoration of the newspaper, allows the audience to fully appreciate and then react enthusiastically to the effect. The flash restoration of a newspaper is a beautiful thing to watch but my slow motion variation certainly gets me the applause and standing ovations that have established it as my major closing effect for over 35 years.
Bows.
It always amazes me how many variety acts do a great show and then throw away the full impact by giving a terrible bow. Like everything else in show business, a good bow is something to be researched, planned and perfected. The music and lighting must be right, but above all the performer must have the correct mental attitude to apparently effortlessly milk every last “applau” (singular for applause) from his audience. I could give you further ideas and examples about the art and science of taking a good bow but it would be much more beneficial to spend a few hours researching on YouTube. Watch some of the great stars take their bows after a show and observe how carefully and effectively they do it. I referred to it as an art and science for a good reason! Keep watching some of those London Palladium and Ed Sullivan acts until you grasp my idea of a true bow—then go forth and do likewise.
There is a great deal of emphasis placed in magical theory on Robert-Houdin’s quote, “A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician.” While valid on a certain level I feel this statement needs very careful re-examining. I think it has lost something in the translation, and often seems to lead to an element of self-importance and preciousness entering into a performance. It is more important to be a good magician with a strong act than a half assed actor. Let’s balance Robert-Houdin’s quote with a little Shakespeare; “The play is the thing!” It is no good working at being an actor unless you have a worthwhile vehicle to act in. Focusing on texture and dynamics is a splendid way to turn an act into a genuine performance and before you know it you end up with an arc and a subtle storyline to improve your show.
Afterthoughts.
There are no indisputable and inviolable truths when writing about a topic like this, but I have done my best to raise a few ideas that are well worth your time to consider. There are many other things I could have talked about, but I am quite content with the ones I have chosen. However, since an afterthoughts heading seems to invite it, let me leave you with ten more simple thoughts that could probably each have been developed into full-scale themes.
1 Do your time. To be a good and commercial act you need to know how long your performance is scheduled for and stick to the time. No saying; “The show is killing, I will just keep going,” or “This crowd sucks, I’m outa’ here!” Be a professional and do your agreed upon performance time. The average performer has no idea what other factors may be affected if he is cavalier in his timing. I know of quite a few bookers who are hesitant about hiring magicians because they are erratic in their timing. Keep an extra trick in reserve in case the show is running short and also have a trick towards the end of your act that can be jettisoned if you are running overtime.
2 Don’t take material from another performer’s act. Ever. If someone is doing something in his or her shows exactly as performed on a tutorial DVD and you have bought that video (or product) then you may perform the marketed version as supplied with the purchase. What you may not do is take the extra jokes, bits and timing that any other performer has added. This rule includes anything you see on YouTube; because it has been posted on social media does not mean it is fair game to steal.
3 Avoid the trap of seeing “how much time you can get out of a trick.” A better policy is to see how little time it takes you to get the maximum impact out of a routine. There are plenty of tricks in magic; don’t be afraid of tightening everything up and adding an extra effect in the space you have created. Always be on the lookout for a way to add an extra double punch ending to any trick, assuming it strengthens the effect or weaken what came before. Comedians use a term “going beyond the punch line” for moments when you should have stopped a joke but buried the laugh by saying something extra that wasn’t needed.
4 Do not equate how much money you spent on a trick with how long it should play in your act. The same approach also applies to how much time you spent when perfecting a trick. Keep it lean and mean and cut out all the fat. It doesn’t follow that a thousand dollar chair suspension in your kids’ show will get any more reaction than a couple of balloons or a breakaway wand. Adjust the degree you focus on a prop with the interest and energy it creates rather than the impact it had on your wallet.
5 Make sure the audience realize that you are having fun performing your act. Even if you are bored to tears–don’t let it show. Enjoy yourself and let it show. This is the status quo your audiences want to believe in, so keep the illusion going, even if you are exhausted or have a 102-degree fever. Nothing is more contagious than a big smile and looking like you are having fun.
6 Know every word you are going to say onstage just as you know everything you are going to do onstage. You owe both yourself and the audience this level of commitment. If you know exactly what you are planning to do in your show it leaves your mind free to be in the moment and take care of (and advantage of) any unforeseen last minute changes that need to be addressed or improvised.
7 Always remember the magic mantra “If they can’t see it or hear it they won’t enjoy it.” Your first duty as a performer is to be seen and heard. Billy McComb had a wonderful philosophy in this regard, “Tell them what you are going to do, tell them what is happening as you do it, and then tell them exactly what happened after you have done it.” There is a wealth of real world wisdom in Billy’s words.
8 When you are giving an assistant instructions about what to do during a trick make sure you do so in a very clear and concise manner. Let him know exactly what to do and how to do it. This shows respect for them and also makes it much more likely that things will go smoothly in the effect. Many onstage assistants are a little surprised or dazed when they find they are under the spotlight, so take the time to show them exactly what you expect them to do.
9 Always have back ups available of every prop you use onstage that may break or get lost. You should also have suitable outs available for any occasion that might need them during your show. If you are doing any kind of card trick then an Invisible Deck in a sealed envelope on your table can extract you from a great many problems. Hope for the very best but be prepared for the very worst. Have that round the neck microphone holder ready in case your headset gives up the ghost or starts to pick up the local taxi company!
10 Make every part of the routine you are performing as entertaining as possible. There are many effects that spend a great deal of time building up to a very fast finale/reveal. Keep the entertainment value going for the four minutes that it might take to build up to that 15-second finale, or your viewers might not come along for the journey with you. Add booster laughs and effects scattered throughout the trip. The average attention span of an audience is a lot shorter today than it was a decade ago so it pays to be careful in avoiding dead time.
On the 24th of July, a grand gathering of magicians congregated in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles for the Milt Larsen Celebration of Life. It was a beautifully planned and executed tribute to the last remaining founder of the world-famous Magic Castle. Larsen passed away on May 28th, 2023, at the age of 92 and the magic world lost one of its most iconic renaissance figures.
Milt was a dear friend for over 49 years, and I flew from Austin, Texas to pay my respect to this extraordinary and visionary magical legend. Like so many others present that night, my life had been greatly affected by Milt’s remarkable life work. Not just the Magic Castle, but also his other creations such as the Mayfair Music Hall, Variety Arts Center, Caesars Magical Empire, The Magic Cabaret, and the trailblazing It’s Magic! show.
It was especially appropriate that this event was held at the beautiful Wilshire Ebell Theatre because it was here in 1956, that Larsen launched his first annual It’s Magic! show. The shows are still taking place every year making this the world’s longest-running magical show. Sitting in the auditorium I reflected on the many outstanding versions of the show I had seen there in the past.
The event started at 6:00 PM with an introduction by our host/MC for the evening David Kovac. David did a superb job of keeping the show together in a witty and charming manner. David then introduced Larsen’s niece Jessica Hopkins who read a statement from Milt’s wife Arlene. Sadly, health issues made it impossible for Arlene to travel down from Montecito to Los Angeles for the event.
The program continued with a performance by the talented Jody Baran and his wife Kathleen. The couple performed manipulation magic with cards and doves and closed on a wonderful classic levitation. The audience was highly appreciative of their sophisticated and classy performance. Next, Lance Burton walked onstage to the podium and explained his personal debt and gratitude for Milt’s guidance and assistance when he first launched his career. Lance was followed by Chuck Martinez who addressed the capacity crowd. Chuck was the President of the Magic Castle before becoming the AMA Executive Director and he added his sincere tribute to Larsen.
Erika Larsen, Jessica Hopkins, and Liberty Larsen next took over the podium and shared great stories about the family fun and surprises that result from having Milt as a “Unkie.” A brief video message from David Copperfield in Las Vegas followed and David shared his warm regards for Larsen. Other speakers included Sara Ballantine and Gay Blackstone who gave their perspectives on their friend Milton.
A delightful musical interlude followed introduced by Milt’s lifelong friend Richard M. Sherman and his son Greg. Larsen and Sherman were writing partners and we were treated to a brief medley of songs from their musical production Pazzazz! plus a song or two from their Smash Flops album. Musical director Richard Allen accompanied the extremely talented singers Carly Bracco, Joey D’Auria, Joshua Finkel, and the Castle’s own Bonnie Gordon.
Brit trickster Mark Haslam gave an elegant nod of the head to Sherlock Holmes as he performed a truly astounding card in cigarette routine. The next performer was juggler extraordinaire Michael Goudeau, who entertained in his normal manic style and had the crowd in stitches. What followed was, for me, the most moving speech of the evening when Johnny Cannizzaro hit the podium. Johnny was Milt’s long-term intern/assistant/caregiver who shared some heartfelt and poignant stories about his old friend.
The curtain was raised to reveal posters from some of the It’s Magic! show and Terry Hill walked to the podium. Terry was Milt’s co-producer of It’s Magic! and he shared some stories about it. More importantly, Terry confirmed he will continue the yearly productions of the show. A magical highlight followed when Les Arnold and Dazzle performed a selection from their repertoire. They were superb featuring strong magic with equally strong comedy. Geese disappeared and reappeared, Dazzle’s head was twisted until her body wound up into a knot, and finally, a transposition which had a surprise ending that brought the house down.
The penultimate speaker was Dale Hindman, one of Milt’s dearest friends and colleagues. Dale also deserves kudos for his excellent job directing the show; the entire show ran smoothly and effectively. To close out the show Randy Pitchford discussed his commitment to keep the Castle on track and heading where Milt would have wanted it to go. After Randy left the stage, an excellent short video was played that covered many of Milt’s achievements.
Following the Celebration of Life celebration there was a reception in the theater’s roof garden. Wine, beer, and small bites flowed freely as the guests enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with old friends. It was a wonderful evening that allowed everyone to wish a fond Aloha to Milton Page Larsen. He was a force of nature whose creativity and vision are unlikely to ever be matched in the magic world.
I wanted to write a short essay on a subject that is seldom discussed. Most magicians can come up with a long list of things that they desire to improve their show and take it to the next level. It is usually based on acquiring new tricks that will make all the difference. Perhaps it is adding an illusion that you think will result in more/better bookings? When they purchase the new props most of these “must have” effects will just languish in their magical lair — OK, the spare bedroom and the parts of your garage that your partner lets you use.
It is very tempting to read about the latest effect being pitched on the internet. Many of them are probably great, but the best way to reach the next tier in your career is to improve the quality of the act you are already performing. I follow all the latest “magical marketing gurus,” and the “double your bookings and quadruple your fee” claims that are made by these “experts.” Well, whoever is selling the online course may well be making money out of pitching ideas that they have borrowed from other people. Notice that most of these courses are launched by magicians whom the public has never heard about. If you pick up a useful tip or two from these courses that is great, but you would probably do better reading some basic books on marketing.
I have a very simple solution to getting more and better gigs. Get a better act. Not necessarily a new act but just improving the act you already have. There is tremendous competition for gigs these days and when it comes right down to it, your best solution is to improve all the important elements in your act. When you have seriously thought about things, and taken an impartial look at your show, then you can start to purchase tricks and routines that will take you in the direction you want to go. I have always been interested in writing about the tips and techniques that make a show look, sound, and play better. After 50 years as a full-time pro, who has made a great living, I now want to share a few of my “secrets behind the secrets.”
The two terrific techniques that I think are amongst the most important and most abused are Texture and Dynamics. There you go, I told you these techniques were rarely mentioned in magic books/videos/lectures. Once you learn to apply some of the insights that these two concepts encompass, then you will have a whole different show. A better show: a show that will be booked, rebooked, and receive even more word-of-mouth bookings. Become a better showman and performer and new vistas will open for you in the entertainment landscape. Let’s look at these two similar and complementary tactics and apply them to presenting a magic show.
Texture.
It is never a bad move to look at the various dictionary definitions of a word before we re-apply it to our very specific and niche art form.
-tex· ture-
1 A: the visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something
B: the disposition or manner of union of the particles of a body or substance
2 A: essential part: SUBSTANCE
B: identifying quality: CHARACTER
3. A: something composed of closely interwoven elements
B: the structure formed by the threads of a fabric
4. A: basic scheme or structure
B: overall structure
Well, there is plenty to unpack just in those definitions! I will leave it to my readers to run them through their neural network. We are going to get magic specific now.
Texture basically means the ability to enhance something in your act by contrasting it with something different. It gives variety to the items in your show. One of the most common faults in a magician’s show is that there is a consistency in timing, vocal approach, and material. How often have you seen a performer do very similar pieces in a row? Several card tricks in a row or three tricks in a row that require assistants coming onstage and returning to their seats at the end of the trick totally lacks texture.
It is important not to let every trick in your show have the same basic running time. Without getting complicated let’s say there are short tricks, medium-length tricks, and long tricks. Are you mixing these routines up and making sure that you apply texture to the length of the tricks that are the building blocks in your show? If you perform a lengthy routine, why not put a shorter routine on both sides of it in your setlist? If you are a comedy magician perform at least one effect that elicits an emotional response. Rather than bringing a parade of assistants onstage why not break the 4th wall by carefully staging one of your routines in the audience? If all the patter in your magic show is similar, make a conscious effort to change your style and dialogue for several pieces.
Magicians are variety acts, that is the deal, so make use of texture to ensure that your act does indeed have variety at its heart. What should give consistency to your act is the persona you use to present your show. That is why it is very difficult to hit the next level until you have fully chosen and developed your stage persona. The variety and texture you apply to your show allows your persona to remain consistent but react to different situations that pop up in the act.
Once you have fully worked out your onstage persona, keep it consistent. If you are a nice regular Joe character don’t suddenly say something mean, or if you are a clean performer don’t suddenly throw in a random dirty joke. Your role in performing is to create and maintain a persona that the audience will like. I have just given some tips that it took me decades to fully understand and implement. A technician isn’t just a guy who can deal incredible bottoms, it is someone who nails these abstract details and puts them into application.
Dynamics is a similar concept to texture, and they work hand in glove to make your show stronger and more commercial.
-Dy· nam· ics-
A: the forces or properties which stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process.
B: the varying levels of volume of sound in different parts of a musical performance.
Dynamics is a wonderful way to create texture in your show. If a singer sings a song that had no changes in volume or intensity then chances are (unless it is Leonard Cohen) it is going to be dull to the senses. Work at changing the dynamic quality of your spoken dialogue; high-low, loud-soft, fast-slow, etc. If you want your audience to listen/laugh at your words don’t lull them to sleep with a one-tone delivery. This is like playing a song with only one note in it. I do vocal exercises before every show to stretch my voice effectively from a high-pitched to a deep and plummy tone. Different patter, punchlines, and comments can play much better when you discover how to phrase and vocalize them.
In a similar vein, there are small tricks and large tricks, funny tricks and serious effects, mental and visual routines, etc. Make a serious written set list that shapes things up and builds to that all important finale. One of my favorite musicians Bryan Ferry used to design his concerts for Roxy Music by creating graphs, and damn they were great concerts!
-Grafs-
A: a diagram showing the relation between variable quantities, typically of two variables, each measured along one of a pair of axes at right angles.
B: a collection of points whose coordinates satisfy a given relation. Well, I am going to leave this topic for the time being, I hope it has struck a chord or two. I know that most magicians will read this, agree in theory, and then go back to lusting after that head chopper that will turn them into a big-time act! It could be the perfect trick for you but think carefully before buying it; think about where, how, and why you are using it. Never forget that with magic it is rarely about what you do and almost always about how you do it. I invite you to explore my website www.LewinEnterprises.com and check out downloads of the various tricks that I have used to make money with real audiences!
I am writing this story on May 29th. This morning a message from Arlene Larsen reached the magic world that her husband Milt had passed peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92 on the previous night peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92. Milt was a force of nature and his passing lessens the magic world of a man, who along with his brother Bill and Irene Larsen, created the world-famous “Magic Castle” in Hollywood. The influence of the “Castle” can’t be overestimated, and innumerable magicians’ lives have been affected by this unique mecca of magic. I was just one of the many. However, I wanted to write a short and highly personal tribute to Milt.
I know that Genii Magazine will publish a more comprehensive tribute to Milt. Given the strong connections with the Larsen family, The Magic Castle, and Genii, I strongly suggest you read their tribute when it is published. This is just a brief note about a friend of 49 years who was one of the people who helped me create a life doing what I love. All those weeks of stage time at the Castle that I spent during the ‘70s and ‘80s are responsible for creating the magician I became.
Curiously enough my first booking when I arrived in California from England was not at the “Magic Castle,” but in another of Milt’s quirky entertainment venues the “Mayfair Music Hall” in Santa Monica. As a young Brit with a keen interest in the history of British entertainment, it was a perfect match. I worked there frequently until it closed its doors. It was a wonderful theater that rose phoenix-like from the ashes of many previous theaters that had occupied the space since its first creation in 1910. Milt used his unique talents to make the Mayfair as singular as his magical creation the “Magic Castle.” I shared the stage of the “Mayfair Music Hall” with some of the most unusual talent that I have ever known. There was always a talented troupe of singers and dancers who were a large part of the Mayfair’s success. They were costumed by a keenly talented Arlene Zamara, who later married Milt and became Arlene Larsen. I spent many delightful nights at the Mayfair drinking Pimm’s Cups, their delicious house drink, with Milt and the music hall’s chairman the great Bernard Fox. We were joined by the ever-changing, but always all-star, cast of tap dancers, crooners, slapstick comics, monologists, and other oddball performers who “trod the board” in Sunny Santa Monica.
I soon began working at the “Magic Castle” and that was the venue that turned me into a commercial and successful performer. The Castle was, and is, perhaps the ultimate testimony to Larsen’s fascinating vision and inspired skills as a creative force in Los Angeles.
Some of my favorite times at the Castle were sitting in the “Owl Bar” with Milt swapping stories and drinking that devilish alcoholic beverage known as aquavit. I also got to perform quite a few shows with Milt over the years with him presenting his famous “Magic Carpenter” routine. Milt helped me in many ways, and the Mayfair and Castle were a very real factor in paying our monthly rent!
Milt’s Variety Arts Center
On one of our get-togethers at the “Mayfair Music Hall,” Milt asked me if I would like to be a founding member of his next club and said it would cost me 50 bucks. I immediately said, “Yes!” I asked him where the club would be centered and he answered, “I’m not sure, I haven’t found anywhere yet!” Well, he never got around to requesting that 50 dollars, but I did become a founding member of Milt’s “Society for the Preservation of Variety Arts. In 1977 the S.P.V.A. found its home in downtown Los Angeles. It was a historic and magnificent six-story arts center complete with a large theater occupying the entire ground floor. There was an elegant nightclub, a dinner theatre, research centers, and library. As always Milt transformed the building into something special and unique. I performed there many times, including appearing in an “It’s Magic!” show.
I just re-read my last sentence and I realized that not every reader might be familiar with “It’s Magic!” another very successful Larsen magic project. Milt created “It’s Magic!” in 1956. The show is an annual all-star magic revue that has run almost continuously to this very day. Milt was also a successful TV writer, performer, producer, author, actor, and historian. Not everyone knows Larsen was one of the creative forces behind Caesars Palace’s multi-million “Caesars Magic Empire” spectacular. Milt Larsen has added his creative touch to many different areas of the entertainment spectrum and launched many magicians’ careers upward toward the stars.
In the 2000s Milt brought his famous “Magic Carpenter” act to Las Vegas as a guest in the Amazing Johnathan’s show. I used to enjoy having the occasional late-night coffee shop breakfast with Milt and our old chum Billy McComb. These two often paired up together to perform the A.J. gig. Billy and Milt were as excited as hell about performing in Vegas to enthusiastic younger audiences. The fact that they were both in their 80s made this “happening” an even rarer and cooler event.
Milt the Magic Carpenter!
When Milt’s Vegas career started to wind down he had still another trick up his sleeve; Larsen created a Magic Castle Cabaret close to their home in beautiful Montecito. This was another intimate, unique, and extraordinary magic venue that Milt created. A steady stream of world-class magicians, jugglers, singers, ventriloquists, and musicians entertained the members. I was very excited to play at the Cabaret as I had worked all of Milt’s venues, but sadly the COVID pandemic canceled my booking there, and that same pandemic led to the closing of The Magic Castle Cabaret. I did, however, enjoy a delightful lunch in Montecito with Milt and Arlene and my dear friend Steve Mitchell. After lunch Milt gave me a tour of the Cabaret and showed me his latest brainwaves such as a door that only opened when you played a certain note on the organ. The Cabaret was delightful and idiosyncratic in equal parts.
When the Cabaret closed Milt went right on to his next quixotic project, Milt was always moving forward. Just a couple of days before his passing Milt was at the AMA Magic Awards Show in Downtown Los Angeles. It is still more than slightly shocking to me that Milt has gone, he always seemed one of the immortals. It will be strange never again get to sit at the “Owl Bar” and gossip over a cocktail.
This has been a very sad day as I looked back on the many ways I had benefitted from those great Clubs, Theaters, Cabarets, and Music Halls that Milt Larsen (and of course Brother Bill and Princess Irene) had created and run. I am extremely grateful for their friendship and vision. It was all that stage time and rows of audiences that allowed me to work on my act and achieve so many of my goals.
I told you that article was going to be personal and it is. With just hours before we had to publish our July issue of Vanish Magic Magazine it was the only real road to go. What didn’t I tell you about Milt that I could have? He was a man of limitless talents, a playwright, a lyricist, a technical adviser to movies, a radio host, raconteur, and he could also pull a tablecloth out from a tabletop and leave all the dishes in place. Usually! My personal affection and gratitude to Milt are being echoed today by a great many other professional magicians who were given huge career bumps by Milt. I’m just the one writing this article but there are many of us with similar stories to tell.
People will be sharing stories and swapping anecdotes about Milt for many years to come; he was a one of a kind, and I was proud to be his friend. Everyone here at Vanish Magic Magazine wish to send their deepest condolences and much love to Arlene, Erika, and the entire Larsen family. The world is a much less creative place without Milt Larsen. He will be missed by many.
I want to thank Steve Mitchell for his help with photographs for my Vanish Magic Magazine article, and also Najee Williams for the wonderful portrait of Milt that he allowed us to use as our cover. Najee made a great little video about Milt that can be found on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/56jvkxhf I have decided to share our recent video seminar “Magic Castle: Golden Years.” It is a deep dive into Milt’s greatest achievement. In this seminar I am joined by Steve Spill, Diana Zimmerman, Michael Perovich, and Howard Hamburg as we share stories, reminisces, and gossip about our beloved Castle. You may screen this seminar for free during the month of June/July at https://tinyurl.com/3rat99js My Vanish article “Magic Castle Re-visited” is also available as a free PDF on my website at www.lewinenterprises.com
These two non-magicians shaped my magic career to an enormous extent. I think magicians might be particularly interested in my performance take away from Bob Dylan.
I sat across the green felt-covered desk, bathed in the light from a single brass lamp. I looked into the gray eyes of the man sitting there as he finished filling his pipe from a leather pouch on the desk. I felt a swell of affection for this man who had sent me all over the world on adventures that had taken me into moments of great joy and even greater danger.
He looked up from his pipe-filling activities and smiled a smile that never quite reached his eyes. “Well.” He said, in a mild voice; “That’s the job. If you want to take it you will need to be in Jamaica by Friday.” I returned his smile and said; “I’ll be there, what do I need to know?”
I suddenly abandoned my well-worn fantasy and reluctantly acknowledged that I wasn’t James Bond receiving a mission from M that would save the world. It was just me, Nick, on the phone with my agent Barry accepting another gig on a cruise ship. No saving the world, just two 45-minute shows. Darn.
Let me explain. Unlike many magicians, I didn’t become a magician to become another Harry Houdini. It wasn’t like that for me at all. When I was eleven years old I went to the local cinema and caught ‘Dr. No’ the first James Bond. It changed my life. After seeing the movie, I found most of Ian Fleming’s 007 novels in my brother’s bookshelf and read them with the same intensity that Ricky Jay must have studied ‘A Magician at the Card Table.’
I loved the gadgets and elegant tuxedos that were such a large part of Mr. Bond’s world. I craved those exotic locations scattered across the globe that Bond visited with aplomb and elegant nonchalance. I began to practice nonchalance on a daily basis. Nonchalance is hard to carry off at such an early age and my school friends just thought I was a little crazy. I also performed elaborate card tricks. That is an even surer sign of craziness than talking to yourself.
When the second Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’ was released I was sitting in the cinema for the very first showing. For me, the most exciting part of the movie wasn’t the action scenes or the fighting. It was the incredible briefcase that Q had created for Bond. The attaché case was rigged to the hilt with tear gas canisters, hidden gold coins, special locks, and best of all a secret knife that popped out from the side of the case. I lusted after that case with all my heart.
After returning from the cinema, I went up into the attic and retrieved an old discarded briefcase that had previously accompanied my father to his office in the City. Since I didn’t have a folding rifle or bug-detecting equipment I decided to put the magic props from my fledgling magic show inside the case. They looked pretty darn good in there.
Forty-five years later I am still carrying the latest version of that prototype case with me as I jet around the world. The case is now filled with very cool magic props and every amazing electronic item that has an Apple on it. James Bond would have killed for an iPhone in those Fleming books from the fifties. Even Q wouldn’t have believed what it could do.
My case is heavily gimmicked and contains 34 tricks inside it, as well as the electronics and it still passes as hand baggage. This case goes onstage with me every single show and even houses a concealed butterfly knife with which I slice a lemon in half on a twice-nightly basis. There are no golden coins hidden in the lining of the case but there is a secret pocket that contains several $100 bills. Just in case.
I left school and became a full-time magician and began the endless traveling that has so far characterized my life. I have managed to visit all those exotic backdrops featured in the Bond books and films. I’m pretty sure I’ve been to scads of places that 007 never even knew existed. I am now truly as at home in Jamaica and Russia as I am at home in Austin— maybe more so.
While I do sincerely love magic and the business of its performance, it is the vision of elegant espionage that has fueled my life and lifestyle. Like all guiding influences, the memories that ignited my passion have faded over the years. I have finally realized, but steadfastly refuse to acknowledge, that I will never be James Bond. Just as other magicians have realized that they will never be Houdini or Dai Vernon. Life is tough.
The good news is that I do have a black leather case filled with cool gimmicks and gadgets that accompanies me as I travel. However, I have reluctantly realized that I will probably never be asked to smuggle microfilm across enemy lines, concealed inside my ‘Devils Hank.’ I have never lost the desire to be asked to do so though. Without a dream, you become an act instead of an artist.
If the fictitious character of James Bond influenced my decision to be a comedy magician, it was another quasi-fictitious personality, with a longer than expected shelf life, who showed me how to keep it going. This person is the poet, singer, and musician Bob Dylan. It is Dylan the performer who I want to discuss in this article.
Bob Dylan has worked consistently and grown creatively for well over sixty years and has done so in the most difficult of places, in the public eye. The fact that some of his strongest work has blossomed after the age of sixty is not only unusual but highly inspirational. I have been a fan and student of Bobby the Z since the sixties and enjoyed every step and misstep during his career.
When I first decided to become a magician it was always my intention to be a ‘journeyman’ and to perform full-time magic for the rest of my life. So far it has worked out pretty darn well, despite the occasional misstep, which is another way of saying I am just like any other performer who wishes to be an artist and remain creative.
It is very easy to project youthful enthusiasm when you start out as a performing magician because you are youthful and enthusiastic and there comes a time when audiences no longer respond as they once did. Dylan has described the toughest time in his performing life as being when he had to learn to ‘Do consciously what he used to do unconsciously.’ This is the moment when self-consciousness’ enters the picture and can throw a serious spanner in the works for a performer.
The biggest problem with the arrival of self-consciousness is that it frequently proves to be the delivery system for the ultimate ‘death-watch beetle’ to the performer. This often manifests as a form of self-bitterness that is probably best categorized under the umbrella term ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’ Sadly, this contempt is sometimes projected to the audience who not unnaturally feel less than thrilled by it.
When you know where and when an audience is supposed to respond it becomes all too easy to project a degree of subtle belittlement upon them when they do so. Multiply this effect by twenty when comedy enters into the equation. Most comedy magicians begin by not even being aware that their patter is stock. It came out of a book (or someone else’s act) so it must be funny—right? Wrong.
When the performer begins to realize that his show is filled with ‘hack’ material, but he does it anyway (“Hey, it gets a laugh doesn’t it?) that is when he or she has hit Dylan’s ‘needing to do consciously what you used to do unconsciously’ moment. The high-faulting performer may feel he is achieving a post-modern or de-constructional approach to his craft. Yeah, right.
The answer to this problem is learning to be, what is known as ‘in the moment.’ Regular folk would probably refer to this as spontaneity or more accurately, appearing to be spontaneous. This Zen-like state allows you the freedom to be spontaneous and react to your audience by performing to them, rather than at them. If you don’t find a way to correct this problem it is easy to be trapped inside your material.
Dylan found a way to escape this problem, and deal with it in a very simple manner— he just kept right on performing. This period of career began with what is generally referred to as the ‘Never Ending Tour’ and it continues to this day. Imagine the shock of realizing that you had created one of the greatest bodies of work in the last century and you were now drowning in it. Weird.
Dylan responded to the realization by singing his country, blues, folk, gospel, and rock music in the manner a jazz musician would approach the situation. Dylan decided to continue performing on a non-stop basis but to never sing any song the same way he had sung it before. Sometimes the variations on his classic songs work magnificently, and sometimes they don’t, but what is important to Dylan is the feeling of walking on a tightrope night after night without a safety net. Now in his 82nd year, Dylan is in the middle of a 2021-2024 world tour and finally seems interested in a consistency that is highly uncharacteristic for this mercurial genius.
There is a very good reason that the entire business of ‘bootlegged’ recordings began with Dylan. You can listen to recordings of him on a concert tour and one night a song will be slow and stately, the next night the same song will be a wild blues stomp. This is one of the reasons that all these years since he began his career, Dylan has never become a one-man ‘Rock & Roll Oldies Tour.’ Every show is an event and often the loudest roars of approval are from the way he twists a phrase or alters a lyric’s meaning just by an inflection of his voice. It is simple, difficult, and effective all at the same time.
It has become meaningless to debate whether Dylan is a ‘good’ singer or not, he has moved far beyond to a unique area of communication that has nothing to do with whether his voice is pretty or whether he hits the right notes. It just isn’t relevant. This is the main reason that Dylan’s stadium-sized audiences contain not just folk from my generation but people younger than some of his grandchildren.
Just as the glamour and excitement of James Bond made me want to be a magician, it has been my ‘ridiculous’ obsession with Dylan that has afforded me the key to remaining a relevant one. If you can juggle the elements of a classic song like ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ you can do the same with the Gypsy Thread. You can learn to truly own your material.
You too can make, break and re-arrange your Greatest Hits on a nightly basis—even if they are the Linking Rings or Cups & Balls. You owe it to yourself and your audience not to do less—repetition is how you learn a trick, not the way it should be presented.
The concept of packing flat (or small) and playing big is one of those phrases that pop up frequently in magic catalogs and digital advertisements. It is a sentiment that appeals to almost every magician for obvious reasons. Now that the idea of smaller magic has been made popular by the wave of television shows it is more practical and desirable than ever before. Currently, illusions are more than a little out of favor and bookers and buyers are leaning toward more compact magic shows.
I was greatly influenced by the great Billy McComb the great master of the Pack Small/Play Big philosophy. Billy was doing this kind of magic successfully way back in “nineteen hundred and frozen to death.” One of my fondest memories was watching McComb pulverize an audience in the London Palladium by putting a coin in a bottle. The impact was so great that for the last fifty years, I have been trying to perfect this “Small/Big” art form.
Recently I have spent quite a bit of time working with magicians worldwide giving Zoom sessions with performers who want to eliminate some props and still play large venues. Over the years I have played many large theaters, showrooms, and Performing Arts Centers with all my props for a 60-minute act in one small case that I bring on stage and exits with me after the show finishes.
I have noticed a great many magicians who attempt this “Flat/Big” style of performing make the same error, they pack small but forget (or don’t know how) to play BIG. I want to write a very short treatise on the six simple rules that can make those “small” tricks reach the back of a 2,000-seat auditorium.
1 Supersize whatever props you can.
If you carry your props in a small case, then you obviously must scale your props to the exact dimensions of your prop bag. My working case fits overhead in any aircraft and contains everything needed for two 50-minute and one 20-minute shows. Before showtime, I remove the excess props and pack the exact items needed for that specific show. I have a series of modular units that Velcro in place inside the case to hold each prop in exactly the right place. This is a great way to ensure that things run smoothly during the show.
The next goal is to make sure that all your props are as large as they can practically be. The rope I use is as thick as possible, and the thread for my Gypsy Yarn is as visible as possible. If you need to display a single card then make sure you use an outsize card, if you display a sign or envelope make sure that it is scaled to be the biggest size that will fit in your case. I could give other examples, but I am sure you get the idea. Remember, if they can’t see it then they won’t like it.
2 Sell the routine with your face.
If you are a talking act, then the audience takes their cues from your facial expressions. This isn’t the time for undue subtlety. Make those facial expressions big enough to be seen at the back of the theater and not just in the front few rows. The bigger your facial expressions are the more you sell the emotions you wish the audience to share. If you want them to be surprised, then you should look very surprised. If you want the audience to think things have gone wrong, then show alarm on your face. The audience’s response will mirror what they see on your face. Practice your facial expressions as carefully as your tricks. This is an important part of playing BIG.
3 Explain things carefully.
If things are not as visible as they could be, give your audience a helping hand by telling them what you are doing. I don’t mean that you should state the painfully obvious; skip the “I’m taking the cards out of the box, I’m shuffling the deck” stuff. Let the audience hear what is needed to follow the core of the effect. In my teenage years, I remember McComb telling me, “Tell them what you are going to do, tell them what you are doing, and then tell them what you did…” Of course, don’t reveal any spoilers to kill important surprises. People in the audience aren’t paying nearly as much attention to the performer as he sometimes thinks they are, so give them every opportunity to follow your show.
4 People are bigger than cards.
If you can involve some audiences in the magical mix so much the better. Preferably not in a solid “Drip… drip…” of a steady stream of assistants coming onstage in a procession; assistant comes onstage—helps with a trick—assistant leaves the stage, next assistant comes onstage, repeated ad infinitum. I only bring one assistant onstage every show. However, I also go out into the auditorium and in well-lit areas involve a couple of audience members. Flagrantly breaking the 4th wall is one of the perks of being a comedy magician.
If I am playing in a large venue, I have a couple of aces hidden up my sleeve and I am going to share them with you. I have two effects that take up no space in your pockets. but play HUGE. I love the Tossed Deck and perform it often, not only is it a killer effect and it ends with the performer onstage gazing intently at 5 men standing up in the illuminated auditorium. He then gets to dramatically reveal 5 merely thought of cards. It doesn’t matter that the playing cards are nearly impossible to see, what matters is that each assistant confirms you got their card in a highly visual manner. When the men eventually sit down, the houselights go out, and you get enthusiastic applause. Now that is filling a theater and playing BIG.
My second “theater sized” winner is my Psychometry Royale where five assistants join me onstage for an energetic, funny, and visual routine. In a theater, a backdrop would be raised, and I would have five chairs in a row for them to sit on. This is always a neat way to move a small show into a stage-filling event.
5 The focal point, is the point here.
One vital thing to be aware of is the focal point you must create to turn all those minor miracles into commercial gold. Let me start with a very simple, but important, but frequently overlooked, thing to grasp. Your audience members have only two eyes each, and they can only focus on one thing at a time, so you must keep all the important moments focused in a tight area. Since you are a talking magician that means those props should be held high enough that the audience can also see your face at the same time.
Careful attention to each effect’s focal point allows the audience to register and appreciate the act a lot better. If a magician has a spotlight or “Special” that illuminates him/her from the waist up, you can achieve wonders. Usually, light is your best friend as a magician, but don’t get too artsy, you are better of with a spotlight and/or a simple “comedy wash” onstage than too much dark and moody fill.
6 Ready, set, and ACTION…..
My Entire luggage for 3 weeks on the road! clothing, props, microphone, and Electronics.
Keep things moving, if you are working “Smallish” routines you should keep the action at a fair clip. You don’t want your performance to be small and slow, it is not what buyers want to see. A deck of cards can be used in the Tossed Deck fashion where it is the word of the assistant that matters or, as I often do, in a more active manner performing the 6-Card Repeat. When you scale those “extra” cards in the air it can be a delightful visual effect, and action, that plays to the back of the auditorium. The 6-Card Repeat is a wonderful effect if you add a little acting and a few twists into the routine.
Numerous tricks can be transformed into large effects just by adding a little visual action to them. I mention the 6-Card Repeat because my own 6-Card Déjà vu is one of my “go-to” routines. I never go out for any show without those 21 cards in my inside pocket, I can open with it, close with it, or slot it into the middle. There aren’t many routines that can fill those roles as smoothly, and do so without leaving the slightest bulge in the pocket containing them.
That was a breakneck sprint through some important tips and techniques. If you are interested in seeing the effects that I used in my act involving the “Small/Big” factor, check out my website at www.LewinEnterprises.com Almost all of my routines are available as downloads and in physical form.
Rolando Medina was born in Mexico City in the late 70s and was quickly intrigued by the world of magic with childhood experiences of seeing magicians on TV and magical performances at birthday parties. When Medina was lucky enough to see David Copperfield performing live in the early 80s in Mexico City, it made a big impression on him and solidified his interest. Rolando’s other interests while growing up were art and crafts; there were many wonderful opportunities to watch artisans and craftsmen demonstrate their skills in Mexico City, and this sowed seeds that were to bear fruit in his future life as a creator of magic and magical props.
At the age of 13 Medina moved to the United States with his parents, when his father accepted a position as a professor at the University of Texas in beautiful San Antonio. It was here that the influence and accessibility of magic became even more prominent in his life. One of Rolando’s first actions upon learning to drive was visiting the various magic shops in his new hometown. He quickly acquired his first job in the magic world and began working at the Elbee Magic Company. This thriving magic store was owned and run by Louis Berkowitz aka
El Bebo or Berkie, who was something of a legend in the world of magical dealers, launching quite a few magical careers from his store. Berkowitz became a magic mentor to Rolando and introduced him to the various local magicians and San Antonio’s magic clubs. Berkowitz was also known as the King of Wooden Nickels, but that is another, rather fascinating, story.
Medina became interested in the business side of running a magic shop while working in Elbee Magic, and he started to learn about the manufacturing of magic products. Within a few years, Rolando would open a magic store of his own and start the journey to becoming the maker of the high-end precision props that he is now celebrated for. I asked Rolo what it was that initially intrigued him about the nature of the props he was selling. “I became fascinated by the ‘cleverness’ of the props,” says Medina, “and the nature of the mechanics involved in them. For example the cigarette through coin, and items of that sort.” Rolando not only learned how to sell magic from behind the counter but got a taste of how magic props were constructed and the ways they could be improved. When not working in the magic store, Rolando was also learning how to perform and entertain real audiences with his magic.
Medina became a strong and seasoned magical performer during these years presenting his sleight of hand magic show whenever he had the opportunity. By the mid-2000s he became a very successful “Cafe Busker,” which is akin to working in restaurants, but based on the concept of having access to a lot of different establishments side by side and barnstorming your way from one to another performing your magic. The performers weren’t under contract to any one venue, but were free to come and go at will plying their trade. This was an ideal situation in San Antonio with its famous River Walk area, and in a couple of years, Medina successfully honed his performance skills. Rolando also took his magic from the cafes and onto the street quickly mastering to art of Street Magic. During this time Medina enjoyed interacting with other local Texas magicians including, Paul Mims, Bro. John Hamman, Alex Gutierrez, and Jeff Gifford all of whom became very influential to him. Medina’s ever-increasing sleight of hand skills also won him first place in the T.A.O.M. close-up magic contest.
Rolando’s performing career took something of a different path now and his deep interest in street magic branched into the rather specialized area of Carnival Magic. I asked him how he progressed from doing a Bro. John Hamman card trick to walking up a ladder of swords. Medina responded, “I had the opportunity of working at a thriving local haunted house for several seasons, where the operators had installed a small carnival area outside to accommodate the waiting crowds. I also had access to the Haunted House workshop where I was able to build various performance props. In this way, I was able to master some Sideshow Magic to entertain the lines of people waiting to enter the haunted house. At the time Sideshow Magic was not nearly as mainstream as it is now.” This opportunity lasted for five or six years and left him able to build and perform some of the more esoteric peripheries in the “Carnival Magic” arsenal.
One thing that both Medina’s street performing and his limited, but very work intensive, 28-day Haunted House seasons had in common was that they were both in effect “grind shows” or non-stop performing events. This is a grueling pace to work, but a superb way to learn and develop your performance. I asked Rolando what the top secret to becoming a good street performer was and he instantly replied, “ Being fearless, tenacious, and not being dissuaded.” This seems to me to be a fine roadmap for any kind of career in show business, but existentially more so in the field of Street Magic. “When you busk,” added Medina, “there is something very tangible at stake; your livelihood and making money from your performance. The priority of things changes quite a bit, and you have to get good when you need to pay your bills and buy food to eat. ” Amen to that!
Street Magic is an art that Rolando has certainly mastered and to this day he can hit the crowded streets of San Antonio for a few hours and return with more cash than other performers might make doing two-set shows. One other factor Medina stresses about Street Performing is the need for fearless experimentation in one’s performance material and the physical props you need to utilize to achieve your goals. Having fully honed his performance skills, Rolando redirected his vision and in time went on to achieve success in an area that every magician relies on, but very few master. Medina became a superb creator and manufacturer of high-precision props and a specialist in the design and creation of custom props. I would now like to turn my attention to Rolando the maker of remarkable magic props and devices.
Medina has built up an impressive workshop filled with highly specialized and customized equipment. I asked him what was the very first major piece of equipment he acquired. He responded instantly, “A precision metal lathe that allowed me to dive into a process that few people attempt–the coin gaff. The very first things that I made that were real winners were coin bites and folding coins for the coin in bottle.” As someone who spends more than his fair share of time putting coins inside bottles, I can affirm that Rolando makes the finest folding coin on the market. Rolo added, “As makers, we soon become collectors of equipment that is utilized in different ways, often in ways for which it was not intended, including all the new technologies such as 3D printing for prototypes and development. The sky is the limit!”
I asked Medina to elaborate on the process of creating new magic. He replied, “The manufacturing and creation process breaks down into two basic forms; there is both the subtractive manufacturing and the additive manufacturing process. Each field gives one the ability to make anything. The possibility is there to make your goal or idea into a reality. The way my process works is that I have an idea for a prop, figure out in my head how that device would function in a performance environment, and then begin to reverse engineer the prototype from there. Next, I make one and test it as much as possible before going back to the drawing board. It is a repetitive process.”
I asked Rolando about some of the items he currently creates, “I manufacture a line of Studare eggs that I am very pleased with, a Voodoo Stick Man, and a state-of-the-art Three Shell Game. In addition of course to the line of gaffed coins which I am most identified with.” I asked him to tell me more about the rather unique Studare eggs that he makes utilizing a real egg. “To me, the legitimacy of the real-life object is very important when applied to magic. Why would you use a plastic egg, when you could use a real egg?” Medina recently collaborated with Bizzaro to make an item called“Overstuffed” for Theory 11. This saw him constructing a stash of over 1000 molded plastic Oreo cookies that were so realistic that anyone with a sweet tooth might be tempted to chip a molar by taking a bite.
I enquired about the various coins that Rolando constructs, “I make a swizzle stack of coins, a Ramsey Coins and Cylinders, Scotch and Soda sets, and shell coins of every kind,“ said Medina. “I also make specialty wands, which is another item I create that is reverse engineered for real performance environments. The wands you buy nowadays are mostly decorative or ornate and they do not last very long. I now make a busker wand based on the one I have used for many years. It is made from one solid piece of material to withstand wear and tear.”
One of my favorite Medina’s creations is his woven “Monkey Fist” leather balls for the “Cups and Balls.” This is yet another prop that combines a delightful visual aesthetic with a practical hidden purpose. Rolando’s performing skills have tempered and informed his vision of design in their manufacturing process. Anyone performing this classic of magic knows that for viewing by larger crowds it is necessary to perform the routine on a raked table to afford maximum visibility. With the textured surface of the “Monkey Fist” balls, you will not find yourself breaking the flow of your show by scrabbling for balls that have rolled onto the ground. The intricacy of construction of these balls appears to a lay audience as a pleasing artistic choice, but it also conceals the practical nature of the magical design.
What is upcoming in the future for Rolando Medina? Well, like all good innovators, Medina is a little tight-lipped on his upcoming releases. However, the one thing that Rolando keeps as a constant goal in his plans is maintaining the high standard of his line of props. Medina’s work has become the gold standard for discerning magicians around the world and that is something that he plans to keep center stage as his work expands and as he explores new territories and horizons. I strongly suggest you take a look at
On April 30, 2022 with the passing of Shimada, the magic world lost one of the true masters of our artform. His legacy is remarkable and the impact of his skills as both magician and showman changed the magic world forever. It is impossible to detailing his many achievements in a short tribute, but I will try to cover some. There are many personal stories and memories I would like to share, however, in this formal tribute I will restrict myself to his basic life story, which even in a skeletal form is as amazing as the man himself.
I would encourage any of our readers who were not lucky enough to have seen Shimada perform to carefully study the videos of his work. There has never been a magician who could achieve quite so much with a stare, or a momentary freeze of their actions the way Shimada could. He would create tension with his eyes and then dissolve it with a brief smile flashing across his face. There are mountains of knowledge to be gleaned by watching his presentation even before one begins to dissect his phenomenal magical skills.
Haruo Shimada was born on December 19th, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan. It was the Year of the Dragon. By the time Shimada was 15, he was already eyeing a future in magic. It was at this age, young Haruo discovered the Tenyo Magic Corner at a department store in Tokyo. He started visiting the store every day, finally buying a thumb tip, before moving on to learn the multiplying billiard balls. The young Shimada was now officially on his way to becoming a magician.
Shimada was then hired to demonstrate in all six of the Tenyo Magic Corners at various department stores. This is where Haruo learned the core of close-up magic skills that always remained hidden, just a tiny distance, beneath the dove and manipulative magic that became his trademark style of magical performance. Those of us who were lucky enough to see Haruo perform close-up sleight of hand were unanimous in our awe at his talent in this area.
Soon Shimada was traveling with Tenkō Hikita, who had also been a demonstrator at the Tenyo Magic Corners, and was acting as an assistant in his illusion show. In the show Haruo also performing his 35 Billiard Ball routine and a card routine. In 1957 the Grand Master of Japanese magic Tenkai Ishida came back to Japan after an extended absence and Haruo began taking lessons from him. In this way he began his magical path by mixing elements of Tenkai, Tenkō, and Tenyo and fusing them with his personal style. In 1960, along with Tenkō, he performed at the Kanreki (a very special 60th birthday party in Japanese tradition) for Emperor Hirohito. His solo career, however, was not yet launched until the arrival of Channing Pollock.
It was when Shimada created his dove act that his solo magic took off commercially. This clicked into place when Shimada was 19 years old and saw Channing Pollock in the movie European Nights. What he saw entranced him. Haruo watched the movie many times and decided on two key goals; firstly, he wanted to learn the art of dove magic, and secondly, he wanted to explore the intense romantic charisma that Channing had introduced into the art form. Working independently from Pollock’s magical methods, Shimada began re-inventing the structure of dove magic. He developed his bare hand production of a dove on a cane, his dove on a fan of cards, and the splitting of a dove in two. Shimada’s dove magic was original, groundbreaking, and beautiful to watch.
In the early 1960s, while still developing his dove and manipulation act, Shimada got a big break during the XV11 Olympiad. Shimada’s performance was seen by an Australian producer who hired him to tour Australia with a large-scale production show. The tour was a great success. Haruo preferred the more demonstrative Australian audiences to their quieter Japanese counterparts and decided to start his quest for stardom in Australia, while always seeing America as his ultimate destination.
Shimada returned to Australia in 1965 and quickly formed a working relationship with the beautiful Deanna Perkins who was to become an integral part of his work as his onstage partner. In October 1965 they became husband and wife and created an onstage team that many people consider one of the finest that the magic world has known. Shimada became a highly respected performer in Australia, performing on numerous TV shows and live venues. In 1966 Haruo and Deanna’s marriage was blessed with the birth of a daughter Lisa. Born into such a magical background it is little wonder that Lisa (who grew up to become Luna) has become a highly respected magician in her own right and continues the Shimada legacy. In 1979 the Shimada family was completed with the birth of their son Jason.
Shimada & Deanna worked together for three years performing shows throughout Australia before setting off for Mexico. Arriving in Mexico, the duo was hired to appear in the Teatro Blanquette which was home to most of Mexico’s top performers. They also took detours to appear in London and Japan, but Shimada had his eyes firmly set on the American market. Advice from Tony Slydini and Jack Goldfinger set Haruo on the trail to booking the annual Los Angeles magic production It’s Magic! It would prove to be the very steppingstone he needed to achieve his vision and become a magical star in the United States.
Shimada made his first appearance in the America in 1971 in Milt Larsen’s It’s Magic! show performing the debut of his recently devised parasol act. His early hero Channing Pollock saw his act and approached him about becoming his personal manager. Over the years Haruo would receive much sage advice and counsel from Channing.
After It’s Magic! Shimada became something of an artistic fixture performing at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. It was here that he developed the somewhat mysterious and intense “samurai style” that became synonymous with his future image and persona. Bill Larsen was amazed and delighted when he first discovered that in addition to the parasol act, Shimada performed what he described as, “the greatest dove act I have ever seen.”
Larsen was not alone in this opinion and later in 1971, Shimada made the first of four appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Many international and national gigs were to follow, with Shimada eventually becoming a major Las Vegas attraction in the celebrated Casino de Paris Show atthe Dunes Hotel. In 1975 Shimada put the finishing touch to his popular parasol act when he added a spectacular 60-foot fire-breathing dragon transposition as the finale to his show.
Shimada was given a contract in 1981 to be the featured specialty act in Liberace’s spectacular Las Vegas show. After this Shimada toured Europe and continued to appear in major Las Vegas shows, including replacing Siegfried & Roy in the Lido de Paris show at the Stardust Hotel. In 1988 Shimada started a five-year run in the show Splash at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Shimada had well and truly arrived and was in the very top tier of magicians around the world. Four television specials in Japan were filmed around him in 1989; coupled with his numerous other television appearances, Shimada had achieved multi-medium star status in the entertainment world.
In 1993, exhausted from these lengthy Vegas contracts, Shimada decided to return to his roots in Japan. Leaving his family in Las Vegas, Haruo returned to Tokyo to continue the tradition and mentor several young performers in presenting the performances he had created. In 1998 Shimada returned to America performing the Parasol/Dragon and Dove Act with his new wife Keiley and proved that the master had not lost his touch. Shimada’s immaculate performances once more delighted and entertained magicians across the United States and Europe. Every award that magic could offer was bestowed upon Shimada over the years and he deserved them all.
I first met Shimada in 1974, when I saw him perform in the tiny Magic Cabaret theater at the Magic Castle. I was knocked out by this magnificent entertainer and was lucky enough to get to know him a little and work with him throughout the years. He was one of the true grandmasters of our art, It is a privilege to have known such a giant of magic. The loss to our magic community with Shimada’s passing is a profound one. Shimada leaves behind his wife Keiley Shimada, daughter Luna Shimada, son Jason Shimada, and his grandchildren Tara, Adam, and Iona Losander Shimada.
I first heard about Martin Lewis when I played the esteemed Magic Cellar in San Francisco in 1974. Sadly, the Magic Cellar is now long gone but Martin Lewis is still very much around and has just released one of the finest magic books that I have been lucky enough ever to get my hands on. The book is Making Magic, and within its 350 pages, it contains 38 Stage and Parlor routines and 22 Close-Up routines. This is a treasure trove of great magic and one of the best written and illustrated magic books ever offered to the magic community. However, the technical quality of a magic book doesn’t amount to much unless it is matched by great material, and this book contains Grade A magic and routines many of which have been perfected for years in Martin’s highly commercial act. The book is accompanied by a disc containing templates and plans of various props described in the book.
Before I go into more details about the contents of Making Magic, let me take the opportunity to tell you a little about the man behind the book. As I stated the Magic Cellar is where I first heard about Martin, and since Martin and I both hailed from England everybody assumed that we had been early friends back in the U.K., but England isn’t quite as small as many people imagine it to be. I didn’t meet Martin until several years later at the Magic Castle when we drifted into a very comfortable friendship. That friendship is tempered by a great deal of respect on my part. Everything Martin does, he does well, whether it is creating, performing, or writing about magic.
Martin Lewis was born in England in the city of Northampton in the Midlands, but left England at 20 years old and began a new life in America. Martin’s sister Valerie had married an American serviceman and moved to San Bernadino. Martin’s mom Gladys, who was a red cross nurse in the war, came out to visit Valerie and decided to remain and continue her career as a midwife. This was a job for which there was a great need in California, and she was easily able to get a visa.
About a year later dad decided it was a good idea for him to also move to the USA along with Martin and his brother, whose full name was Andrew Robert Harbin Lewis. From that name you immediately know that dad was a magician, in fact, his best friend was the great Robert Harbin. Indeed, Martin’s father Eric was not only a wonderful magician but also something of a Renaissance man, a writer, and an artist. However, he was not the kind of person the government necessarily wanted to bestow a working visa on. Finally, after ultimately suing the US Government, Eric acquired the paperwork necessary to reunite the entire family in sunny California on January 1st, 1968.
In England, after leaving school Martin worked in the leather clothing industry as a clicker, cutting out leather into different shapes to sew into jackets. He was paid by the unit in what is known as the clicking room. No one wanted to talk too much as they worked because they were trying to make as much money as possible. Everyone worked with wooden handled, sharp curved knives cutting the leather on a wooden surface, and all you could hear was a clicking sound, hence the name “clicking room. This detailed and precise work would doubtlessly have proven a great apprenticeship for Martin’s skills as a magical creator and manufacturer. However, Martin had very little interest in performing magic in his first 21 years. That was soon to change.
On his 21st birthday Martin, accompanied by his dad, visited the Magic Castle and at the 7:45pm show in the close-up gallery had an epiphany watching the amazing close-up magic of Albert Goshman. “I came out of that room just bewildered,” Martin says. “I told my dad that I must know about this! I had never seen anything like this kind of magic. I had just seen stand-up prop magic.” Eric gave Martin a copy of the Royal Road to Card Magic and said, “You might want to take a look at this,” says Martin. “I learned every trick in the book, I am like that, when I’m interested in something I get into it 110 percent. So, I went back to him a couple of months later and said, I’ve learned everything in here.” “You, mean you’ve read everything you haven’t learned it,” said Eric, who then made Martin demonstrate various tricks from the pages of the “Royal Road….” Eric then gave Martin a copy of Bobo’s Coin Magic to continue his education. “That’s how I got started,” says Martin, “and when I was ready my father gave me all the help I needed.”
Upon arriving in America, Eric Lewis worked for Jim Worth at Simon Magic in Sun Valley building props and was later to reprise this role working with Johnny Gaughn. Eric was no stranger to making magic props; in the 1930’s he had founded the Magikraft studio of magician’s props in England. Martin was later to relaunch the Magikraft business and turned it into one of the top boutique magic brands in the worldwide magic community.
From 1968 onwards Martin was at the Magic Castle hanging out with Dai Vernon, Kuda Bux, and the gang almost every night; he also began appearing in the Castle’s Close-Up Gallery. When Eric Lewis moved up North to restore the legendary Albo magic collection, Martin went with him anxious to explore the vibrant Northern California magic scene. He discovered the Magic Cellar in San Francisco where he became the house magician from ’71 through‘74. During his residency, Martin expanded from his close-up magic roots and developed his comedy magic stage show. He describes the transition to stand-up as being rather scary having to leave behind the safety of having a table between him and his audience. I know many magicians share those qualms!
Returning to Southern California in ’74 Lewis began playing the “big” room at the Castle, which was then situated in the Castle wine cellar and known as the Magic Cabaret. In 1974 he won the prestigious stand-up magician of the year award from the Castle’s Academy of Magical Arts. It was to be the first of many awards. In the mid-‘70s, booked by Ron Wilson, Martin tried his hand as guest entertainer on his first cruise ship and quickly became one of the most popular cruise entertainers on the circuit.
In the early ’80s, Martin began working in the burgeoning comedy club market, and eventually, this led to Martin opening casino shows for Debbie Reynolds and touring with acts like Hoyt Axton and John Stewart. Martin began performing illusions when he was working in the Doo Dah Daze production show in Las Vegas and “Could it be Magic?” in Lake Tahoe. By now Lewis had become the fully-fledged triple threat, performing close-up, stand-up, and illusion magic. It was during this time that Martin was a key participant in magic’s fabled “Left-Handed League,” along with Harry Anderson, Jay Johnston, Mike Caveney, Tina Lenert, Turk Pipkin, and Catherine Miller.
After Martin’s father Eric passed in 1988, Martin picked up the reins of his father’s iconic Magikraft magic company. For many years Martin had been making high-end unique collectible magic props out of exotic woods. At a certain point, Martin realized he was creating some tricks that could be mass-produced, and his move into helming Magikraft was a natural progression. Lewis released items such as Cardiographic,Technicolor Prediction, and The Sidewalk Shuffle that became worldwide magical favorites. Lewis is lucky to be married to the perfect dyadic partner with his beautiful Austrian wife Susanne, whose financial and business acumen blended perfectly with Martin’s creative magical skills. They make a perfect team.
Let me back to Martin’s remarkable new book. I recently had the opportunity to ask Martin for his other thoughts and insights behind the book. As accomplished a performer as Lewis is, his first love had long been building magic. “Since I retired from performing,” says Martin, “I haven’t missed going back on stage at all. I don’t mind if I never go back. My time in my workshop is precious to me, and that’s what I love to do.”
“I’ve been working on Making Magic for 50 years really, but I spent a lot of time on cruises, and if it was a choice of sitting in a stuffy cabin pecking out tricks on a typewriter or drinking Pina Coladas by the pool. I opted for the pool. I started writing up different tricks and putting them into a folder but I never really did anything with them. Then COVID came along, business dropped out and I said, “I’m going to write the book now. So, this is my effort to gather stuff I’ve created over the past 50 years in one place. Since my magic is constantly evolving, I have rewritten everything to bring it up to date. It contains material from my lectures, magazine articles, videos, marketed tricks, and notebooks.”
“I started physically putting the book together in 2020. I thought the writing part would be the hard part, but it turned out that this was the easiest part of producing the book. The hardest part was physically putting the book together. I learned how to use InDesign to do the layout, which was quite a learning curve, also I wanted to have illustrations in the book, I didn’t want photographs; I think that illustrations are much clearer and easy to follow. There are over 300 drawings in the book, and everyone was taken from a photograph.
I wanted to put things down in detail. A lot of the tricks in the book have been published before, but they have always been just brief magic instructions, just a few lines giving people the general idea. I wanted people to see my timing, the details of my presentation, and why I do what I do. My goal was to fill the book with things that were exciting for magicians. There are a lot of books on magic featuring different subjects, philosophy, stage handling, and other topics. However, ultimately this book is just about tricks, but they are damn good tricks!”
Making Magic is the kind of book that the magic world does not see often; it aims high and exceeds its goal. Packed full of high-quality routines, the writing and illustrations are exceptional. When you catch the subtle wordplay contained within the title of the book you realize that much of the material requires a little construction and handiwork to bring the routines into being. That’s why the writing and illustrations are so important. I am not much of a “do it yourself” guy, but Lewis takes you by the hand and guides you with quiet expertise.
The tricks themselves are high quality and very commercial, with many of them direct from Martin’s act or his company’s roster of marketed effects. There is even a separate disc that contains the templates and extra information that you will need to construct Martin’s latest miracles.
I heartily recommend this book and think it is destined to become a contemporary classic of magic. It is a perfect example of how magical content, methodology, and the way they are combined can coalesce into something special. I give this book a five-star rating and wish there were more stars available. The cost of the book, including the accompanying disc is $95. There is also a limited deluxe collectors special edition available. Making Magic can be purchased at www.Magikraft.com
REMARKABLE MAGIC 