Women in Magic: The Magic Castle Tribute to Geri Larsen.

•May 16, 2012 • Leave a Comment

On the week of May 7th -13th the Magic Castle presented a fine tribute to one of the great ladies of magic, Geri Larsen. Geri as many readers will know was the wife of William Larsen Sr, and therefore mother of Magic Castle founders Bill and Milt Larsen. This is distinction enough in the magic world, however Geri deserves more than a ‘matriarch reference’ to magic lovers.

Along with Bess Houdini she was the founder of the first woman’s magic organization in 1936, and that same year founded the venerable magic magazine Genii with her husband William Larsen sr. thus sowing seeds that are still flourishing to this day. Ms. Larsen was also the first woman to perform magic on television in San Francisco in 1939. By the ‘40s she was also starring in her own children’s magic show on ABC TV and a syndicated show for Telemount Pictures. This was quite a lady, a pioneer whose vision of a woman’s role in magic was way ahead of her time. In many ways it still is an avant-garde position, especially among male magicians.

The Castle tribute was the brainchild of one of the Magic Castle’s most creative and key figures—Dale Hindman. For years I have enjoyed a relationship with Dale that was mostly based on us saying mean things to each other, and I think both of us have thoroughly enjoyed the process! Neither of us craves the warm fuzzy roles that life can offer. I guess I’d better begin by taking of my ‘distancing’ gloves.

Dale did a really fabulous job of producing and directing the ‘Palace of Mystery’ show that was the emotional heart of the tribute week. He sensitively and expertly blended footage of Geri with a live re-creation of one of her television shows performed by her great granddaughter Liberty Larsen. He created a special event that really was special.

It was the intergenerational Larsen relationship that turned the show (and therefore the week) into a true tribute that spanned the years and wove together these threads from the magic world. Dale did a truly great job and balanced a great contemporary show with a historic experience.

Hand in glove with my appreciation for Dale’s work, must be added a reference to the great work done by the Castle’s booker—Jack Goldfinger. Week by week, and bill-by-bill, Jack shows the benefits of having a professional magician book the acts into this weekly mosaic of magic. This must be one of the toughest juggling acts ever attempted by a magician, bravo Jack!

The all female roster of performers for the week included: Suzanne, Joycee Beck, Lisa Cousins, Sisuepahn Phila, Liberty Larsen, Luna Shimada, Sophie Evans, Juliana Chen, Joyce Basch, Jeanine Anderson and Misty Mew. It is tough to catch even half the scheduled shows in one evening at the Castle, however it is easy to catch the ‘buzz’ and ‘vibe’ from the Castle visitors. They loved it.

With due respect to all the other performers, I am going to focus my brief column on the Palace show, as it was definitely the centerpiece of the tribute. Liberty Larsen acted as a bridge between the generations and the show began with her performing in one of her great grandmothers costumes. The Costume was on loan to the Castle from the S.A.M. Hall of Fame and looked great!

Liberty was charming, fresh and exuded scads of appeal, not only in the opening vignette but while acting as MC and hosting the show. She even presented a short card routine with Peterkin, a hand puppet who had not performed since his days with Geri. I amongst many others was utterly charmed by Liberty’s performance skills.

The three women who formed the core of the show were all top-notch performers and their shows blended into a synergistic performance that allowed each lady to shine individually and achieve an effortless standing ovation upon their full-cast curtain call. The feeling of unity they presented throughout the show was creativity and gender based in equal parts.

Luna Shimada presented her fast paced blend of theatre and magical skills and was correctly introduced as a ‘Rock Star’ of magic. Luna’s act is bold, dynamic and innovative; it keeps improving and getting more exciting every time I see it. Her musical score was a highlight and could be studied by anyone wanting to improve his or her show. It was a wonderful way to kick off the bill and could just as easily have closed the performance—one of the signs of a skillfully directed show.

 The sizzling Sophie Evans followed Luna and performed her ‘fire’ show with much charm and quietly witty undertone that made it all the more enjoyable. Her show includes magic and fire eating and like Luna has been crafted and re-crafted to achieve maximum impact. Her floating ball of fire was a magical highlight in its simplicity and direct audience appeal. I enjoyed her work immensely.

Juliana Chen presenting her masks, magic and exciting card work, was a great closing act. The attention to detail in her work was exemplary and turned small moments into exciting ones. Her final costume change brought gasps from the crowd. The pacing and arc of her act were nicely designed to build to a theatrical finale that got enormous audience response.

All four performers were excellent and I feel Geri Larsen would have been proud to watch the show. Geri was way ahead of her time and after years of ‘men only’ magic shows it was fun to see the Castle pull a ‘rabbit out of the hat’ with a little reverse sexism and an all female cast in each of it’s showrooms.

On a personal note I thought back fondly on some of the great female performers who have broken some Castle barriers in past years. Diana Zimmerman, Tina Lenert, Becky Blaney and Judy Carter were four of the names that sprang to my mind in this regard. Each one of them is a part of Geri’s legacy as a groundbreaking magician, who was also female.

Let’s have more ‘tribute’ weeks—this one was a blast!

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The late great seance for the late great Lenny Bruce.

•May 8, 2012 • 2 Comments

Ross Johnson was my co-host for this particular event and Ross is a performer I hold in high esteem. However I had no idea how potentially disturbed he was until our dress rehearsal for the Vegas event; which was held in the Oak Brook suburb of Chicago. Ross began to unpack his personal séance equipment; there was the fetal casket, the pentagram that dripped blood etc. etc. I took a double look at Ross and noticed that his eyes gleamed just a little too much for the superb corporate entertainer I knew him to be. I had assumed that as the crazed comedy performer in the team I would lead the way in any madness. Dream on, Nick!

Ross and I didn’t actually have any effects at all to enliven the dark segment of the séance other than Johnson’s brilliant Q & A and a picture of Lenny Bruce, attached to a length of thread being held by Jon Stetson in the audience. Jon had surprised us by arriving unannounced minutes prior to show time and was thrown into covert duties instantly. Magic Magazine recently spent several pages of a cover story trying to define Stetson. They missed out the most elemental one of all; he is the magician who is most often in the right place at the right time. I bet Jon will tell you the same thing.

Show time arrived and just as the séance was about to commence a thunderstorm broke out in the gray Illinois skies. A bolt of thunder and a flash of lightning filled the room causing the shutters behind us to bust wide open with a loud clatter. The audience chuckled with the prospect of upcoming fun and games.

Ross and I just looked at each other with wry looks of uneasiness, as we were the only ones present that knew this was an unplanned addition to the event. Even Stetson must have been fairly impressed. He had plenty of time to observe the action as a cocktail waitress had walked through the thread he was holding and caused a premature departure of the 8×10 of Lenny from wall to floor. It fell totally unnoticed to the ground: so much for our big finale!

The séance was a blast and Johnson and Lewin rocked the room, perhaps a little too much, as during the course of the events a grown man fainted and fell from his stool to the ground. The event was powerful and impressive and totally unsuited to its location and audience. I loved every minute of it. Unlike Ross, who had the added pressure of actually living in Chicago!

Two weeks later Ross and I presented the séance again in Las Vegas on Halloween night creating something of a press sensation and twice selling out the 500-seat theater at Bally’s. I have presented other celebrity séances since but this one will always be my favorite. The next celebrity seance was for Elvis and proved conclusively to me that cult is better than mainstream when it comes to seances.

The very best part of the séance biz is hearing the reactions as people exit the showroom. Some people walk up and earnestly grasp you hand and whisper, “You know! You really know!” Others give you a nudge and a wink and thank you for the fun. The correct response to everyone is an impassive smile and the words, “Thank You.”

If you decide to try out this séance business for yourself my wife will probably be delighted to sell you everything you need already packaged in two black footlockers. Add equal parts magician, mentalist and Elmer Gantry and you are ready to go. Enjoy!

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It was a wild spirit filled nght!

•April 26, 2012 • Leave a Comment

There are two large black footlockers in our garage amongst the magic muddle: if I ever want to panic my wife I just move them a little closer to being inside the house. The content of these trunks consist of the hardware necessary to present the Nick Lewin Celebrity Séance Show.

Inside the footlockers is a strange assortment of objects; black candles, jumbo tarot cards, glowing objects of all kind, a voodoo doll, lazy tongs of various lengths and about a dozen long black poles with swatches of luminous paint daubed cloth attached to the end. Add a bit of theatrical skill, more than a little nerve and the séance is complete.

Those footlockers contain such a strange collection of items that it is amazing that they could create panic in anyone, especially my wife who after thirty-four years of marriage to me, is acquainted with most of the weirdness in the magic world. However panic they have created over the years!

It would take a curiously deranged person to look at the ragged items in the footlockers and say, “There they are, just as I created them!” That particular deranged man, in this case, would be the one and only Eugene Burger. For these props are my realizations of the ideas in Mr. Burger’s splendid handbook for the Séance giver ‘Spirit Theater.’ If you want to present a séance this is the only book on the subject you need to own.

Given a place of honor in my magic cupboard is a superb set of Dr Q locking spirit slates that Eugene passed on to me to feature in the experiment. He seemed to feel you couldn’t be a spirit medium without owning a set of these nifty gizmos. I suspect he is right because the toughest part in any séance is letting the audience know it is finished. The slates can get the message across, so to speak.

I presented my first séance in 1978 at the Ice House in Pasadena. It was designed to bring back the spirit of Buddy Holly. In those days I didn’t have much to scare the sitters when the lights went out. Curiously enough the crack that suddenly appeared in the lens of the thick horn rimmed glasses, borrowed from the Holly family, got the job done nicely and created a splendid reaction in those present.

In fact the gasp from the audience when the cracked glasses were revealed may even have covered the sigh of relief that my wife Susan and I gave when we realized the damn thing was over! There were times prior to (and during!) the séance when I wished I had been in that plane with Ritchie Vallens, the Big Bopper and Buddy when they left the airport on that stormy night to fly to their next gig.

These magical séances are curious things, they leave you elated, depleted and in no uncertain state of mind that this finally was the final one. However as you get hooked on their dark charms there is no such thing as a final séance; hence my wife’s alarm at any sign that those footlockers are moving back into the house.

I have performed about fifteen séances since that first one in Pasadena when we brought Buddy back from that great gig in the sky. Speaking for myself, which I am eminently qualified to do, my favorite was the Lenny Bruce Séance presented at Bally’s in Las Vegas. It was a grand evening of laughs and chills.

 

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How to be funny!

•April 15, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Now that is a provocative title for a blog post! The accepted answer is that you are either funny or you are not. I really can’t disagree with that for the most part. However it is possible to learn about anything and comedy is no exception. Let’s see if we can set up a few guidelines.

First let me begin by saying that having a sense of humor really doesn’t have very much too do with this process. I have met many fabulous comedians who haven’t any discernable trace of humor when they are offstage. I won’t say a majority of them, but you might well think so, if you didn’t know the way the comedy mind works.

A real comedian puts a great deal into his work and spends endless hours jotting ideas and line into little notebooks to experiment and dissect later. If you think perfecting your comedy timing is less difficult or time consuming than dealing a perfect center deal—YOU ARE WRONG. They both take a lifetime, both to get them right, and to keep them right.

It is impossible to be truly funny just spouting of standard lines that you heard another magician get laughs with, or stuff you read in a joke book. You might get some laughs but it won’t make you truly funny. In fact it will just get in the way and probably give you a false sense of confidence. Nothing really worth achieving arrives quite that painlessly. Sadly.

Being funny requires a fully developed sense of self/persona that binds together the words you say into something that is truly unique. Watch Michael Finney, Paul Kozak, Amazing Jonathan, Mac King and other performers who really incorporate true comedy into their magic show. Notice how unique each one is in his attitude and approach. One of the reasons that this is the case is because each of these performers headlined on the highly competitive comedy circuit when it was at its zenith.

We, I include myself, as I headlined the comedy circuit for 11 years, had the benefit of watching real comedians hone their craft. We had a chance to learn from them and with them. You learn magic by watching magicians and not comedians; you learn comedy by watching comedians not magicians. The previously mentioned performers (and two others) have transcended the scope of being categorized in any single mode. They really are funny.

Watch the precision with which a comedian slices unnecessary words from his performance. It is like watching a brain surgeon carve the Thanksgiving Day turkey! See how they choose words with the care of a master chef choosing his ingredients for a special meal. Notice how, over time, a comedian will ruthlessly discard any joke that doesn’t fit his particular character regardless of the laugh it gets.

A good practice for someone who wants to be funny is to write down every word they are going to say onstage. EVERY SINGLE WORD. Then start to work on cutting words out and adding more laughs while doing so. Now this is a challenge that deserves all your active attention. Can you visualize whom you want the audience to see onstage and verbalize why they should think he/she is funny? It requires a great deal of hard continuous work.

Is this work worthwhile? Well it is if you want to be funny, and the old saying is ‘Funny is Money.’ Generally speaking there are a greater number of higher paid comedians than magicians. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but most audiences prefer to laugh than be fooled—it is just a fact. If you can be truly funny while fooling people then you won’t have many empty dates in your datebook. Ask any of the performers I referenced!

Be ruthless! Begin by cutting out anything that is really old or ‘hack’ in your act, fill the gaps this creates with original comedy that makes you into more of the person you want to be onstage. You don’t always need jokes to be funny, sometimes they just get in the way, but you do need a clear vision of what it is that you feel can make you different/funny.

Then work at it the way Charlie Miller worked at his bottom deal, and one day, just like that illusive sleight, it will just arrive. It won’t be perfect at first; it will just be the raw gemstone that you can cut, polish and facet into a jewel that sparkles. Is it worth it? Wait until you experience the rush you experience when a real comic comes up to you and says, “Hey, you are funny.” That is priceless!

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Cheers to the new ‘Digital Era’ of reading!

•April 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I want to congratulate a few people about the direction that magic publishing is heading. The new digital media is really coming of age in the magic community

I was delighted to see the first issue of Paul Romhany’s new digital magazine ‘Vanish.’  It is a great addition to the magic scene and I am proud to be a part of it. It is wonderful that a magazine of this quality is available free of charge. I wish it much success and hope that it has a long and continued success.  If you haven’t read it, then download an issue and enjoy the content!

I have also been catching up with the latest digital issues of Stan Allen’s ‘Magic’ Magazine. It is a really great digital read and has been a powerful and very enjoyable addition to my magical reading. The iPad edition is just so beautifully thought out! The transition from story to story and the inclusion of video and the photo slide shows really get to the heart of learning a new move or trick. It is sophisticated, slick and simple in its delivery.

I do love the freedom of knowing I have a long air flight and downloading 3 or 4 copies of ‘Magic’ for the journey. It is truly reading on demand, which is a great thing! I can’t imagine life without my iPad now, and this is just one more great reason.

I can’t help feeling that we are looking at the future of magic publishing in this new medium, which the iPad allows us to explore. It is not only cool but it just works so darn well! I think that for a format like a magazine, magicians collectively have struck pay dirt. Much against my will they are winning me over away from the ‘dead tree’ world of publishing. I used to resent that term but now use it freely.

I was also pleased to receive a copy of Shawn McMaster and Jonathan Levit’s new ‘Mendala’ digital magazine from the publishers and found it to be a superb read. I had written a tribute about the late Martin Breese and it really looked better than I could have guessed in print. I was taken aback at how well the magazine handled all of its various goals. Both ‘Mendala’ and ‘Magic’ charge a very reasonable fee for their product and I think they are the cutting edge of the future wave of publishing within our niche market.

I am sure Genii is also doing a superb job, and their policy of allowing subscribers to access back issues is a great one. I am not much of a subscription person though and buying Genii still gives me a reason to visit magic shops and leave with a minor purchase if I don’t need a new thumb tip!

I think there is a very real place for old fashioned  ‘pen and Ink’ books too, and I feel that there are forms of information that are best transmitted in this format. Just as certainly there is a place for DVDs, PDFs, and eBooks in the teaching of magic. Different things are best learned in different ways. We live in a grand time when we can even enjoy all these methods on one device! How lucky we are.

Each medium presents its own challenges and advantages to the publisher and bestows different advantages to the purchaser. I believe we are moving into a new area of sophistication in this entire field of education.

Next month will see the publication of my ‘Ultimate Linking Finger Ring Routine’ as a multimedia Book, DVD and CD combined into one package. It just seemed the correct way to handle the density of information and subtleties involved in doing the job right. I will also be publishing my far less expensive but highly comprehensive guide, ‘Cruise Magic: how to make a great living performing magic on cruise ships.’  I am also re-releasing my the first video of my ‘Perfect for Pros’ video, ‘20210s’ I think each project has a very real reason for being in the format it is presented in.

Next I plan to create a really inexpensive augmented and updated ebook of my favorite columns from Magic New Zealand to be published and distributed via iBooks,

I would like to thank all the pioneers of introducing magic to the digital age for the influence they have had on my ideas of presenting magic to the magic community. We live in exciting and rewarding times.

Email me at nicklewin1@mac.com

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Sleazy Dealings in New England and some better ideas…..

•April 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

I suspect most people in the magic world are familiar with the charges that have been leveled against magic dealer Hank Lee and his New England based ‘Magic Factory.’ He pleaded guilty to the charges, which include (amongst other things) over 500,000 dollars worth of illegal credit card charges.

It is hard to believe from reports of the incident that this isn’t a tip of the iceberg to his dishonest dealings. Somehow he is being allowed to keep his store open and running while waiting for the sentencing of his case. Sweet deal.

I don’t plan to go into great details about the case (or peoples reactions to it) other than to suggest you Google and research it for yourself, it is a shabby and sickening business. I dealt with Hank for many years with no problem but a couple of years ago I was at the short end of a business transaction that made me decide to refrain from doing so in the future.

It wasn’t a grand, concerted, criminal case such as Lee just pleaded guilty too. It was just a $125 transaction that I really didn’t bother pursuing. Life is too short. I just decided not to continue my dealings with Hank. I want to make it VERY clear that this problem was with Hank Lee alone, and not with his staff in any way.

Now, Lee is apologizing and saying that he has instigated new policies to ensure the safety of his customer’s orders. Hard for me to buy that one! You were the problem Hank, and have pleaded guilty to unacceptable and dishonest behavior. Having read the published details of the case, I don’t think you deserve any renewal of trust within the magic world as a businessman.

An apology from someone who has allegedly (is it still alleged, when you plead guilty? I’m no lawyer so I will use the word) broken the law, doesn’t seem to amount to very much. Shame on you Harry P. Levy, I personally don’t accept your apologies and promises of a change of heart, after you have skidded away from this current situation so lightly.

There has been a vast change in the way buying and selling of magic is taking place, and I think most of it is a healthy thing. I deeply regret the extreme difficulties and expenses that face an old fashioned ‘brick and mortar’ magic store. They are becoming an endangered species and that is a loss to magicians everywhere.

Magic Shops were a wonderful place to meet and mix with other magicians and improve your knowledge and skills as a performer. However, as in so much retail purchasing, the Internet has changed the game forever, there are pros and cons involved but it is just the way things are moving. The good news is, there are wonderful people selling magic on the Internet now and doing so in a fast, efficient and honest manner.

Better still, is the fact that, individual magicians are selling individual and limited amounts of prized routines that are hand tested and real finds. Merely as an example, I recently bought ‘Restored Credit’ from David Regal over the Internet and it was a dream transaction. A great trick, at a fair price, paid for by the very secure Papal system and dispatched quicker than a scaled card by Jeff McBride!

The new Facebook page, ‘Magicians Surplus Props’ is dedicated to magicians seeking to buy, sell and trade magic props, and is another wonderful asset to the magic world. It is like a glorified digital swap meet! If you haven’t checked it out yet you should do so. Is the Internet medium open to fraud too? “In the words of Sarah Palin, “You betcha’…” but individuals can be held responsible and banished accordingly as incidents occur.

I admire and respect all the legitimate magic dealers around the world who sell us the tools of our trade in an authentic and honest manner. However, when we discover the bad apples in the pile, let’s expose and put out of business, those that are thieves—whether by barefacedly stealing our cash or by stealing other peoples intellectual property and making money from it dishonestly. For me, this last statement includes revealing marketed routines for free on YouTube.

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‘Desert of Dreams…………’

•March 27, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Like most people who watched the Kevin Costner movie ‘Field of Dreams’ I was charmed, not only the movie, but also the wonderful philosophy it revolved around. If you didn’t see the movie then the best thing I can do is just quote the key principle, “If you build it—they will come.”

I am not going to waste time putting this statement into the context that it assumes in ‘Field of Dreams.’ I am just going to re-apply it to the area of magic shows, where there is a general theory, especially as seen Las Vegas, that if you put on a magic show—an audience will arrive to attend it.

Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote two columns about new magic shows that were ‘Tossing their top hats’ into the Vegas ring. I made careful references about how tough the market in Las Vegas is at the moment, and especially at this time of year. I am not naïve.

Since the year began many magic shows have opened and changed locations in a very short time and it is beginning to look like a potential ‘Hunger Games’ with magicians replacing the photogenic teenagers. Well, I’m writing this column in a Vegas hotel room sadly reflecting that my pick of the new shows has already closed, within a week of the opening media night!

The first casualty in this ‘Battle Royale’ was ‘Avant Garde,’ which had the best and biggest cast of performers of the new shows. It got great word of mouth, and in a better economy should have been able to gain enough traction to become a hit show. The only thing lacking was a producer who knew how to ‘produce’ a big enough audience to finance his production and pay his company. The smaller (essentially single performer) shows can run a little longer, while still not making enough money to actually do much more than pay the rental fee to the hotel for the service of four walling their show room to the performer. The latest casualty, I hear, is that Paul Stone’s ‘Vegas Magic Theater’ at the ‘Gold Coast Hotel’ is now on ‘hiatus.’

This kind of development doesn’t improve the quality of the magic shows in Las Vegas— instead it tends to multiply the amount of available choices without doing much to extend the variety and individuality of the shows that are playing. My belief is that ‘Avant Garde’ may be revamped/re-launched and still become the commercial success it deserved to become.

What it does say to me, is that you need a very good game plan as a producer to have a ‘hit’ show, and not just one that limps along quietly hemorrhaging cash and overexposing the art of magic while doing so.  Steve Wyrick spent about 12 years proving that seemingly endless ‘fresh starts,’ new showrooms, and infusions of cash can’t replace a really innovative Show. What is needed in Vegas is something new and exciting.

When Siegfried & Roy, Lance Burton, and Penn & Teller were the chief resident magicians on the Strip, you had a choice of style, content and ticket price that helped establish Las Vegas as the magic capital of the world. With the former two shows closed only Penn & Teller and frequent visitor David Copperfield are occupying the headliner role that is took decades to create in Vegas, as opposed to the 10 minute variety acts that it had previously primarily been home to.

Smaller ‘self contained’ performer/shows like Mac King, Amazing Johnathan and Gerry McCambridge have all done a great job in making this smaller show format look easier than it really is. Often overlooked is the tremendous variety in styles these performers have brought to the Vegas scene, and the creative and tireless self-promotion (I mean that as a true compliment) that they have displayed in so doing.

A magic show in Vegas is quickly becoming a four wall equivalent to Andy Warhol’s theory, “In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of fame.’ In the future, perhaps every performing magician will appear on a TV talent contest for a few minutes, doing something that doesn’t actually represent what they do. Those few minutes, might even get the performers a Vegas show, if they are willing to finance it themselves.

Will this regain Vegas’ status as the prestigious capital of magic? I think we need some more seasoned and visionary performers to populate the showrooms. Performers that are so exceptional that a Casino will want to pay them to be there— in order to build their audiences, mentor their talents and develop their individuality. This used to be the case. Until then, forget ‘Field of Dreams,’ because just putting on the show does not mean the audience will come and it might just be creating a glut in the market.

Email me at nicklewin1@mac.com

You can also reserve an early copy of my new book, ‘Cruise Magic: how to make a great living performing magic on cruise ships.’ Just in case your Vegas show doesn’t come through.

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‘How to make a great living performing magic on cruise ships.’

•March 19, 2012 • 3 Comments

I am proud and happy to let readers of my blog know that I have just enjoyed two very special anniversaries within the last month. Firstly I celebrated my 60th birthday, and secondly I have just finished my sixth year of writing my weekly column for Magic New Zealand

I have always tried to have a long-term goal in mind, in relation to my life and career. My goal upon reaching 60 was to drastically slow down my almost non-stop performing schedule and concentrate on my writing. Oh, and just to enjoy life a little less hectically!

Susan and I recently moved from Las Vegas back to Los Angeles, and are now planning our move to the wonderful city of Austin. I plan to spend at least the next 20 years writing, and sharing some of the knowledge that I have acquired during my 42 years as a full-time professional magician.

I am not going to stop performing shows; I am just going to enjoy the luxury of living a more selective life in doing so. I want to smell the roses and enjoy my morning cup of coffee in my own backyard more mornings in the year!

As I have previously mentioned in these pages, part of this goal was achieved with the upcoming publication of my most cherished routines, ‘ Nick Lewin’s Ultimate Linking Finger Ring Routine.’ It is a limited edition book/DVD and CD package that is a goldmine for working professionals.

Priced at $350 dollars it is not for the dabbler and that was the point, I am pleased to say that it has already received enough orders that it looks like it will be totally sell out—without any formal advertising. I am now pleased to announce that my next book will be available within the next month.

Over the years writing for MNZ and various other magic magazines, I have written a number of columns about the business of entertaining in the cruise ship market. They have always achieved the most interest and feedback of any of the articles I have written. I decided to write an entire book teaching the entire scoop on how to enter and achieve success in this highly lucrative form of work.

This is a topic I know something about, as I have worked in this market for over 40 years. I can, in all modesty say, that I am considered to be one of the highest paid and highly regarded performers within this, highly specialized, field of entertainment. It has made me a lot of money, taken me to some great places and kept me busy regardless of what the state of the industry was in other areas.

 I have read several books written about this topic, and while enjoying them, I felt they have all missed the mark. I wanted to write something that was simple, direct and of true assistance to any performer considering this line of work. There is a great deal of work available in this blossoming area and the average magician has a good shot at acquiring some of it!

I recently completed my book, and in honesty I am stunned by how much practical and previously unprinted information, I have been able to gather into one book. It is genuinely an A to Z treatise on the ‘ins and outs’ of the topic, and can be of invaluable assistance to any performer. Surprisingly enough much of the information is just as applicable to other forms of magical work.

I am charging a much more modest fee for this book than my ‘Linking Finger Ring Routine’ and it will be available next month (as an old fashioned ink and paper book) for US $ 24.95 postage free to anywhere in the world. Later, I may make it available as an iBook. I feel this is the future of publishing a book such as this.

I honestly believe this may be one of the most valuable additions to the library of any performer wishing to expand his performing career and make more money by using his skills and talents. I am very proud of the ‘insanely simple’ way it breaks down a complex topic and makes it highly accessible to the average working magician.

I will be selling the book online for it’s first edition, and will be accepting credit card/checks and other forms of payments through the safe, secure and simple ‘PayPal’ system. All copies can be personalized and signed on request. If you are interested in securing an advance copy of this book contact me at nicklewin1@mac.com to place your order,

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Shows, more shows and more shows.

•March 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

The newest idea in Vegas shows is all about going back to a fairly old one, having revolving casts and bills in the various showrooms. Both ‘Vegas Magic Theatre’ at the GoldCoast Hotel and ‘Avant Garde’ at the Plaza Hotel are shaking things up a bit and keeping the acts moving. I have written previously about the Vegas Magic Theatre and it seems to be doing a great job in finding its market/audience.

‘Avant Garde’ has a revolving bill that regularly includes Michael Finney, Ed Alonzo, Sonny Fontana, Rudy Colby, Kevin James and Juliana Chen. Juliana is also director of the show. This seems like a win/win bill to me no matter who is playing! There are various other variety acts that appear in the show and it is, indeed, a veritable smorgasbord of great magicians and entertainers. Everyone I know who has seen the show is raving about it. I can’t wait to visit Vegas and catch it

The ability to give a little freedom to your performers to appear elsewhere really gives the financial freedom to make such an all-star bill a practical concern. I think that this is a show that is going to be around for the long haul. The market has seen its fair share of solo performers who fill an hour on their own, however, a variety bill such as this is wonderful in so much as it lets everyone give their strongest punch.

‘The World’s Greatest Magic’ which had an extended run at the ‘Greek Islands’ was a forerunner of this kind of show and was a really enjoyable experience. There is something very sophisticated about a well-balanced bill that has something for everyone. It is a great value for the increasingly illusive tourist dollar.

Mac King continues to delight audiences with his hour-long afternoon show. His subtle, and audience friendly show makes the 60 minutes disappear right in front of the audience’s eyes. He makes it look so easy that is deceptive that it puts a huge strain on other performers trying to follow in his plaid footsteps!

Newcomers, Tommy Wind and Michael Turco are throwing their hats into the one-man show arena. Actually one-magician and reality show famous female, in Turco’s case! Their shows play respectively at 6:00 and 4:00 pm. I truly wish them the best of luck. There is certainly a large choice of shows to choose from in the Vegas market, I suspect that Turco will fare better as he is playing at the Saxe Theatre in the Planet Hollywood Hotel. His show will benefit greatly from the savvy involvement of David Saxe, who has grown up in and around the Vegas ticketing/sales market.

The fact is that there are really just too many ticket choices in the Vegas market and the law of diminishing returns has become a serious factor. Not everyone who comes to Vegas wants to see magic 24/7. My guess is to look for ‘Avant Garde’ to become a strong contender to the current status quo.

Meanwhile, in other markets, it is wonderful to see the continued strength and growing market that the venerable ‘It’s Magic!’ is achieving in the Theatre and Performing Arts Centre markets. Strong bills and great word of mouth have seen Milt Larsen and Terry Hill’s ‘Big Daddy’ of magic shows build and escalate in the Los Angeles area. It wasn’t so long ago that it seemed to be fading somewhat, but now it is back and blossoming, great news for magic lovers.

Chipper Lowell has also done a marvelous job in creating and marketing his show ‘Blink’ in much the same markets. Based around the absurdly warm and likeable talents of Chipper. A glance at the show’s website, shows that he has taken a smart and unusual step in marketing his show.

Although it is also a revolving cast, when you read the website, it states firmly and convincingly that ‘here is a show consisting of ALL award winning acts.’ It lists the awards and not the acts! I think Chipper, who is as smart as he is talented, may have struck a very happy chord between the ‘One-man Show’ and the ‘revolving variety bill.’

All Performing Arts Centres have nights to fill with shows that flesh out their season ticket sales, and can leaven the budgets for the more costly touring ‘Broadway’ shows. ‘Blink’ and ‘It’s Magic’ can both do that in spades!

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Shows, Shows and more shows! Vegas 2012.

•March 7, 2012 • 3 Comments

The whole city of Las Vegas seems to be awash in magic shows at the moment. I have watched the growth of the four-wall market show for magic shows with a great deal of interest. I thought it might be a good topic to talk business rather than personalities in the magic area for a column or two.

Let me begin by saying with a certain modest pride that I was one of the very first people to launch a one-man magic show in Las Vegas that met with critical and commercial success. It was called ‘Comedy Magic’ and played at the Maxim Hotel and Casino from June 1995 until the Casino closed. It was the first one-man day show in Las Vegas, with shows at 1:00 and 3:00pm. In effect the show continued with Mac King at Harrah’s and is successfully running to this day.

When I co-created ‘Comedy Magic’ I did so for a very specific reason—I wanted to get of the road and be working in one city so I could be with my wife and two young daughters. For nearly five years this worked really well and it was, over all, a good experience. I received a salary from the hotel and made nice bonus cash with sales of my VHS and DVD products. We were NOT a four-wall deal.

At this point I know many of my readers are going, “What the hell is a four-wall’ deal? Let me try and make it simple. For this kind of deal, the hotel rents the performer the four walls of the showroom, and everything within it. The performer is then responsible for paying the personnel within the room and backstage. He is also responsible for the advertising costs of promoting the show. Sometimes he also gets a percentage of the drinks sold in the room, but generally the door charge is his source of income.

Now while that last statement is basically the facts of the matter a multitude of variables can come into play, not to mention the issue of three and two wall deals! Add to these possible variations the fact that it is unlikely for two couples seated next to each other in a showroom to have paid the same price for their tickets as it is for two unrelated people on an airplane flight to have paid the same amount for their ticket. It get’s very complicated and very cut-throat!

The greatest change in Las Vegas in the last 15 years is the fact that hotels now find it profitable to rent out their showrooms as many times a day as they can, without much interest in whether the shows make a profit or not, There is a never ending stream of performers who find it worthwhile taking a chance on mounting a show in Vegas—even if it is just for the residual benefits of saying they starred in a Las Vegas show.

Originally, and still in some cases, the casinos produced the show themselves (or worked with established producers), and worked hard to assist in filling the showrooms. If you spent a few million dollars on a show you were not as cavalier about its success because you wanted your investment back!

Now, for the maximum chance of success, it has become more viable to look to a world famous concern like ‘Cirque du Soleil,’ and have a big name in the entertainment field to hedge your showroom bet. Cirque is to Vegas what the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise is to Disney. In Las Vegas the Criss Angel vehicle ‘Believe’ was the first crack in this successful formula. The company changed its tactics over this project and reduced its involvement to avoid damage to the franchise.

This development has left a very big gap and distance between the kinds of shows that are populating the Vegas strip. To compound the difficulties in the Vegas show market is the fact that there are fewer visitors, and they are spending less money on entertainment. Good news for the ‘small’ shows one would think, until you realize the immense increase in discounted ticketing to the ‘big’ shows.

Along the way, and well worth mentioning, are shows such as ‘V’ (an excellent show) that have a vastly inflated ticket price, with a large slice going to independent ticket sellers who broker the tickets. This is a very savvy and successful way to market a ‘real show,’ how successful it is for selling a single and relatively unknown performer is another matter.

Soon I we will continue in this series of blogs about the economics and realities of staging a magic show in a market as specific as ‘Sin City.’ We will also look at the way some magic shows, such as Chipper Lowell’s ‘Blink’ and ‘It’s Magic’ tackle marketing in a less confined target zone.

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