Johnny Platt: is there a small Hindu boy in the audience?

•March 5, 2012 • 5 Comments

I would be the first to admit that the late Johnny Platt wasn’t a magician’s magician. I never saw him do a card trick or any fancy moves however he was a real favorite of mine to watch. He was a thoroughly entertaining performer who kept right on performing and working up until an age at which the Duracell Bunny would be begging for a rest.

I don’t actually remember ever seeing Johnny perform any trick that wasn’t in his show. He was one of those performers whose show seemed carved in stone. Amongst other gems he performed a nifty Cups and Balls routine and the rarely seen Himber Vanishing Bottles routine. My favorite moment was when he stood in the center of the stage wearing his signature red fez and unrolled a length of sturdy rope. He then explained to the audience that he was going to perform the famous Indian Rope Trick. “In this effect” He explained; “A sturdy rope stands upright and a small Hindu boy climbs to the top of the rope and vanishes in mid air!”

Johnny then looked around the showroom with a glare and said; “Is there a small Hindu boy in the audience tonight?” He would then throw the rope into the wings and growl in his Chicago accent “Well that takes care of that.” O.K. it doesn’t sound too funny in print but when Johnny Platt performed it onstage it was a hoot. There was something about his grizzled voice and the way he gazed around the room that cracked me up every time.

After he had finished performing his Magic Castle shows, Johnny would stop by a little bar on the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland called the Power House and have a couple of beers before walking back to his little apartment on Franklin Avenue. He seemed gloriously unaware that at the time it was a notoriously tough biker’s bar and manifestly unsuitable for an elderly and frail magician in an old fashioned tuxedo. Actually maybe he did know and just didn’t care!

Nobody made too much of a fuss about Johnny at the Castle and he certainly didn’t get the ‘Dai Vernon & Charlie Miller’ treatment. I remember on Johnny’s 80th birthday my wife Susan insisted we give him a birthday present so we gave him 80 dollars. At the time I suspect we had quite a job scraping it together. Susan also decided that we should throw a birthday party for Johnny to celebrate his birthday. At this time Billy McComb was staying with us and he was delighted at the thought of our apartment being filled with magicians so he gleefully assisted us in putting together the guest list.

I arranged to pick up Johnny from his small apartment to transport him to the event and he asked me if his girl friend could also attend. 80 years old and he still had a girl friend; this guy was a real comedy magician!  I picked them up at the pre-arranged time and transported them to our second floor apartment in Sherman Oaks for his party.

The difficulty that Johnny & Betty had in getting up the steep steps to our apartment made me a very concerned as I really didn’t want to have to move the party down into the courtyard! However, after several pauses along the route all went well and a highly enjoyable afternoon complete with a birthday cake followed.

We then returned Johnny and girlfriend to Hollywood and maybe they had a nightcap at the Power House! Platt might not have been quite as frail as I thought either. After this column was first published I had a bunch of emailed stories about Johnny and discovered that I shouldn’t have been too surprised about his girlfriend as he had been quite a ladies man his entire life and in Chicago was known as ‘The Human Tripod!’ Who knew………….

Johnny Platt was a real old school performer and he did what I admire most of all in any performer; he went right on performing. I do kind of wish I had been able to smuggle a small Hindu boy into his audience one day though!

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The Art of the Nielsens.

•February 25, 2012 • 1 Comment

When writing about Norm Nielsen you automatically get a great two for one package because of the amazing dyadic created by Norm and his lovely wife Lupe. Anyone who has seen Norm’s iconic act knows that there are very, very few performers who can aspire to his degree of perfection. However he doesn’t stop there.

In the early 80s I was producing a series of shows for AMD and was putting together a special event in the heart of Silicon Valley. I assembled a crack team of close-up performers and invited Norm to join me on the after-dinner entertainment. I had been very impressed watching Norm on television back in England and was excited to have the opportunity to work with him.

The banquet room we performed in was a typical banquet room (i.e. it was very unsuited to presenting a magic show) and this particular room proved to be way to long for the width. An intimate show became much more visually challenging from the rear of the room. I was confident of the impact Norm’s signature violin would have on the crowd but wanted to check the visibility of his Miser’s Dream routine.

As I stood at the back of the room I was astounded by the reaction of each and every coin as it was produced and then jangled it’s way down the musical ladder it was dropped into. It is amazing how often in magic the visible is augmented significantly by the audible and this was a perfect example of that principle. It was a joy that night to watch Norm performing and to realize I had the chance to share a bill with one of the true greats in magic.

As a magician I think of Norm fondly every time I perform, as there is never a show when I do not use one of his props. I am always grateful that his expertise and high standards are extended to his manufacturing and retailing of magical props. I have opened my show with the production of a rubber dove for several decades. That takes me back to the dark and dismal days of doves that looked nothing like any bird seen this side of hell! The “Ooh” that accompanies the production of a N.N. dove is the gold standard mark of authentic fakery. My second show features a routine made possible by Norm’s rubber Coca Cola bottle and it allows me to add a great ending to a favorite effect. Once again the total authenticity of the prop takes the effect into a different league. If only all props were made this well!

I remember with joy my first visit to the Nielsen’s beautiful home, museum, art gallery and birthplace of all my doves! One step beyond the doormat and you are into one of the most exquisitely designed monuments to a performer that I have ever seen. It is an awesome sight. Everything inside is part of a theme that celebrates the great Chung Ling Soo. There are posters, photos, memorabilia and props, even a curious auto harp that Chung Ling Soo that was contributed by Billy McComb.

What adds to the instant attraction of their house is that it doesn’t look like some old, dusty magic museum. The Nielsen’s home is white, light and filled with sunshine. After you stop yourself from gaping at the priceless collection the room contains, the next thing you notice is the quiet pride and enjoyment that Norm and Lupe have in sharing their collection.

We took a brief pause in drooling over the art work while Norm showed us the amazing feats of training that their outsize poodle can demonstrate for guests. This puppy is even better trained than Norm’s violin and won our hearts in a matter of minutes. Even as I watched it balance a biscuit on its nose before eating it. In my heart of heart’s I knew my beloved pup Georgi could be reincarnated in more lives than a cat and still fail to demonstrate this kind of restraint.

We then made our way to the specially constructed building in the rear of the property that houses Norm’s world famous collection of magic posters. What a collection it is. One gets to appreciate magic posters that are legendary and historic in the history of our art. One is so accustomed to seeing reproductions of some of these posters it just takes your breath away to see how vibrant and vivid they are in their original form.

The simple elegance and practicality with which the posters are housed and displayed is another source of amazement. Each poster has been carefully displayed in the perfect way to be seen in the most effective manner possible. When you first walk into the gallery you have no idea of quite how much art and history has been gathered within these four walls. I suspect Norm used principles from his unequaled vanishing birdcage to make it a reality!

We spent about an hour viewing this breathtaking collection accompanied by one of the only men in the world who could do verbal justice to the collection. Norm stood quietly back after showing you each piece and allowed you to absorb the work. When you had a question about something Norm was right there with the answer. It was a very special window into the history of magic the like of which I have never experienced. I loved every second and was scarcely able to tear myself away from the experience.

As I left their home Lupe had a rubber dove waiting for me on the dining room table. When I opened up the dove and removed it from it’s packaging I realized for the first time the esthetic behind my most consistently used prop. The attention to detail in the carefully molded prop, the crystal eyes, the packaging that was (like a product from Apple) as pleasing to the eye as it was practical. I removed the dove from its sealed plastic bag, removed the excess talcum powder and as I placed the custom cardboard box aside I remembered my visit. I reflected, not for the first time, that when it comes to class acts in magic that the Nielsens are amazingly high on the list!

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Martin Breese. The passing of one of magic’s finest gentlemen.

•February 23, 2012 • 12 Comments

One of the phrases you hear bandied about in a jocular manner by people is, “You are a gentleman and a scholar.” It usually means nothing when it is said and often has that slight put down/ironic tone that magicians love to use with one another. Well, let me say it loud and clear, Martin Breese WAS a scholar and a gentleman. He was special.

Martin’s vision, love and passion for magic was never more than an inch from the surface of this remarkable man. He always credited Goodliffe with his early steps into the act of becoming one of the great presences in the magic world. Indeed his relationship with Goodliffe is a wonderful story that Martin has told in part in the fascinating newsletters that he shared with the fraternity. I hope the full story of Martin Breese will be shared one day.

To many people, their first real ‘wake-up’ call to this amazing man was the release of his series of Magicassettes, soon after his return to England from South Africa in the 1970s. They allowed magicians to be heard in their own voices as they shared insights that would otherwise have been lost. I treasure my copies of the series of cassettes he created. They are a living link in our magical heritage and go beyond the tricks and right to the heart of the performers.

Martin was also a publisher of many books that hold a special place in my heart. His loving dedication to improving and adding to our heritage was evident in each and every project. His recent work in updating and completing the world’s knowledge of the works of the great Al Koran, stands almost unique in the loving care and detail he poured into it. It was awesome to watch his dedication to this massive project

Breese loved magic with a passion and it showed in every aspect of his life. However, there was much more to Martin’s world than just magic. He was a world-class photographer, and brought his visual skills to everything he did. I remember standing in his home in Brighton and being swept away with the all to seldom awareness that it was the home of a true aesthete who combined taste and practicality into his surroundings in a very special way.

On the wall above the staircase was a ‘Banksy’ picture, in his library were first editions of great books. Martin was a person who recognized quality and greatness in any form it was demonstrated, hardly surprising as he embodied both qualities. He was an artist, a visionary and a businessman who allowed each quality to feed from the other and enrich the person he was.

On a personal level, I personally am all too aware of his kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity. Not just with things but with his powerful and vital energy. Even as he was ferociously and bravely battling for his life in his final weeks, he never stopped communicating with me, helping me become a better writer and magician. He really cared, in a world where most peoples caring centers around themselves. Martin cared about ideas, standards and other people, knowing that Martin was reading and analyzing what I wrote and did made me strive harder to accomplish more.

The passing of Martin Breese has robbed the magic world of one of its greatest characters and benefactors. He is one of the great men I have been blessed to know in this business. My sympathy, love and blessings go out to his lovely wife Pang, his family and all those others like myself who have been robbed of someone this special.

I am heartbroken at this loss.

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Mike Robinson. Jack of two trades–master of both

•February 20, 2012 • 3 Comments

I recently had the pleasure of working with an act about whom I have being hearing great things for many years. The act was ventriloquist Mike Robinson, and if anything his performance was even better than his word of mouth (maybe a strange expression to use about a ventriloquist—but then the lips saying it all moved!) led me to believe. He was funny, funny, funny.

Combined with the original and expertly delivered comedy Mike delivered in his show, was a technique as good as any ventriloquist I have ever seen, right up there with my previous frontrunner Jay Johnson. Robinson is an act that any performing ventriloquist needs to see, in order to improve their workplace skills.

Included in Mike’s performance was a short segment that involved a really basic card routine that he set up for his sidekick Terence delivered the punchline. Now don’t be fooled by my use of the word basic, there was absolutely nothing basic about his casually expert handling of the cards or the ‘laugh a second’ dialogue. I have always been fascinated by how many magicians began their careers as ventriloquists and vice versa, I suspected that Mike belonged to this group and I was right.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Mike I realized that he not only fitted this category of hobby dialecticism but that he belonged to the much rarer group of individuals who possessed the dedication to master both art forms. Put quite simply, Robinson is one of the very finest sleight of hand magicians I have ever seen perform.

Mike is ‘Jack of two trades and master of both,’ however don’t expect to see him working in the close-up gallery at the Castle anytime soon. He is way too busy; making far to much money with his ventriloquism to give the experts at the Castle the treat his booking would deliver.

Seconds, bottoms, multiple shifts, doubles and every form of gambling maneuver flow from his fingertips with the same ease that original comedy escapes from his alarmingly motionless lips! When we first sat down with cigars and a deck of cards I quickly exhausted my rather rusty card work and just sat back to enjoy the thrill of watching an expert strut his stuff!

Born in Montreal and now a native of Halifax, Canada, Mike learned his first card trick when he was 6 years old and continued his magical education on a daily basis watching the magician on the ‘Uncle Bobby’ kid’s television show. He soon became an avid junior magician, but all this changed when he saw a guest appearance on the Flip Wilson Show by one of the greatest ventriloquist to still grace our stages. That act was the iconic ‘Willie Tyler & Lester.”

The young Mike Robinson was amazed at the illusion of ‘voice-throwing’ that Willie demonstrated. He was also delighted and could empathize watching the talented African American performer and his pint sixed colleague with the stylish and hip ‘Afro’ hairstyle! Mike was mentally reborn as a ventriloquist…………

Magic was shelved (or more actually, sidetracked) for a career in ventriloquism that has made him one of the busiest performers on the scene. However, his drive and quest for perfection kept him working at some of the toughest moves and challenges to face any card worker. His success in both fields makes him unique.

Mike began his serious study of magic watching the late, great ‘Charming Cheat’ Martin Nash on the Magic Palace TV show. He was instantly hooked on the gambling effects that Martin featured in his performance, “That is when the light bulb went off,” as Mike puts it. Richard Turner’s VHS tapes and personal guidance from Turner helped steer his work on the path to becoming a top card worker.

Robinson met Turner at a ‘4F’ convention, and Mike still attends the yearly convention inspired by the great Eddie Fechter. He also performs a handful of highly select sleight-of-hand dates for high priced hospitality suite events. If you have a chance to see Robinson work—DON’T MISS IT! If he is performing his ventriloquism show then corner him afterwards and offer him a cigar and a deck of cards—he can’t resist either one. You won’t be sorry.

I asked Mike to give some advice for young magicians who will read this column, I loved (and totally endorse) his response, “Go back and read the original literature, there are a lot of tricks out there on the Internet, but first develop your personality and then really study the classics. The first 4 Ace trick is probably still the best,” these are words of wisdom from a master performer.

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The Grammy Awards. My take.

•February 13, 2012 • 1 Comment

Enough with the Grammy talk already. The music industry may act for an evening like a family, but for the other 364 days in the year it’s a powerfully dysfunctional one.

Let’s weep about Whitney for a night, however, the rest of the year we embrace the pressures, expectations and greed that enable talented rockheads like Whitney to die at 48. While our sister industry TV gives a reality show to the asshole/enabler husband who helped create this pathetic train wreck that everyone is shocked died after she spent so much time, energy and money trying to destroy herself.

This is an industry that takes raw talent, chews it up, spits it out and then wrings its hands when thae talent self destructs. The real heart and soul of Whitney’s label were already checking the vaults to find rejected material to convert into a ‘best of the rest’ album, even before they were putting on sad faces and expressions of shock at the inevitable news. They did that with Amy Winehouse, and couldn’t wait to release an inferior album while the news was hot.

The entertainment industry sure does a good job of mounting the bullshit sentimental tributes to it’s money makers though. Oh wait—that’s their job.

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Answer to the greatest mystery in comedy now definitively solved.

•February 8, 2012 • 1 Comment

As anyone who has been around the comedy world for anytime at all knows, there is one question that keeps getting raised  repeatedly. In fact, it has become something of a Philosophers Stone of comedy material the world over. well I am delighted to say that I can now definitively give the answer.

What is more unlike similar enigmas ie The Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Flying Saucers etc. I can also provide photographic evidence on the matter. I suspect the answer will rock the comedy world to it’s core with it’s bold simplicity.

The heart and soul of routine in nearly every hack comedian (and one or two, not quite so hack, comedians) act, is about that missing sock that always seems to appear (disappear?) when one does the laundry. 4 go in and 3 come out, or 2 go in and 1 comes out. Provocative observational humor from the cutting edge of daily experience. Well, I have solved the problem, and the came about quickly and unexpectedly—fortunately my iPhone 4s was at hand.

While packing up our house in Las Vegas ready for our move to Los Angeles, we donated our washing machine to a charity and then moved our dryer into the moving van AND there it was, under the dryer—–the sock! I suggest other comic entertainers check in the same location to confirm the universal truth of my discovery. I was truly shocked by the solution to this seemingly insolvable quandry that has purplexed some of comedy’s greatest (and not so greatest) minds.

Emboldened by my discovery, I know plan to start work on tracking down the reasoning behind the 12 hot dogs in a package and 10 buns in a package conundrum that now remains as comedy’s second greatest equivelent to cold fusion. Rest assured that I will report my findings, when or if I get them, in these digital pages.

Let This blog entry also act as an advisory of our relocation from Las Vegas to our LA home, prior to our nextmove to Austin, Texas, ‘cos that’s where we wanna’ live—right under the X in Texas. My email adresses and cell phone number remain the same though.

 

 

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Tony Giorgio. Actor, magician, grifter and legend.

•February 1, 2012 • 7 Comments

This is a reprint of a colunn I wrote in 2008 about the Tony Giorgio. As you can tell I was a great fan. He sent me a wonderfully eloquent response and told me I had it SO right with my description of his relationship with Dai Vernon. I got another email from him at a later point telling me how much he looked forward to my little columns in Magic New Zealand, it was an honor and joy for me to hear this. He said he especially loved the columns about the Magic Castle in the 70s and how many happy memories he had of those times when (as he put it) I loved the Castle and the Castle loved me. Well, Tony–the Castle never stopped loving you neither has any  single magician who knew you. I like so many others am proud to have got to know you a even a little bit. You will be sorely missed by the real magicians.

One of the great delights that I enjoyed during the seventies in the Magic Castle was watching the interplay between Dai Vernon and Tony Giorgio. The appearance of confrontation that sometimes seemed to exist between the two was just that. An appearance. On a closer look it became very apparent that there was a bond of respect and friendship that linked these two very different characters. Tony would tease Dai and draw him out to reach deeper and deeper into his professorial bag of sleights and tricks.

If as Robert Houdin famously said, “A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician.” Tony Giorgio is the perfect man to prove the point. Tony is one of that special breed of actors who is recognized by the vast majority of people who chance to meet him. He has been featured in more movies and television shows than I could even list in my column without Alan having forty fits.

Tony was the perfect hood and villain throughout his acting career and to my mind made his greatest impact in ‘The Godfather’ ‘Foxy Brown ’and ‘Magnum Force’. To put it mildly he is a very imposing movie presence. To be absolutely honest he was also pretty damn imposing when you saw him perform his brilliant sleight of hand and gambling ‘cons’ in the Castle’s Close-Up Gallery.

I never missed a chance to watch him work his wonders. He was an amazing character with a full force talent that was second to none. Mind you he never quite abandoned his movie tough guy persona and I for one would never have dared to find the ‘broad’ he was tossing just in case he really was packing heat!

I remember one evening I was standing in the back of the Close-Up Gallery enjoying the show. My hand was resting behind the back of the chair next to me. Ronnie Berg was occupying that particular chair and at one point he threw his entire weight against the rear of the chair and it resulted in the most unbelievable pain I had ever experienced. I screamed out at the top of my lungs causing more than a little excitement and confusion in the tiny room. Everyone turned around and stared at me. Highly embarrassing.

My eyes eventually met Tony’s eyes and he was looking at me in a rather bemused manner. He politely enquired if he could continue with the show. I nodded and made a vague gesture towards my throbbing hand, the gesture failed to really indicate anything at all but the show began again.

No sooner had the show started when Ronnie Berg whispered an apology to me and then said; “ I can fix it for you, I am really good at setting bones.” He then took my injured hand and gave it a hefty squeeze. This resulted in another lusty scream from yours truly and once again the show ground to a halt. Even more embarrassing and trust me if there was ever a show you wanted to avoid bringing to a grinding halt it was Giorgio’s show.

There was another, very unexpected, side to Tony that I was delighted to discover several years later. Aside from his other skills and talents he is one of the worlds greatest authorities and performers in the truly occult area of ‘Griffter Poetry.’ I listened in fascination as he recited nearly lost odes to a lifestyle and era that has all but disappeared. It was a glimpse into world I scarcely knew existed.

A man of many parts, a jack of several trades and master of any that took his fancy, there aren’t many people who don’t fade into insignificant next to Tony Giorgio. He is one of the richest and most unique threads in the tapestry of the performing arts and a very unique addition to my list of Remarkable Magicians.

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Vegas Magic Theatre –Revisited

•January 30, 2012 • 1 Comment

I took the opportunity to revisit ‘Vegas Magic Theater’ this weekend and see what was happening at Paul Stone’s latest production in Las Vegas. It was also a chance to see an extended version of Jason Andrews fine manipulative act which actually got me to budget my crazy schedule to include the visit. I was very glad I did.

I (totally by accident) attended the Press Night event for the show recently. I am really no big fan of press nights or the way they introduce a show. The emphasis on the press corps, food & drink and celebrities in the audience often change the flavor and ‘shape’ of the actual show. I certainly found my second visit to the ‘Vegas Magic Theatre’ to be a much more rewarding affair.

We missed the opening close-up segment, which featured a ‘Dueling Magicians’ segment that seemed to be a huge hit. Given the success of the current breed of dueling pianists across the country this is a smart move. The very nature of the idea breathes fresh life into the concept of adding the close-up magic segment to the show.

Another nice surprise was to see headliner Kevin James open the bill with a really great, intimate, low key and VERY effective set. In the comedy club world this is often referred to as a ‘Boston Bill.’ In the city of Boston, shows would usually open with the headliner hitting the crowd hard, before, introducing the rest of the show and then returning as the finale. It worked great.

Kevin is a complex and gifted magical thinker and a great performer too. I personally thoroughly enjoyed watching him perform a scaled down set without any entourage or additional personnel involved. Kevin may just have returned from headlining a show at the Sydney Opera House, where I’m sure he featured many of his gloriously off-kilter and eccentric illusions, but this was ‘Kevin James: Unplugged!’ It really highlighted a very likeable, touching and vulnerable side to Kevin that was highly effective and extremely commercial. Kevin can achieve enormous results with just his ‘presence’ and a few small props, and did so with great aplomb and success. I will look forward to seeing what Kevin has cooked up for the new magic show at the Plaza Hotel ‘Avant Garde.’   I thoroughly enjoyed both his sets and they created a fabulous bookend effect to the evening.

Ben Stone continued to impress as the host of the show. His singing adds a lot of texture and some nice razzle dazzle to the show. He has a great voice and a lot of charm energy and onstage charisma. Oh, my wife took me for task last time I reviewed the show for not commenting how handsome he was! That is a comment I’d probably never, ever have have thought to make, however, sitting flanked by two ladies (Susan and the irrepressible Karla Kwist from the Mac King showroom) I realized that this was indeed the case and that it was a huge plus point to the females watching the show!

Aside from singing, Ben performed an excellent comedy sleight of hand routine featuring cards that worked very nicely indeed. The first time I saw him hosting the show his comedy magic was featured after another comedy magic act and suffered by the balance that this created in the show. On this occasion, veteran performer Tom Ogden appeared later in the bill and it was his turn to suffer from the similarities that always (myself, included) can follow from two comedy magicians appearing in the same bill for a lay audience.

A verbal and a physical comedy magic show, in the same bill, might be a better balance in a comedy club format show such as this one. A good variety performer also makes a strong addition to the event. I am sure this is something that Paul will adjust accordingly as he continues his fine-tuning of the show.

 Just returned from work in China and Japan, Jason Andrews was a superb highlight in the center of the show. He performed his classic award winning manipulative show and it resonates with style, class and personality and drew very heavy audience response. It was great to see him add a new final segment to his show.  This is not a performer who is going to be lost in the world of 8-minute acts for long!

I have seen Jason perform his illusions and also his comedy magic show and they are both as effective as his award winning silent act. I hope the magic community will allow him to fully develop into the role of fully rounded performer. He has future magical superstar written all over him. Several times during the evening I heard him referred to as the next Lance Burton and that sells him short—we already have one Lance, but a fully developed Jason Andrews is going to create a stir all his own.

To my mind, Jason could best be categorized (Yikes, I hate to ever do this, but I will) as the next Fred Kaps. Fred was a manipulative performer who developed and progressed into arguably magic’s most sophisticated all round performer. I will continue watching Jason’s ascendancy in the magic world with great interest. Catch his act now and enjoy watching him develop.A great evening, great acts and all the performers out onstage for a final bow—the professional way to close a variety show! Kudos to Paul Stone for his part in exposing Las Vegas to some new talent and old favorites, keep it up!

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Getting the gig. The better gig!

•January 23, 2012 • Leave a Comment

When I began booking shows things seemed a lot different. To begin with I was about 14 years old and my target shows were children’s parties. It has been a long time since I booked a kid’s show, but believe me I would do it again tomorrow if the price and location were right.

I suspect the majority of paying shows in the magic community are still kid’s shows. Magic has always been largely considered an entertainment for children. Even casinos and cruise ships, two other major markets for magicians, are really just playgrounds for adults with disposable income, they only occasionally where silly paper hats though.

The general rule of thumb when I was booking those early dates in my career was to run a short classified advert in the local paper and then bedazzle the potential client when they phoned you in response to it. You usually had a glossy brochure that you could mail them to ‘seal the deal.’ I suspect this approach still does work rather nicely if you replace the brochure with a promotional video of some kind and throw a website into the mix.

Back in the 60s, when I was booking these kind of dates the second line of attack was less proactive but even more effective—you did the very best show you could, priced it carefully and then waited for word of mouth to increase your workload with more dates. It was simple and seemed to work very well.

Being a magician and raised on stories of Houdini, and his great publicity stunts, you probably also dreamed and strove to emulate his success by engineering some kind of publicity stunt to make your name better known through that curious beast known as ‘exposure.’ If you could pull of some great feat, which got your name mentioned in the local newspaper for free—then the bookings would flood in. Right. Hmmmm.

Eventually if you wanted to expand your source of work you entered the scary world of agents. These were mysterious beings that seem to offer access to more clients, but at the cost of removing your personal access to the actual individuals who wrote the checks. Not only were you suspicious of the process but first you also had to find one!

This step tended to stop a lot of performers who somehow felt that the agent was a person who actually somehow stood in the way of you getting the gig. It didn’t matter if you never even knew the booking existed. The main reason for this mistrust was because the agent represented several clients and one of their other acts might be more suitable and get the gig instead of you. That is the trade-off, if you don’t like it tough—go back to the classified ads.

The important part about working with a legitimate agent is to realize that this variety of clients and performers is what they bring to the table. It’s how they earn their rather modest fee. They really don’t care who gets the gig (unlike you, the performer involved) but they do have a very vested interest in making sure that the gig works out for the buyer. The client, make no mistake, is the booker who writes the check for the gig. If it is a success then that buyer might become a client for the agent.

Of course you don’t need an agent to work, but he doesn’t need you either, so let me pass on four simple guidelines that help when dealing with an agent.

1 He/She is not ‘the enemy’ or a necessary evil, he is part of the route you need to become a more highly paid and fully booked performer. I hear many ‘somewhat professional’ performers rant about agents, when maybe they should look at their own acts and ethics more closely.

2 To steal a client from an agent is immoral, incorrect and foolish. If he gets a new buyer to purchase your services—then he deserves his percentage of any future booking made from his booking. Take a bunch of his/her cards to the gig and hand them out—not your own.

3 Do not expect an agent to care as much about you as he does himself or his revenue inducing contacts. Why should he? You work for the agent and not him for you. This isn’t Broadway Danny Rose. Get real and stay there!

4 Give him the best publicity material you can and don’t promise more than you can deliver. The first act will help you get the gig and the second action will screw it up if you do get the gig. Always remember you may lose that agent a long-term client and a steady source of income by a foolish promise or boast.

I’m going to stop here, if you follow these basic steps you are already streets ahead of most of those strange creatures that describe themselves in the non-reality term ‘semi-pros…’

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Manners and Class in Magic. Not quite a rant!

•January 18, 2012 • Leave a Comment

This is a blog entry that shouldn’t need to be written so obviously I am going to do it anyhow! I am often amazed at how little class magicians show the audience members who assist them during their show. While this isn’t a gigantic epidemic, it is really ugly when it arises.

Every now and then you see a magician treat an audience member in a dismissive manner that really borders on insulting. Let’s put this in perspective, I consider giving them insufficient instructions about what they are supposed to be doing onstage is definitely high on this list. It ain’t right.

When someone is removed from their seat in the cozy dark of the audience and thrust into the brightly lit stage environment they need to be paid attention to. You don’t need to handle them with kid gloves but you should certainly have the courtesy to look at them and talk to them and not use them as unpaid props.

The confusion that can result from dropping the assistant unexpectedly in the middle of things and allowing very natural tentativeness and their lack of awareness of what’s going to happen and what their role is supposed to be, should not be used to garner a single solitary laugh. Act classy and the crowd will assume (even if totally mistakenly) that you are classy—- it’s money in the bank to a smart performer actually.

You shouldn’t bully an asistant by repeatedly harassing them about whether the ball is under the cup or in your pocket. The damn thing is a Chop Cup and the ball is where ever you want it to be! Are they there as a genuine representative of the audience or as a butt for laughter from the rest of the audience—who are just delighted it isn’t them up there!

If ever there was a moment to clear out any hack lines from your presentation it is when they are directed at an audience volunteer. You may not believe this but as recently as this month I heard someone deliver the old, “Give me your hand, no the clean one! Oh that was the clean one!” I will add, “Give me your left hand, no, your other left hand,” to this outdated and ‘can’t discard fast enough’ list.

Let your assistant get a laugh or two of their own, with a little bit of thought you can create a moment or two where this is likely to happen. Often your assistant will genuinely say something that is funny—-and which you can quietly make funnier with your take on the line. When this happens, make a point of selling it to the audience. Take the time to at least pretend to crack up (no-matter how many times you may have heard the response before) and say jokingly say something like, “I love it when the audience is funnier than I am!”

Having said all the above, I must be honest and admit that watching Amazing Johnathan ignore/decimate/ridicule/deride and generally bully his onstage dollar bill donor is one of my primal joys in comedy magic! However, AJ is a force of nature and has the ability to re-write any laws of good taste that apply to other performers. He is also one of the most genuinely likeable comedian magicians working today. That is why it works.

If you want laughs in your act then do something funny or write a good joke, don’t pick on somebody who is unprepared for what is going to happen; while you have the situation pre-planned and pre-set jokes galore. Look at the big picture and be funny and classy—think about the way Michael Finney involves (a very carefully chosen word there—involves) his onstage assistant during his classic rope routine.

 

While mentioning Michael, I want to congratulate him on the 6-month contract he just signed to appear in the new show ‘Avant Garde’ at the newly re-gentrified Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. His run begins in February and if you have the chance to catch him then DO SO. You can forget everything I’ve written here and just go watch someone who has done it right for so long that it is second nature!

Email me at nicklewin1@mac.com    

Posted in Entertainment News, Magic, Magic and Magicians
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