Variety, the spice of variety and the demon of patter.

•June 12, 2010 • 3 Comments

I am having a blast working at Harrah’s this week. I am having fun just mixing and matching up material. Nothing sacred–just wholehearted one hour shows to keep me excited, and apparently the audience happy!

It is very easy to fool your mind into believing you have ‘An Act’ and it is always the best way to perform and will always achieve the best reaction. Actually, once you have ‘the act’ down perfectly then that’s the time to have fun and keep it fresh. I don’t mean discard, everything you do well, just to mix it around a bit. Bare in mind I’m not recommending this for someone who hasn’t managed to form a solid act as a guideline.

I love to switch blocks of comedy around from place to place. I also add/change some of the magic, sometimes significantly i.e. switch my opening and closing routine etc. So far I haven’t done the same show exactly in sequence more than once. It is fun because it keeps your techy on the jump too!

What is amazing is that new jokes, and bits just seem to fly in from everywhere like flies at a picnic. Just keeping note of the changes is tough enough, however you eventually don’t bother much trying and you just learn to rely on the inner performer and that he will come to your rescue! This is the moment you start to become an entertainer and not an act; a comedian instead of a magician who does ‘Patter.’

Patter…….the deadliest word in magic! Look up the description in the dictionary and you will find; “The term was originally a colloquial shortening of “Pater Noster” and referred to the practice of mouthing or mumbling prayers quickly and mechanically, without any expression of meaning or sincerity.

From this, it became a slang word for the secret and equally incomprehensible mutterings of a cant language used by beggars, thieves,Roma people, etc., and then the fluent plausible talk that a cheap-jack employs to pass off his goods. “Hmmmmmm, not what I want to foist on an audience. Be polite actually talk to the audience and not at them.

Just a series of thoughts.

Incidentally my Magic Martini posters are selling gangbuster. If you are a collector of that kind of thing and want one of the signed limited first editions then contact me at nicklewin1@mac.com and I will mail you one for 10 dollars plus postage.

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A Great New Book. Thank you Burton Sperber, for including me!

•June 10, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I recently had the honor of being included and contributing a story/trick to Burton Sperber’s new book in his ‘Miracles of my Friends’ series. I thought I would take this opportunity to re-print this story I wrote about Burt after first meeting him.

One of the side benefits (?) of performing on a cruise ship on a fairly regular basis is the fact that you get to meet quite a few magicians. It is very seldom the close-knit group of peers I might wish to spend an hour or two swapping stories and gags with – they are all busy working a gig somewhere else!

Often on a ship I will meet up with a socially inept amateur who insists on showing me the three rows of seven cards and then deals them into a pile and after getting the card wrong restarting the entire process complete with reassurances; “Oh no, you haven’t seen this one.” No when I see it the magician often gets the card right.

These can be the moments when you either lock yourself away in your cabin for the rest of the cruise or try and construct a make=shift scape raft out of your bed in order to escape from the ship! There are also times when you can get a delightful surprise and this is about one of those times.

I was sailing on the Crystal ‘Galaxy’ and a note arrived for me that someone would like to meet me. The note was from Burt Sperber.I didn’t know Burt but very gladly met up with him and his charming wife. We had a delightful chat and arranged to have dinner in the Italian steakhouse the next night.

Somewhere along the line I discovered that Burt was a magic collector. Now when I say Magic Collector I had better use capitol letters because he obviously has a world class collection that could even cause David Copperfield’s eyes to turn green! I am in no way a collector of magic (accumulator yes!) but Burt was describing items that were even making me foam at the mouth!

After we had eaten Burt dropped the bomb. “Oh, I also perform a little magic too, maybe you want to come back to our suite and see a couple of tricks?” Well to be honest when someone defines himself or herself primarily as a collector it doesn’t exactly scream out to me that they are going to be snappy close up performers! However short of pretending to have some kind of seizure I couldn’t think of any way out of it. I have never been happier about saying yes to an offer of watching a magic show.

I sat in Burt’s suite for over an hour and gasped as he fooled me with card trick after trick! These were some of the snappiest and most commercial pieces of card magic I had ever seen mostly, if not all, were originals. His presentation was deceptively casual and initially gave no idea of how carefully he had prepared and planned his demonstration.

After he finished performing I congratulated him on doing something that very seldom happens to me- being both entertained and fooled by great magic. I then performed my very best original card trick (the one I keep for just that kind of occasion) and quickly put the cards back in their case and onto the table. When you’re socks have been knocked of it is best just to admit it!

Burt then asked me if there was anything I particularly liked and said he would be happy to teach it to me. I said; “YES.” There were two items that I had seen performed that I considered as commercial as anything I’d ever witnessed. The next two hours flew by as he took the time and trouble to really teach me these tricks. I don’t mean show me how they were done; I mean teach me the tricks.

I haven’t yet had a chance to take up Burt on his offer to view his Magic Collection but let me tell you it has a tough act to follow with his close-up show!

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Duct Tape, Bulldog Clips and Cardboard: the good things in life!

•June 9, 2010 • 2 Comments

Tomorrow, I start two weeks subbing for Mac King at Harrah’s in Las Vegas. Mac just completed his 10th year doing the show, I lasted about five and ended up on anti-depressants, high blood pressure medication and a host of other mental and physical goodies. I don’t know how you have done it Mac. I do really have fun filling in for you though!

It isn’t the shows I enjoy. I have done a lot of shows in my life and  it certainly isn’t the audiences. In fact as Woody Allen (the funny one) once said; “I believe everything in life can be summed up in a Groucho Marx joke….. ” Well it’s not the same joke, it may not even have come from Groucho, but the principle is the same for me.

An  elderly man goes to the doctor and says, “Doctor, I can’t pee.” The Dr. says, “How old are you?” The man says,”I’m 85!” The Doctor says, “You’ve peed enough!.” It kind of sums up my feelings about shows—–“I’ve done enough!” It’s not that I don’t enjoy them anymore (though in all honesty from a very early age, I have never finished a show without thinking, “Thank God nothing went terribly wrong.”  I think I can honestly say my work has never been better. I have become so smooth, I sometimes slip on myself!

What I do still really relish is getting ready for a gig.  Folding up the Torn & Restored Elmsley Newspaper, winding up my Gypsy Thread, setting my working case and making new holders and gizmos to secure props in it. I have been making up the same lists of tricks into minutely different orders for decades–now I have an iPhone App that pretty much does it for me. It is these quiet meditative moments that seem to give me my chief joys as a performer, these days. Maybe this  is why I am starting to retire, “If you fold up an Elmsley Newspaper Tear and don’t ever tear it up, is it really ever restored?” These are deep thoughts though, I am off the Ace Hardware to by another big roll of black duct tape, I foolishly forgot to pinch one on the last ship I worked.

“Ah, the horror, the horror!!!” Captain Kurtz.”

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A Visit With The Uncanny One.

•June 6, 2010 • 1 Comment

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I am very excited to be doing a whistle stop visit to Los Angeles tomorrow to record a DVD interview with Ron Wilson that will accompany the first limited editions of his new book. It is always a pleasure and education to talk with Ron, but this will give me a chance to ask some of the questions I have always wanted to.

Ron’s book is without question one of the finest personal memoir of magic I have read. It cover the entire history of the Magic Castle and the people who made it what it was. It added personalities to names and faces that I was familiar with but didn’t quite understand their place in magic.

I will be filming, courtesy of Greg Wilson and Steve Mitchell, an in depth interview with Ron and attempt to fill in the details about the Uncanny One himself, as well as amplify his stories from the book. I suggested in earnest to Ron that he write this book ,during a lunch we had fairly recently. He was casually mentioning the time when Mike Skinner, Charlie Miller, Tony Slydini and Ron himself were sharing a two bedroom flat in Hollywood! Can you imagine the ideas and interplay between such diverse giants of the magic world. Well now you don’t have to, it will be captured in a book and on DVD.

As I have mentioned repeatedly in my columns in Magic New Zealand I believe Ron to be one of the most commercially minded perfectionists in our business. His first book ‘The Uncanny Scott,’ which I always claim to be one of the only books written on magic that could supply a reader with a money/fame  making act just by the routines it includes. It now changes hand via ebay at $125 and is worth more to anyone who loves and performs good magic.

I am excited and proud to be involved in Ron’s new book, which isn’t about the tricks and the moves but about the pioneers of the last 60 years who have taken magic on the quantum leap into the present day.

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Richard Webster. Get well soon, my enigmatic and brilliant writing mentor & Friend.

•June 5, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I was very upset to hear today that my good friend from New Zealand, Richard Webster, was taken to hospital with two blood clots in his lungs. I got a call from Alan Watson who seemed to suggest that all was going as well as could be expected. Richard has always been very careful with his health and it came as a shock to hear this on the eve of his American visit.

I feel a very real and personal debt to Richard, who single-handedly talked me back into writing after a thirty four year writers block! On hand was Alan Watson who offered me the chance to write my weekly column in Magic New Zealand. It has opened up a whole new phase of my life. I have a great deal to thank these two gentlemen for.

Just spending time with Richard is an education in itself. Behind his courteous and modest exterior is one of the smartest and most astute men it it has been my privilege to meet. Along with a sense of humor as dry as a good martini. I was very much looking forward to his upcoming visit and getting to spend a little time trying to penetrate his enigmatic approach to the metaphysical aspects of life.

I am what I believe is termed ‘A shut eye’ who believes in the possibility of many things that would cause Randi and Penn to froth at the mouth. I’m not saying that I believe in them, however I certainly give them a very fair chance of being genuine. The fact that  a mass of fraud surrounds these kind of areas doesn’t in anyway affect my thinking. I can’t even begin to tell you how little, the Amazing Randi’s nitwit assumption that if he can duplicate a paranormal act then it can’t be real. More holes in that than a block of Swiss cheese!

The sight of Penn Jillette uncoiling himself from within his Mini Cooper with the license plate ATHIEST or his email address of NOGOD always reminds me with a smile that radical fundamentalists don’t need to be right wing Christians or radical Muslims. Maybe it’s just my quirky sense of humo,r but Tellers email of NOBUNNIES  lets me have a smile in a totally different way!

What I love about Richard Webster is that you can discuss spiritual and metaphysical topics with him for an hour and still have no real evidence of what his inner beliefs are. He has style and grace and I want him to hurry up and reschedule his American trip when he is back at 100%. If not I will have to break my current ban on travel and schedule another visit to New Zealand.

I am sure that Alan Watson will be updating us on Richards condition via Magic New Zealand and his Facebook account.

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Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names.

•June 3, 2010 • 5 Comments

Here is a further treatise on the art of performing onboard cruise ships. Every word should be taken seriously and literally.

When I was growing up there was a popular song called ‘Far away places with strange sounding names.’ I didn’t realize it at the time but it must have been quite an inspiration to me, as I seem to have spent the last three decades visiting a bunch of them.I worked onboard my first cruise ship at the tender age of nineteen. I had mastered the first lessons in my chosen craft and figured I could handle the rest by practicing during the day before I did my shows at night. Looking back it was a crazy plan but the truly crazy part is that it worked.

Cruise ships were the first serious jobs available to me as I was becoming a professional magician. They have remained an ever-present source of employment to me since that first cruise. Maybe it is the half gypsy heritage that I am rumored to have inherited from my mother’s family but whatever the reason I still like to travel and love getting paid to do it.

There has been a wealth of information published in recent years by cruise ship magicians wishing to share their hints, tips and ideas to cash in on the cruise market goldmine. To add to this stockpile of sharing I have prepared my very own list of advice and ‘Golden Rules.’

People you will be working with: other performers.

Cruise ships are filled with the wackiest bunch of weirdo performers this side of an HBO sitcom. I don’t think it is fair to single out any particular group of entertainers but I think it is only realistic to acknowledge that ventriloquists and jugglers are in a league of their own when it comes to general nuttiness.

Magicians bring a sense of decorum and sanity to their shipboard activities that are a beacon of normality to rest of the onboard misfits.If you call a magician in his cabin it is, generally speaking, unusual to have one of his props answer the phone and reply that he is sleeping.This is not the case with the average ventriloquist. A call like this to a vent might well result in a fifteen-minute conversation with his dummy about how his partner is stepping on his laugh lines.

You can also trust the working magician never to let things get out of hand. Well, okay there was that time a magician smuggled a goat onboard and covered his cabin floor with 6 inches of sand for a beach party. This kind of behavior is a little too rich for the juggling community though, where the performer is more likely to be sitting in his cabin, scratching his head as he tries to figure out how to stretch his twenty minute act into a strong fifty minute show. Ah, all to late, he is realizing that he did need his unicycle. What is the use of an endless supply of apples to juggle and masticate if you don’t have a unicycle to sit on while you do it?

There are many wonderful singers who work onboard cruise ships but they always seem to insist on talking about themselves which can be very boring to the average magician who just wants to have an open roundtable discussion about how good his act and his new double lift are.

There are also some excellent comedians working onboard cruise ships but they don’t often seem to mix with magicians. I have a theory about this lack of communication and suspect comedians just hate us because we had happy childhoods.

Other people you will work with: Techies.

Performers are not the only people you will be working with. There is a strange breed of personnel known as techies: they are easily identifiable by the all black outfits they wear. Many of these sound/light technicians own more black clothing than Eugene Burger and Max Maven combined. Here are five simple rules to help you in your dealings with them.

1 Don’t bother writing formal cue sheets for technicians. It eliminates all the fun of guessing.

2 Make sure you bring every prop you own onboard with you. There is never a problem with storage space onboard a cruise ship. A good place to rehearse is on the SilverSeas ships as there are never more than a handful of people in the showroom who don’t give a damn anyhow. When you have finished your show it is a good time to email your agent and tell him you want work on a ‘real’ ship.

3 Make your lighting needs as complex as possible. Two or three hours is a totally reasonable rehearsal time for a 40-minute show.

4 Make your cues very obvious for a non-magician. Cues such as “Turn on the strobe lights after I clap my hands for the seventeenth time after pointing to the Asrah” are perfectly acceptable. If he can’t follow simple cues like that he is an idiot.

5 If your music cues are on a CD or Mini Disc make sure they are not in sequence. The sound tech is wearing black so he is supposed to be the expert; let him figure it out.

Finally here are four golden rules to ensure your success.

1 It is an excellent idea to perform close-up magic at every possible moment. The very best time and place to perform your favorite close-up tricks is in the back of the showroom while another act is performing. There is no need to be more than adequate in your legitimate show if you put in enough hours with a chop cup.

2 If possible avoid watching any other comedic acts if you feature comedy in your show. That way you can remain unaware of any duplication. As everyone knows a good joke just gets better if you hear it twice.

3 Make it a point to explain to passengers how that trick that fooled them on their last cruise was done. It is really only common courtesy and may result in good feed back to the line.

4 If in doubt put in that clever version of the 20th Century Silk trick that ends up with a bra tied between the two handkerchiefs instead of the third handkerchief. It always gets a great reaction and is especially good for audiences that include children.

Well, I certainly hope this blog will help you fine-tune your ‘Cruise Show’ and if you follow my advice carefully then I am sure you will receive everything you deserve.

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Jason Andrews has Talent, watch him tonight on AGT.

•June 2, 2010 • Leave a Comment

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I worked with Jason on a charity project a while back. Like so many other deals like that we both got screwed by non delivery of the promised footage of the three camera shoot that had been promised to us. The charity was a good one though, but it is amazing thing how often when you donate your time, energy and talent it is taken as a sign that you are ripe for exploitation! In a similar manner, when someone tells you that a show is going to be great exposure—–RUN don’t walk away from the project!

We filmed at the Madrid Club in the Sunset Station hotel in Green Valley and it was a very smooth shoot. I shared the bill with a very talented manipulative magician Jason Andrews. In a highly uncharacteristic gesture, I chatted with him afterwards and exchanged cards. He really impressed me with the subtleties he had incorporated into his show. I also really enjoyed the Euro-pop music he used in his act and  a particularly smooth floating ball into billiard ball transition. It was a very cool performance.

In an even more uncharacteristic action, I actually did keep in touch with Jason and Susan and I tried to be of some help with bits of advice. You really can’t do much more for a talented performer than try to cut down the time of his learning curve. Jason was selected to fly out to Dallas and participate in ‘America’s Got Talent,’ to say he came back thrilled with the results would be far from the truth. However it is funny the way Television works and tonight he will be appearing on the show. It isn’t a long set but check it out. Jason just wowed them with his debut week at the Magic Castle and will be returning soon so you can see the real show.

I have a confession to make, I hate any kind of ‘talent show’ and have never watched an episode of ‘AGT’ or ‘American Idol’ but tonight I will make a point of being in front of the TV to watch Jason. I suggest you do to. He has a really fine persona and act and is someone I suspect will make quite an impact on the entertainment world in the very near future.

While he has a ridiculously short time to show off his talent, I suspect this will kick of a long and successful career. Good luck Jason, may ‘The Force,’ and Howie Mandel  be with you!

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Improving on Al Koran; not easy, but not impossible! Thank you Mr Breese.

•May 31, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I have always been a big fan of the great mentalist Al Koran. I have studied his books and every other source of material I can get my hands on. Sadly though, I never had the good fortune to see him live. However his influence has been pervasive throughout my career.

I was always rather intrigued that one of his three favorite closing tricks was his ‘Headline Countdown,’ from the book Al Koran’s Legacy.  I played with it, worked it and it never quite got the reaction that I knew it must have done to be in such a favored position in Koran’s act, which just went from strong to stronger. I would return to it occasionally but could never make it click the way I thought it should. The routine is first credited to Edmund Rowland and published in the Pentagram in 1952. Yikes, that was the year I was born!

During a visit to Magic Inc. I discovered a booklet that purported to give the ‘real work’ on the routine and involved a ‘cheat card’ to eliminate the memory work involved in the original. I played around with this version but felt very uncomfortable with the additional gimmick. Back to square one. A bunch more years passed by and then it all came together. Yippee!

Martin Breese just released a new version entitled ‘Market Update,’ and it has kept the strength of the effect, added some great touches and taken away not only the extra gimmick but also the memory work. I fell in love with it, and while it may not ever become a closing effect for me, due to the nature and structure of my act, I suspect it will be a regular and strong addition to my show. Nothing improves a comedy magic show more than a strong piece of mentalism. Magic you can really get your teeth in!

I very seldom wholeheartedly endorse a commercial routine but this one is too good to miss. I have no hidden motives in recommending this routine to any magician who can sell a routine to the public. Well maybe I do have a slight motive, I never ever need to see the Mental Epic performed again and I’m getting pretty sick of seeing that same damn book turn up in the ‘Mother of all Booktests’!

I have become quite a fan of Martin’s skill as a magic dealer. He seems to have a pitch perfect eye for commercial material and quality of production that reminds me of my early mentor’s Ken Brooke. His knowledge of magic is that of a scholar but his understanding of the commercial potential of a trick is that of a performer. A great combination.

If you want to, do yourself a favor, check out ‘Market Update’ on Martin Breese’s website. http://www.abracadabra.co.uk

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David Carradine: Hanging out with the Grasshopper. Part two

•May 30, 2010 • 1 Comment

The shooting schedule on Kung Fu went surprisingly smoothly and in spite of his many eccentricities I realized that Carradine was the ultimate professional. When David was on the set he liked to make it appear that he was unprepared and unsure of what was happening next. This was far from the case and in fact not only did Carradine know his own lines but everyone else’s lines as well. One of David’s favorite things to do on set was to secretly touch off flash paper with one of his ever-present oval cigarettes. He seemed to really enjoy the resulting explosion. I use the word explosion advisedly, as David liked to fire up huge wads of flash paper that often resulted in the smell of burning flesh permeating the air. I hatched a plan and took off for the magic store where I purchased enough flash paper, flash cotton and flash string to arm a third world nation. The next day I greeted Carradine on the set with a cheery, “I have some extra flash paper. I thought you might have a use for it.” Carradine’s eyes lit up like a child at Christmas or, more to the point, like a pyromaniac at a house warming party! The next day I introduced David to flash cotton and it was a huge success. The next day I trotted out the flash string and explained to him that if you had a wad of flash cotton concealed in your hand with a length of the cotton hanging down it would act like a fuse. David’s eyes sparkled intensely and he quickly corrected me, “No, it IS a fuse!”  From that moment on we became the best of friends.

I can honestly say that David Carradine is one of the most unique and extraordinary men I have ever worked with and he still had a surprise in store for me. On the final day of shooting in the middle of a scene David jumped up onto the stage set and addressed the audience of extra’s crowded on the set. In a dramatic manner that made Max Maven seem understated, David gave an impromptu mind reading performance for the entire audience and showered them with juicy details about me. Really inside material that I was shocked he knew!

With a flourish David concluded his performance by asking a spectator to reach into his jacket pocket and inside was a piece of paper with my mothers maiden name written on it. Game, set and match to Carradine as I was left speechless. I puzzled about how he discovered all this information but Carradine just smiled his Kwai Chang Caine smile and refused to tell me. He had really surprised me and fooled me and wasn’t ready to give away his methods!

Postscript.

About fifteen years after the events described I was attending a ceremony dedicated to my very dear friend Billy McComb. After the Ash ceremony took place all those present adjourned to a local pub for bangers and mash and English beer. As we were eating our food and trading stories about our favorite Irishman I noticed an intense looking gentleman sitting on his own at the side of the room. Since he was one of the few people in the room that I didn’t recognize I went over and introduced myself.

To my delight it was Patrick Culliton and the two of us found a quiet corner and drank a couple of pints of beer together. Needless to say the conversation focused on our mutual relationship with David Carradine. Suddenly Patrick became very animated and remembered back to an early morning call from Carradine who asked him to run a ‘make’ on me for his mind reading stunt. “How did you know all that really personal information about me?” Then the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Oh, that was easy.” Said Pat “All I did was phone McComb!” We smiled and toasted Billy with our beers. As always, without even being there McComb had the final word in clearing up a puzzle.

I had first seen David Carradine from the confines of Irma’s secret control centre. I was sitting with my friend Professor Dave Bourne and the occasion was the wedding reception of David’s younger brother Keith. My last meeting was in Toronto when he asked me to hang around as his guest to talk magic and deplete the Canadian supply of Stolichnaya. I wish I had said yes.  I would say RIP Grasshopper but I am sure that wherever you are you are already giving them hell.


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The Mystery Lounge in Boston.

•May 29, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Well, having performed there last week it is no surprise to me why the Mystery Lounge is such a success! It is one of the most enjoyable venues I have ever played!  The crowd was great, the company was great and a good time was had by all. OK, I had slight reservations about the egg rolls–but the Samuel Adams Spring Brew more than made up for it!

Best of all was having my entire family present. Neither of my daughters had seen me in ‘comedy club’ mode and were slightly (and I think pleasantly surprised) at this new version of dad.

Sharing a bill, with amongst others, my dear friend Jon Stetson and Steve Kradolpher was the icing on the cake and the appearance of my old friend and agent/producer ‘Hollywood’ Dave Le Camera a cherry on the top!

I will write a column describing the event in detail for Magic New Zealand but couldn’t resist an update in my blog even if just to show a unique photo of me and Jon together with our wives Gail and Susan all at the same time.

Thank you everyone in Boston and at the Mystery Lounge for making my debut in a tiny room on the third floor of a Chinese restaurant such a happy experience!

I can heartily recommend anyone visiting the Boston area to visit the Mystery Lounge in Cambridge and enjoy one of the most delightfully informal and enjoyable experiences in magic world.

Book early though as the room sells out on a regular basis! You can reach their website at the following link.

WWW.mysterylounge.com

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