Kinkaku-Ji in Kyoto

Magic like all art forms is about sharing feelings, and experience. However, I see very few magicians sharing their experiences through magic. I have seen many that use canned experiences to fit a certain effect but I am talking about sharing real experiences you have had. You often see comedians telling funny stories about themselves, and as well hears songs whose writers write about their experiences. I believe that magic is the perfect medium to share your real life experiences because you can create the same feeling you had with your experience in the audience by the effect you perform that relates to your experience. Not only does this give your magic meaning it makes the magic truly yours. I try when I can to do this with my own magic. Here in Japan I try to talk about my life in Canada, as well as what it is like for me to live in Japan as a Canadian. I use my magic to relate to my audiences my experiences living in Japan both good and bad and how I over came them. This is a great way to come up with routines. So the next time you are stuck working on a new effect or routine try to draw form you own life experiences, you may just find the creative pool you were looking for.

Aaron

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Enjoying Magic

In this age of demand media we love to watch our entrainment when we want and how we want. We use our computers, DVRs, iPhones, iPads, video games consoles and a lot more devices to watch TV, movies and consume content when and where we want. We have busy lives and many of us prefer not to go to the entertainment but rather have the entertainment come to us. Well, I feel magic is one of the few art forms which can come to the customer. Depending on the needs of the customer we can perform at almost any venue, from a clients home, office, or theatre. We magicians can bring the entertainment to our clients. We can create the entertainment in the comfort of our clients most conformable places. I believe we should work hard to be able to perform for clients and where they want and bring a magical entertainment experience to them. I believe this to be very powerful and one of the reasons why I love magic. Magicians can bring a magic experience to groups, then bring more powerful experience to individuals in those groups in their own spaces. This I truly believe makes magic unique and fit the entertainment needs of the modern age. Just something to think about.

Aaron

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Before you read my blog you need to watch the video below if Jamy Ian Swiss on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

I really enjoyed Jamy’s spot on this show. Thanks to the Internet I was able to see it here in Japan. There are a few things that I really learned from this spot, and they are also the main reasons why I really enjoyed it. One of the reasons is that Jamy had a conversation with Craig. The whole performance is like a conversation with magic as the glue. He interacted well with Craig without any strange awkward feelings of trying to get back on “script”. He was able to go with what Craig said and worked it into his performance frame work and used it for the effect. This made it feel so real and at the moment, which make it very entertaining.  Another reason each of the effects he performed had a reason why it was next. When Craig asked him to do one more he had it ready and linked it with the previous effect by talking about the ways one can choose a card. I loved this premis and made sense for this set. Lastly his effects were perfect. The effects were simple to understand to Craig, the studio audience and on TV. They were powerful and enjoyable with out needless ramble.

So what did I take from this and what should we take from watching this as Magicians. Well we need to enjoy showing magic to our audience and engage in a conversation with them. Clearly Jamy enjoyed talking with Craig and the same with Craig. This then transferred to the live studio audience and to the TV audience. Magic allows us to interact with the audience and Jamy does this without any awkwardness as I mentioned. I feel motivated to create this same kind of feeling in my own shows. For me it really shows how magic should be performed, no ego, no showing off, but and entertaining experience of magic between the Magician and his audience. Well done Jamy you are truly one of the greats of our time.

Aaron

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Today’s Magic AudioBoo Is about magic and culture.

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Today’s magic AudioBoo is Brainstorming Magic.

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Close-up Rehearsal

I am currently setting up my new close-up rehearsal space. I have mentioned before in other blog postings and my Magic AudioBoos about having a set rehearsal space. Well it is time I set up a new space for myself t get the best out of my practice and rehearsal time. I set up my video camera so that I can record myself then watch it back, to check my performances. As I have mentioned before, I practice moves, then routines, then rehearse my full show in full dress. This way I can find any problems with prop management in my suites, settings etc. It’s also important to always set regular rehearsal and practice times. It a part of your job as a performer to do this and should be a part of your regular magic work day. Once you set your rehearsal space, and time when you will rehearse you will start to get in the proper mind set to work through your show in a structured way, which will show when you perform in the real world and make your show look a lot more professional. the last think you want to do is just put a bunch of tricks together in a string with no reason and perform them. Make sure you spend the time and put them together as a complete show.

Aaron

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Relaxing

Finding inspiration for you magic can be difficult sometime, at least it is for me time to time. When working on my show and creating routines for my show or reworking my show I sometimes can’t find the right inspiration for what I want to do. For me, like creativity, inspiration can’t be forced it has to occur naturally or things don’t work out well or seem too contrived. What I do to find inspiration for my magic is not to even think about it. This is why relaxing and taking time to enjoy things not related to magic are good. I find for me when I do things like take trips, go sightseeing, watch movies, read books, inspiration for a new magic routine, or effect will just pop into my head. At this time I try not to act on it right away, but I do try to write it down, because I if I don’t I will forget it. The reason I believe this works for me is that when I relax my brain and do something not related to magic, my sub-conscious is working and finds some connections to magic naturally that can’t be forced by my conscious mind. So the point of this post is try to relax and find inspiration for your magic naturally, don’t try to force it and worry only about magic that will work for you and your show. Good luck!

Aaron

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Some Classics of Magic

As I reflect on the effects in my shows both stage and close-up I have come to realize that almost all of them are classics of magic such as egg bag, torn and restored newspaper, cut and restored rope, the ambitious card, coins across, cups and balls and the list goes on. Why do I like these old classics and why do I continue to develop them and use them more than new effects? Well they work, I enjoy doing them, the routines I create entertain my audience. So I want to talk about why I think the classics work and how I go around working out their presentations.

First I want to mention why I think the classics are classics. The main reason I think this is because of the basic plots of these effects are easy to understand. Like an egg disappears and reappears, a newspaper is torn then restored to its original condition. Spectators can easily understand the point of the effect without any convoluted explanations. This is similar to classic movie plots that are constantly recycled. Why is this? Well they are easy to understand. I feel this is the same for magic effects, and is one of the main reasons the classics of magic are still relevant today.

Because the main plots of classic magic are easy to understand and follow they allow a lot of innovation for performance while maintaining the basic core of magic. If you look at Jeff Hobson’s Egg Bag, or Doc Eason’s bill to lemon routine you will see exactly what I mean. There are many many more examples of this. I feel the classics of magic open the doors to many great and entertaining presentations that are modern and don’t seem old like the effects themselves. These effects have remained for years because of these points. This does not mean that newer effect are not good, there are plenty of great ones, but these classic effects sometimes remain even stronger than some new effects.

As the plots of these classic effects are simple to understand, when working out you own presentations for them you can concentrate on the entertaining aspect of magic. You won’t need to create difficult to understand justifications for the effects because this effect is clear with these classics of magic. You can concentrate on how you want to engage with an audience and using the magic as the medium to do this. Sit down with any classic of magic and try to work out a new and fresh presentation for it and you will see what I mean.

If you are new to magic please do not skip over the power of the classic effects of magic, there are more to them  that may appear on the surface and for this reason is why many professionals still continue to use them to this day.

Aaron

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Today’s Magic AudioBoo is on Magician’s Magic vrs Laypersons’s Magic.

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Today’s Magic AudioBoo is the Magic Book Challenge!

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