Japanese Flag

I have written about performing in Japanese and in other languages before in my blog, but today I wanted to write a little more on the subject and this is, it is not just enough for me just to translate or write my show in Japanese but I have to take care to incorporate cultural aspects of the culture into the show. This goes for pop culture, political culture, history, and much more. The reason that this is important is that here in Japan my audience is 99.99% Japanese people. In many of the causes many of the people in a show may or may not know each other depending on the venue. In those cases it is my job to be able to connect the people in one way, with a shared common experience. This I can achieve by making some joke, or commenting on some shared Japanese cultural experience they all have and that I have. I do this by making a comment at the beginning of my show or by making a joke in my introduction. This then right off the starts makes the audience connect psychologically by connecting them to this mentioned shared cultural experience. This really breaks the ice between the audience members so that they are now “primed” to react better to my performance. It also benefits my relationship to them. One it brings me into their shared experience as well. This is very important for me in Japan as a non-Japanese performer. They seem to one find it interesting I know and understand some cultural Japanese experience that they thought that I would not possible have had. This breaks the ice between me and the audience and creates the bond of the shared experience between us. They become more relaxed with me and they start to talking to me like I am Japanese rather than a foreigner, which can be a problem for foreigners living in Japan. This technique I use for my show I also do in my real life in Japan and it has the same effect. So remember if you are performing a show in a different language in a different country make sure you add this shared cultural experience into the show it will go a long way.

Aaron

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Magic For People!

Only June 18th and 19th I was performing at  Terushita’s Magic Bar Intiki Magician. Terushita went to Malaysia for a magic convention and some us other Shikoku Magicians took over his bar while he was gone. During the past 3 years I have not had a chance to work a full evening at a magic bar, I have done a few short spots, but not all evening like I used to do 3 times a week when I worked at the old magic bar Momentos. On Friday, June 18, I worked with my good friend Mame Jiro and a University Student Magician Shohei. Another University Student Magician Masashi came at the start of the night but had to leave and came back to help us close up. It was a great and busy night. The picture in this blog is from that night. We were so busy we were not able to take many photos at all. We opened at 7:00PM and finally left the magic bar close to 2:00AM

On Saturday June 19  we “held” the meeting of the Shikoku Magic Friends Club. We were so busy we could not actually hold a meeting. Again we were packed and a lot of people came after the Japan vrs Netherlands World Cup game. Japan lost so people came to watch magic! We had great people all all night. Magicians that performed that night were and I hope I don’t forget anyone, Mame Jiro, Shohei, Shinnotsuke, Kiniku Kun, Jack Amano, Uru, Masashi, and myself. It was good we were all there because it was that packed that we were all kept busy. Shinnotsuke and I left to head back to Ehime at 2:30AM and the last customers were still there. Thanks to Jack and Uru for closing up that night.

It was great to get back to working all night at a magic bar, I have really missed it. Recently I have only been working private events for a shorter set time, but getting behind that bar and enjoying the people like they are enjoying the magic was really good and very motivating. Going to have to do this again very soon. I want to thank Mame Jiro for letting me crash at his place Friday night.

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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Inspire Magic

I would like to introduce the reworking of my parent company Aaron Jones Entertainment. I have changed the name to Inspire Magic to work better with my magic activities here in Japan and on the Internet. This web aaronjones.com site will stay the same and I will continue blogging as I normally do and update information on my shows etc. Inspire Magic will allow me to branch to other avenues of live magic performance as well as Internet magic content not to do with just my shows and activities. I will be updating the site with more content over the next while and I will have the Japanese sections up in the new week or so. There will be a section for Magicians and lots of other content for non-magicians. If you have some time have a look.

Aaron

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Bicycle 125 : Anniversary Edition Playing Cards

Today I have a nice but simple story about my magic. A few weeks ago I went out to a farewell party for a friend, after the party I went to another place close to my apartment that I often go to, with 3 friends.  I have never done any magic up till now there. Well that night I my friends asked me to show some people at the small pub/bar some magic. So I did. I just did a bit of close-up magic I had with me and it went over well. We finished eating and headed home. On Thursday my friends went back there, however I could not go. On Friday they told me that  the small pub had placed decks of cards at each table. It was because the owner really liked my magic so he put card at the tables to give it a magic feel. I felt that was cool because my simple magic I did that night effected someone in a cool way. Next week of course I am going to go back there and have a look. To me this show that magic can have a strong effect one people. This is just a simple story but over the years I have heard many stories , I am sure if you are a magician you have too, about how strongly magic has effected a persons life in a positive way. To me this tells me magic is a powerful tool and helps motivate me to work on my magic so that it can be the best it can be and a powerful entertainment and art form, as all artists want their art to effect the people that see it. This of course is the same for magic. So let’s go the best magic we can do for the people we show it to!

Aaron

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Cups and Balls

The Cups and Balls return to my close-up show. Why did they disappear from my show in the first place? Well it what out of respect to the owner of Momentos Magic Bar where I worked for 2 and a half years. Mr. Momentos signature closing to his show at he magic bar was the Cups and Balls. So when I worked there I thought that it would be a bad idea for me to perform them. Mr. Momentos never said I could not perform them but out of respect for his show I decided not include them in my show when I reworked it for the magic bar. After I finished my time at the magic bar I got used to my new show that did not have them in the show. Now 5 years after I removed them from my formal close-up show they are coming back! I am excited to bring them back because the Cups and Balls has a lot of magic, entertainment, and, artistic value. I have some ideas that I want to add and remove to my original routine. My goal with the new routine it to make it relevant to a modern audience, and I hope to bring more magic to it than just juggling balls with cups. It will still be a few weeks before I will actually use it but I will be spending time with my Cups and Balls everyday until I have my routine fun and entertaining. I hope I can do it!

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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Working Hard

I like simple and clean magic. My goal is try to make magic look and feel like the look of Apple Computers, clean, efficient, and look great. That is one way I can describe the way I want my magic to look. For me I feel this way the audience does not get any extra unnecessary noise during the performance. I try to cut out any extra things that really has no theatrical or performance meaning. I remember the first time I saw Martin Lewis perform I thought wow, there is a show that is clean, entertaining, and effective. I also saw a lecture years ago by John Lovick and what I saw of his performance he also had this simple and clean look. Their magic is strong and their performances flawless. Not only these, but both of these magicians have high entertainment value.  Their characters well developed, I love the Handsome Jack character that John Lovick performs as, both these guys have a great style of performing and both I admire greatly. Since I have seen both of these magicians at a convention in Vancouver in the 1990′s I have strived to push my magic performance in a direction that is similar to them but yet my own. The main thing I learned as I mentioned over and over is the simpleness and the cleanness of their magic, staging and performance. This works for me, but may not work for others. The point of today’s blog post is find some style that you want and work to create that. For me its this clean and simpleness. Like I mentioned my idea is the stylish simpleness of Apple computers is what I want to portray in my magic, but then again I like to connect magic to many things outside of magic. Well that’s all of my thoughts today poured out and may make no sense. Something to think about.

Aaron

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Today’s Magic AudioBoo is about working new magic routines into your show.

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