Aaron Jones Magician

Today’s Magic AudioBoo Is working with other magicians on a magic show.

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

Doing "The Duplex Mind"

Last month at the Shikoku Magic Friends Magic Club we decided to give everyone “homework” from the book The Encyclopedia of Card Magic which is different from the magic book of the same name in English. One of the members choose randomly pages from the book and assigned each of us an effect . Then last night we all performed then taught the effects we studied from the book. It was a great success and really showed how many great effects are contained in books that many of us overlook. So we decided to do it again for next month. The effect that I leaned and performed is something that I will keep doing and will add to my close-up show. It is a great effect half magic half mentalism. Next month as well we will have our annual public magic show. I am looking forward to next month!

Aaron

Today’s Magic AudioBoo is the volunteer magic show issue.

MobileRSS

If you are like me and read a lot of Internet sites keeping track of them all can be hard. Living in Japan the Internet is my primary source for English related content on magic, technology and news and I follow a lot of websites. So it has always been a challenge for me to organize how I go through all the content I keep track of. The system I use now has saved me a lot of time and kept me up to date on all the information I enjoy reading. Over the years I have tried various RSS readers but now I just use Google Reader. I can make folders to keep track of subjects, and also I am able to easily share any articles I find on twitter etc. It is like my own newspaper custom made for me everyday. You can also follow other people who have google reader set up and easily read any interesting articles that they share. I like the star feature where I can star the ones I want to keep and go back to them anytime I want very easily. Along with the regular Google Reader I use mobileRSS on my iPhone to keep updated when I am not at home. Once I read an article from mobileRSS it marks it as read on Google Reader as well. It also has all of the great sharing features of the Google version. Combining both of these has been great for me. I am able to keep track of all the sites I like and I like a lot so this keeps me organized and informed. I also like to share cools stuff as well. You can see my shared articles form Google Reader here. If you have any other great ways that you use to keep track of your favourite sites please let me know!

Aaron

My MacBookPro

It has now been over a month and a half since I made the switch from Windows to Mac. In December I just got tired of Windows which I have been using since Windows 3.1. Over the years I enjoyed it but recently I just wanted things to work. So this December I got so frustrated with Windows I did the big jump and ordered a MacBookPro. I am not an Apple Fan boy but having an iPhone helped me make the decision. Another point is if I need to I can run Windows as well on the MacBookPro so I always have that option to use it if I never need to. Well so do I like my new Mac? Well yes very much so. Honestly it is the best computer I have ever used. It has also increased my productivity, work flow, and much more. I am happy that I have made the switch. I wish though that Google soon updates Google Chrome so that I can use extensions with it. I also want gears to work with Chrome for Mac. I like Google Chrome and so far it is the only downside to my new Mac is that the Mac Google Chrome development seems slow. As you can see in the photo when I am at home I can easily hook the Mac to my 22 inch screen and it works perfectly.  For me switching to Mac was a good choice and so far a very positive experience.

Aaron

Today’s Magic AudioBoo is an update on the Magic Book Challenge here.

Me in the green room

This is a picture I took of myself in a green room before a show. My props are already set on the stage and the audience who was a Japanese company I was performing for  has already started their dinner and speeches for the evening. I am to perform after the dinner and speeches with a 25 minute stage show and an hour of close-up magic after that. Now I am just waiting. All dressed up and just waiting. What do you during this time? In my case most of the time my show is already set up at the stage area or already on the stage so it’s just me and my iPhone and the few props I keep in my pocket. Well This is what I do. First before I change I usually do some simple stretching to warm up my body and get it limber and it also feels good. Next I get changed and check myself in a mirror and set my props in their proper places in the right pockets. Next I run through my show in my head a few times. I go over some new jokes and other things I have prepared for the group I will be performing for. I also go and wash my hands then I head to the backstage area if I can depending on the event and venue  earlier than planned so that I can see the audience and start to get a feel for the atmosphere. When I perform for dinners and other private events the atmosphere can be very different from event to event. In the case of the show I took this picture at the president of the company was there, so I can already guess that most of the people at the party will be on their best behavior. This is especially true I found here in Japan. Anyway it is REALLY important to feel your audience because at last minute you may need to change the show depending on the audience from the feeling you get. Also don’t be afraid to do this as it is a very important point to know what will work and what won’t as well as what is appropriate for a certain audience. So use this time to get some advance feeling of this. Next I confirm with the Booker, MC, producer, or whoever is in charge that I am all set and ready to go and head on out and give the audience the best show I can. When you arrive at the event you are doing your job so work during this time to help make you show its best. Like someone said but I forget who “Your are only  as good as your last show” so make every show good!

Aaron

The Party Magic by Hiro Sakai

If you listend to my last Magic AudioBoo you will know about the magic trick a week from a magic book challenge I put out. I have already started this with other books but today I decided to drop by the local library to see what they had. They had a few basic kid’s magic books but I came across this one called The Party Magic by Hiro Sakai. Hiro Skai is a brillant Japanese Magician who recently performs under the name Dr. Leon. This books seems to have been written for beginners who just want to be able to learn some tricks for parties etc. But there seemed to be some cool effects in it. It also came with a DVD with the presentations of the effects. I havent watched the DVD or read through the book yet. I will probably not use anything from it but I will use it to work on my Japanese presentations as I can learn useful phrases from reading books like this. When I was around 9 or 10 years old I constantly took out magic books from my school’s library and the local library and I learned a lot. Anyway, You never know what kind of gold you will find at your library so head out to your local library and check out what magic books they have!

Aaron

Today’s Magic AudioBoo is the Magic Book Challenge!