What I been up to magic wise.

Not a lot, I went on the original hiatus as I got a job at a call center. And some may think that means I have a lot of people to do magic for so lots of practice on. And it's true, there are a lot of people there. But for the most part it's not a good place to do magic. The layout of the seats makes for bad angles, and the worst part is that at in moment a call can come in and interrupt, so I don't do magic on the clock. But I do magic else-when and I'm reasonably good at what I do. And word gets around, so I do get asked to do it randomly as I'm walking across the floor. I've found that my refusal to just do a trick at everyone beck and call and the fact that I'm not bad, has lead to a solid reputation as a magician. People who have never seen me perform are telling people I'm a good magician.

Also even though I've never done a reading at all at work. Women keep stopping me say "I heard you can read palms." Which is weird as I've never even do a reading or mentalism effect.

What I noticed.

So I've been going to see as many shows as I can to learn what I can. And here are some of the things I notice.

First why doesn't anyone advertise. Seriously finding shows to go require a rump load of investigations. It seems to me that most of the shows rely on the bars usual clientele. And the bars don't don't do more than put up the blurb on the website. That's how I found the last show I went to was I visited a bars webpage and there it was so I went to check the groups website and it was still advertising a show from a couple months ago and did not give an option to sign up for a newsletter and there is no fan page for the group or it members. That the group doesn't really seem to be doing any work to draw a crowd would make it kind of understandable that they don't really get much if any of the door. Which leads me to my second thing.

Hat-ing up the crowd. Every show so far has had a whip around for tips at least twice and  at one very poorly produced show they did it constantly and rudely. Going to some forums I've found this to be a rather common practice for burlesque shows here in the USA. One reply I got was that the groups cut of the door barely cover what they have to pay to use venue's "stage".  But as a audience member I don't want to tip after I've paid $10+ to get into the venue. But I will buy overpriced swag at a merchandise table.

Side note to the last thing of the last thing. The overpriced swag is almost always un-creative junk and pasties.

It seems to me a lot of troupes are missing out on the business side of show business.

So something I don't care for it the rudeness. Most talkies have a habit of swear at the audience and calling them names. Which is a double edged sword, if there is not a balance to it (usually through self depreciating humor) then it will turn the crowd on you quick fast and in a hurry.

As for the rudeness on stage by the talkies is nowhere near as bad as a performer being a bitchy drama queen mean mouthing the audience before her set. At the worst produced show I went to in the past month there was this woman just bitching like crazy before the show and at one point she called most of the audience a bunch of perverts. I didn't think much of it until later when she took the stage and I realized that it was that woman from earlier. I could not enjoy her sub-par act which probably had more to do with my attitude than her skills. After all they say if the audience likes you they will like what you do.

A post cause Roland Henning demands it.

When it comes to reviews for bizarre magic and mentalism, I'm getting a little tired of the phrase "I wish he would not have released this, it's too powerful" It appears on almost all the products I've I looked at recently. It's lazy plugging. Also there is no such thing as an effect that is too powerful. Unless theirs one that like kills a certain percentage of the audience that can't handle that level of power. That effect may be too powerful.