Diary of a working Magician

Europe 2011 tour update.

2011-06-18T11:45:00.003-03:00

Hey there.
After Rome, i was in Milano, Zurich, Neudau (Austria) and Prague.

Milano:

Did not do any work but it was very magical, nevertheless.
I met a magician friend who introduced me to another magic friend.
We´re all friends now :)
Been practicing and learning and jamming with this guys all my stay there.
Cool beans. Mid - july i´m going back to Italy to tour the country doing street shows with them, NICE!

Zurich: Did some close-up to the people who were by the side of the river. It was good.

Austria: Been working the streets of Graz, a city which is about 3 hours from Vienna. Also i visited Hofzinser´s grave in Vienna´s central cemetary.

Prague: It kinda sucked work-wise. No street performers. Everybody warning me about the police. I did some work but i was stressed about the cops and stuff.

My first day, not a good start.

2011-05-15T15:23:00.003-03:00

Woke up in Rome and sun was shinning in the sky.
I got dressed with my new ´street performer clothes´, grabbed my equipment and left the hotel ready to kick some ass. I was a little bit anxious but that´s part of the game. Took the metro to Fontana di Trevi but when i got there, it started raining!
Dang it!

Tomorrow will be a different day.

I opened a Twitter account

2011-05-15T11:20:00.001-03:00

@TheWorkingMagus

Follow me!

Twitter

2011-03-01T01:55:00.002-03:00

Well, i´ve started using Twitter not long ago.
I´m HOOKED.
I´ve find out something interesting:
I´ve never been able to sit down and write stuff for my show. I´m too lazy and lack discipline. But Twitter is kinda forcing me to sit down and produce funny shit.
The benefit of being addicted is twofold:

1)My creative muscle is working out.
2)I use the shit that gets RT´d and FAV´d in my show.

KACHING bitches.

My first instant stooge experience.

2011-02-27T17:15:00.004-03:00

Yesterday i was doing a cards accross routine at a party.I tell her to count ten cards. I make a joke, everyone laughs and i palm 3 cards. I tell her to sit on top of them. She goes ´let me count them again´. She starts to count them. I start to panic and whisper: please don´t.

This is how chop cup routines should look like

2010-12-18T15:51:00.001-03:00

Hollywood clip

2010-11-28T20:34:00.000-03:00

Here´s kinda summary of my performances in SoCal.

Magicopolis

2010-11-15T20:57:00.001-03:00

One day i went to work to Santa Monica to street perform as usual but i did not have a pack of cards. I scoured the place in vain untill someone pointed me in the direction of Magicopolis. I entered and a lovely lady behind the counter told me they did not have any decks for sale either. We started talking and she said `my husband Steve could help you, give him a call`. I called him and he invited me to `Escape Reality`, his show. I went and i loved it because it was such a complete and funny show. I ended up staying in the theatre and working at Magicopolis too. There was another `magician` staying and working at the theatre named John Guirguis who was a complete douche.
I also got to do tricks before each show. It was a very nice experience and Steve and Bozena were so kind and nice.
Living in Santa Monica was good cos my `office` (the pier) was walking distance. I enjoyed pretty much my stay in that city. It`s a relaxed and healthy environment full of beautiful chics.
I would spend 4 days a week going to the pier to do my tricks. It was a great laboratory where i would practice new tricks and sleights. The good thing of doing street magic is you can FAIL without any remorse.

The streets are AWESOME.

Very good times!

Vegas

2010-11-08T20:15:00.000-03:00

I spent my last week as a tourist with my buddy from my country.
He flew from Miami and we went to Vegas and Hollywood.
Vegas was disappointing in a way. I expected much more party.
I was impressed with the strip. Those huge ass hotels and casinos are crazy.
What i enjoyed most was the shows.
We went to see Penn & Teller´s show. It was AMAZING.
I never liked them but this show KICKED ARSE.
It`s a very cool show. Their take on magic is different and fresh.
The tricks are so good. The one where they do some close-up with a guest from the audience blew me away completely.
Also the first trick, borrowed cellphone to impossible location, was the best way to start the show.
We also saw Mac King`s show. The Mac is a funny dude and the show`s lovely. It`s got some very cool stuff. The Bear trick is HILARIOUS!
We also saw Cirque du Soleil`s `Mystere` and it rocked.

Rudy Coby

2010-11-06T20:35:00.000-03:00

The last show i saw in L.A. was Rudy Coby`s Experiment.
I was so excited to finally see this great magician perform.
The cold hard truth is that i was disappointed.
The whole thing was pretty sloppy. I expected more professionalism.
Rudy seemed too anxious.
Maybe he had one of those days.
The audience reacted very well though.
They gave him a standing ovation.

End of journey

2010-11-01T20:07:00.003-03:00

It`s over.

My lame tourist visa expired and now i`m back to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I had a terrific experience living in the states for almost 6 months.

I learned lots.

I did not blog because i tend to get tired but now i`m back home i`ll do that.

Street performing

2010-08-21T04:41:00.002-03:00

Wow, what an amazing experience the street performance is.

I´m learning lots of stuff.

How to stop people, how to keep them and how to hat them.

That´s a lot of work.

Add to that the ocasional smart ass and/or heckler and you´ve got a lot of learning in one day.

And then the money. I love it when they give me a 5. Love Lincoln´s face.

Also, great place to meet women.

I was very comfortable performing in private environments but this is different. The street is a different game altogether.

Good times.

lots of good things!

2010-08-17T02:24:00.003-03:00

Haven´t posted in a while but basically i´m a street performer. Been performing in santa monica. I´m learning the craft. I still don´t know how to properly build a crowd and my funny is slowly showing up but i´m doing great nevertheless. It´s amazing because i´m gaining my money from the streets. It´s hard and i´m not getting as much money as i was getting in my past life, but all this effort and learning how to deal with the streets is amazing.

Don´t know why i can be funny in a private party but not in the streets. Maybe i´m still not acustomed to the streets? Prolly i still need to learn?

I feel like i´m constantly going back to square one. This is the longest path. The one of most resistance. I never settle for comfort. I´m always pushing myself towards effort.

On the streets people are not polite. They will comment on what you´re doing and try to discover the methods. They will try to outsmart you and say shit. That´s why the street is probably the best training. They don´t give a shit. On the other hand, when you fool them badly and make ´em laugh, they will appreciate that and give you love and money (most of the times).

I´m trying new tricks! How cool is that? I´m confident to try new tricks cos it´s the street and noone is paying me. If i fail, i don´t care cos it´s not a paid gig. I´ve been tryin´ out new stuff and i LOVE that!

Magic Castle

2010-06-30T19:29:00.004-03:00

A couple of days ago i finally visited the Magic Castle!

A new friend of mine who´s a magician living in CA took me.

I finally got the chance to visit this legendary place!

Honestly i was a little bit dissapointed because the first magician i saw at the close-up room was rather unexperienced. I thought that to play the castle you had to have your chops earned.

Then i saw a show by my first teacher: Michael Ammar!
It was good seeing him again. I knew his stuff already but it was very good anyway. His cups and balls loads are AWESOME. His loading actions are so friggin´ smooth.

Then i saw a show by the Castle teacher and it was very well received by the audience. I liked it even though it was ´easy´ suff.

I would have loved to visit the Castle 30 years ago though. When the ´big´ guys were alive.

Happy birthday Professor!

2010-06-11T15:18:00.001-03:00

Thanks for your tricks, sleights and stories Professor.

I wish i had met you!

Have a good one.

More Santa Monica busking!

2010-06-08T05:16:00.003-03:00

Went there last weekend again. What a lovely place! The third street is full of performers and people who go there to spend their money. Also, lots of chics!
This time i made more money than the previous one. Still, not too much money but i´m working on it. I met another magician and he was such a good sport. He taught me some tricks to build a crowd and even did a live demonstration of how to. He built a crowd for me and then i took it from there on. Thanks buddy!

This trip of mine is being such a complete learning experience. I´m loving it. It´s a lot of effort because whatever task i start to work on, requires a lot of learning, researching and performing on my part. I´m facing difficulties often. I´m getting stronger.

Open mike at Greenway Court Theater‎

2010-06-06T05:10:00.007-03:00

Last wednesday a friend took me to an open mike at this lovely place on fairfax avenue. I went prepared to perform. That is, a deck and a sharpie. In this case i also took the handycam to record the performance, if any. We got there and i signed up. They said that they were not sure they would put me on the list because it´s an open mike for acting stuff. They made us enter the playhouse and i was kinda anxious as i did not know if i was to perform. The show started and a lovely japanese lady played a keyboard and sang. A guy was doing the percussion. After two songs the mc entered and he had a very funny, informal and cool vibe. He made us do some warm-up excercises that included massaging the spectator next to you and stuff. Very funny and relaxing. Then he announced the first four acts. I was not mentioned so i ´relaxed´ for i thought i was not going to perform. After the four first acts they played a movie clip. Then he announced the following acts and...my name was mentioned! Ouch! I started feeling nervous. Butterflies in the stomach and all that stuff.
Finally he mentions me and i went up the stage...I KICKED ASS!! I had a very good reception. My friend loved mi little show (each one had three minutes). I was feeling comfotable and was having a very good time. They loved it and so did i.
I plan to return next month (it´s a once a month thing).

This is all good and positive. I learned this place was taking artists, signed up and rocked the house. That´s the way to do it!
Actually the whole show had an amazingly positive vibe. Everybody was doing it out of love for their craft. Noone was making money yet everybody was so commited to what they were doing. It was an amazing little evening.

GOOD STUFF.

fourth show @ the hostel

2010-06-01T04:38:00.005-03:00

Tonite i acted again at the orbit. I´m pretty happy because i´m doing pretty prettyyy good. I´m building my confidence in Hollywood baybee :P
I´m doing mostly card tricks and raccoon work. The good thing is that i´m taping the shows. Tonite i was a little bit ´too´ confident at times. It´s always better to spare confidence than to lack it though.
I feel like trying to do some stan-up. I love entertaining with card tricks but i feel i could do well just talking. Gonna give it a run.

busking in santa monica

2010-05-30T02:29:00.005-03:00

Today i went busking to Santa Monica! Got my performance permit and landed on 3rd street this morning. I did not make too much money but the whole experience was really good. I lured customers with the raccoon and then did card tricks for them. I never got a big crowd though. Still learning the tricks of the trade.
Gonna do some research to get some tips on doing better street shows.
I had trouble building a crowd. All the shows i did were for very little crowds. I felt like a did too many tricks and the money was not that much.
It was lots of fun. A new experience that fills me with energy and provides lots of things to learn.

The Laugh Factory

2010-05-29T04:29:00.000-03:00

I signed up at TLF for an open mike. There were 12 comedians and me. Some new, some with some experience, some good and some bad. It was rather awkward because the audience was mainly us. So basically you had to do a show for other fellow comedians. I rather lay audiences, not colleagues.
I did fine. I was not the best, let alone the worst.
I was very anxious waiting for my turn. We were all sitting in the first two rows waiting to hear our names being called to go onstage. We had three minutes each and material had to be G rated.
It was a very interesting experience.

second gig in hollywood

2010-05-22T17:28:00.003-03:00

I went to perform at the same place one week after my first performance. It´s a comedy show and i´m the infiltrated magician. I did very good. I was pretty solid. They had great fun and me too.
I did a couple of card tricks, raccoon and rope trick. It was like a 10´ set.

One of the lady comedians that was there, told me this:

´your funny and charming, even when you go wrong, you don't.´

Then the mc told me to sign up for the open mike nite at The Laugh Factory. And so i did. Next tuesday i´ll be doing 3 minutes in that comedy club.

Things are moving forward and that´s great.

First gig in hollywood!

2010-05-16T03:21:00.008-03:00

Hey i´m living in west hollywood. Been here for 15 days.
Last monday i had a little gig. I was staying at this hostel and they have a comedy show each monday. I asked the mc if i could do some tricks and he said yeah. So i did it and it was pretty good! I was rather anxious as i had to do the tricks in English and i had not rehearsed or translated the material. But i did great and i´m very happy about it. My segment was very well received. It was short and sweet.
Next monday i have to perform there again. It´s a free gig but it´s a good way to start getting confidence.

Ricardo the drunk

2010-03-11T10:36:00.003-03:00

I've reached a new milestone in my carreer as an entertainer:

I SUCCESSFULLY survived a wedding parlour show!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

When a potential client demands a budget for a wedding party, I usually offer a close-up gig; if they insist they want a parlour show, i (expecting them to refuse it) offer a rather expensive one. If they accept i'll suffer a wedding show (i rather despise them) but i'll compensate for the suffering getting good moneys.

The place where the party was held was very far away from home, it was raining and my car got broken when trying to start it. I took a cab and got there on time. I gave the mic to the dj, got my things ready and i started the show.
40 seconds after i begun, a drunk dude stood up to me blabbing some gibberish. He threw down the gauntlet right there in front of the whole crowd.
I did not flinch. I thought to myself: 'you got in the ring and now your ass is going to be kicked' and i proceeded to do so. I kicked this guy's ass over and over again. It was hilarious. The audience loved it. He was a good fighter, i must say. He was a funny drunk dude who kept throwing the ball back to my side. 5 minutes had passed and i still had not finished one trick.

The interaction was so good that when i finished the show, the guy videotaping the whole thing said to me: ' that bit with the drunk guy, it was all arranged beforehand right?' and then the dj asked the same thing. That's how good it was!

I'm happy.

I got a new ticket!

2010-02-05T13:36:00.003-03:00

Good news! I'm planning a new trip!

I'll be flying to Los Angeles next april!

YEAH!

I'm going to live new adventures and have fun in the states for a while!

I'll be going to VEGAS too, of course!

:)

This trips are always so full of fun and adventures, i'm so excited!

CHEERS!

REAL MAGIC!

2009-12-18T22:34:00.001-03:00

I had not felt this sensation in a long time. My guess is that we, after a log period of being professional magicians, tend to take for granted many things. One of those things is that (sometimes) we create the illusion of real magic.

I was at my nephew's first birthday and there were some kids. My sister said 'do tricks for them' to which i replied 'i'm not a kids magician!' to which she replied 'OK!!'. But then again i said to myself 'time to try some new stuff out!' and did tricks for them.

At first the kids were skeptical. They would not believe that i was a magician. But then i did a coin matrix for them. The first coin that traveled made a little girl say: ' HE'S A REAL MAGICIAN!!!!'.

That's when i felt it. They were actually eating off my palm. They thought i was a REAL magician. They would not fight the tricks like adults, they would actually believe everything was happening 'for real'.

Then i did 'pressure' by Theory11's Daniel García and BOOM! they were in shock! (and so was i for it was the first time that i did it for real people).

I usually hate kids but they can give you really good feedback. Much more pure and honest than adults!

Dark side

2009-12-08T23:11:00.000-03:00

We've all got a dark side. Sometimes that aspect of our personalities shows up while onstage. I'm learning to handle that.

In my case, you don't have to dig too deep to find my darkest self. My problem is exactly that. My destructive energies are at arm's reach. It all boils down to insecurity, i think.

I used to be a very ill tempered person. I've always been fun and stuff, but it has always been too easy to fuck me up. To get me angry. To make me want to kill.

Fortunately this happens not very often, but once in a while i'll go a little bit crazy while doing my show. Sometimes i'm just a little bit too aggressive. 100% of the times this happens in the form of a reaction. I will only enter my dark side if i feel threatened. This means hecklers.

Last nite i was doing my show for a rather excentric crowd. Their behaviour was not really motivating. When i entered the place and got in a bathroom to get ready, they started talking shit and i could heard. Also, the woman who hired me, was spying trying to see what i was doing.

They turned out to be a crazy bunch. They all kept a very entertaining spirit. Always cracking jokes and having laughs. The problem was that many of this beings felt my presence as a threaten to their egos. There is always going to be at least one spectator who feels he deserves being where you are. They don't want the focus of attention off them. They should be in the spotlight, not you. So they get pissed off and start trying to descredit you in front of others trying to outsmart you, be funnier, make better comments, etc.

I have a strict no bullshit policy on people who try to steal the wheel from my hands. I allow and encourage playful participation , but don't try to fuck me.

Also i get rather angry when a spectator makes a wittier or funnier remark than me :)

Last nite i was a tad too bitchy on a couple of spectators. They were afraid and attacked. I got afraid and attacked back. I must learn to not feel attacked in the first place. That's the key.

Funny!

2009-11-24T09:34:00.003-03:00

Found this site:

http://badmagicphotos.blogspot.com/

It's about lame pictures of magicians!

Very funny.

ON FIRE

2009-10-19T21:11:00.004-03:00

That's how i'd describe myself at the last gig i had.

I was ON FIRE! What a beautiful state! Excuse my self-congratulation but i deserve it. I gave a very professional and inspired show. I was spitting jokes left and right and feeling great. It's also the third time in this year that a customer writes me an email telling me how much fun he and his guests had. He also told me about all the lovely reviews he got of my work. I will enjoy this little moment because they don't come often.
It's a good sign, a very good one indeed! I'm always so hard on myself and most of the times end up feeling i could have done better but not this time. This time i KICKED MAJOR ASS!

It's a strange thing that i arrived at this place feeling like shit. I was tired and so uninspired. I usually don't eat before giving a show but this time i had dinner and dessert; i had a full belly working hard on digesting all the stuff. This means that i was really wishing the whole thing ended so i could go to sleep. I had a hard time leaving my house before the show. Also it was a 'big' gig; 100 people in the audience. I usually suck at this kind of venues.

Almost everything i said during the show caused laughter. What a fucking pleasure!

Difficult spectators

2009-10-07T20:18:00.004-03:00

Hecklers, what a fascinating subject.

There is nothing i hate more than a difficult spectator. I consider the performance of a show to be a very intimate moment of mine. I just cannot afford anyone pestering me while i'm enjoying that which i love. That's why i hate these people.

But at the same time i enjoy and accept the challenge. There is no bigger pleasure than beating them in their own game. The rest of the audience also enjoys it a lot. They want you to be gladiator, not a wimp. So when they see you kick his ass, they love and worship you.

There are not too many ways to react to a difficult spectator. Only one you must deliberately avoid: confrontation.

I was having a hell of a time working at the v.i.p room in a casino in my country. I was getting paid a lot and sleeping in a 5 star hotel room. I was the fucking king of the hill. My tricks were doing fine but what was really shinning was my personality. At one moment a rich japanese dude who was there spending money with his lady said to me in broken spanish: 'i know how you do all your tricks'.

It's not the first time that such thing happens. What i don't know is why i reacted the way i did. I guess i was just on a roll and i felt i could handle everything. ouch.

'ORLY' i said, and added: 'tell me how i do this then'

And proceeded to start a trick at a roulette table. The people in the room sensed the challenge in the air and they all sorrounded us. They wanted to see the action. Magician vs. Gambler. I started spreading the deck and having a card chosen. When i was putting it back in the deck for control, i got self-concious and started thinking wtf to do. I took an indifferent card and then proceeded to 'magicaly' change it with a very ill timed top-change. I don't know why i did it all wrong. I guess i'm still a wimp. As soon as i finished my half-assed trick the japanese dude started explaining everything. He was talking non-stop about the methods to the tricks. The sad thing is that most of the times he was right. I even blushed at one point! This asshole was a pain in the ass. A big one.

I shot myself in the foot. I reacted wrongly. When he said 'I know how you do your tricks' i should have said something like 'good for you bro' and then move on. I should have defused his attack; instead i took the bait!

If you're challenged and your reputation depends on it then you have to do something that requires little to no technique. Fool them with an invisible or memorized deck. It's really hard to do complicated sleight of hand under such pressure. Just resort to simple, effective tricks to fuck the bastard(s).

The sad life of the diletante

2009-09-26T00:40:00.000-03:00

He has studied it all. He knows and can do every sleight in the calendar; he's got the books and knows the history of the craft. He is a mobile library but he just can't perform. He sucks because he gets so nervous that most of the times he just avoids performing for a live crowd. He is just too upset about public performances, and that is something he'll be bitter about forever.

I know of too many guys who are very savyy but will never be magicians. They are just too stuck with the books and the mirror. They are trapped in the mirror like Alice! Too shy to perform they are 'virgins' in a way because they never do tricks for real people.

I spent a lot of time reading books and practicing in front of a mirror but never doing tricks for real people. I was a 'theoretical master'. I had read a lot and could criticize with a raised index finger. The real growth begun when i started performing. On one hand i knew about a lot of stuff but on the other, the number of tricks and/or technique that i could perform (as in 'for human beings') was really low.

Nowadays, thanks to the fact that i'm performing every weekend, i'm catching up.

Are you a diletante? Do you speak about magic or do you perform?

GET TO WORK!

Most of us just do tricks

2009-09-11T09:20:00.002-03:00

Most of us magicians do tricks. Only a very few selected ones in the whole wide world do Magic. The percentage of people that perform miracles before audiences is very very small. All the rest of us (me included of course) just attempt but fail to create a magical experience.

Audiences clap, they laugh and they show us signs of approbation, but that does NOT mean that they are completely fooled. I'm sorry to inform you that MOST of the times they know, let alone suspect, what's going on (Erdnase). They still like it, of course. And they love and thank the fact that you're entertaining them; but that is still miles away from the ideal situation where you, mr. magic, sweeps them away with a wonderful experience.

They see the bird coming out of the jacket, they can see the break, they detect the double lift, they know you've done something but most of them are NICE and won't let you know. They won't say that they saw something. Kids will. That's why performing for kids is in some way the 'acid test'. Do it for a kid and ask him how it's done. If he does not doubt for a second before giving his explanation, you're toast.
If after you finish your work you get phrases like: 'you are very fast' or ' i swear i did not see where you got that bird from', you have still have lots of work to do.

Remember that it's enough form them to suspect something for the illusion to be completely destroyed. Feel your audience. Get out of auto-pilot. How are they reacting? What's the look on their face? How genuine is their reaction? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Feel what's going on and you'll know if you're doing things fine or if you're fucking it up.

Being an excellent magician is a hell of a lot of work and a pain in the ass.

Rythm

2009-09-06T14:27:00.001-03:00

When i started doing magic i noticed that i was way more entertaining when i was NOT doing tricks than when i was. My offstage personality was brighter than the onstage one. This had me lost for a while. Why was i funnier without a pack of cards?

I now believe it has to do with rythm. Back then my rhytm was fucked up. My engine was not tuned properly. Rhytm is essentially it. If you're not vibing the way you should then the show is boring, misdirection does not misdirect, etc.

Imagine a beautiful and powerful car engine that's not been properly tuned. As entertainers we must catch up with our natural rythm.

How to tune it? The Master himself again recommends:

Work, work, work.

More 'rubals' lately

2009-08-23T02:09:00.006-03:00

My posts are not always negative, of course not!

Lately i've been getting more 'rubals' from my shows.

If you understand what i'm talking about must be because you read 'The magic of Michael Ammar'.

I mean that lately at my gigs i'm doing different stuff and taking risks and employing more technique than the usual. I'm growing a couple of balls.

I've started using a different method for vanishing the bill in my 'bill to impossible location'. I used to put the borrowed and signed bill in a purse and then it would vanish from the purse and reappear inside the impossible location. Problem was that audience suspected of me not inserting the bill in the purse in the first place. The purse was too big and the method employed was a little bit flawed.
Now i just vanish the bill with a magic wand. No purse.

The other new item i've included is a faro shuffle. Yes! I'm faroing in front of a live audience! I do 'card to any number' by Tamariz. The trick becomes more impossible with a faro shuffle because the selected card appears at the selected position after the deck has been genuinely shuffled and cut.

Oh and i'm also doing the raccoon again, so welcome back buddy!

My show is getting better. I'm getting better. The whole thing is getting better. I'm slowly building a good, solid, entertaining show.

David Williamson's rope trick is about to be ready too. I'll include it soon in me repertoire.

Cheers.

grand prix, really?

2009-08-09T23:41:00.007-03:00

I don't think that Shawn Farquhar's act was grand prix material.

I have to admit that i'm not that surprised about the fact that he won.

I've been dissapointed by FISM many times.

I once attended a FISM convention and i thought that being a world championship, the level of the competing acts would be very high. I was wrong.

Shawn's act is not original, there is no or little technique involved, his execution of the sleights is average... i don't really see why he won.

Here's a link to part of the routine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EEU4PEug50

In the comments section of the afore mentioned video, Tim Ellis (one of the FISM judges), in an attempt to 'defend' Shawn from the online attacks said:

He's actually mates with all of the judges. He's a very friendly guy.

Go figure.

Please, don't think that this is an attack to Shawn.

I have nothing against him.

This is just me not knowing how things at FISM work.

The master is back

2009-08-09T23:33:00.005-03:00

It's always refreshing to find new David Williamson videos on youtube.

This time someone posted a close-up performance of the master himself on FISM.

The tricks that David does are the ones he always does but there is a big lesson here to be learned. At a certain moment during the card in mouth he gets away with murder in an incredible way even though he's completely sorrounded. Sleight of hand and audience management at it's best.

Enjoy.

Green

2009-08-02T17:53:00.007-03:00

I'm an inmature magician. I'm still green. This shows especially when i perform close-up magic. I mean technical close-up magic.

Today i had a gig for a small group and i decided to do close-up instead of the usual parlor material.

When i'm about to perform a sleight i get all weird and my vibe fucks up completely.

It's like an eternal second of awkwardness. A horrible lapse of self-consciousness where i feel naked and watched by others; Time stands still and the spectators observe as i try to cover my naked parts from their sight.

Take the cups and balls.

At home, for my camera, i do it like noone else. Super smooth. All the moves go OK. But then with a nearby audience...it all fucks up. I lose my rythm, i get self-conscious and lose it.

The final loads always surprise the audience. They usually don't expect them. I don't flash the fruit even though the loading is far from perfect.

I'm still green on angles too. I always think that i'm giving bad angles. I get this little paranoia that the secret is being exposed in some way and i'm not completely aware of it. This has probably got more to do with my psyche than with my technique.
Unless the audience is exactly in front of me as in a theater, i get all paranoid about angles. And that fear destroys the effect completely for it reduces my confidence.

More than one year

2009-07-20T22:36:00.004-03:00

Hey there, more than one year passed since the last post.

I guess i just did not feel like writting.

Lots of things happened in this year. After 2008's last post i traveled to Europe. It was not a professional trip, just visiting friends. One of my buddies got married and invited me to his party in Austria. He got married in a castle and i lived there for ten days. Amazing. I was best man at the wedding and responsible for part of the entertainment. I had to give a speech and i kicked ass. Then i did card tricks. It was a hell of a time.

Then i kinda toured some Spanish coast cities. I did tricks at restaurants for tips.

Then i went to a t.v show in Madrid and was kinda 'famous' for a while. It was my 15' fame trip.

But 'magically' speaking the best episode was a conversation i had with David Williamson. I met him in Vitoria, País Vasco, in a magic festival that was held there. I'm a huge fan of David and i was too anxious to approach and talk to him. Finally we had a great talk. He was super nice and kind. It was like talking to a friend. It so made my day!

Now i'm back and working as usual. Doing shows @ birthdays for adults. I'm practicing new tricks and always studying this art of ours...The beautiful Magic!

Boy he's fast!

2008-06-02T19:07:00.002-03:00

Often times i will hear something like:

' He's fast...he's so fast with those fingers...'

when i peform close-up magic.

Do you know what this means?

It means i'm FUCKING PATHETIC.

Fucking great news!

2008-05-24T13:15:00.001-03:00

I'm travelling to Europe next July!!

YEAH!!

Travelling ROCKS!

My old pal is getting married and he invited me.

I'm not rich so if i want to go there to visit him and his family (he's also a brand new father!) i need to get some work done so as not to spend too much.

So i'm gonna go to Benidorm,Spain to BUSK! I'm a busker!!

My idea is to go to the coast in Spain and work the bars and places there.

If you know anything about making money with magic in Europe in summer, let me know!!

Cheers! :)

Travelling Magician

2008-05-16T16:05:00.003-03:00

How good is to travel? How good is to travel for work?? I love it.

Love the hotel life! Isn't it GREAT? You arrive and everything's clean and they take care of you and the big shower head! :)

I had to travel about 500 km to the country to work at a party. This man met me at the casino (last summer) and wanted me for his daughter's sweet sixteen party. The hotel was not a 5 star but staying in a hotel for work excites me.

The gig was good. I had to stroll the reception. I did mostly card magic.

I don't know exactly why but i dropped the deck like 4 times! Duh!!! What an idiot!
The last 3 times it fell i made it part of the trick. Like i was 'eliminating' cards. I took advantage of the messy situation to generate a 'randomness' feel to the trick.
It worked out pretty well in the end.

Lots of classic forcing too. Whenever i had a card selected, i'd classic force it. At one moment i was in a classic force high and i was hitting them all. It was beautiful.

Card under the seat too. Spectator takes a card, Magician buries it in the pack, the card ends up beneath Magician's arse. Very cool trick.

Lots of improvisation too. Sometimes i'd classic force the wrong card or forget it in the process and my 'guessings' would go wrong. At that very moment i'd search rapidly for the one i had mentioned and while misdirecting the bunch, i would perform a top change. You know, nothing new...but it would work so good!

Improv rocks.

What are your thoughts while you perform?

2008-05-01T00:28:00.001-03:00

I tend to think of Juan Tamariz's teachings. He shows up in the middle of the show and says ' don't forget to look them in the eye! All of them! Keep the threads tight!!'
His teachings pop up while i perform. He's and Williamson's. I guess i admire these guys pretty much.

How important is to be in the moment? Are you in the moment when you perform?
Or are you in auto-pilot? Auto pilot SUCKS. Sucks because you're so elsewhere instead of in your shoes.

Auto pilot destroys your work. AP means your delivering the goods like a zombie.

The power of now!

Have you read Eckhart Tolle's book? Good stuff.

When you're in the moment, you're vibing better. Things just flow.

Heavy Hecklin'

2008-04-25T13:07:00.005-03:00

Hey!
Last gig was full of hecklers.

These old rich drunk bastards raised some hell!

They were interrupting and having their own little party and not letting others enjoy the show. Their bombs were not only aimed at me but at the rest of the audience as well. I certainly did not lose it at these drunk guys interrupting me permanently.
I fought them back pretty well. I did not take it personal in any way, counter attacked and even pre-empted many of their moves.

At first i tought 'ok, let's play hard ball then bastards' but then it was so obvious (not only for me, but for other spectators who stood up to these fellows and demanded respect for me and the rest of the guests) that they were behaving like spoiled brats that i just lost interest in beating the hecklers.

It all went right in the end. I left the place in a good mood, accepting the host's apologies and getting my money.

Had this happened a year ago, i'd have returned home rather depressed.

oops...i did it for the first time!

2008-03-29T13:23:00.004-03:00

It just had to happen!

I arrived very late at last nite's second gig and well, she was pissed off.

'NO' she uttered as soon as she saw me.

I'm such an idiot!

I don't know, in the first place, why i said that i'd be 23.30 at her place if i knew that i'd never make it.

Sometimes i'm simply an idiot!

It's not the first time i'm late to a show. It's the first time they reject me though.

I feel a little bit 'dirty'.

I know why i perform

2008-03-12T16:22:00.004-02:00

Because it CURES me.

When i finish a good performance i´m in my best shape.

Giving a show is the best shrink you can have.

I´m cruising some WEIRD family problems. WEIRD STUFF.

My head was all clogged up with this shit before getting to my last gig. Then i did the show and EVERYTHING was erased completely during the gig. It was like a parénthesis in my life. After the show i was feeling very good and not worried and a free spirit.

Performing cures!

Nuthouse Rock

2008-03-05T17:05:00.000-02:00

This was weird.

I was invited to give a show at an event held at a well known madhouse in my city.

The whole thing was pretty creppy if you ask me.

The sheer sight of the building gave me the chills. Check it out:

Then those guys, madre mía, i could not feel but very sorry for them. They are out of their fucking minds!

As soon as i arrived a couple of them gave me a warm welcome. Then i learned they were after my cigarrettes. I gave the whole box away and they were so happy!

I started my show and one of them was ´taping´ the whole thing. He was recording my show with his invisible camera. This guy, ´pajarito´, turned out to be pretty funny. He had a way with words and rhymes. He also knew everything about everything. He was some sort of natural magician. He could make you travel anywhere in the world if he wanted to. He also could tell fortune and know it all about slot machines. And he was not crazy, people just call him crazy.

My show was allright. I mean, i have given better ones but the experience was unique! They liked it. They loved it untill i made some guy´s money disappear.

Usually when i ask for money during my show noone ever gives it to me easily. It wasn´t that way this time. On this ocasion, José gave me his $5 bill as soon as i asked for it. I thought ´what a lovely crazy dude!´ and he was. He was one of the guys who gave me a nice welcome and did not ask for marlboros. He actually had a nice vibe. But then, when he realised his money had disappeared from the purse...jesus christ. He started yelling and screaming and kicking and throwing stuff to the floor. ´ I want my moneeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy ´ he yelled. He was quite out of control. A woman who was there says to me ´ oh don´t worry, he´s an actor ´. I quite freaked out so i decided to speed things a little bit. I made his money appear inside a bag-o-chips and he recovered his cool. Everyone clapped and i got the hell outa there.

Even though i left the place feeling a little bit sad i enjoyed the whole experience. It´s a GREAT thing to do stuff like this. To use my Magic and talents for a good and honest cause. I´m actually thinking of doing more of this sort of gigs. Gigs for people who actually need them.

Zoolander´s disease actually exists!

2008-02-26T16:52:00.004-02:00

I was giving a show at this boring corporate party and i summon a female spectator onstage. We talk a little bit and then i give her instructions: ´ you´ll have to read the first word on the left page of the book´. She gives me this weird little face and whispers something.

Me: ´is there any problem?´

She: ´Yes, there is a problem´

Then somebody approaches and says something to her. Her face goes back to normal and then she says ´ok, i´m done. I got the word´.

I finish the trick not knowing exactly what happened, she goes back to her seat, the show ends, etc etc.

After the show it all came cristal clear. Someone from the audience came and tell me she suffers from some sort of Zoolander´s disease! She cannot tell left from right! She just can´t identify them. Even if you tell her which is rite and which is left, she WILL FORGET IT INSTANTLY. SHE CANNOT REMEMBER WHICH IS LEFT AND WHICH IS RIGHT, NEVER EVER!

I thought i had seen it all!

Ps: Same thing happens to me with Sashimi and Niguiri.

Earning my chops

2008-02-07T15:49:00.000-02:00

That´s the phrase i would use to describe the current stage of my artistic development.

The month at the casino went by and it was a good experience. Not only money-wise; i FINALLY tried new stuff out. All the stupid whinning reached it´s end. All i had to do was WORK. Williamson once said that the best advice for a magician was ´work, work, work´. And he´s damn rite! When you work, you naturally tend to try stuff out and to take ´little risks´ that end up paying a lot. You get sharper and fit.

Among the items that i´ve been getting a lot of pleasure and education from, were:

Spoon trick by Dr. Sawa / David Williamson.

Man was i shy and fearful to try this item out! The first times i did it only for kids. They are the BEST judges for a couple of reasons. One is that i fear not kids and two is that they are usually more shrewd than adults and can spot the trick more easily.

Eight kings treathened to save...

I did some Erdnase reading and picked up this item to experiment. Lovely. It´s old but what the heck? It´s great. The old ´guess your card´ trick is lovely! I just love doint it!

Card under the seat

This was a killer. Whenever i was invited to seat i´d start ´jazzing´ with a selected card and it would usually end up below my pompas after sundry revelations.
It´s so easy to do and it´s so powerful. I learned a lot from this.

There is one trick that i started doing some time ago with good results and was getting rather confident doing but now i´m not ´cause it backfired a couple of times:

card under spectator´s watch

I did it a couple of times but it did not go well. Once they even saw me carrying the folded card under the guy´s wristwatch. It was pathetic :)

Many times i pulled a miracle doing some version of Vernon´s:

The trick that cannot be explained.

Don´t you just LOVE when you somehow (ie: spell the name of the spectator and there resides the card he thought of) manage to pull a miracle out of NOTHING? :)

Lot of second dealing too. Tried out Paul LePaul´s spread pass too, and even some real fortune telling!

Good times!

No news from me

2008-01-29T21:22:00.000-02:00

For some strange reason i´ve not been blogging.
I´m still working at the casino and i have stuff to say.
But i don´t know why i just did not post anything.
Stuff coming soon.
Probably.
:)

Sand0r

Kasino Kid

2008-01-10T02:36:00.000-02:00

Yeah!

Good news!

Summer's here and i'm happy. My plans for holidays included everything that differs from the same old same thing i've been doing for years; that is visiting this city in the atlantic coast where my parents have a house. So my plans were to head for the mountains or the south...but again i'll be going to the same place because i was offered a nice job:

Work at the casino!

Yay! I'm gonna be like Michael Skinner!

This guy offered me to work in the casino's bar. Close-up in the tables!

Cooool!!

Gonna hone the prestidigitation skills and HOPEFULLY develop new stuff and earn some chops.

There you go! Lucky me!

The Working Magician.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

2007-12-29T15:22:00.000-03:00

Last weekend was a blast!

I had lots of gigs and saturday nite ended in a wedding.

The good part is that i was invited as a friend, not only as a Magician.

A friend of mine got married and he asked me if i could do some Magic.

Usually this episodes freak me out. This time i took it easily.

I had all saturday to 'warm up' for that big moment.

Did 3 shows and headed to my friend's party.

The arena was the typical one. Huge salon, 200 people and wireless mic!

I did VERY GOOD!

It was only 10' but they were VERY good!

I was calm, collected and funny!

Almost everything i said caused laughter. I could not believe it.

I gave the impression of being a seasoned performer.

I did card in mouth and giant invisible deck.

It was short and sweet and they loved it. My friend and his wife especially.

Nice, nice, nice!

Growing some cojones

2007-12-23T15:17:00.000-03:00

Yeah!

Did this bar-mitzvah last saturday.

I was strolling the reception. Everything was going fine untill some smarty-pants showed up.

He was 13 years old and was the 'smart' type. He was not giving bad vibes, just being a smart arse.

At one moment i was performing for a big group which included him and he says ' i really LOVE lousy Magicians '.

I did not get offended because my shrink is doing a good work but also his attitude was not inviting me to get offended; he was just being a little pain in the ass, not a big one.

So i just let it slide and decide to punish the little rat. I did card under spectator's watch under his watch of course.

I just did it again (last time i did it was a week ago, i'm taking risks more often man!).

Poor bastard was floored :)

WTF is wrong with some people?

2007-12-19T19:24:00.000-03:00

I arrive to the place where i was booked to perform. It was a restaurant. People were finishing desert so i sit on an empty table. Soon the members of that table appeared and i stayed and did some tricks untill everything was ready for me to perform.
We were having a great time and all of a sudden one party guest, a 40 year old man, comes to the table and says in a loud and clear voice:

' Hey you guys, let me know when the Magician has arrived. I want to fuck him'

Instant vaccum effect.

Of course nobody laughed or said anything. We were all under some kind of spell.

The worst part of it was that there were girls present at that moment. I felt so bad for them.

Then this idiot ups the ante and says:

' It's been a long time since i have not fucked a Magician up the ass'

This emotionally unbalanced human being expected us to laugh at his freaky statements.

After this sordid episode he starts talking to me.

Perv: ' Heyy...so you're the Magician huh? How are you?'

Me: ' Well...i'm feeling rather akward right now'

Perv: ' Oh come on man, you're a Magician! You're supposed to have a sense of humor'.

Some people tend to freak out when i'm around, but this was a little bit too much on the edge of taste.

Let darkness be your ally

2007-12-14T19:42:00.000-03:00

This is not about Star Wars or LOTR, it's about Strolling Majick!!

Last nite i had this gig in a place which had a huge garden and people were having a good time in it. Lights were poor but the tricks were superb!!

I found darnkess to be a confidence booster (duh).

I was about to perform the ambitious finale when a sneaky idea struck me:

Card under spectator's watch!!

I fold the card and ask a spectator to give me a hand. I smoothly inserted the folded selection under his watch with such an ease...what a pleasure!

I was like fucking a TEN !!! :)

OH jesus christ i'm always complaining that i don't do this kind of risky things but i did it and it OH, felt so goood!!!

I did the whole 'trick gone bad' thing and then i say ' the only way to know if this whole trick was a waste of time is by checking the watch' and lay back.

Nobody was getting it untill the watch owner goes ' OH NO '. He did not say this words. He did not say anything at all actually. He communicated me ' OH NO ' with his face.
Then everybody else gets it and a couple of girls start screaming anticipating the moment. The guy turns his wrist around and looks at the neatly folded card under his time piece. He does not dare grab it. He knows that once he unfolds it, the circle of amazement will be complete and he'll be BLOWN AWAY.

It was a sweet moment i tell you and i felt like a fucking million dollars.

My next challenge is to do it in full lights :)

Some huge sleight of hand artist.

Good vibes, bad vibes give me some of that.

2007-12-11T03:27:00.000-03:00

You've just arrived at the wedding party.

You're informed you have to start working the tables.

You pick the first one and 'open' it.

From then on it's an easy job. The other tables have seen you work and get applause so they want you there.

But that first one is something isn't it?

Tonite i opened like charm and got the applauses going on.

I went for table number two (there were like 30 tables) and kept rocking.

They invited me to the table, served some wine (it was a rather informal party so i had some wine while presitidigitating.. hehe...i usually don't drink and/or eat but this time i was thirsty man!!). Everything was going swimmingly.

I eject and go for the third.

This time the welcome was different.

The freak who was leading the table gave me this horrible welcome.

Sometimes you don't need words to communicate. Body language being 90% of communication,etc etc.

I felt the guy before approaching the table; i knew he was an orc, so i deliberately played it down a bit so i would not contrastate too much. Pool players call this 'playing under speed' ( ;) ).

I do my polite and sweet opener and this guy hits me back with some negative and stupid improvised answer which basically meant ' I don't want you here '. I doublecheck just in case and he says ' I SAID NO '.

Ack.

I ejected inmediately feeling like shit. This guy transformed me like magic! He did a color change on my mood!

He was a rather short and disgusting looking guy with an ugly face and an ugly vibe.

This poor soul felt very threatened by my presence. He just did not want to 'lose the wheel' to Mr. Magic. He and only he was allowed to do jokes on the table. The way he shut me down completely when i first arrived gave him away. He was trying to be funny but nothing but negative crap kept coming out of his mouth.

He made me feel like shit.

Luckily i'm not that idiot and by the 5th table i was happy again.

Then i met the same guy again in the balcony and some friend of his who was talking to me tried to 'fix us' but he only fed the fire with gasoline. This devil dwarf started bitching again. I said to him ' it's allright man '. But he would not shut-up. Fucking bastard.

'The Turk' as others called him must have had a hell of a night for each and every table i visited would only cheer and applaud during my stay.

The phantom dissapeared?

2007-12-09T12:35:00.000-03:00

Whatever happened to the phantom notebooks?

Does anyone know??

Kicking some SERIOUS arse

2007-11-11T16:53:00.001-03:00

Well well well my dear Sandor! You're kicking major ass!!

My fellow readers, it is with great joy that i tell you that my four last gigs were REALLY professional. Star quality entertainment by yours truly.

I'm about to COMPLETELY master the 'living-room' show.

My favourite and typical arena: The gig at the dinner party.

You know that 30-50 peoples show in a living room? That informal enviroment is all i need to rock the house.

Excuse all this 'auto-bombo' (self-congratulation) but it's my blog and i do whatever i fancy. Hehe. j/k. This self-patting-in-the-back is due to the fact that i'm very very happy with my work.

SURE i could use more INCREDIBLE and/or GUTSIE tricks! But the ones i do are GOOD Magic and the whole presentation + entertainment + comedy is nothing short of BRILLIANT.

I will work on new and more incredible tricks, don't worry.

:)

Learning to tame wedding parties

2007-11-11T16:46:00.000-03:00

I usually avoid performing in weddings unless it's strolling or close-up magic. I ph34r the big room, the mic, the large crowds,etc. You know already if you've been reading all my previous stuff; but from time to time i accept a wedding gig as a challenge.
This weekend i had one. They booked strolling at the reception and 'a middle of the evening show'. The strolling went fine, i mingled with the guests and all the stuff but the problem was the previous moments to the show. That dead time between the reception and the show (more than two hours) killed my nerves! I was on an empty stomach and started feeling dizzy; i was feeling like shit!

The time came and i did it. I did it better than previous wedding gigs. I'm improving my wedding show. I'm getting to know the mic. We're like friends now. The mic is good. I like the wireless one with the mic stand. I like that better than the headband or the lapel mic. I like the mic now :)

All in all and in spite of them laughing and having a good time, the show was crappy. I did not like it very much. I can give so much more than what i gave.

I'm working on it! I'm working on it dammit!!

On being creative

2007-11-11T16:42:00.001-03:00

I'm quite the creative fellow but i've almost NEVER been able to apply creativity in order to invent a trick. I've always admired Paul Harris SO much. What a creative chap!
Man i'd love to invent tricks just like he used to do!

Paul Harris is the Salvador Dali of Magic ;)

I can present a trick in a funny and entertaining way which is entirely mine, but i was not born with a trick mind.

Perhaps i'm not as creative as i thought? Maybe my mind is not cut out for that kind of task?

Or is it tha i'm just lazy?

BINGO!!!

If you invent tricks please share your creative approach to coming up with new stuff!

Chicken Me

2007-11-11T16:33:00.000-03:00

I'm such a coward!

I'm so afraid of trying out new stuff!!

I'm always doing the same tricks and never ever add anything new.

I've studied so much that my repertoire SHOULD be bigger but no, it's just small and not expanding anytime soon.

I defineteley SHOULD (duh!) go for more 'gutsie' stuff from time to time.

Take my cups and balls for example.

My C&B routine is great. If i show it to you, you'll say 'man this is great! do it!'.

Problem is that whenever i do it in real life situations, ph34r 0wnz me and the routine is a crappy one.

So in order to avoid suffering, i do all the stuff i know by heart.

Whenever i have to perform intermediate/advanced sleight of hand, the situation scares the shit out of me.

I always fool the spectators with the final loads, but the development of the routine is what sucks ass. The first and last phases of my cups and balls routine (I do williamson's) kick ass but all what's in the middle is just plain shit (i'm talking about my version of willy's routine, eh!).

Maybe i should try doing another version?

Gonna try Dai Vernon's classic.

A day in the life of...

2007-10-29T19:22:00.000-03:00

For me week days are the gap between gigs.

I work on weekends and 'rest' on weekdays.

A common day of mine would be like this:

* Wake up about 10 a.m.

* Read a couple of chapters of a book.

* Breakfast

* Smoke some dope and play soccer on the Playstation.

* Answer budget requests.

* Lunch (i usually prepare it myself. Love to cook and go shopping for foodies).

* Take a nap (wine kills me at noon)

* Practice some sleight of hand. Cards, cups and balls or some sleeving / topiting.

* Smoke some more.

* Watch a Seinfeld (big fan) chapter or a The Office (fan) episode.

* Some more internet action.

* Go get some stuff for tea.

* Have tea with munchies.

* Indulge myself in some form of hobby activity like Lego Mindstorms.

* Go for dinner foodies to the market.

* Dinner

* More dope.

* Playstation plus movie or t.v.

* Pre-sleep reading.

* Go to bed already!

I don't know if i'm a bohemian soul or if i'm just plain lazy.

Sometimes i feel i should be more 'active'. I fear that i'm wasting too much time.

But on the other hand i just like it and don't feel the impulse to do otherwise.

I live the life of a retired famous artist although i'm not famous let alone retired.

The stalker

2007-10-25T15:12:00.000-03:00

How do you manage a stalker?

You know, that creepy person who follows you from group to group when performing strolling magic?

He's always one meter behind you looking from over your shoulder trying to figure stuff out.

What's worse is that he will randomly say to a spectator: ' i know how he does the coin trick'.

In this case the stalker was no other than the guy who was paying me. Bastard.

I was not harsh with him because that would have been unapropiate, but i made it clear that he's behaviour was foul.

What else could one do?

Three shows in one day

2007-10-25T14:45:00.000-03:00

Wow! This is good stuff! I'm a busy magician these days :) Making some pesos too!

First gig was weird and kinda akward. This guy wanted a Magician for his dad's birthday. He says its at his house. Then he calls me and says it's at a restaurant. At ten.

I went there and i knew how it was going to be beforehand. There was no place for a 45' show. All i could do was close up among tables. Problem was that i had another gig at 11 and these guys hadn't started dinner yet! GOSH! (Napoleon Style).

I ended up doing close-up for the kids.

--

My second gig was HILARIOUS man. I was a fish in the water. I was a shark!
We all had lots of fun. I was very alive and kicking. Great entertainment.

--

The third show was a very good one too. It was hilarious too but in a different way.
Audience was conformed mainly by young adults. Somehow i'm intimidated by crowded formed this way. I fear lots of young people in a same room.

Anyway the show was going ok untill i found a jewel in the audience. I found my passport to a comedy show. I found the funny old lady in the room and incorporated her to my ranks. We were batman and robin. Zoolander and Hansel. Ying and Yang.

I've noticed that old people are generally very funny. Same thing with children. Both (by antagonic motives) are way past everything. They certainly don't give a fuck about anything in a very peacefull, spontaneous and charming way.

This little old lady with gray hair named Fanny (i would have not been surprised at all had she said she owned a little yellow canary named 'Twitty') was friggin hilarious. Her comebacks were delightfull. She was the other half of the show.

She was a super granny. Her responses were unpredictable. Her timing was great. Her audience management and wise use of running gags were amazing. She was an endless pit of humorous bits.

After the applause garnered by a bill appearing in a bag which she was holding i summoned her onstage and we both took a bow.

Great stuff.

Trick failed twice in a day

2007-10-25T14:18:00.000-03:00

Not so happy entry in this blog of mine.
My booktest failed twice. First in my first gig and then in my second one. Talk about redundancies.

The first gig was a 'comunión' party. I don't know the word for 'comunión' in English. The good thing about this show is that it was a big salon, many tables and i was there all by me self. I was in good shape and spirit. I handled it fine.

The problem was that this woman avoided deliberately my indication to ' read the first complete word of the page on the left' and instead proceeded to read whichever word she fancied at that particular moment. She read one in the middle of the third parragraph. So after all the crapy acting and the build up i asked: ' what was the word you were thinking of?' while at the same time advertising this notepad which had written a word i supposedly learned from her mind. It read 'Blade'.

Woman: '...Ending...'

Instant vaccum effect.

A spectator: ' What about the Blade? '

Me: 'I'll use it to cut my balls'

The crowd roared.

The second gig which included the faulty Book Test was worse than the previous one. It was this lame birthday party at a rich old man's house. The atmosfere was so low and so 'politically correct' i was feeling like shit. This shows force me to slow my pace and act in a different way. I got so self-conscious and feel like shit. It was all a crap except for the bill in potatoe bags. The spectator i handled the loaded bag had the GENIUS idea to take the bag to the next room where all her stuff was. So then when the bill is gone from the purse i make a big deal out of the fact that the bill ended up in her bag which was in another room far away from where the show was going on. Cool!!

Show for the old ghosts

2007-10-08T00:33:00.001-03:00

Long weekend this has been. All i did was work but it was a long one. My sickness was making things harder.

This weekend's last show was in an 'old people's house'. You know these places were old people are abandoned in order to not disturb at home? These horrible places were nurses take care of people who shit on their pants and babble garbage waiting for their time to come?

Last week i got a budget request from a woman. She then replies and says she can't afford it; She says she's a hard working woman and has not got the money to pay for my services. I, being the beautiful soul that i am, decided to do it for her anyway.

I've established a new policy. It's called 'The good samaritan Magician' and it consists in me giving (at least) a free show every month. I decide to who i give the show and it's totally arbitrary. This, at first glance, provokes thoughts such as ' aww isn't he lovely? what an unselfish guy'. Nothing further from the truth. One of the reasons why i give is because i know that you get what you give. So i give in order to receive. I'm selfish! :) I'm kinda kidding but you get the point. I also like to do free shows so i can try some stuff and not feel embarrased if i fail :)

Anyway, i get to this place and it was horrible. All the old women in this place. It was like a room full of ghosts.

I did my show and it was a great one! Lots of comedy. I have noticed lately that old people are super comic. There is something in old people that makes them so fucking hilarious. They give a shit about everything and that makes them so funny. This woman, Teresa, was the comeback queen. I would do and or say something and she had a phrase to add. Usually very comic. Everybody including me would laugh and have fun. She was old and ugly and had a teenager boy beard: lonely and separate hairs scattered throughout the face. A rugby match: thirteen on each side. She was killing me with her responses.

One good thing in doing a show in a place like this is you never know what kind of responses your gonna get. Your audience members are old, cranky, crazy and lunatic! I was doing a 3 coins accross and i ask one particular crazy old lady: ' how many coins do i have here lady?' she starts contortioning her face and doing spastic unpredictable hand movements and shouting' FOOOOURR....FOOUUUURRR!!!' hahahaha...man this is great training i tell you.

The lady whose mother was having her birthday party (the one who asked for the budget) could not thank me enough and gave me a letter when i left. I did not read it yet.

Went home soooooooo tired and had a BIG nap.

Sweet and Sixteen

2007-10-08T00:12:00.000-03:00

There are a couple of reasons why i would wake up a sunday morning:

1) Food
2) Work

I got up early for my midday gig. It was a 'sweet 16' party. I had to stroll among guests.

Woke up early, had my breakfast, took my medicine etc.

I got there early, parked my car and started looking for the place. When i arrived to the address i had print in a paper i found an old abandoned house instead of a party. There it dawned on me: i had the wrong address! You know when the same city has different streets with the same name?? FUCK! What an idiot! I looked on my map for the wrong 'Mosconi street'. Fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!

Lots of thoughts running thru my head. One of them was ' There's no point in going to the right address now...the client must be swearing and hating me for not being there!'. I started hating myself and all that useless crap. I tried to keep my cool and went to the car and somehow found out how to get there. Problem is i promised to be 12.30 at the party and it was 12.35 and i was at the wrong address. There was no way i could make it. I needed a DeLorean to be there on time.

I just did it. I went to the place and arrived 1.15. All the guests were there but the girl had not made her big entrance yet. I got my cards out of the case and started fooling the guests.

They received my magic very very well. Lovely people. Very soon i was getting applauses and laughter and my client's wife was hearing all these. One particular guy was a very good sport and started telling everyone in the party how good i was. The guy would say: ' hey...this magician is getting us stoned with his magic!!'. Then he went to tell the guy who booked me ' i don't know how much you're paying this guy, but you should be paying him more!'.

Nice people.

The little girls were all wet to the Magician, man! :)
I fell in love with one of them. She was so beautiful. I did not fall in love. I'm kidding. I mean i saw this lovely little flower and wanted to take her home and plant her in my garden ...heh.

I noticed how fucked up i was due to the illness of mine. I wanted to talk but all words would tangle up in my throat. My mind was clogged with thoughts and words that would not make it through my mouth.

As Michael Ammar would say, i got a couple of 'rubals'. I did 'gutsy' stuff that i usually not do. I have such a hard time doing new tricks! I'm a big coward and a chicken too. I always do the same tricks and never dare to try out new stuff. Usually i forget to try out new tricks but this time i did not. I went for the card under spectator's watch. I did it to a kid in order to not risk my reputation so much. I completely fooled that little fatso. haha. What a pleasure. :)

I had a great time. I love my job and my life :)

Bill outside impossible location

2007-10-07T23:45:00.000-03:00

This one was excellent. In spite of my 'flu' i gave a great show. It was really good except for the fact that somehow the signed bill did not end up where it was supposed to. What a little surprise was to see that the bill was not in there after all the build up for the grand finale. I thought it was stuck somewhere inside the bag (i do a signed bill to bag of chips) but no no, that signed little bitch did not slide down the rolled playing card.

The bill was inside another bag which is the one that holds the bag of chips. I took it and 'produced' it from my shoe. I don't know if they bought it. I did not care much, i tell you. All the previous stuff was great. I was 'on'. Lots of comedy.
One particular joke finally fell in its place. You know when you fool around with some joke or idea of a joke and it never gets the laughs you know it has to but one night the wording is correct, the timing is the one and BOOM they laugh? That happened :)

When i arrived at the place some guy with weird vibes opened the door. He said ' i know you '. We had a little convo and it was strange. I could not get what he was saying. He says 'What? a Magician? What Magician?'. After a minute or two i enter and go to the living room to wait for my time. This same guy passes me by and gets inside the bathroom. 5 minutes later comes out with red eyes and a stoned look. He was doing coke. Comes to me and says ' don't fuck with me ok?'. Jesus christ. I got a little frightened and avoided eye contact. I say ' ok i won't ask you to pick a card ', he says ' oh no no, that i want'. Then he told me that once we met in a disco and lots of garbage i could not understand due to the fact that he was stiff like a statue.
What a jerk. I hated his guts. This same idiot kinda heckled me when i did the show. I ignored his stupid little threats. Poor bastard.

I'm a great entertainer. Very good one indeed. This is not only the truth, it's also a dose of good ole affirmations :)

Shitty conditions

2007-10-07T23:18:00.000-03:00

Poor lights, poor sound (had to use a wireless mic which did not work properly!!) and i was kinda sick. I had lots of mucus up my chest and my voice was like broken. You know when you're about to get pretty sick? Not only that but the food guys were delivering pizzas while i was working. Your typical guerrilla conditions. Sometimes i feel like the 'Che Guevara' of Magic. Heh.

In spite of all these i entertained those fuckers.

Isn't it a pleasure when knowledge you read shows up in real life? I was doing my tricks and stuff and all of a sudden i remembered to 'keep the threads tight'. I was reading 'Los 5 puntos mágicos' by Tamariz and briefly he says that when communicating with your spectators using the sight, you should imagine that between each and one of them and you there's a thread going from eye to eye. You must never let the thread go slack. Keep it tight. Look at them in the eyes. One by one. I was doing my tricks and this thought popped up. Cool.

Good stuff i did: Use the bad conditions to my advantage. Poor sound? Poor lights? Lots of comedy potential!

Another thing that made me feel i'm 'growing up' is that during the doggy balloon routine i had to use an 'emergency' extra balloon because the one i was using was kinda useless. This made a big dead time gap in the routine. I just cruised the dead time with some humor and everything went ok. 'No big deal' you say. Trust me, some time ago this would have been like a nightmare.

Finished that gig and went very fast to my next engagement.

Bad luck token

2007-10-04T00:25:00.001-03:00

Whenever my customer or somebody in the party makes promises of future bookings before i do my act, i fail to give a good show.

It's like a damn little curse.

Customer: ' Next month my mother's turning 70, i'll book you for her party '

Me: 'Oh Jesus...thank you VERY much for spoiling the show'

Customer: wtf?

It works like black magic.

I'm a great entertainer...

2007-10-04T00:11:00.000-03:00

...but (still) not a great Magician.

I feel i was not born a Magician.

I fell (i could be wrong of course!) that other fellow Magicians are more of 'natural Magis' than me.

I can and do provide great entertainment.

I will satisfy your fun needs, but i don't feel a Magician.

I mean a sorcerer, someone capable of incredible things.

Been entertaining this idea for a while (no pun intended). She must be quite amused by now (intended :). I love performing and i KNOW i was born to perform. I know it's my thing but i also feel that magic tricks are a mere excuse to express myself. That they are secondary. It could have been juggling or papier mache...i don't know.
For some reason it was Magic i chose to begin my quest in the performing arts world.
I guess my choice was due to the fact that i always loved watching magic.
When i was a kid i LOVED so much being fooled badly. I saw Magicians and it was something that i had to be part of.

You know those guys who see a girl and they just know that they have to have sex with her? I felt something like this with Magic (weird comparison?). I JUST had to be part of that stuff.

One more thing that i complain about myself is i would love to have a better understanding of the art. I obviously don't understand it the way my idols do.

Take Juan Tamariz for example. This guy knows magic inside out. He knows each and every path in the labrynth. Magic 'flows' from some people. It flows from their soul.

I don't think this is my case.

Kids...ugh

2007-09-29T13:23:00.000-03:00

Last nite i performed again. I did this birthday party show at a house.
I think that this form of magic show is pretty much a guerrilla thing.
Every performance which is not in a theatre where people go because they want and pay an admitance is some form of guerrilla show.

You don't know the arena. You're the outsider. You have to deal with (god forbid!) kids, bad angles, prepare the show in a short period of time. It's quite stressing. I think that's one of the reasons i try to keep it simple in terms of props and tricks.
I was thinking about including a goldfish production but i'm gonna forget about it. It's a mess you know. The whole deal taking the fish, stuffing it in the TT before the show, hoping it does not die,etc. This same thing in a theatre would be ok. You know you got your place, your time, you set up everything way in advance, etc.

Anyway the show was not a bad one. I'd say a 7. I think i need more 'magical' stuff. You know some flash paper here and there or some floating thing. More killer tricks.

Last nite's crowd included many children. Jesus Christ, there was this little fellow who would not stop irritating everyone in the house including the magician. First he wanted (and there was no way to stop him) to open my suitcase. He'd hammer me repeatedly: ' i wanna open the suitcase '. Then, when i invited his mother to come 'onstage', he started crying...he was an expert at fucking my timing and momentum. Then he went crying to his room and started shouting stuff from there. I wanted to beat the hell out of that little bastard. This unexpected moments are comedy potential. You must be able to milk these situations so you 'prove' to your audience that this little devil is not unstabilizing you or your show.

Of course this type of show is not the ideal one (theatres rule of course) but still they provide a lot of learning. If you suceed in an enviroment which is far from being ideal, imagine what will happen when you do your thing in a place which is the ideal...running with weights anyone??

I'm reading (among other stuff) Jim Steinmeyer's 'Hiding the Elephant'. Exquisite. Highly recommended by Sandor.

Wow!

2007-09-18T11:12:00.000-03:00

Last saturday was a very important day! Not only for me as an artist but as a human being.
Before i had my Magic gig i had another gig.
I've been going to comedy acting classes all year long and last weekend we did the 'end of classes show'.
It was a show with 7 acts. 7 different characters. One after the other. I was the closing act.
I appeared on stage and started doing my thing. I was getting laughs and everything was working allright untill i suddenly FORGOT my script.
I went BLANK. Nothing to remember. Not knowing what to say. Pretty much like Sally Field in her Emmy Awards speech.
I was trying to remember my words but there was nothing i could do.

Instead of giving in to fear and despair (thing which i had hitherto donde ever since i started entertaining seriously) i simply did not gave a fuck about my memory loss and just carried on with whatever came to mind.

I started improvising.

And i kicked some serious ass.

I even had them applauding by the end of my ad-lib session!

I behaved very wisely. First i did not give in to fear. Second i asked for help backstage with a joke that ended up in applause. I literaly asked for my next line to the actors who were backstage.

And third and most important: I was determined to have fun!

Imagine my strength by the end of that episode. I was feeling godlike.

The show ended and i headed to my next gig.

I arrived to this place and i was still on fire.

I gave a great performance. Full of life and energy...

I was cracking jokes in twos and threes...

I was feeling a thousand pesos man! I kicked ass again. I was very confident and careless in a good way. I was on top of my game. I felt the difference with all the previous performances...CONFIDENCE AND SELF LOVE.

Self confidence is a ventilator that, when on, dissipates the clouds of fear and doubt.

I want that phrase in my tombstone.

Saturday 8th part 2

2007-09-10T22:32:00.002-03:00

My second and last gig was superb! I just loved it. And they did too!

It was birthday party in a house inside a private neighborhood / country club / whatever you call it. Friends and family, grown ups and kids together about 40 peoples there.

This is my ideal type of gig for the moment being. All of them in a nice not too big crowd paying atenttion like civilized human beings :)

Everything went swimmingly and i was 'on'. On a roll you would say.

I have come to the conclusion that a Magician acts the part of a Maestro if you know what i mean. A conductor. You know like Seinfeld's episode 'The Maestro' ? (The who?? heh).
You're there wand in hand, conducting the show. The simphony of tricks and entertainment. Your instruments are the persons in the audience. You know how and when to make them sound. If one starts playing too early or too late, you know how to handle that. You conduct ENERGY. You're the master hub there. All energy goes thru you before and then to the nodes connected to you. Connection. You're the hub, they are the dumb terminals...hehe. Guess what happens if there is no connection...

What if things don't go the way you planned it? What if they start cracking jokes about what's going on? I'm not talking about hecklers. I'm talking about common social behaviour. After all it's THEIR party and you're the guest. You're the stranger. Albeit a rather special one. You WANT your instruments to sound. You don't want them quiet. But you know when and how to make them sound...

Good shit man. I loved that gig and they did too. Went home soo happyy :)

September 8th part 1

2007-09-10T22:24:00.000-03:00

The first Saturday gig was in a small apartment. Very small actually.
There were only 10 people. It was a very intimate party and very suitable for a close-up Magic session. I did not do close-up tho. My hands were very sweaty and i had not put the 'magic balm' the nite before (1). Also i was not in the mood for doing other stuff from what i had planned. I was in a very bad shape. The nite before i went partying with friends and abused legal (and otherwise) substances. I woke up feeling like shit. I was write off. Dude i was fucked up! I also had a sore throat and a cough.

The gig was not bad but i was feeling kinda weird. At the beginning of the show i could not connect very much with the audience and was sweating. I used a cocktail napkin to wipe my forehead (talk about decent manners...eww!)

Things went allright tho. The show was not a bad one. The guys were pleased with the whole thing. I finished it and went full speed to my next gig.

1: I have sweaty hands (hyperhidrosis). This, of course, is hell for a prestidigitator. It's hell for a regular person, let alone for a Magi. From time to time i apply some magic potion (alumpac) i buy at the drugstore on my hands and go to sleep. This dries them for about a week to ten days. Magic at its best.

Friday 7

2007-09-10T03:00:00.000-03:00

I had one gig last friday.

This people were organizing a funds raising event and they wanted a show so they asked for a budget. She asked me to keep it low since they had not too much money to invest on live entertainment.
I told her that i would for free (am i not the sweetest thing?).
I like to 'give without expecting nothing in return' from time to time so i did it.
She was crazy about it and accepted.
After offering my services free of charge i asked how many people would there be at the party. 150 she said... Me ph34rs...:)

Anyway i get to the place and the room where i was to perform was like a huge shoe box. Rectangular arena. Lots and lots of tables and sounds and noises and people dancing. I ask for a mic stand, they give me one.

Before i start i tell the mc to ask the members of the audience who wanted to witness the show, to come forward with a chair. I was kinda alone in the dancehall. Way to far from people. Of course, no one did come closer but i knew this would be this way. She repeats the 'bring your chair' thing and this time one good fellow does come forward with a chair. A lot of them imitated the chap and my crowd was formed.

I did a good show. I was kinda 'lose' (inspite of two of my biggest enemies, large room and mic, being there) and did some nice job. I was glad with it.
I directed my performance to the first rows (made by people who brought their own chairs) but you could see that the performance trascended these guys.
The lovely thing about big crowds is hearing them roar. To me that is the sweetest thing on earth. It's like a mermaid singing. I fall in love.

The thing about the 'free' shows is that you usually don't 'feel the preassure' and that is a good thing if confidence is an issue.

After i left the woman who booked me gave me more than half the money i usually charge a show; i accepted.

Went partying with buddies afterwards.

Last nite

2007-09-01T05:35:00.000-03:00

Last nite's gig was in a ship. My customer held a party in a medium sized vessel and booked me for some strolling magic at the beginning and for a parlour show. I usually offer a previous close-up magic session among guests and they usually accept. I learned this from David Williamson. Love the Willy :)
Strolling magic is an exquisite way to blend in, get to know your audience and let them know you. It usually makes the beginning of a parlour show a better one.

The first part of my work was very good. I blended in very well with the crowd though i was kinda anxious. They were mostly teenagers and we all know how cruel they can be. And they were, but i quickly turned them into lambs with my prestidigitations.
I was getting good vibes and support from those kids. Lots of flirting too.

But then...i had to do my shitty parlor show! Ack!
I was quite quirky and dodgy and nervous. I was not enjoying it and you could notice.
I think the reasons why i did not enjoy this one a bit were the following:

1) Had to use a mic. I'm not used to mics. They had a wireless 'regular' mic (not attached to the lapel or headband) so, in order to operate with it i accepted something the dj suggested: put it in the handkerchief pocket...
The idea was not a bad one but i later realised i could have done the show a capella.
Got to get a mic or a mic stand or a mic holder or all of them and rehearse using it.

2) I fear big rooms. I'm a living room magician dude. Give me your living room i will give you kickass entertainment (most of the times :). So i see a big room with lots of people and i ph34r. Things get out of control for me in larger rooms. Small ones, i can handle. I have things under control. I can put fires out quickly...but large salons, fuck, they kick my arse.

At one moment something happened. I was in the middle of a routine and was blurting it out by heart. I was coming down the hill at max speed with no brakes and it suddenly hit me: '...what the fuck am i doing??...'
Earth stood still for a second or two. My retelling is not doing any justice to the actual event but trust me, it was delightfully horryfing.
The good thing about my job is that it provides me with this emotional rollercoaster which i'm riding everytime i put on my magician suit.

El Gran Sandor

First some background...

2007-09-01T03:07:00.001-03:00

Hi there and thanks for stopping by.

I'm a Magician from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I feel the need to post my experiences and get some feedback.

I started studying magic back in 94' but it was year 2002 when i began giving shows.
At first i was a close-up buff; i busted my chops mastering the classic pass and what have you. Later i included parlour magic material in order to get other types of gigs.

I'm very entertaining, funny, creative and spontaneous; i'm also very insecure, self-loathing and addicted to suffering, if you know what i mean.
This means that if planets are aligned, i will rock the house.

My idols are: Juan Tamariz, David Williamson, Jeff Hobson, Ricky Jay, Mac King, Cardini, Dai Vernon...

My usual repertoire:

Card in mouth, Booktest, Jeff Hobson's balloon dog routine, Raccoon, 51 cards to pocket, shell coins accross, Invisible Deck, Signed bill to impossible location, card on ceiling, triumph, crazy man's handcuffs, card under spectators watch, etc

I have learned and studied lots of techniques on sleight of hand. But this is my working repertoire.

Basically my show is a succession of tricks delivered in an very entertaining way. My show lacks structure, plot, design, thought, taste,class and most importantly, a good magician.
I'm kidding of course. Truth is it needs some design and structure and class and ...heh

I will go by the screename of 'Sandor the Great' to protect(?) my identity.