Magicians and Their Wallets

Most people have a wallet. It’s what magicians would call an ordinary everyday object. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons they are so appealing to magicians. There are many DVD’s and books dealing with Magic with Everyday Objects. It makes the magic  more wondrous when achieved with a familiar object. I counted the wallets on our site and there are 36 different wallets which does not exhaust the supply as I’m sure there are others which we just don’t carry. This is besides the books and DVD’s on the subject. The question is “How many wallets does a magician actually need?” I can answer that, because before Phil was a Magic Dealer and owner of Perfect Magic he was a magician. Guess what he used to collect? You got it. Magic Wallets. Every one that came out was better or had a feature in it the previous ones didn’t have, so he had to have them all. Sound familiar? Believe it or not, that wasn’t the worst part of his collectibles. It was rather cheap in comparison. He’s a musician, remember. A piano player. Yes, at one time I believe we had 4 pianos. A grand in the living room,  an upright honky tonk with thumb tacks in the pads in the basement, an electric piano and a piano in the country house we used to rent when the kids were young. But I digress.

The most popular thing you can do with a wallet is make a signed card that has disappeared from a deck appear in the zipped compartment of a wallet. How did it get there without the spectator’s knowledge? I knew because Phil collected them. But then one day, we were at a convention in Chicago. We had a dealer’s both filled with all sorts of things. Next to me was Peter Scarlett from England. All he had was wallets and 2 other tricks, card tricks I think. The back table was stacked with wallets. Tons of them. I may have written about this in another blog, but couldn’t find it. I could not, for the life of me figure out how he did the trick. It looked like an ordinary hip pocket wallet. he never palmed a card. He called it the Pimpernel Notepad, but its a wallet. I guess because he is from England they call their dollar bills notes. Makes sense. I watched him over and over. Phil watched him. We had no idea how he did it. Nor did any of the magicians at that Chicago convention. He sold out. We have been selling them in the shop ever since. It must have been in the early 1990′s because he came to Magie Montreal in 1995, our 16th Annual Magic Convention.

Well, now there is something new on the market. You don’t even need a wallet. It’s called ANY Signed CARD to ANY Spectators WALLET by Michael Ammar and Jeff  Kaylor. It got an excellent write up in the Genii. I’m curious to know if any of my readers have it and what they think of it. I look forward to your feedback.

Magicians! Do You Get MUM?

If you’re a member of the Society of American Magicians you automatically get MUM, their magazine with all the reports from the different chapters, as well advertising, tricks that are taught,  featured  artists (magicians), reviews on books, DVD’s and tricks on the market, and magician columnists with advice and stories etc, and all that jazz! Michael Close is the editor and writes a column as well. It carries a great deal of diversity and I’m sure the members look forward to it each month.

As I went through the January 2012 issue, I came across 2 things I would like to share, in case you are not a member of the organization.

George Schindler, an old friend, magician, and Dean of the American Society of Magicians, has a monthly column called the Dean’s Diary. His topic this month was rising cards, more specifically, the Devano Rising Cards.  In the last paragraph of his column he writes that in 1977 he was honored at the magic Circle in London and was chatting with a fellow there who was interested in rising cards. The fellow asked him which he preferred, and George said the Arne Rising Card, the person he was talking to preferred the Devano. They discussed the pros and cons of each, and each was left with their original opinion. As the guy turned to leave, George asked him his name. He laughed and said Mitch Devano.

The other article was about the audience you are performing for. Rod Danilewicz writes a column called Confessions of a Paid Amateur. While he agrees that the magic and presentation are important, the most important part of the equation is sometimes forgotten – the Audience.

He recommends 2 books. The first is In A Class By Himself (which is an older book, but is still available), Jon Racherbaumer’s book about Don Alan. The second is Al Schneider Magic. Rod says that many people get the books and only bother with the tricks contained in them. He says what’s more important is why, where and how he uses them. He says that information alone, without the tricks, is worth the price of the books. Something to think about! If you have those books, take another look. If not, they are still available and will surely improve your performance!

Magicians, Beware!

If I asked someone what his profession or occupation was and they told me they were stunt men or sky divers or boxers, I could understand that they might encounter some rough days, some accidents, some bruises. But a magician doing walk around or close-up magic? It’s a stretch…

One of our customers, Vincent Pimpare, came into our magic shop last week to stock up on supplies. I told him I wouldn’t use his name, but I’d like to tell his story. He told me to go right ahead and use his name. He didn’t mind at all. We’ve known Vincent a long time; he’s polite, considerate and a good guy. I couldn’t help but notice he had some bruises under and around his eye. Black eye? Sort of. I didn’t want to embarrass him so I didn’t ask any questions, but somehow the subject of his black eye came up. He was at a party on New Years. It was at a bar. Everyone was partying and having fun, Vincent was doing magic and some guy was jealous that he was showing his girlfriend some tricks and she was really enjoying it and  perhaps this guy had a little too much to drink. Instead of telling him to stop, he punched him in the face. Phil asked if he punched him back. He said, No, I’m not like that… And he’s not.

While on the subject of punches in the eye… Phil and I were at a Ragtime Festival; much like a magic convention, only instead of watching magicians we listen to and watch musicians. Not only that, there is a booth and they sell their CD’s.  Everyone’s CD’s are at one booth and I used to help them out with the sales. It reminded me of all the Magic Conventions we used to go to. I had this tremendous urge to say, “Would you like to see a magic trick?” But I digress. Phil used to help then out too. He would MC, introducing the various musicians and bands. One evening all the musicians were in the dining room finishing their dinner, when Phil got up from the table, saying he had to prepare for the evening show. I stayed seated with the others people at the table, and then I decided to go with Phil and keep him company. But at the very moment that I turned around and stood up, Phil decided to take a cake or roll with him to the show room. So his closed fist came into contact with my left eye and everyone said they’d be my witness. I ended up in the hospital in 1000 Islands (where the Festival was) as I was seeing flashing lights. Luckily there was no damage and we were back at the festival within an hour.

I guess the short and long of it is….you never know, magician or musician where that rogue punch will come from. There’s danger everywhere!

There’s No Business Like Show Business Part 2

Home sweet Home! We’re back at work and a shipment has already arrived from Murphy’s which I should unpack, but If I get involved in real work I won’t get back to the blog. Besides I may forget. It’s already becoming a blur. Last week I week I wrote part one, the trials and tribulations of Show Business, Phil’s first 3 out of 9 piano gigs that he had.  I will continue with the rest.

Before I do, in case you don’t read the comments or didn’t read the blog, I must relate one of my readers comments as I think it’s the epitome of the subject. In his younger days he was in a acting troupe and when the technical director was on the phone with the person in charge of the venue they were invited to perform at, he asked about lighting for the stage. The person on the other end said, Yes, there were ONE…TWO…  TWO WINDOWS! Don’t tell me you didn’t laugh at that!

Gig 4: They were expecting us. They had a real piano. It was the one Phil was to play. Everyone was already there ready to celebrate New Years with their hats on and blowing their horns. It was festive, indeed. Phil sat down to test the piano and played away. I could see he was happy. I went over to him and said, ” So you’re happy?” “Yes, he said, but it would be better if it was tuned, but hey, you can’t expect everything!”

Gig 5: No problem.

Gig 6: A problem. And I think it was Phil’s fault. They had a beautiful grand piano, a large hall pretty well filled. Phil was having a grand old time and so was the audience. He was playing and singing and his mike went dead. I went up to the stage and pushed the switch and it played, but when I took my finger off it stopped. NO WAY was I going to sit there thoughout the concert holding a switch. Phil has a back up in his car, but the thought of interrupting the show was not an option for me. Fortunately the activity director had a wireles mike which worked great! Whew! Phil had not recharged the battery, but he thinks their wireless sound system interfered with his wireless system.  I don’t think so.

Gig 7: Excellent all around

Gig 8: We had played here before. It’s a ritzy place with a grand piano on  a dance floor. Phil looks at the dance floor. No piano. “Where’s the piano?” asks Phil.

“You want a piano?” she asks.

I nearly fell over laughing. It was just too much. But all ended well, as they had only moved it to a different spot.

Gig 9: Perfection. You forget all the others when this happens! The Activity director thanked us over and over and sent an email the next morning, saying how everyone had such a wonderful time…blah …blah blah…!

Did you have any experiences you’s care to share? Just write it in the comments. We’d love to hear from you! As they say, Misery loves company!

Happy New Year everyone!

There’s No Business Like Show Business

I wasn’t going to write a blog this week, being on vacation and all, but sometimes circumstances dictate what we do and don’t do, and after the events of the last 2 days a blog must be written.

Last week I wrote about how to increase your chances of obtaining a contract for a show. I pointed out that using these methods I secured 9 shows for Phil within the 6 days between Christmas and New  Years.

In past years I used to phone the people that hired Phil as soon as I got to Kitchener and told them we were in town and would be there as arranged. This year, deciding to join the  electonic era I emailed all my contacts, telling them we had arrived safely and would be there to do the show as planned. I left phone numbers, which they already had, where they could reach me if they had to for any reason.

The first show was Monday afternoon.The receptionist informed me that  the activity director was not there, but she was expecting us and pointed towards the piano. We had performed there before and   Phil had notes from the previous time that it was an electronic piano that had major issues so they had brought a piano up from downstairs. The piano the receptionist had indicated was the same electronic one. We figured they must have fixed it but soon discovered that they didn’t, or did and it broke down again, in spades. It just didn’t work. Middle C and the 5 notes after it didn’t play at all, as well as the vast majority of the other notes. No that’s not quite true. Sometimes one or another of those notes would play and then the next time you tried the same note and it didn’t play. You could never be sure whether or not there would be any sound. Phil made up his mind he could not play on this piano.

The receptionist came over to the piano and tried it out for herself. “Some notes work, she said. You don’t have to play anything fancy. Other piano players have used it.”

We asked when was it last used and she had to admit it was a long time ago. She said she was sorry but there was nothing she could do about it. She was just the receptionist and was not in charge of  it and expected that the people who made the arrangements were the ones to look after these things. And that was that! I totally agreed with her, but there were a lot of people who were waiting for a concert, and we should try to resolve the situation somehow.

We informed her that last time we were here the piano from downstairs was brought up. She reluctantly got up and spoke to the man who was washing the dining room floor and asked if he could bring it up. “Well, what if I bring it up and that one doesn’t work either. ” Seeing the logic in that, Phil and I and the receptionist went downstairs to check it out. The piano worked, but Phil said that it would be extremely difficult to move as it had delicate legs with tiny wheels on them and it was on a rug and there was a danger of the legs breaking. The man upstairs heartily agreed with Phil. Moving the piano upstairs was not an option. “Why can’t we have the show downstairs?” I asked.

“Because we’re having a private party there during that time slot. But, we do have an organ downstairs which can be placed on a dolly and we can bring that up and you can play on that.” replied the receptionist.

“No, I can’t” said Phil

“Why not? It’s the same thing.”

Go explain!

Then the girl who was running the afternoon hour suddenly appeared (not the person who hired him), asked if everything was OK. We quickly informed her of the situation. She tried the piano and agreed there was no way anyone could play on it. She tried phoning the activities director but could not reach her. She said it was no use hanging around as she had to clear the area by 4:30. We were supposed to start at 3:30 and by this time it was it was 4 o’clock.

She then talked to the receptionist, who finally came around and understood the situation. They said  we would be paid just the same. – and that was Concert Number 1.

Concert No 2. Yes, they were expecting us, and I was thrilled to see a real piano, except that it was not the one Phil was destined to use. They had just got it and it hadn’t been tuned and also needed some repairs. Phil was directed to an electronic piano. Phil checked it out. It worked fine. Except for 2 things he subsequently discovered. One, before the concert; the second, after he started playing. The first thing was the pedal. It worked in reverse. When you stepped on it, it cut off the sound and when you took your foot off it, it sustained the sound, which is the exact opposite of how it is supposed to work. He told his audience this and that there would be no pedal. Not terrible, but a little disconcerting to the piano player who is used to using a peddle. Then as he played I found myself in a dilemma. For some reason Phil was not playing as well as usual. His singing was great as he was using his Happie Amp and his voice came out loud and clear, but the piano wasn’t as loud as I thought it should be, and I am the one who is supposed to tell him if his sound is okay. If I would tell him to put up the volume on the piano, then his mistakes would be more evident so I didn’t advise him to turn up the volume. I couldnd’t understand why he was playing the way he was, but soon all was to be revealed.

Phil made a confession to the audience. He wasn’t playing as good as he should be because the keys of this particular piano were narrower the the standard size and his fingers were the same as always and he found himself hitting 2 notes instead of one. (Maybe his fingers got fatter after Christmas dinner at Joan and Romaine’s.) Also the feel of the keys were like an accordion key board, very soft and very difficult to judge the the amount of pressure to use so the dynamics were just about impossible to control. A very good ragtime friend calls these pianos, PSOs. (Piano Shaped Object). So it was not his best concert although everyone enjoyed it, just the same.

On our way to Concert #3 we were singing that old Christmas classic, “I’m dreaming of a real piano, just like the ones we used to know…” And lo and behold, there was a real piano. And that was the one that Phil was to play. It was a wonderful old piano. The only problem was that the person who hired Phil wasn’t there and didn’t tell anyone he was coming. But the person left in charge was lovely and told us everything would work out. She arranged it all in short notice and it was a wonderful concert.

When we got home, I went directly to the phone and called the 6 remaining places to make sure they knew we were coming.

I learned 2 things. Whenever I start on my campaign to get shows for Phil, the first question I always ask is if they have a piano. From now on it will be followed by a second question. Does it work?

The next thing is to phone weeks BEFORE and then again days before, and to make sure to remind the person to let others know about our plans if they won’t be there.

Tomorrow: Concert 4.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you a Happy & Healthy New Year!

Magicians, Clowns, Entertainers! Get Booked for Next Year’s Christmas Shows!

First and foremost I want to wish all my readers a happy and healthy Christmas and Chanukah and a have a great 2012!

This is my 68th post.  I hope you’ve enjoyed them and that perhaps they might have helped you in some way or brought back a memory or two.  But enough looking back. We have to go forward.

Now is the time to prepare yourself to get booked for next year. The best way to do it, is if you are booked for this year, especially if you have a good show! I speak from experience. As I have mentioned in my earlier blogs, Phil (my husband) who thinks he’s the boss of Perfect Magic, also happens to be an excellent Ragtime & Nostalgia piano player. I’m his agent. Every Christmas we’ve been going to Kitchener to visit our dear friends Roman & Joan, who used to live in Montreal. I felt that if Phil did nothing for a week, he might get lazy, so I suggested that I try to book a few shows for him. He agreed. When I started making calls, it was difficult as no one knew him there and they had to take my word for it and take a chance that he was great, not only as a piano player, but as an entertainer. Whoever took the chance, was extremely satisfied.  I found that the best time to call to book for the following year was in January, about 2 weeks after the show. The show and the feedback from the audience is still fresh in the mind of the person responsible for hiring entertainment. I call them and ask if they were happy and after they give an affirmative answer, I tell them I am booking for next Christmas and they have a choice of the date. Most of the people are thrilled to do it and get it out of the way. Then I ask them if their budget can take a sleight increase. As long as its not too big a hike, they go for it. If they can’t, and they have been booking him for years, we keep it at the old price. I’ve had occasions where they said there have been budget cuts and they’re only allowed half of what they used to pay him. I tell them we’d love to do it anyhow, but we can’t and they understand. Sometimes they say they won’t have a budget until March, so I’ll call them in March if I’m not booked by then. This year Phil has 9 shows in the 6  days between Christmas and New Years. He says I’m trying to kill him, but he loves it.

It’s much easier to get booked the second time if they liked you the first time. Phil always changes his shows. He has a basic format, but the songs change.  It’s hard to break in for the first time, but you have to keep trying. If you are trying for a school show and the person in charge always says no, keep on trying. I found that personel changes from one year to the next. The new person may have a completely new attitude. Now when I try a new place, or if its a new person and they don’t know who I am, I give them a list of references with names and telephone numbers. Sometimes I say I’m phoning on behalf of Phil Matlin, and they say they know who he is as activity directors have meetings and they all talk about him. That makes it easy (as long as what they say is good!). As for what to charge,  you can always get a better price for your Christmas shows than your normal price.  So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and keep on truckin’!

P.S. Even though we are closed for the holidays your orders will looked after as soon as we get back, which is on the 3rd of January. I probably won’t write a blog next week, but if I do, those who subscribed to the blog (see upper right corner under my photo) will be notified on email as usual.

A Magic Show? Stand-Up Comedy? Just plain old entertainment!

So as I said on my Facebook earlier in the  week, we (Phil & I) went to the Comedy Nest at the old Montreal Forum to see Richard Sanders who was performing there last week-end. Plans to go there were conceived at our auction the other week, when we found out David Acer is now a co-owner of the Comedy Nest. Denise & Stan Teshser (also a  magician) who were at the auction ( not only were they at the auction, but Stan worked his butt off, bagging the items in the right place as people acquired them. NO mean task, I assure you, as I stood and watched!) and are our dear friends, (who else would work so hard for nothing except dear friends?), asked us if we would like to go. We set a date, they came into town, we went out for dinner and during the course of dinner we found out that neither Stan nor Denise has ever been to a comedy club. Stan doesn’t like stand-up comedians. Comedy clubs weren’t around when we were teen-agers. We used to go to night clubs and sometimes there was a comedian as a act but to have one after another was unheard of.

But being a magician and knowing Richard Sanders is a magician, he wanted to go. He figured, I suppose, that he would see a comedy magie act. There was a comedy M.C . and 2 acts before Richard. I will only talk about Richard because we are talking magic here, although we enjoyed them all but Richard was the Star! Let me tell you this. Stan and Denise did a whole lot of laughing, as did Phil and I. Richard did magic, which was impeccable, but so well disguised in his comedy that I’m sure people didn’t walk out and say we saw a magic show or even that we saw a magician. He sort of sneaked it in. His interaction with the audience was fabulous and funny. He didn’t put anyone down, or use foul language, that I can remember, and when it was over I had the distinct feeling that he could easily do that kind of show in Las Vegas. Phil felt the same way. And I don’t think that’s the last comedy show that Stan and Denise will go to. We just laughed ourselves silly!

We wish David every success. Keep on getting that calibre act and its a shoe in!

Clowns, Magicians, Entertainers – Its Christmas Show Time.

It’s that time of year again. If you’re booked for a Christmas show, of course you want to put Christmas in it. You don’t have to have every single trick or skit focused only on Christmas. You can if you want to, but the things you do all year round are probably the best things you do and you can adapt those things to work for you with a holiday theme. You have to think about it or, if you want to see what a Christmas Magic Show is like, we have a Christmas DVD  with 3 different Magic shows on it. Its by Tony Chris; he performs 3 different shows and does 17 Christmas effects effects which he explains how to make and adapt it to your show plus 6 bonus effect. He also gives marketing tips. Who can’t use those?  If you only get one or two ideas or effects from it, its worth it, but I’m sure you’ll get more than that!

To give you an idea of what I talking about, if you do a rope trick, instead of white rope, use red or green rope. Red D’Lites are excellent ( Where is Rudolph’s Nose? Is it here, is it there?), also green. Most of you must have that in your arsenal already. Its easy and fun and so appropriate.

If you want to treat yourself to a new effect, we have the Christmas Chimney Production,  18″ and 36″ Merry Christmas Silks, Christmas Change bags, Lit Candle to Twinkling Christmas Tree,  Santa Blendo, Snow Storms, Crystal Silk Cylinder (so much can be done with that!), Canes, Candles, red silks, green silks, Bead Separation, (which has nothing to do with Christmas except that the beads are red and green). Fill a Dove Pan full of  little Candy Canes or fill the candy factory with striped candies. Put  little blue and yellow silks in a Mirrior Glass and change them to red and green. And Don’t forget the Magic Tea Kettle which can pour red and green drinks and not to mention the silks!

There’s so much you can do with a little imagination and a few props, of course. (spoken like a true magic dealer!)

Get your act together….now!

Book Launching, Auctions and David Acer – A Magic Combination!

Once or twice a year we (Perfect Magic Shop)  have an auction.  David Acer is the auctioneer. Since his new book has come out, “More Power To You, The Very Best of David Acer” he thought it might be a good idea to launch his new book here at the same time as the auction. We agreed.

We had a full house, but then again, the shop isn’t that big. There was standing room only. David came in with a bunch of books. Phil took one look at the pile and said, ” Don’t worry, whatever is left, I’ll take for the shop.”

It reminded me of the time we were dealers at the S.A.M. Convention  in Chicago many years ago. We had a booth next to Peter Scarlett from England. He was selling the Pimpernel Notecase, which is a signed card to wallet. That’s all he was selling except for one, maybe two other tricks. He had hundreds of wallets. I’m a magic dealer. I know how card to wallet works. Every chance I got I watched him demonstrate that Pimpernel Notecase.  I just didn’t get it. He was selling them like hotcakes. When we were covering our tables for the evening I went over to him and said. “Peter, I’m going to strangle you.” He laughed out loud and said, “What, you still don’t know?” I said no. He showed me how he did it and I said I’d take a case back to Montreal for the shop. He said, “Let’s wait until the convention is over. If there are any left, you can have them.” I looked at all those wallets and smiled at him. He smiled back. At the end of the convention he did not have one, not one, wallet left. Check out the reviews and you’ll see why. He shipped me some when he got back to England. It is still a constant seller in the shop. I, who cannot control or palm or do anything that requires ability used to demo it all the time and sell it. Anyhow, all this to say, there was a line-up for David’s book and he’ll have to send us some as not one was left unsold!

Besides the book, the auction went well. David is funny and that’s all there is to it. It wasn’t just an auction,  it was entertainment and bargains and a good time was had by all.

Wim Vermeys and David Acer

Part of the mob at the auction

Joey, David and “The Book”

John Poupart – auctioneer’s assistant par excellence

Signing the book

Mike Deslauriers – he keeps track of the money

Aren’t they hard at work??

Stan, John, David and Joey

Clowns and Magicians Often Ask Me this Question.

How Much Should I Charge for A Magic Show? That’s the question I hear many times from up and coming magicians. I don’t have an answer because it depends on many things. What kind of show? How far away is it?  How many people? Etc.

But I have learned a few things after 35 years. If it’s for a birthday party or kids show you should have references. How do you get references? When you are first starting out, you can do volunteer work. There are hospitals, libraries, senior residences, clubs,  family get togethers, etc.  You have to start somewhere. Ask the activity coordinator for  a letter of recommendation. Have your recorder on to capture all the comments after the show. A web site helps. You know more about that end of it than  I do.

After you get your feet wet, go out there and ask what you think is fair. Don’t sell yourself short. Lets say you have been getting $125.00 for a show. You think its time for more. You ask for $175.00. Sure. No Problem. Then you start cursing  yourself for asking too little. But there is a wonderful thing in magic. It’s called add-0ns.

If you feel your client would have paid more, you can tell them for a additional fee you can make animal balloons and every child will get one. There are DVD’s and books to teach you how.

You can hire a face painter to work with you for after the show. It happens to be the in thing now and guess who just happens to have in stock in the shop now the best line of face painting supplies by Wolfe Face Art & FX.   There are books and DVD’s on the subject as well. Of course you’ll have to pay the face painter but you can work out a deal where you can both make something on it. You can do Hand Shadows  Do you do oragami, or paper cutting  or towel folding ?

What’s towel folding? With a plain white towel you can make all sorts of wonderful animals. What’s more if the parents are willing to spring for it you can bring a towel for each child and teach them how to make it. And they can keep it. That takes time, it keeps the kids busy and happy and that’s what the parents want.

There’s Chapeaugraphy  and even juggling, but whatever you do it has to be entertaining and appropriate for the occasion. You may have to learn a new skill or two, but the more you have in your arsenal, the better off you are. You pick and choose what you have to offer according to the age and size of the audience.

Now, what if your client says  $175.00 is too much. Ask them what their budget is. If its close, and you usually include balloon animals in your act, you can say, well you can do the show for that price but you’ll take out the animal balloons. They might agree. And by the time the party comes around they may decide on the balloons anyhow. People spend a lot of money on their children.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions feel free to share. Hope you had a great Halloween. Christmas is just around the corner.