Another Short Show

Another clip filmed live at Barefoot Landing. This one features my dancing cane routine and my new Cup and Ball trick. I like this one a lot, I have a feeling I'm going to keep doing this one:





-JoeJoe

Short Summer Show

Normally, I like to film closeup shots of the magic itself and then cut&paste them into a live show much like they do on all the fancy edited TV shows. But for some reason this clip seems to hold its own as is. It is actually rare to get this type of footage, with no one standing in front of the camera and nobody talking next to it..

The dancing hank is my modified version of the Ballerina Hank. It is larger than a Ballerina, uses a different gimmick which gives it a different motion, and is self contained so that it can be done surrounded and in broad daylight.

I wish I had a camera man that could turn the camera so you could see the size of the crowd, just imagine that for each kid that comes running up after the sword gag there are two adults still standing back.




-JoeJoe

He might make me disappear!

There was a little girl tonight, somewhat afraid of me. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes they mistake me for a clown - I usually show them my feet are too small and everything is good. But this girl wanted to hide behind mom as I performed my dancing cane. We tried to cox her out, but she said she was "afraid I might make her disappear" - it was a cute moment.

A guy dropped something in my tip jar ... as he was bending down, he looked up and said "thank you for making my child smile". I normally don't pay the jar much mind, but I noticed he dropped a $10 bill into it, a rare occurrence indeed! I guess he didn't realize his child made me smile, I felt like I should be paying him.

We are dropping the new rope tricks out of the routine so we can tweak them some more. On the other hand, we are well pleased with the new dancing hanky routine and put it into the rotation - we do it mostly in the daylight instead of the dancing cane. And we are bringing in the new trick with the cup and the ball, and I must say it is a great trick indeed and I am very pleased with the reactions we are getting! Still a little awkward with the use of the spectator but the pieces are falling into place and there will be a YouTube video before the summer is over. : )

It has been a little windy, for those that are not familiar with the ocean breezes here is an example of how strong they can be. This is a suitcase table, pretty heavy. I'm surprised that a gust of wind was able to drop it:



-JoeJoe

This is a magic show - focus please!

This is turning into the best summer ever! There seems to be an increase in people this year, I suspect it is from the new advertising on TV33. TV33 is a local station that plays nothing but commercials for various Grand Strand businesses. Most hotels set the default channel on the TVs to TV33, which makes it a great place to advertise to tourists.

We are going to post a new video soon, we want to film some closeups of the magic so it will look better on YouTube - a YouTube screen is so small and compressed that it really does help to have closeup shots to really highlight the magic. The new video will have my new dancing hanky routine ... give us a few days or so ... here's a snapshot to hold you over:



If you've been with us over the years, you may notice that I have changed the camera position to get a head-on shot. The new location seems to be working well, although sometimes people stand in front of the camera and other times we pick up background noise of people chatting. I have also noticed that the camera's auto-focus seems to focus on the audience, and not on me. Its not that bad, but would be nice to have me in better focus. I'll play with the camera settings, see if I can't make it better.

-JoeJoe

Information Please

Who says men don't stop and ask for directions? Every night while setting up, I get two or three park their cars at the curb, and come walking up to me to ask directions - like I'm some sort of information booth, and like they are the only car in the parking lot. I normally just act dumb and point them to the timeshare pitchmen, hehe.

Today I had an interesting request, a lady actually wanted me to watch her car with her son sleeping in it while she ran somewhere to do something - I was like I'm not watching your car with a sleeping kid in it, they arrest people for that! She didn't like the idea of waking her son up, but I'm glad she did - its just too hot for that!

In fact, the summer heat is really tearing me up - normally June is a cool month to work, this year we had a heat advisory the first week. I feel like I've been beaten up, like I just went 15 rounds with George Foreman - only, its still round 1. Luckily, I have the night off ... unfortunately, I'm gonna go to work anyway. Hey, what can I say - you have to fish when the sun is shining. I can rest come September.

-JoeJoe

Living on a lighted stage!

For a few years now, the GM at Barefoot Landing has been telling me he is asking the owner to install a street light for me. This year, I gave up hope and decided to take matters into my own hands ... so I took the Suitcase Table I made this winter and built an invertor into it! For those that don't know, an invertor turns DC power into an AC outlet meaning I can plug a light into it! You can see the $20 lamp attached to the right side of the suitcase table:



I wasn't sure if it would generate enough light, or how long the light would last ... so we started out as usual - tonight was incredible! I love June! Great crowds! I can do no wrong in June, people love it no matter what I do! As it finally gets dark, we fired up the new lights and I am very happy with the results!



Now people can see me at night, which means I can perform longer and with less effort to draw a crowd .... in fact, when the fireworks started tonight I was still doing my thing! During the fireworks, a little girl came running up with a dollar in her hand for the tip jar ... when she suddenly fell - I was like Oh No!

She started crying and mom came and picked her up, and I quickly made a balloon bracelet ... as I put it on her arm, I told her it had special healing powers and she smiled. I felt bad, hope she is feeling better.

-JoeJoe

Is it August?

The bank thermometer read 97 degrees, and the National Weather Service people issued a heat advisory .... the crowds were thin, there were no kids, and people didn't want to stop and watch the magic in the heat. Sheesh - I'm just to June being the gravy month, is it August already??

We are starting to break in yet another new trick, this was initally designed as a throw away but I now expect it to become a big part of the show this year. It seems to work good as a crowd builder and it works in the day light and in the wind and it even works surrounded! The basic idea is a rising rope, it has a lot a mime and some comedy and I'm now wondering how I can expand it into a longer routine. Yes, there will eventually be a video - I don't have the time right now, but we'll get one. : )





-JoeJoe