Where have you been?

I've spent the last four days in bed trying to fend off some kind of cold or flu. I'm on antibiotics now, and (finally) starting to feel better. Have decided to wait it out one more day before returning to work, so tomorrow night I should be back at Barefoot Landing to finish out the summer season.

JoeJoe

A little help from my friends...

A little help from my friends...

Tonight I had a visitor, Renzi from the magic shop ... Renzi has one of the sharpest minds in magic that I personally know. I've learned that if I want solid advice on something, I should goto Renzi. I love talking shop with him, he has helped on a lot of illusions and routines I've worked on. Many magicians have given me advice, but I rarely use any of it ... Renzi however, well ... I almost always use his advice.

He gave me a great idea for my sword-through-body illusion ... wish I could share, but it's a secret. Sorry.

He also suggested I shave my moustache, something I can assure you won't happen. I know he is right that I would look younger and be more approachable, but I prefer the busker look. I'm creating a style for myself, I certainly don't want to look like all the other clean-cut magicians out there - $400 shoes just don't cut it for me, a simple street magician that has hitchhiked from coast-to-coast. Besides, my girlfriend thinks it's cute and her opinion is always the best.

So Renzi tells me the shop has sold-out of my Tube-IT trick. That means I've sold over 7 dozen in one year. In a market where selling 1,000 of something is considered a "big hit", I think the tubes are going very well - especially considering they are not sold anywhere outside Myrtle Beach. I'll hafta get some more made up, if you need one you can order from my "magicians" page or just hit Conley's House of Magic at Barefoot Landing.

And finally, here is a pic of the new sidewalk sign - I was able to put this together for less than $20. Two dry erase boards hinged together with some chains. I already had the pic, plan to get an airbrush artist to spray my name on the top so it'll look really nice.

JoeJoe

Underpaid Babysitter

Underpaid Babysitter

Tonight I felt like an underpaid baby sitter, I hate nights like this. It seems every edge I drew was a bunch of kids, their parents would just send them up and think they could stand in the back. On several occasions, parents went off shopping while I did my thing - one group of kids were unsupervised for at least 20 minutes!

Now, I don't know what in the heck would possess any parent to tell their kids to go watch a stranger do magic tricks while they went shopping ... but the only word for it is stupidity! I mean come on now, every day there is a new "Amber Alert" being posted, with kids being stolen right from the parking lot of WalMart.

I don't mind entertaining their kids, but to be honest ... I don't want the responsibility! I can't watch 20 kids at once, and I just know if one of them were to wander off their parents would be trying to blame me for it.

Ok, so I'm done ranting ... other than that, it was a great night that was a lot of fun. We got lots of video footage last night, and should have a new clip posted sometime soon!

JoeJoe

Had a belly ache tonight!

Tonight I have a real treat, something I made myself. It's not a unique idea to me, there are several versions on the magic market at varying price ranges - since I'm always on a budget I have no idea how any of them work, so I came up with my own method to perform this illusion.

The 'street' version is scaled down from what I could do in a theater - the stress of repeated street performing is too great to push the sword all the way through my body. What you see here is more of a comic sight gag than an actual illusion, but it is also something that can be extended into a full blown illusion - something that will be on the final DVD.

Yes, I did say DVD - I now have hundreds of hours of live footage from Barefoot Landing, and I intend to spend the winter logging it all and producing a performance DVD.

Tonight was rather slow, Friday and Saturdays always are here - it is a change over day when people start leaving town, and new tourists begin arriving. I figured tonight would be a great night to bring out the sword, and here is a video collage of me using it to begin drawing crowds together for my magic show. Since I haven't been doing it regularly, I figure not too many people have seen it yet, thus it would make a great clip for the blog. I hope you enjoy.

JoeJoe

Floating Lady Illusion

As promised, I have a clip of my Floating Lady Illusion ready ... my pitch is a little dark, sorry for the bad lighting but there is not much I can do about the problem. I shoot the close-ups at the end of the night in another spot, so the lighting is much better ... I don't consider that a "camera trick" since what you see me doing on the video is exactly what I am doing for the live audience, it just makes for a better video clip.

The effect itself is certainly not original to myself, many magicians perform what is known as a "Hummer Card" - it gets it's name from Bob Hummer who first came out with the effect. But there are several moves that are original to me, I checked with Dan Harlan and Dirk Losander on that while I was at SCAMCON. Since this blog is visited by both laymen and magicians, I am not going to go into details of how the trick is done - the moves are not in print, but if you really wanted to learn them convince your local magic club to contact me about doing a lecture.

This is one that I really enjoy doing ... as many locals know, I've built my reputation on levitation. If you didn't get to see it while at Barefoot Landing, enjoy the video!

JoeJoe

Some Hanky Panky!

I show up tonight to the sound of "WE GOT FREE TICKETS TO THE ALABAMA THEATER"! That would be the timeshare pitchman next to my spot, it's not that I mind him barking his product - but I sure wish he would learn to do it correctly. When people look to see who is barking, they see him staring them right in the eye, instant fear they go running off. When I'm barking, I know better than to look at people ... I make myself look busy so they can see that I'm not just waiting for them, give them some time to see that I'm harmless.

There is just no substitute for experience. I know it's going to be hard to do my bally when they are barking like that ... I'm not gonna just stand around while they chase everyone away, so I bring out the heavy artillery. What I call the Amazing Disappearing Vanishing Silk Handkerchief trick.

Some history ... in my early years, I hitchhiked all the way to California and back with this trick. It's indeed my all time favorite, but I don't do it often cause it's also one of the most overexposed magic tricks in history - Life magazine once featured an expose of this trick, and Mohammed Ali told the world how it worked on TV. As I do this trick, I'll often hear "I know how that works" (I'm good at handling that situation, so it doesn't hinder the effect).

I also know it can draw a crowd in like no other, and standing 5 feet from a barker ... I know it's my best option. The end result was the best Tuesday night of the summer, perhaps I should keep doing this one even when the barker isn't there? Sometimes it's the simple stuff that works the best!

I was able to splice together a short video clip, my video editing skills are getting sleightly better. I know they are still amateurish, but I'm learning ... I suggest you save this clip and hide it from me, cause I'm going to spend my golden years hunting down and destroying any copies that might be floating around! :-D

JoeJoe

Glowing Trick Sticks

A little history ... for several years, I made almost all my money with Trick Sticks, better known as Devil Sticks. Mostly at Grateful Dead shows, I juggled the sticks nearly all day, pitching them to concert goers for a small price. At night after the shows, if the conditions allowed for it I set them on fire to draw crowds - this would be my first experiences with entertaining crowds instead of small groups.

At some point in the late 80's, Trick Sticks became so popular they were being sold just about everywhere, you could even find them at gas stations. Suddenly, seeing someone juggling the sticks didn't draw any attention. I retired my sticks.

This summer, I decided to try them out again ... I like that they can once again be used to draw attention and entertain people. I've been a little rusty since I haven't done them in 10 years now, but like riding a bike I'm back in full swing with them and having a blast - I love juggling the sticks, it's a lot of fun.

My pitch at Barefoot Landing is a little confined, and I don't think setting the ends on fire is a safe idea. So recently, I came up with the idea of attaching glow sticks to the ends - they look really good at night, and with a little speed produce some tricked out trails. It's harder to do them at night, so I drop them a little more often but I'm pretty good at quick recoveries.

So anyways, here is a quick clip I filmed between pitches ... they look better in person, the camera didn't really pickup the trails - I think the lighting is just a little too bright, but there's not much I can do about that other than maybe wait till 2:00 AM when they turn all the lights out but I doubt I'm gonna stick around that long, sorry. To get the best animation, I saved this at 512 mbs so I suggestion you right-click and save to your computer to avioding buffering delays.

JoeJoe

When it rains ...

When it rains, I like to do what they do in China when it rains ... they let it rain. So I let it rain last night.

Was able to spend some time working on the blog templates, the blog is now online ... still need to tinker some more, but I'm ok with what I've got so far - I must confess, the b2evolution software was much easier to get running than I expected, perhaps the easiest script I've ever installed.

I was disappointed with the rain last night, as I had brought the camcorder and was planning to get some film of my new glowing trick sticks ... they look really sharp in the dark, although it is harder to do the trick sticks in the dark. Not as impressive as fire sticks, but I'm concerned with safety as it's a small pitch and would never be able to forgive myself if one of my fans got injured do to my arrogance.

Until I get video of the glowing sticks, here is a still snapshot of me drawing a crowd with the non-glowing sticks:

JoeJoe

Spare some change?

When I counted my tips tonight, I was a little disappointed ... but when I got home, I added the change to the count and was pleasantly surprised. Lots of change tonight, I don't discourage people from dropping change in my hat - I figured out something a long time ago: I'd rather have six quarters than a dollar bill. Tonight was a shining example of this - when people give you change, they generally give you all the change they have!

I did a sword balloon for a kid, his mom tried to hand me a $5 bill. I told her not to worry about it - she tried to insist, I said I'm not gonna charge you five bucks for a one twist balloon. She said "oh, ok" and dived for her purse - assumingly to get a smaller bill, but I once again shoo'd her away. Sometimes I could kick myself, I'm never going to get rich acting like this! Oh well, I have lots of fun doing it and I never do it for the money, so it's all good and I can sleep with a smile tonight knowing that I've earned each and every penny.

Did some magic tonight, I just love my "floating lady illusion" (those that have seen my show know what I'm talking about). But the big thing this summer seems to be my "Unshuffled" routine - it's not the Paul Gurtner routine, I didn't know he had an Unshuffled routine when I named it, and now I feel it's too late to change mine but since it's not the same routine and I'm not selling it, I doubt he minds - met him not long ago, he's a real nice guy. It's nothing fancy, a simple trick that I wrote up some unique patter for.

So when I did my Unshuffled at the SCAMCON it got low marks from magicians ... I had decided to stop doing it this summer. But one night I was in a pinch for material and brought out my deck of cards ... it blew the audience away. I don't know why I fell into that trap, laymen are always more impressed than magicians. This last week I've been doing it alot more and getting great reactions, will keep doing it throughout the summer.

Other than that, not a lot to tell ... summer heat is beating me down, but I can keep going for the next two weeks - by then, schools start up and the summer starts to fizzle out. I'll miss Barefoot Landing, time to start thinking about what I'm going to do next.

JoeJoe

Good parent night

Tonight was a lot better, didn't have much problem. Kids wandering by stopped to see the sticks spinning and parents didn't seem to mind. Had lots of fun, and got lots of parents involved - that's one thing about me and my magic, it appeals to everyone. I'm can entertain a 4 year old child, or a 90 year old woman. Most parents think I'm just there for the kids, but if they give me the chance they walk away just as entertained. It's the ones that send their kids up to me while they stand in the back talking to each other that miss out on all the fun. Their lose - not mine.

Tonight, a couple of the security guards stopped by my pitch and talked. Robbie tried to blow up a balloon - hehe. He realized it's not as easy as it looks, they all see me there making what they think is a lot of money (a wad of one dollar bills generally looks like a lot of money when it isn't) so it made me feel good to get a little respect. The other guard actually managed to inflate a balloon - I was impressed, I think he is the first one to do so all summer. He was red in the face and had a "headrush" afterwards, but he did manage to inflate it.

JoeJoe

Bad parent night

Tonight is what I call a "bad parent night" ... see, when your working a crowd you realize that what one person does the other people will do - it is a buskers job to get a crowd to act like a single entity. It's not hard, when people are in a crowd they naturally look to what other people are doing to decide what they should do ... people do not want to be viewed as deviant.

What I've learned is that it extends to ANY crowd no matter how big or how small ... each week, the tourists flow into the city - and each day of the week, they all act generally the same. On Monday, you may see them all carrying bags because they are buying things ... on Tuesday, you notice they have tightened up, now you don't see bags. It's always a group action, the actions of a large group of tourists.

So tonight, I start spinning my trick sticks to draw a crowd. Some little girl stops and says "KEWL!" ... I make some quick small talk, when her mother grabs her by the hand and drags her away - how rude! I'm glad my parents didn't act like that when I first saw the magician with the Chinese Linking Rings!

These are bad parent nights, on these nights it's difficult to stop anyone yet alone draw a crowd. Another kid wanted a balloon animal, "how much do they cost?" ... "you can have one, no charge for you - they are curtsy of Barefoot Landing". Now, I don't know who wouldn't want to take me up on that kind of offer - I truly don't care if I get a tip or not, I'd rather give away a balloon than let a kid walk away to never get the JoeJoe experience. Yet, his parents didn't want nothing to do with it ... dragged him away like I was a child molester or something.

Street work is hard. [sigh]

JoeJoe

Flea Circus

I've been trying to get a flea circus up and running for a while now ... I've written a simple bally with a quick pitch, maybe 5 minutes tops. Problem is the dag gone fleas don't want to cooperate.

I try to get them to push cards out of a deck, but the cheap knockoff decks (only ones sold in the shops here) push the cards out way to fast ... can't get my hands on some fanning powder to slow them down.

My fleas don't seem to have the strength to throw playing cards from the ground to my hands, but that seems to have something to do with all this bloody sweat from the heat - maybe the cards keep slipping from their tiny finger?

But I'll keep working on it everyone ... I'm determined to have a flea circus in operation by the end of the summer, time is running out but I usually work good under pressure.

JoeJoe