Just Like a Real Magician!

A little history first ... about 15 years ago, I headed to Ocean City Maryland to street perform. I wore a traditional polyester black tails jacket I picked up at a costume shop - with my matching top hat I looked like a real magician! Of course, I nearly passed out from the heat - that jacket didn't last an hour! I then realized that to be successful at this, I was going to need to wear more comfortable clothes and began to routine everything to fit a tee-shirt and jeans.

At the time, it was different - magicians didn't wear tee-shirts. Oh how many times I heard "he doesn't even have sleeves". Of course, times are changing ... David Blaine and Chris Angel are on TV doing magic without sleeves too, no longer do I stand out for being different.

Thus, I put a plan into action ... and here is the second phase, a yellow and black tails coat with matching top hat! Again, I look like a real magician! Plus, since street magicians don't wear tails coats and top hats ... I once again stand out from the crowd!

So you know, I am sewing these jackets myself (something else I also learned how to do 15 years ago). They are specially designed to be cool - no polyester here! You can't buy jackets like this in any store, the tails hit the floor and there are tons of special secret pocket systems designed just for a magician like myself! This one fits a lot better than the blue one ... a red one is in the works next.

-JoeJoe

In The Zone (Part III)...

Friday nights are always weird ... tonight was no exception. I was in the zone, but I have no idea where my audience was! It started to get weird early on ...

... as I was setting up, a guy comes along and asks how long I've been doing this. I respond with my usual joke ("Oh ... about 10 minutes now"). Before I could dish out the punch line ("oh you meant overall! I thought you meant tonight!"), he takes it upon himself to offer me some unsolicited advice. He claims if I put a couple of dollars in my tip jar, I will make more money. I politely thanked him and went back to what I was doing ... somehow, I fail to see how placing my own money in the tip jar is going to make me any more money (hehe). Sounds like Enron Accounting to me (hehe).

So I get into doing the first show, when some punk kids push their way to the front row and proceed to heckle me. I decide to take action, dish out a retort ... then walk right past them and start to give away some balloon animals to the people in the second row. They take the hint, and after they leave I resume the show.

It gets weird this time of year - see, when summer first starts the kids have been in school all year and every goes on a family vacation and they have fun as a family. But now, these kids have been stuck in the house with their parents for a month and the parents are glad to get rid of them. That results in more kids running around unsupervised and I end up becoming a baby sitter. Oh well, you have to take the good with the bad when you do anything.

I made a child cry tonight - that is a new experience for me. For years, I have watched kids see the clowns and get all scared and run and hide and even cry, but I have never had a kid start crying because they saw me. Of course, I've never worn top hat and tails before either so I imagine that while the vast overall majority of the kids are not scared of magicians ... there are a few that are. So mom and dad are pushing this kid in a stroller towards me when the kid starts crying ... Dana (you remember Dana, my girlfriend) was on the phone with me at the time, and made the comment "yea that's how I reacted when I first saw you too". Geeze, see what I have to put up with here? hehe.

So tips are always slow on Fridays - I expect that. Most people wouldn't, I mean ... you would think that Friday night would be a prime night that all street performers eagerly work. Not me - I know better. When in Myrtle Beach, Friday night means the people in town have been here all week and they are strung out and broke.

This is where I feel sorry for the weekend warriors - you know, the performers that come out once a week or once a month when they can. They have a bad night, and then spend the next month trying to figure out what they did wrong. The truth of the matter is, they didn't do anything wrong - it was the CROWD! You simply can't control all aspects of your show, if your crowd doesn't have any money they can't tip as well as you would like. You just can't squeeze blood from a turnip, it doesn't work.

I wish I had some new pics to post, but we are once again falling behind in the video department ... I have the weekend off, so I'll try to post some by Monday but no promises - I am working on sewing myself a new jacket so I may or may not have time for video.

-JoeJoe

Mail Mishaps...

I thought it was odd that I wasn't getting any mail via my "Contact" page, but there are dry spouts so I didn't think a whole lot about it ... till someone told me they sent me a message yet there was no message. Upon investigating the matter, we discover that Yahoo! has been dropping my "Contact Form" messages into my bulk folder!

So I scanned through the bulk folder as best I could, finding 5 messages. One of them was an offer for a gig ... good thing I didn't want the gig. That is not surprising since I rarely do any private functions any more, prefering to keep all of my performances public. In fact, I'm not sure why I have a "Booking" page since I have never accepted a booking from it.

Another was to tell me about an article that was published about me ... a very nice read indeed! Rick Carruth runs a really nice magic newsletter - Magic Roadshow - overall it's a great read, but with me in it ... it's a must read! Scroll down the page: http://streetmagic.info/eMagic51.html



Yahoo! only stores bulk messages for 7 days, so if anyone out there sent me a message and I never replied you may want to go ahead and hit me again - sorry about that.



-JoeJoe

The Disappearing JoeJoe ... disappears!

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that my "Disappearing JoeJoe" illusion has been damaged.

It started Saturday, I figured I would go in and make a few bucks to make up for the money I didn't make calling in sick Friday night. Almost as soon as we setup, it started raining ... as planned, I wrapped the Disappearing JoeJoe box into a plastic bag and proceeded home. That is where I made a critical mistake ... I left the box wrapped in the bag. When I took it out the bag Monday night, I realized that while the box was dry, there was some moisture in the bag ... which soaked into the cardboard and weakened it substantially.

I am too busy to make a new one during the summer season, so I will be finishing out the rest of the summer without my signature effect. Oh well ... the show goes on ... see ya there tonight ...

-JoeJoe

Heat Wave...

Summer is in full force here with some of the tightest crowds ever ... and some of the hottest temperatures! The heat is taking it's toll on me ... I had a massive headache Friday and had to take the night off. I will be making up for it tonight (Saturday) ... as we intend to setup in a new spot next to the TIGERS display. A new camera angle should make for some nice footage!

Until then ... here is a pic of the crowds we are drawing:

-JoeJoe

OMG - That's Disgusting!

Summer is in full swing and I am doing my best to keep up ... weather.com claims it was 84 degrees here today - yeah right sure it was! The general consensus around here is it was at least 98 degrees with a heat index over 100. I don't know where they get their data but it certainly isn't surface temperature.

So we have been experimenting with some new video effects ... we have learned a lot and now have a bag of new tricks! In this little clip we play around with a spotlight effect to highlight a particular person ... and a PIP (Picture in Picture) effect to show both what I am doing and the audience's reaction at the same time.

Check it out, and if you get the chance let me know what you think.

-JoeJoe

Fun in the Sun!

I've worked Barefoot Landing four years now (the last two full time) ... tonight is the very first time I have ever left before the fireworks! The summer heat is beating me down and I am starting to wear thin ... but fear not - my second wind should be kicking in soon!

We are starting to fall behind in the video, it is hard to rip them to computer and then watch them on a daily basis - so much work, so little time. We nearly caught up over the weekend, here are a bunch of snapshots:

The start of something big!

Thinking things through:

My dad visiting the pitch:

Play me a melody....

Dana and I have about blown our ear drums out listening to music on the net ... we have been especially looking for Creative Commons material that can be used for commercial purposes. We have emailed quite a few artists seeking their permission to use their music on our DVD. We've already had several bounce back, and honestly don't expect to hear from any of them. At this point, we have decided to call off the search.

So while we had hoped to have a really hot rock or hiphop track from an upcoming unsigned artist on the DVD, we are going to move forward with the project using buy-out music that has no lyrics. We still have hope that one of our messages will reach a real artist that wants to be a part of this project and that they have the perfect sound to match what we are doing ... but until we hear from them, we must move forward with the production.

I am actually surprised at the amount of Creative Commons material that is marked "non-commercial use", no wonder the record companies are not worried about the Creative Commons scene. Practically all the biggest markets are run for profit, so by marking material "non-commercial" artists are excluding themselves from all major markets and forcing them to stick with the music they already own licenses for. Take a radio station for example, since they already own a BMI license why are they going to seek out a license from an internet artist for a track the DJ really likes? It is easier to just say "oh well" and use something they already have the rights to use.

This is how "greed" keeps people from achieving their dreams.

-JoeJoe

PS: if you are an artist with what you think is a hot rock or hiphop track, by all means let us hear it ... post your myspace or soundclick URL here or use the 'Contact' page to send me a message privately.

Rain Magic...

Here is a quick video I put together highlighting some of the best moments of last night's performance in the rain. I think the 4 year old little girl is so cute - she is destined to be a memory of mine for many many years to come. It was amazing to see her just run right out in the rain like she does - only the mind of child! This clip confirms that I am the oldest four year old alive!!!

I think this is one of my best videos yet ... originally it was a 5 megabyte file, but I just couldn't bear to destroy it like that. So I beefed up the quality and turned it into a 10 megabyte file! This one is worth the extra bandwidth! Enjoy.

-JoeJoe