Trouble In Heaven ...

So I have been thinking about last years video project, "Little Too Lame" ... a song written by Rick Tallarigo, which I turned into a music video that enjoyed a few positive reviews at bolt.com before they updated their software and it got lost in the search results ... which is why I prefer to link to the YouTube version.

The lyrics go "tell me what you see in me, you'll see what you wanna see" which I find new examples of each and everyday. People always have certain expectations, and anything that does not fit into those expectations gets lost - period. It doesn't matter if it is good or bad, if it is not what someone expected it to be they will reject it.

Look back at my last post, despite my name being in one inch tall letters Luis Matos still could not spell my six letter name correctly. He expected a certain something, and rejected anything that did not fit those expectations - he didn't actually look at what I had to offer, he dismissed it. Do you see what I'm saying?


I called a meeting of my consultants today and we discussed this issue in great detail. I really want to be able to express who I am and what I am about, but it is difficult to do in the online world. But none-the-less, we have formulated a plan.

My most trusted advisor (Dana of course) pointed out that while I may be popular in Myrtle Beach ... very few people in cyberspace know who I am. The idea of releasing the credits to Reality came up, and I think it is a great idea! The credits are my personal favorite part of the DVD, I wish I could claim credit for that ... but it is the work of James Pender and the Dying Embers that make it my favorite. The credits do a great job at introducing who I am and my history in magic, and we believe if people online knew more about me they may not be so quick to judge.

So here it is ... if you enjoy this video, please visit it's YouTube page and give it a good rating and a positive review. Feel free to pass it on to your friends, and don't forget I will be releasing the Snowstorm in Myrtle Beach video any day now ... subscribe to either my blog or my YouTube, and you can be one of the first to see what is sure to be one of my best videos to date!



-JoeJoe

Thick skin... sharp swords!

Today I am going to address a negative review of my Reality DVD at Amazon.com. This is going to be fun, so let's get started!

It's the worst thing I ever bought from Amazon. Apparently The Amazing Jo Jo is a living legend (according to the back of the dvd box) and "redefine" street magic for the masses! What does this mean and do ten to fifteen people (mostly off screen) constitute "the masses"?

In the first place, "Eng Luis Matos" doesn't appear to buy much off amazon.com ... as this is the only review he has ever posted. He also demonstrates that he can't read ... my name is "JoeJoe". I would think that if I was going to bash someone publicly, I would at the very least make sure I spelled their name right - it's only three letters repeated twice!

It also shows that he didn't actually watch the DVD ... or he would have clearly heard me state my vision of magic, and it's history ... dating back to the dark ages where magicians traveled the countryside entertaining the masses "one person at a time". He would realize the "living legend" statement comes from my hitchhiking days, being perhaps the only magician that has ever hitchhiked (as in, with my thumb) across the US not once ... but twice.

Let's hear what else he has to say......

The quality of the recording is dreadful, the camera work is basic in the extreme and the "real live magic" is actually a series of standard tricks that you can see almost any amateur magician do.

I don't believe I have ever stated it was a high quality video, quiet to the contrary ... if Luis had read my blog he would know that Reality was filmed on a tripod without a cameraman. There are no shortage of clips on my site/YouTube to see what type of camera work there is. Oh but wait ... Luis can't read my name correctly, so he probably never found my site in Google.

"Real Live Magic" comes from the fact that in most cases, the audience was not even aware they were being filmed ... I felt it was important to keep it real. Chris Angel uses stooges like they are going out of style, and David Blaine exploits camera tricks almost as bad as Jay Leno does. Even David Copperfield uses stooges and camera tricks! There simply is no real magic left on TV, it is all staged and fake and everybody knows it.

And I take great offense at the amateur magician remark. The opening trick (Misled) was performed by David Copperfield on international TV and I would hardly call him an amateur. David Blaine's first "Street Magic" special had tricks far more basic than mine (ie: folding coin, two card monte, invisible deck). Further, there are tricks on the DVD that I invented myself and have not released to the magic community (ie: Sword and Rope routine).

To call it the "greatest show of the streets is a barefaced lie and an insult to the hundreds of brilliant street acts (many of whom I book for festivals all over Europe.) It cost me $27 and runs for 18 minutes. My advice is don't buy it...

Before I address the booking issue, I want to point out that all amazon.com sales are done through my distributor (CustomFlix). I am the first to say I would like to see the price reduced. Wal-Mart sells major motion pictures that everyone has heard of for less, I know this. But this is not a mass produced DVD; this is a self-published work and publishing-on-demand generally requires less initial investment, but costs more in the long run. Since I don't have a couple thousand dollars laying around, this is the only way I can bring Reality to the public.

I have no control over what amazon.com charges for my DVD (that would be called "price fixing" and is illegal in the US). Not only must amazon.com make a profit, so must CustomFlix, so must the shipping service, and I'd like to get a little something myself. I don't understand why it cost him $27 considering they have it priced at $17.95 so I assume their free shipping offer does not extend to Portugal.



Now with that said, Luis is a booking agent and quite frankly I wish he had never purchased it - I HATE BOOKING AGENTS! I am always amazed at how booking agents think they know what entertainment is and what people want. The truth of the matter is, they know jack about talent. Comedy Clubs count the number of laughs a comedian gets period ... never mind the fact that I received a standing ovation during an open mic night at the Comedy House Theater in Savannah GA, I didn't get enough laughs and they didn't hire me.

There is a reason I do street magic these days ... it is to avoid talent brokers and booking agents! So please, if you are a booking agent or a talent scout or on the inside of the entertainment world ... please don't purchase my DVD. If I want you to see it, I will send you a copy.



Ok so, that is what I wanted to say. Luis, if by some chance you happen to stumble across this blog post ... then please actually watch my video and listen to the part about how I don't do this for the money - I stand by what I said. Since you say you are not happy, I will glady paypal you my portion of what you paid. Just click "Contact" at the top of the page to get in touch with me.

As for everyone else ... if you want flashy lights with fire and smoke, Reality is not for you. But if you are interested in seeing a real magician do real magic for real people in a real environment then you may be interested in Reality. There are no camera tricks, no stooges, no fancy editing ... it is raw footage taken directly in front of real live audiences.

Click here for Reality

-JoeJoe

Forecast: SNOW!

The "Snowstorm in Myrtle Beach" video is coming along very slowly ... for reasons unknown (which we assume to be the cold), the audio is all messed up. The first half of the day, you can't understand any of the audio ... it gets better as it warms up, but still not great so we have had to add subtitles to all the dialog - which is a good idea even with good audio, but still time consuming.

We have finally laid down all the video ... it has been very difficult editing this, and we have had to compromise and sacrifice. Due to the nature of this illusion, there are no second takes; we cannot go back and reshoot parts that didn't come out just right. We even had to alter the ending from what we envisioned, but that is also a good thing because we like it even more now.

Rest assured, this will be well worth the wait! We're talking real snow here, not that fake snow the other magicians produce! This is no staged illusion - in this video you will see my neighbors handle the snow to ensure it is real, you will see cars passing by stop to wonder how, even the cops make a stop to find out just what the heck is going on ... this is street magic on steroids!!!



Some snapshots to tease you with ... we get the party started with a barehanded snow production ... there are no snow machines, no chemicals, no powders:





Less than twenty minutes later, there is six inches of snow on the ground! I believe this to be a powerful shot highlighting the majestic nature of this illusion:




Here I'm talking to the camera while my neices work on the snowman ... this was more fun than you can imagine!





Ok so how long will it be? We have no idea! Honestly, no idea. While we have all the video laid down, we still need to record the voice overs (since we lost a lot of audio, I will be doing some narration). We also need to add a music score and in my experience, music can be time consuming. We would publish an ETA, but we don't want to lock ourselves into something like that ... we want this video to be really good, so we are going to work on it till we are done. Sorry for the delay.

-JoeJoe