Star Wars magic

I worked at a restaurant in Douglasville last night. I work there sometimes for another magician. I had been doing a trick with six Star Wars action figures - I just tried it out for several weeks to experiment with a magical concept and see if it would work. It did, and I stopped doing it eventually.

My magician friend told me people had asked him about it. I hadn't expected that - but when folks start asking about a trick I usually try to pay attention! So I started performing it again last night.

I showed my son his first magic trick!

Yep! I can now prove that I can fool a one year old baby!

He was busily emptying the laundry baskey (he loves to take things out and put them back) and he handed me a dirty bib. So I tossed it back into the hamper. He took it back out and handed it back to me. I tossed it back into the hamper. We repeated this a few times, then I took the bib, and put it into my left hand and held my left hand shut in front of him. He grabbed my fingers and opened my hand ... and no bib was there!

He had a VERY confused look on his face.

I'm very proud of myself.

Jeff Dunham

Last Saturday my wife and I went to see Jeff Dunham at the Punchline. I like him a lot, he's very funny indeed and I got tickets quite a while ago. Good thing, too, as they sold out!

When we got there, our seats had been given to someone else. Evidently they had double-booked our seats, which they weren't sure how it happened but there it was. So they sat us in the balcony. I was a bit iffy about that at first, but what the heck. So we got up there, and sat next to a guy and his son. They actually walked us through the offices and whatnot to get there, evidently it's a private "VIP" sort of thing. I started talking to the guy we sat next to, and found out that we knew each other slightly through the magic community and had friends in common, so we were chatting away in no time.

Now the interesting thing is that he also knew Jeff Dunham, and Jeff Dunham actually came up to say hello. So that was WAY cool. I didn't really have anything interesting to say and it was brief, don't get me wrong as it wasn't a huge deal, but it was pretty cool. After the show we passed Jeff Dunham again and talked to him for a few more seconds. For the record - not only is he funny as heck, he's a VERY nice guy.

So what started out as a misfortune turned into something nicer than I'd intended ... I was pretty happy about that!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving should be fun - I don't have any shows booked and I am spending the whole weekend with my wife and baby. Although I am planning on spending some of it working on the Rocky routine and another routine that I'm excited about. Gotta have SOME magic in there!

I also finally finished working on my garage - I now have a decent workshop in there. We got a new minivan, which is really nice - the Star Wars show finally fits nicely in my car, and it's wonderful for my son - but it wouldn't quite fit in the garage. Which means I suddenly had a space to build out a workshop.

So ... now that it's done, I am looking forward to getting back to R2. I am setting aside some time around Christmas and am curious to see just how much I can get done!

Rocky again

I have been working a bit on Rocky the Raccoon ... he has some new props. It's still the same routine, but now it's new and improved with more props! My wife and I found a little cell phone, some binoculars, a blindfold, and a top hat. I haven't yet attached the top hat, but I tried the rest out at a really fun party I did in Smyrna and had a good time with them. The kids recognized the cell phone (we got it at Build-A-Bear) but that's OK. I might paint it, though, to make it less recognizable.

I haven't yet really converted the routine, I'm just playing with it a bit, but there's one more big piece I need to do and script before I really rewrite the Rocky routine. I'm quite looking forward to doing that. I also still need to operate on Rocky and add magnets inside his skin so he can "hold" some of the props ... Rocky isn't looking forward to that part.

Halloween

Wow, October was a busy month! I don't know why exactly, but Halloween seems to be the busiest time of year for me. I think I set a personal record for the number of shows I did in a single month!

I have a new routine called the "Lie Detector" that I tried out at a few parties. I think it has potential ... but after working with it I think it's going to get a much smaller spot. I'm planning on rewriting my routine with Rocky the Raccoon, and I think I'm going to use the lie detector as a prop in that routine instead of by itself. I have been planning on reworking the Rocky routine for a while - it's a fun routine with a nice trick (cutting him into thirds and restoring him) but I've had some ideas lately that I'd love to try out, so ... I am going to use him with the same trick but a whole new routine.

So I've been shopping for props ... so far my wife turned up a little top hat that is just Rocky-sized. I love it! I have to figure out how to attach it to his head, but I am thinking magnets might just be the answer. He hasn't got any arms either, so if he's going to do anything with props like that I suspect magnets might be the answer!