Stormtrooper son

My armor was out ... my three year old son was fascinated by it ... so what can I say.



There are more pictures of him here. This was a pretty exciting moment for the boy I think ... he was delighted about this!

Toys for Tots

R2's first public appearance went great! We helped collect a lot of toys, R2 performed pretty well all in all, and I'm just delighted!

Here's two Marines with R2 ...

Toys for Tots - Best Buy!!

I messed up - I will be out with R2 collecting toys on Sunday, Dec 21st, but it is at the Kennesaw Best Buy, not Toys R Us! Still on Barrett Parkway, though.

Folks should be there from 11 to 4:30. I'm not quite sure when I'll be there, but I will shoot to be there from 12 to 2 at least - depends somewhat on R2's batteries!

Best Buy Store 501
850 Cobb Place Blvd Nw
Kennesaw, GA 30144

Toys for Tots

I almost forgot to post about this! On Sunday, Dec 21st I will be collecting toys for Toys for Tots. I will be at the Barrett Parkway Toys R Us in the afternoon.

The 501st will be there, so there will be multiple stormtroopers and other costumed characters. I will NOT be coming as a Stormtrooper - I am bringing R2-D2!

So if you want to come see R2, Stormtroopers, and who knows what else - I'd sure love to see you there!

(I'd been planning on having R2 talk through my normal sound system ... which won't be there ... this evening and for a few upcoming ones I am frantically trying to get a remote controlled sound system installed!)

I'm in print!

I got a magic magazine I really like in the mail yesterday. So I opened up the envelope, took a look at the cover and my name was on it.

THAT'S RIGHT! I'M IN PRINT!

I submitted a routine to these guys a while ago, never heard back, and figured that meant they thought I sucked and had no interest in my routine. So I was totally surprised to see that not only am I in the magazine, but my name is on the cover! (Along with about 10 other guys, but MY name is on top of the list!) So I'm just thrilled.

The magazine was Antinomy - I'm in issue 14 which isn't on their site yet it seems. But soon!

So that combined with me being in the Kidabra magazine a few months ago and I'M FAMOUS! WOOO!

Which basically means last night I spent 15 minutes running around the house with the magazine crowing about it while Karen tried to continue faking enthusiasm. It was a fairly awesome moment.

So McDonalds is totally awesome.

First, they have STAR WARS toys! Way cool. So we went there today so that my kids Xander and Piper could have happy meals. Which featured R2-D2 on the box! AND they had a R2 toy! A little R2 bobble head! Can you get any cooler? I think NOT! It was great! Except Xander wanted the toy. Can you imagine? Heck no! It was R2! I almost had it, too, except that my wife stepped in and said Xander had to have it. Mean! So I'm sending her back tomorrow for more.

It's OK, though, we went to play on the big play set and we were the only ones there. And I noticed a sign saying adults too! So I took off my shoes and Xander and I played in the big playset for a long time. I always wanted to do that and it was JUST AS COOL AS I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!

So when I left I placed a dollar slightly out of sight way up high in the play set. I figure some little kid that evening was going to have a nice surprise later.

Magic competition

Last weekend I went to a magic convention. I had a pretty nice time, got to see some magicians I like, and entered the stage competition with R2. It was his big public debut, so that was fairly exciting!

It was HARD getting R2 there and back. Getting him in and out of the car is a three person job. My wife and I did it once by ourselves, but that was even harder. Getting him on and off stage was hard. We had to go first because of some issues there. His front foot loosened and the slightest crack stopped him, so since it was a segmented stage he couldn't move much. But it went great. I didn't win (the guy that did was AMAZING) but I did well, had a good showing, and I made some friends out of it.

It turns out that you really CAN'T see squat when you're on a big stage with spotlights on you, by the way.

I liked having a competition act. I think I will keep competing, but I think I will come up with a new act that doesn't have R2. It means I won't have that noticability factor that R2 gives, but ... well, it won't take massive help to get him there and on stage, either!

Trophy!

I finally got around to photographing the trophy I won for Magician of the Year! Frankly it's not a great picture so I'll have to try again, but hey. Plus it shows of the backdrop I'm taking to shows now!


I'm still very pleased to have won that - it's quite an honor.

Needless to say my son, who was outside running about at the time, had to get in on the picture ...


I think this picture is my favorite:

Magic Convention

I just came back from a international magic convention in Kentucky. It was a week long and I got to see a LOT of magic acts from guys I've wanted to meet for a long time, so it was great. I saw some stuff that blew me away, too!

This guy won the competition they held:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5Ke822_syY
Recorded it is so-so, but trust me, live this was an ASTOUNDING act. Smooth and just brilliant card handling. The other standout act to me was this one:

http://www.greatkaplan.com/moviesO.html
He was very funny and a very nice guy as well.

For me ... I now have curtains! I have wanted them for a while. This means my living room show will have a stage curtain backdrop, which looks really nice and helps really transform the room.

I have been using a raccoon puppet for a while and I got a new puppet ... it is quite a few steps up from the raccoon puppet. I need to rescript the routine around the new puppet, though, so that will be a while before it goes into the show!

Jackson County

I did a show last night in Jackson County which went pretty well. I had a really fun time doing it and I put in a new (short) piece that ended up going quite well, so that made me happy.

It also occurred to me that there is a better placement for my sound system ... I think I'm going to rework R2-Q5 innards to put the new system inside him. I use it to make him talk, so it makes more sense to be in him anyway. Wish me luck finding time to do that! I need to build a wooden framework to hold the system as well as the receiver in R2-Q5, so it won't be quick, but it'll be nice when it's done!

Repairing R2-Q5

R2-Q5 needs periodic repair ... so I had the dome off, the innards out, and ... well ...

Fun with photography

I forgot one anecdote about the pictures we took last night that are in my last post ... we took the pictures outside for the light. While I was setting them up, two folks came by to talk to us about their church, they were giving out lightbulbs (which was rather clever I thought) and wanted to tell us about their church.

So I did what came naturally. I levitated them.

The levitation was right there and all set up for the pictures - so I asked one of them to sit on it, which he did with good humor even though he wasn't sure what I was up to, and I levitated him. He wanted to see what it looked like, so I levitated the girl he came with. While I was getting her on it a handful of their friends came by to see what was going on. It ended up being quite an enjoyable few minutes!

New pictures!

I took some pictures of the magic show ... well, actually my wife took them for me. It's handy to have a photographer wife! These are on the magic page now, but I thought I'd write about them anyway.

First, the serious picture ...


Lots of props, nice. We rearranged things a bit ... my son, Xander, was fascinated. Every time he saw a new prop he'd yell "Look! Look!" and run over to check it out. It was actually kinda fun.


We finally opened the car door (we did this outside) and he was delighted to get to sit in the driver's seat and steer. He says that RULED.

This is me clowning around with a chicken ... I ended up really liking this one.


And a few people sent me pictures of me performing ... that made me really happy. So I put some of them up. Here's two of my favorites ...

Spice Radio

Well today was something. I was in Norcross doing a show. I passed Planet Bollywood, so I stopped in (they remembered me! I was very pleased.) I walked around afterwards, I had some time to kill before my show so I thought I'd see if there was a nice place to eat there. I passed a place that looked interesting, they had several signs about being a booking agency and lots of Bollywood posters. It looked like they did larger acts, but I've performed backstage before (at the Dalton Arena) doing stuff for the VIPs, so I figured why not and went in to drop off a business card and say hello.

They had a radio station in there as well - it was these guys: http://spiceradio.desibuzz.com/

They really didn't have anything that fitted my talents, but they were VERY pleasant people, and asked if I'd like to go on the air. So sure, why not! I was not prepared to go on the air and I didn't have anything ready, but when an opportunity drops in your lap ... go for it!

The DJs, Hassan and Bulbul, were really nice, gave out my phone number, and I did a few little tricks for them. The tricks I did weren't really good ones to do over the radio, but ... hey.

So that was a really fun thing to have happen - thank you SO much to those folks for giving me that opportunity!

Music

I've been working on adding music to my show ... I've been working towards that for a while, but deciding where to use music and what it should be has been a slow road. Hopefully worth it, though.

I have a secret fondness for Bollywood musicals ... I grew up watching Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly with my folks, and while they don't really make stuff like that anymore here, a while ago I discovered Bollywood does! So I am working on two music tracks - an American one, and an Indian one. It's fun and I'm enjoying it - it'll be a blast when it's done!

Restaurant Magic

It's been a while since I table hopped at restaurants - that's how I got started, though, going from table to table at restaurants performing magic. I still do them from time to time, but not regularly any more. I did a table hopping job on Easter, though, and I was really looking forward to it - I did it last year, it was fun and everyone was nice, and I like restaurant magic. It's really close and personal, and if I might be immodest, I have some pretty darned good stuff to perform.

It was a BLAST. I had so much fun it was just amazing - and I think it showed as everyone seemed to laugh and have a great time right along with me. The concierge told me a lot of folks asked about me when they left - so I feel even better about that!

New trick

I've been practicing a new trick a lot this week, the piece by piece restoration of a torn card. It's fairly difficult, but I just really like the way it looks. I am not yet sure if I ever want to show it to anyone, it has some rather interesting limitations that I don't think I will detail - but if the right situation comes up, it should look really nice.

We also turned our TV off yesterday. My wife and I just don't watch very much TV, so we started wondering why were were paying a cable bill for something we didn't use much. I figure if I get some Handy Manny and Wiggles DVDs to keep my son happy, we won't miss it at all.

Yay dogs!

A follow up to that ... we got a new dog! We went to the shelter and found a dog that seemed really laid back. We played with him for a bit, and my two year old son played with his tail and his paws, stuck his hands in the dogs mouth, and poked the dog in the eye. The dog could have cared less. Don't get me wrong, we aren't going to let Xander abuse the dog and we stopped him as soon as we saw him (for example) poke the dog in the eye, but a two year old doesn't know that's wrong yet, and it was REALLY good to see that the dog was so laid back. And my son really seems to like having a dog, so it's been an all around wonderful thing.

He's a 65 pound black lab mix. We found out that it's very rare for black dogs to get adopted, so that made me even happier that we took him. He's a sweetie and is fitting in well. He clearly wasn't really treated well before given to the pound - among other things he doesn't really know how to play. We're working on that. :-) He's been a great addition to the house, though, and at bedtime he already has been seen making the rounds checking on the kids. My wife and I like that.

We named him Thurston. I asked Karen if we could name him Elvis, since he ain't nothing but a pound dog, but she said no.

Here's a picture I took of my family plus the dog ...

Dodged THAT bullet

My wife and I have been talking about getting a dog from the local animal shelter. I haven't had dogs in a while, and miss them - and when I did a show for a family with a miniature dachshund just like the one I had, I missed her a lot!

So we were thinking of doing that soon - and then coming home from a show a hungry cat started making advances and mewing at me. We have a cat, so I brought some food outside for her, and my wife managed to pick her up and bring her in. She didn't have a collar but was clearly a sweet cat and clearly a indoor cat. So I was worried that we'd end up with a new cat meaning no dog ... but we found the owners and now we are going to the shelter to see what's there. We aren't in a rush, but we do want a shelter dog or a rescue dog ... so wish us luck!

Magician of the Year!

I got the trophy for being the Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year last night! I'm pretty pleased about the whole thing. There are two local magic clubs, the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American magicians. They do two rounds of voting, and pick one person each year to be the Magician of the Year (MOTY) - and this time they awarded it to me. It's just amazingly cool. I remember first seeing this trophy years ago and thinking it'd be so nifty to win it - there is one massive trophy that gets passed from MOTY to MOTY each year (since the 1970's) and this year it's in my house!

So now I just have to find a nice place for it where my toddler won't get to it!

SWEET!

The new Star Wars TV show has been officially announced - and a movie to go with it!
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/news/announcement.html

I'm all excited ...

Kid To Kid

I'll be at the grand opening of a new Kid To Kid store on Thursday, February 7th - so come by, check out the store and see some magic! (And get a balloon animal!) The store is at 2953 Cobb Parkway in Kennesaw. I'm really looking forward to it - the store sounds great, plus my wife is going to come by with my kids.

My son is two. Yesterday he found a deck of cards, spread them out on the bed, and told my wife to pick one. I am so proud of him I can't even express it!

New tricks!

The armor repairs held up very well, so I'm pleased about that!

I put a new trick into the show recently and it's been going well. I added a new middle to the routine with Rocky the Raccoon - I really like that routine, but it was just missing something in the middle, and I finally found something I really like that fits nicely and adds what I thought was missing. So I'm really pleased about that.

I'm now working on another routine - it's a really nice routine where I tie someone into a coat and have them escape from the ropes. It's funny, and I enjoy doing it, but I always felt the ending wasn't as strong as the routine itself - so I now have a new ending to it. I'm currently practicing it, I want to roll the new ending in soon but I have to get confident with it first!

Armor repairs!

The shoulder bells on my Stormtrooper armor were giving me problems again. I thought I'd fixed them up, but it turns out I only improved the situation, I hadn't fixed it - they still popped off from time to time. So today I had another round of armor repairs and here's hoping I fixed it for good this time!

Well, probably not for good. The more I wear it the more little repairs I need to make from time to time. Had to fix up something in a glove as well. But it's all looking good again. I really hate it when something happens that removes the illusion that it's real. I worked quite hard to make it look real!

I also touched up R2-Q5. He has silver pinstriping on his dome. I used automotive pinstriping, and the ends of it come up from time to time. He's painted with an enamel paint, and earlier I tried superglue to hold down the pinstriping. Which it did ... but did you know superglue has a reaction when it hits enamel paint? I didn't. So today I glued down more pinstriping (with a different glue!) and touched up his paint.

So we'll see how it works - I have a show in Athens tomorrow that will test all of my new repairs out!

And while I'm on the subject ... R2-D2 is almost done. The body is finished, all I need to do is finish wiring in the remote control system. The feet are all fixed up and he's fully motorized, which is GREAT. I just have a lot of speed controllers and receivers and batteries to install. I need to mount them and decided to make a wooden container to hold everything (one for the body and one for the dome) but it's too cold for woodworking so that's on hold. But next week looks like it has some nice days so I'm hoping to get a bit done. I can't count on much simply because I usually decide to go work on something, then my two year old son tells me he wants daddy to play with him, and frankly my son just about always wins that one - and I wouldn't have that any other way. Good thing I'm not in a rush!

Magician of the Year!

There are two magic groups in town, the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians. The two groups jointly give out a "Magician of the Year" award to one Atlanta magician, it's a huge trophy that has been going from person to person since 1971. And for 2007, I got named the Magician of the Year! I'm really excited about this - it's really something that I'm very proud about.