March show is almost sold out!

Wow, I just saw the numbers and we've already sold 50 of 60 seats for the March 10 show!! That's amazing! I have to admit the terrifying part about running a show is hoping that people will actually show up. So this is making me VERY happy indeed!

And if you were thinking of attending...better get a ticket now! This may be the last variety show like this I'll do for a while, I'm just not sure yet exactly what will happen next. I'm working on a few options, I love doing theater shows so that's going to continue one way or another!

I got in the paper!

 

I got interviewed by the Queen Anne newspaper last week. The interview went really well, and they followed up by talking to Payne. I am pretty pleased with it! She did a good job pretty much capturing the feel of the conversation I thought. I am very excited about this!

 

February show!

Well, tomorrow is the next theater show! I’m pretty excited. It should be a total blast. Plus ticket sales are up from the last show, so that’s really cool too!

The really cool thing about it is that I got interviewed by the Queen Anne newspaper! So that should really help the March show, and I’m thrilled about that! More on that once the paper comes out. I will say that publicity is HARD! I can do the show but I am still struggling with publicizing it, but hey. Only one way to figure that stuff out, and that’s to just keep plugging away at it …

Theater Show today!

I finished getting ready for the theater show this morning – which mostly consisted of getting all the props together and making sure I had the set list, music, etc. I’m pretty excited about it! I talked to Will and Eric, and I’m very happy to finally be able to let my kids see the guys I’ve been doing shows with. My family is coming up with me to be in the audience and I’m pretty happy about that too.

I haven’t tried to run a show like this before – usually it’s just a show with only me, and it’s nervewracking! But it seems like everything is coming together really nicely. Of course, picking other acts in the show who are excellent and professional performers is really helping with that!

Sunday!

The first Theater show is almost here! I’m pretty excited about it. I went out today and distributed some more postcards with Jessie Portlock, I can see my ad running online … it’s rather exciting!

Next show!

I practiced with my new table and the conclusion I came to is that it is SWEET. I am looking forward to using it this weekend in my show.
I am also working on a new puppet routine with a mind reading bear. I have a few bits that are kind of funny but it pretty clearly needs work. But it’s starting to get there. I have several questions about how kids are going to react to things, though – just because MY kids laugh at something doesn’t mean other kids will. So I’m going to try a short version of that routine this weekend too, and see how it goes. For me there comes a point when I need to bounce a routine off an audience to see how things flow before I can keep building the routine, and I think I’m fairly close to that point with the bear.

New table is built!

I built a new performance table! I’m pretty pleased with it. My old one was fantastic, but just too heavy. So this one is in two pieces, so while it’s two trips to the car instead of one, they are much easier trips.

The top just sits on the bottom. My last version of this table tried several ways of attaching it, and what I found is that friction was all that was needed. And this one being covered in fabric has friction to spare – the top just doesn’t move once it’s on.

I built in holders to keep things in place while driving to shows. In the picture of the inside you can see where my side table and the legs for it are stowed – then once at the show I can just pull them out and set up (one less trip to the car for that!)

The other thing you can’t quite see is the built in sound system. I’ve been reading a lot about sound systems but didn’t want more stuff to carry. Plus controllers, which one do you get, etc. This isn’t a perfect solution but it serves me very well (perfect would be one I can control without people being able to see me control it). I realized I’m carrying around a touchscreen computer system (also known as a “cell phone”). So this has a small but powerful bluetooth speaker in it. My phone has music – so all I have to do is tap a button on my phone and music will play. Nothing to set up, no wires – just turn on the speaker, connect my phone to it, and hopefully it’ll all work. If I’m not happy with it I can use the kindle fire with a wire to the speaker, or some variation on this.

I should mention I was shooting for a sound system for a birthday party, not a theater show - so this really fits my requirements nicely.

The table seems sturdy, though I learned some lessons when trying to cover it in fabric which was a PAIN. That was more work than making the table!

Postcards

I worked last night on postcards for my theater show. The back I think I’m going with is below, with the front being a poster. I went for funny but really didn’t like the results, so this one is more functional. I’m going to see if any better ideas hit and then get these printed up and scattered around!

Red Tricycle Ad

So I’d love this theater show to succeed … and I’m therefore placing my first ad. So far it’s all been word of mouth business. But I figure publicity will help! So here is the ad I’ll be placing in Red Tricycle!

Theater shows!

Well, I seem to have a run of three theater shows coming up! I will write about this more as it happens, but I keep seeing shows in Seattle that are GREAT and I want to bring my kids to see them. But the shows are late at night, the venues are 21 and over, so it doesn't matter if the act is one my kids would love or not, they just can't go!

So I'm trying to fix that. I've got a run of three shows at the Jewelbox theater coming up. I'm bringing these guys that I want my kids to see and we're doing shows at a time and place that let you bring your family!

The shows are NOT kid shows, to be clear. But they are shows your kids will like as much as you do - so I hope this all pans out! If it works, this could be the start of a long run!

Now with 100% more Seattle!

I just realized how long it's been since I blogged!

I have moved to Seattle from Atlanta, and while yes, I loved Atlanta, I love Seattle! It's nice up here and the cooler weather is great!

I've been restarting my business - so that's going well, and I'm already doing shows. Though no one knows Kudzu so I started getting reviews on Yelp - and Yelp promptly filtered them all out! So that's no fun. I'm not quite sure WHAT to do about online reviews anymore so I may just stick with Kudzu (though I can't seem to get Kudzu to say I'm not in Atlanta any more!)

El Drusso

I am now appearing pretty much every Saturday at El Drusso's - it's a magic store at Discover Mills mall with a full theater in the back. I am doing my full show there - not the kids show, but my show for adults (though it's still family friendly!) Check with me before you go just in case, though - there are a few Saturdays I won't be there.

Theater show coming up!

Details soon ... but some friends of mine and I have booked the Academy Theatre and will be doing a show there on June 4th. This should be interesting!

Library Show

I have a public show coming up on Thursday, June 17th, at 7:00 at the Powell Library in Newnan! I don't do that many public shows so I hope to see a lot of folks there. I've performed at this library before and they have a really nice library and a great place for shows, so it should be a lot of fun!

The address is 25 Hospital Road, Newnan GA:


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Balloons!

I went to a party at a friends house yesterday. We brought our kids, and I knew there'd be a handful of other small children there, so I brought balloons with me. I figured it never hurts to have something with me that will keep all the kids happy and occupied for a while! And there turned out to be about five little ones there, so it was handy.

A friend of mine took this picture of me tying balloons ... that's my son with the balloons sword, shield and helmet. He's always delighted when I pull out the balloons so that makes me happy to see!

Back to blogging!

I'd been ignoring my blog for a while and just doing "what's the magician up to" posts on my facebook page ... but hey sometimes it's nice to write something a little longer, so I thought I'd go back to this blog!

I have been doing a lot of Blue and Gold shows lately - I enjoy doing shows for the scouts. My son is four and I am a little hopeful he'll be interested in the scouts once he gets to the first grade. And MAN have things changed ... I remember doing the pinewood derby when I was a kid, and as I recall we put our cars on a slope and cheered them on. Now there's tracks and timers and all SORTS of cool things! So as a nerd, needless to say I'm all for that. But jokes aside, it was impressive - and you should have seen the cars these guys made!

I have become president of the Georgia Magic Club this year. I've been involved heavily with that club for a while, I met a lot of really good guys through it, and it's been fun being president so far. We are trying to set up a club show now, so hopefully in a few months I'll have a full magic show to tell you about!

Monkey Joe's

My family and I went to Monkey Joe's last night. Lots of inflatable goodness. I ended up with my three year old son, my two year old daughter, and my three year old niece in some sort of inflated ring with a pole in the center. We were running about and tackling each other. At some point two other kids came in, maybe four or five, and they just joined the game. (I looked and couldn't see their parents ... so just figured the heck with it, hopefully they won't sue me for being gleefully tackled by their kids.)

It turns out that having five kids tackle and jump on you is actually surprisingly enjoyable.

Frank again

Xander's favorite stuffed animal is a little cat he calls Kitty. We like Kitty. We have several spare Kitties in a drawer so when Kitty gets dirty we can clean it and Xander doesn't know it's been swapped. And if one gets lost we can find another one. Kitty has been his favorite for a very long time now. But Bolt (from the Disney movie) has been sneaking into the picture, and in the last week or so Kitty has been replaced by Bolt.

I like Kitty better. Well, actually I somehow just dislike his favorite being a marketed named animal, I find I just preferred his stuffed animal being more uniquely his. Or, to be really honest, I guess I just preferred the UNnamed marketed animal. I dunno, I can't justify it, I just preferred Kitty.

So in an attempt to rectify this, Kitty has been in the Frank stories lately I tell Xander when he goes to sleep. So this is where I have failed in something. The point of a bedtime story is to get the boy quiet and calm and restful. Frank stories don't do that well, but he demands them and doesn't want to be read to afterwards, so it's the last story. And the Frank song helps but still, I think we need to figure that out.

So to tie all this together. Last night Kitty went on the offensive and attacked Frank, which I demonstrated with Kitty who basically attached himself to my face Alien facehugger style and then proceeded to completely demolish me in many other ways. This made the boy laugh so hysterically he collapsed on the bed unable to breathe.

I totally stink at getting him all calmed down and ready to go to sleep.

Frank

So a while ago, around St. Patrick's Day, instead of reading a story to my son Xander I made one up. It was St. Patrick's Day, so I told the story of St. Patrick and his snake removal service. I can't remember if Frank was in the first story or not, but Xander wanted to hear it again the next night, and sooner or later Frank showed up in the stories. Frank essentially carries snakes around and throws them at people. St. Patrick stopped him. The snake throwing thing made Xander laugh, so now the stories pretty much just revolve around Frank.

So now Xander won't let me read to him any more, though he will listen to Piper's stories. But every night he runs to bed, climbs in, and waits very eagerly for his Frank story. So I make up a new one every night. Xander is in a lot of them now which he likes, and I'll ask him questions and take the story wherever it goes based on what he says (he tends to want to shoot Frank with a gun a lot. Frank blocks the bullets with a snake, usually.) The stories really aren't very good, but they make the boy happy. And now they get followed with the Frank and Xander song which also changes every night.

It's kind of challenging to come up with a story every day, but fun - sure they are terrible stories I'm sure, but it's fun. The only problem is that they get the boy worked up and excited, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this without getting him worked up. That's how the Frank and Xander song started, which helps but I'd rather he not get so excited.

On the other hand, for however long this lasts, it's really wonderful to see how much he loves having me make up a story for him every night.

Library Show

I'll be at the Smyrna Public Library this Thursday at 7 if anyone wants to come see a free magic show! I'll be in the community center. The library address is
100 Village Green Circle, Smyrna, Georgia

I think this is my last library show for the summer. It was fun doing them, I really enjoy library shows!