CanCan show!

I did a show at the CanCan! I am really pleased about that. It's a different audience for me, a really cool venue, and was just a fantastic experience.

My friend Jozie agreed to help me - having her really cut down on the number of volunteers I'd have to ask for and just made things go more smoothly. The staff was really nice and got us to the changing room, and we got ready and set up the stage. We had several people there and while not a huge crowd, frankly I thought we did well given the limited time we had to advertise the show!

The show seemed to go well and seemed to be received well. I couldn't quite get folks laughing as hard as I usually do, I'm not sure if it was just that this was such a different venue or what, but that being said folks WERE laughing and seemed to be enjoying themselves. All the magic went well, and I heard a lot of compliments afterwards, so THAT made me quite happy.

And frankly I'm still just delighted - I got to do a show at the CanCan! Hopefully I'll get to do more, but even if I don't? I'm pretty thrilled!

First Tin Theater show!

Last weekend was the first show at the Tin Theater. That theater is amazing – it’s a very nice bar/restaurant, with a great theater attached. I got there and got set up, and met Michelle. This was my first show that was done with Michelle – she found the theater and did publicity, and we sold the place out! It was GREAT!

The audience was really friendly and appreciative, too – everyone seemed to laugh a lot and really have a good time. I tried my new routine there and even though this was the first time I had it out, I heard from one person that it looked like a signature routine. YAY! I kind of thought it might work into that, but I was excited to hear it already! But it’s funny and very different – so I was hoping it’d be good.

I talked to lots of people afterwards and it really seemed to go well. I’m very pleased, and really looking forward to doing it again next month!

More shows coming

Well, THIS got interesting. The March show at the Jewelbox was not only sold out but I had to turn people away. I didn’t like turning people away but that was AWESOME that we sold out. For those wondering what it’s like to run a show, it’s terrifying. You do all this work and then you just hope people will actually show up to see it. So seeing a full house was fantastic.

A lot of folks stayed to eat at Rendezvous to eat afterwards. I gave everyone that did a free gift and did some closeup magic for them – the stuff I do at corporate events – and that went really well and is something I plan to continue doing!

The March show was the last show I had scheduled at the Jewelbox. But between selling out and everyone staying to eat, the Jewelbox seems to be fairly happy with me! YAY! I am now talking to them about what we’re doing next – basically I will be doing more shows there and just need to decide if I can pull together an April show or if I need to skip a month and pick up in March.

But there’s more. I’ve been working with a fantastic woman named Michelle, who ROCKS. And she has managed to hook me up with a second show in Burien! This one is a solo show – I’m not sure I could pull off two variety shows – so it’ll just be me doing my one man show. The theater is the Tin Theater and it’s just a GORGOUS theater. It seats about 50, so the shows will be really intimate. We are sticking with the family show theme, though, and affordable tickets – so bring your kids! I’ll be doing some stuff for your kids, some stuff for you, and everyone should have a really fun show!

That should start on the third Sunday in April and continue on third Sundays. The Jewelbox will be on second Sundays.

And yes, there’s more … I’ve been working with a juggler and acrobat named Will Smith, who has helped behind the scenes with lining up acts for the Jewelbox and just making it work. And occasionally BEING on of the acts with his partner Jenny. Will is going to start helping me onstage as my partner, which should bring a lot of humor and extra fun to the stage!

The last show went GREAT. Payne opened and was fantastic as always. Jenn Q and the Fantastic Fonzie did their dog act - it was adorable and I could tell all the kids loved it. My son talked about that one a lot afterwards! Bohemian Acro did a really cool balancing act and I closed.

This is the last of a run of three shows I had at the Jewelbox. Sales went up each time and the show seems to be going great. I want to keep it going, and will be figuring out what happens next very soon!

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!