Andrew,

Thanks! Castle experience sounds awesome! Way to go!

Mary would you care to share your set lists with us? I like to see how people think and I am curious on your favorites!

Tonight at my church, we have a High School Lock-in with the theme of Harry Potter. We will be playing Quidditch, eating theme based food, and students will be attending classes. So a week ago, I said to the Head Mistress,my wife, I could teach Muggle Magic. So I have been puting together a 20 minute class to be repeated 3-4 times. That has been a lot of fun putting it together. AND MARY . . . I finally go the rice suspension lift to work and I am using my pseudo-Potter wand! Very cool, thanks for highly endorsing this and I am glad I finally figured out the tiny nuances to see what I was doing wrong! Any way I will report back with hopefully much success teaching young wizards and witches about the world of Muggle Magic!

Pete

Peter-

Hope you stay away from Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans- some of those are not edible!

Mary- Torn is FINALLY coming into the realm of "unconscious competence". I love this effect, mostly because my grandson nailed me with it SO BAD! Plus, I was able to see Dannie do it at MagiFest up close, close, and although a bit angly it is really magic when done right. About ready to trot it out. I have started re-working on Ring and String, another which I feel is superb up close. Put away my halloween scary stuff - that is one holiday that could use a couple more days, either that or I am getting weird (more than usual). Question: do any of the rest of you get something "under your thumb" and then let it drift? That makes me so mad at myself I could... could... just...

Hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving! I will be doing my "Gypsy Thread" entrée again this year- twice.

Wishes...

Jim

Hello all,

Pete I will give you the lists in a P.M. (and anyone else in this group who askes) probably after New Year's because I'm writing special shows for the season right now and mixing the projects is just too confusing.

I have a Harry Potter type wand and I'll give it a try with the rice. Yhanks for the suggestion.

Jim,

It's great to get to do your favorites even if it is mostly seasonally. I've finally got some more Close-Up work booked, YEA!

-Mary Mowder

With all good wishes, permit me to share with you, my magical friends, our family's Thanksgiving Poem, written by my mother many years ago:


Thanksgiving

Gathered ‘round the table,
Hands folded, heads bowed,
Hearts meeting in prayer.

Vibrant tresses athirst for life,
Older heads touched by strife,
Unseen heads no longer there,
Shining heads free from care,
Gray heads wearing a silver crown,
Reverent feelings all around.

Invisible threads,
Bonding the past and the future,
Together In Thanksgiving.

Larraine G. Rogers

Very nice, Jim!

Thank you, Andrew, good to hear from you...

Jim

I'm having dinner with Jack Carpenter and a few other people up in Seattle in a couple of weeks and I've been told they want to see me do Kent Gunn's cups and balls routine, soooo I'm working overtime on making sure that looks good (and praying for a decent table at the restaurant so my angles aren't ruined.) Any other holiday plans for folks?

I got to do some Close-Up Magic at 4 different parties this Christmas season and I got a few for Halloween as well.

I don't get many opportunities to do Close-Up so I've really been enjoying myself.

Unfortunately, unless I book something for New Year's Eve the Close-Up streak is played out. Here's hoping!

Andrew, Good luck with the Cups and Balls. Jack can be an intimidating audience but he really loves Magic.

-Mary Mowder

I've been working maybe and hour a day on Rope through Wrist (an Effect that Axel Hecklau taught at one of his lectures) and a single ring and rope move to add to my routine.

Both are showing good progress but aren't ready for a show. If only I could count on my performance for people being as good as my work for the mirror!

Happy Practice!

-Mary Mowder

Merry Christmas to all my buddies on this thread! It has been a good year, and your encouragement has made a big improvement in my magic skills. I hope you each enjoy the thrills and joyous quiet time of the Season!

With very best wishes,

Jim

The New Year is a great time for new goals (or to renew old ones).

Care to give a bench mark on how you feel your goals have come along last year and set new or re-new others?

Jim, I always check this thread and I consider this my closest group of allies on the Café.
There is never any fighting and lots of support. Thank You.

-Mary Mowder

What Jim said I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Andrew, have you met with Jack, Steves et al in Seattle?

If so, dish, how did the Cups go?

-Mary Mowder

Hi guys! Happy New Year!

I agree with Mary, this is my favorite thread to check. Everyone is supportive and friendly - love it!

If fact, this thread inspired me to include annual magic goals with my normal goal-setting process. For 2012 my magic-related goals included learning Jim Swain's chop cup and 3 other routines - one per quarter (okay you can tell I'm a public-company business type, setting my goals by quarter! )

So how did I do? Well you will recognize my Red McGinty as based on Jim Swain's (and Larry Jennings') chop cup routine. I also performed Anniversary Waltz for my daughter and her new husband at their wedding, learned jumping knot (Daryl), and a copper silver transposition. My go-to impromptu tricks are now torn and restored signed card and Lucky Coin, both of which I believe I learned last year, but have perfected (okay, perfect for me!) this year. All-in-all a solid magic year for me. Get together almost weekly with a local pro (full time) who has been trying to convince me to start picking up gigs on a regular basis. I really feel that now my magic is at the professional level and am pleased with my progress.

For 2013 I will again target 4 new tricks. Two of which will be Coins in the Hat and Coins and Cylinder (Carney). Saw him in lecture and show in Minneapolis and am committed to working on these two routines. They require similar skills, so figure they are good to work on together. So far, I've started learning the Ramsey vanish and the 4-coin transfer that Carney does - very difficult, but one heck of a convincer! Look for video in a few months .

Okay, that's my detailed update. Not totally following Jim's rules, clearly inspired by them!

Best wishes to all!

Hudson

Hello and Happy New Year to all my friends at the Café! I should say " felice anyo nuevo" as I am in Mexico! Will lay out my plans for the magic year when I return. Best wishes for a great year to each and all!

Jim

I've been practicing an over the shoulder bean bag juggling move.
I was just doing it to keep my shoulders mobil for a contact juggling move and never expected to do any 3 ball juggling with it.
To my surprise I've made several (like 20 today so far) good catches (meaning that I was able to recover and cascade after the toss) today.
I surprised myself. Now I'm wondering if I should try to go for proficiency and include it in my act or just play with it. I guess if I play with it I can always go from there if I want to. There is less pressure that way.

Great progress on the Rope Through Wrist effect. I added a couple of good touches and it's ready to go now.

The Ring and Rope move I was working on is working well but I'm disappointed that a sideline I was working on for quite a while did not pan out.
Can't win 'em all.

-Mary Mowder

Hi, Mary! How's the new year treating you?

I started a whole new phase of practice over the holiday break, and it is working well for me. Briefly, I decided to go back to the original texts, audios or vids of things I use and want to get better with and read, listen or watch them beginning to end. Oddly, it started with a very old book Bill H. recommended, and in which was Gypsy thread. I started browsing thru and realized I had veered off considerable from how it was originally taught.

Now, certainly, we all find what we consider to be improvements from time to time, but in this case I had just dropped some important parts of a very important effect. I had not improved it, I had lost the magic of it. The great thing is, I find it very easy to pick up those lost threads (pun?) and get the real routine under my nails again. AND, it is fun!

Don't know what happened to all our buddies, but I trust they are still trying for that 20 minutes a day of practice...

Be well,

Jim

Hi Jim, hi Mary,

I'm still here, actually in Brazil on a business trip, but still practicing. Working on cylinder and coins. I now have the technical moves and the routine (sequence) well in hand; next up are the misdirection cues - physical movement, patter, and timing of both. This routine is so bold, that the misdirection is crucial. Give me a few more weeks and I will have a video for your comments and suggestions.

Sounds like you two are keeping at it. I trust all is well.

Best regards,

Hudson

Jim,

Hope you had a good vacation.

Good idea to go back to your original source.
Once you're doing an effect the instructions take on new meanings that you couldn't get before you were conversant.


Hudson,

I look forward to your video. If it's the same effect I'm thinking of it is really strong.
Have fun in Brazil, you know, where the nuts are. (Old quip, I just had to go for it).

-Mary Mowder

Mary - you are too funny! The routine I am working on is John Carney's version of Ramsey's cylinder & coins. I will do my best to customize - already have a name picked out for my 'cousin' that my son and I visited in Scotland during Spring break - but this may be a routine that I cannot modify much. The misdirection is so strong that I am worried about weakening the performance with my own changes.
Work to do on it yet.

By the way, thanks again for all your comments on Red McGinty (the olive test). I've now done this a number of times as a stand alone routine and it leaves the audiance wih mouths wide open. Certainly the strongest routine I do - and one that I don't worry about hearing someone say, "I know that one, so-and-so does it".

Hudson