Jim - Glad to be of help. Your starting this thread has been great for me. Although I haven't posted as much as when the thread was newer, it has really changed the way I think about practice and expanding my performimg options. A big thank you!


Hudson

You made my day, Hudson- and you are very welcome! It has helped me as well- we all can get "stuck in the mud" from time to time and need someone to set us straight. Here I am, getting exciting about mastering "continuous coins", which I had never thought of even though I was doing something similar with sponge balls! Coins makes a lot more sense than sponge balls. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving, which is what I plan to have...

Jim

Hi Jim,

I know you usually perform for your Thanksgiving crowd.

How did it go?

-Mary

Hi, Mary!

This year I booked a trip to Fort Myers for the week, and so missed Thanksgiving at home. A bit odd cracking a big lobster instead of a turkey, but we had a very pleasant, if quiet day. Oddly, we had to kill our two turkeys just before we left, but they were well received by some close friends. It was Carolyn's idea, not mine - she just needed to get away from some family responsibilities for awhile.

I took a John Scarne book on three-card monte, sponge balls, a bunch of rope and coins. It was fun working through some of the things in the warm, southern sun.

How 'bout you?

Jim

Tom and I had Thanksgiving alone (which I like) with plenty of food, Sci Fi and Magic practice to Tom's Guitar.

-Mary Mowder

Sounds wonderful and romantic. I just started picking up my guitar after a number of years. Mostly because Carolyn's twin grand kids finally gave me the appreciative audience I had yearned for all those many lonely years... music can be magic...

Here is wishing the very best of the Holiday season to my friends on this thread- and may you have a great 2015 filled with much magic and success!!

Jim

Happy holidays to everyone! I've been visiting grandkids and enjoying holiday season, so haven't been around for a while. Missed everyone here, but must say grandkids are pretty cool!

Have preformed continuous production a number of times since Thanksgiving, with good reaction. Amazes me how a simple set of slights can be so effective ...

Planning on competing at Minneapolis IBM in Jan with new version of Red McGinty. It is a little short on the time limit, so will have to add one other routine. Need to work the transition out - probably Lucky Coin then into Red. Will post link to video after Christmas (in Pittsburgh till 26th).

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season!

Hudson

A *somewhat* early Merry Christmas to everyone! I'm stuck in LA this year, unable to go home to Seattle due to work, but thankful to be doing a job I love!

I'm heading up to a cabin in the woods next week with a few friends and plan to bring the cups and balls and a few other goodies. I'm putting material together for Jack Goldfinger at the Magic Castle and I just renewed my membership - aiming to get up to the club more often this coming year.

I also assembled the gimmick for David Regal's There and Back - my first attempt at sewing and I didn't do half bad! I've had a lot of fun playing with the routine and working out a presentation.
In case you haven't seen it, check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojqxm2xQgXU

Andrew_

Merry Christmas! Good to know you are doing well. LOVE the DR effect - think I will get it...

Jim

Merry Christmas!
It's a lot of fun...I realized I spent the same amount making it as I would had I bought it, but I feel more fulfilled for having done it myself! And it's fun to play around with.

Hello everybody!

I'd love to join this group - I'm finding it hard to focus my practice, and am jumping around with all the tricks I have purchased, so hopefully this will help me.

I'm hoping to achieve the following:

- Learn three self-workers (Gemini Twins, Out Of This World, Jeopardy), ready to show my partner at the end of January
- Start moving through Mark Wilson's Complete Course, and Oz Pearlman's "Born to Perform Card Magic" DVD, picking sleights/tricks I will want to work on

I will be aiming to do an hour's practice every other day.

Please let me know your thoughts. I'll keep you updated on progress.

Thank you,

Jon

Hi s..u..s….,

Welcome to the group.

I've performed Gemini Twins and Out of this World with good success. They are no longer in my repertoire just because of the need for a table but both are very strong in the right surrounding.

I'm not familiar with Jeopardy but if it is as strong as the other two you will have done yourself a solid by adding these three.

I like to practice several effects as you do (although I often mix it up with rubber bands or ring and ribbon, etc... so it is not all the same type thing).

Congratulations on your focus for the new year. Magicians who practice regularly have a clear advantage on those who don't. (And so do their audiences. LOL)

-Mary Mowder

Hi, Jon!

Great to have you aboard! Good luck on your schedule- just do not get discouraged if some days you can't find the hour. One of the best things I have learned is use whatever time is available for practice- even if it is only 5 minutes. I try for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, but if I can't do the 30, I will do 10- but always something. I do OOTW and find it always stuns the specs...

Jim

I'm doing some benefit shows through the Magic Castle next month so I'm working on my child-friendly material which is always fun/terrifying. Ropes, sponges, and I've always received great reactions from popping an 8 ball off a playing card. I haven't worked for kids in awhile but I'm kind of a kid myself so whatever appeals to me probably appeals to them. At least that's how it's worked in the past.

After years of talking about it, I finally have a Copper Silver Brass set coming in the mail. Any good recommendations for routines (aside from Doc Eason's, which I already own)? I hear Karl Heins has a DVD out but it sounds like his is better suited to dollar-sized coins and I went with the Walking Liberties, since that's what I normally work with.

Jon - you can't go wrong with Mark Wilson's stuff. I've been fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of time with him over the years and he continues to fry me with new stuff on almost a weekly basis.

Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome Jon.

So I realize the purpose of this and that I haven't done a great job with that purpose. I figured this out. Since I am not a performing magician in the sense that I don't do a lot of gigs and very few paying gigs, I find it hard to practice when I don't have a goal that has an end point to work towards. I may perform 3-5 shows a year and I will practice what ever needs to be a part of that show. Otherwise I just work on random stuff whenever it tickles my fancy and perform said stuff for the club monthly or for random people as I see fit. Realizing this was part of my problem on staying routine to practicing routines or effects, I let this linger in my thoughts.

Another issue entered my brain. Our monthly Ring meeting is on Mondays at 7:30pm. With much hype about getting more youth involved in Magic and IBM, this time is not exactly conducive to our Youth in our area. So they show up for one or two meetings, or more likely to our lectures which are on other days and then we never see them again.
So, killing two birds with one stone, sort of, this is what I did. We are creating a youth chapter that will meet on the Friday before our club meeting for Youth to hang out do magic and have another tie in that works for them under the IBM. I am working with one other magician in the club as advisers and we are having our first meeting this Friday. I am choosing to work on magic that if I need to I can be prepared to share with the youth as necessary at the Youth Chapter Meeting. I hope to report more as this continues and hopefully succeeds. More to tell next time.

For now, I am charging myself with several items I am practicing randomly with about 30 minutes a day. It doesn't work for me to be so precise.
So I am working on some Sharpie Marker effects to hopefully develop into a routine using Bizarro's Marked Man DVD and Rick Merrill's Homeschool Lecture notes.
I am also working on Kris Nevling's Bandit and a close-up routine of Bill Severn's called The Magic Milkman - using miniature milk bottles(tiny) and a tiny cow. MagicLaurie may find this useful for her Farmer's Market.

i will let you know how this is going. I have other stuff that I may work on as well. I figured I have to do what works for me and we will see if this does.

Talk to you soon and Keep it magical!

Pete

PETE-

I LOVE "Keep it magical"! Making it my new slogan to start the day... thanks!

Jim

Jim,

I have to give credit to my good friend Jim Parkes! He uses it all the time! Has a very positive vibe to it doesn't? Glad it is useful!

The Youth Meeting went great! We had 4 kids attend, ages 8, 13, 13 and 16. It was very successful considering our following Ring meeting only had one attend. So there is proof it is worth it!

We had a lot of fun at our Ring Meeting! I did a Workshop on a Muggle Magic class I have done for a portion of a Harry Potter Lock-in we have had three times now for our Church Youth groups. We have had two high School lock-ins where I taught Muggle Magic for one and Potions for the next! We had one Middle School Lock-in where I taught Muggle Magic which is what I did this past Monday for the club. A lot of fun! For our Program, we did our favorite gimmicks and tried out some of my new sharpie magic I have been practicing from Bizzaro! The club had a lot of diversity in what was presented!

My rubber Band magic is coming along also. I have had a delay in my milk bottle presentation, but hope to work on it this weekend.

Again Keep it Magical!

Pete

I keep meaning to get into rubber bands but it's just never happened. I'll get there one day! I know it's some pretty visual stuff.

I'm strolling at a children's hospital function on the 7th so just continuing to work on my material for kids and families! Come to think of it, rubber bands would be great for that venue....

Andrew,

That is great! Check the hospitals rules on latex. I hear they make non- latex rubber bands, not sure how they work.
I recommend Ed Ellis's Ringnature 2011! I also enjoyed Kris Nevling's Band-it routine. I learned that in two days and keep
Practicing it. There is other good stuff out there. Other suggestions for Andrew and me?

Keep it Magical!

Pete