I'd rip it off! Let's face it, no one likes dealing with hecklers. But if you ever have to stop one, you'll be glad you made the investment in STOP THAT HECKLER! Professional magician/ventriloquist Tom Ladshaw put together a treasure trove of one liners you'd use.
No more cringing in fear when people heckle you. Feel confident knowing that if politeness and civility fail, you're fully equipped with the right heckle stopping ammunition. I highly recommend it!
Here are some sample lines: "And THAT'S why I work alone!" "Where did you park your broom?" "That's why there's only ONE microphone."
And my personal favorite,"on a scale of one to ten....shut up."
I've spent the better part of the last two weekends substituting for friends of mine at their various restaurant gigs. Knowing that I worked a restaurant back in Michigan for some years prior to my move to Chicago, they were confident I'd do an admirable job.
Thinking about the way I used to do things, and how I've developed over the years, is an eye-opening experience. You truly can see how you grow and improve your act, performing the same routines over and over during the course of your shift.
Here are some of my personal recommendations for the discerning professional:
BKM Wallet: This classy leather wallet allows for the ever-popular Card-to-Wallet effect, be it a finale for your Ambitious Card, or an instantaneous card-to-impossible location effect. This wallet gives you the option to perform with a palm, without a palm, or even a card-to-sealed envelope!
5" Linking Rings: These babies are my bread-and-butter effect. Not only are they visual, but can be performed in a spectator's hands, inches from their nose, with no table required! They can fit comfortably in either your jacket or pants pocket. With the right routine, you can even perform surrounded! What more could you ask for?
Chop Cup DVD: Why carry around a bulky 3-cup routine from table to table, when you can condense it into one? The chop cup remains a mainstay in workers' repertoires for a reason. This DVD offers several routines, so pick the best parts from each one and create your own! We also stock a variety of chop cups.
Have you seen our selection of FUN 6 foot silks? They're of top shelf quality and absolutely stunning! These items have been out of stock for too long! Our 6 foot silks also make excellent production items and even back drops.
I've never heard any negative feedback in regards to these products. And why should there be? They're FUN. Oh, and you can only get them from FUN Incorporated.
Remember to ask us about our 36 inch silks. Same look and quality, but smaller.
After the David Blaine special last night (which I missed, since I had a show to do myself), I knew that my email box would be flooded with advertisements with phrases like "as seen on David Blaine's special" and "as performed by David Blaine."
Sure enough, a litany of magic blogs have posted the breakdown of David's magic effects from the show. So, I thought it might be helpful to the dealers to know what is available to them.
Silver Impression: Alex Lourido's brilliant version of melting a coin in your hands.
The Raven: As seen on David's first special, you can create a true moment of astonishment as a coin vanishes from a spectator's open palm. Many effects are possible! Bending Metal DVD: You will learn how to bend, forks, spoons, keys, coins, and much more. This DVD will show you how to use all of the powers in a magician's arsenal including timing and misdirection to perform these mental miracles.
Twisting Arm Illusion: An excellent impromptu effect that can play very well in the guerilla magic environment. Freak some people out with this!
Rising Cards: Always a classic, the Rising Cards effect has spawned many methods, but it's hard to beat this one. Also, check out our (Almost) Impromptu Rising Cards, using a borrowed deck!
It's not a deep, metaphorical question. It's the title for FUN Inc.'s latest release, from the mind of Eddie Z. "Where Will You Go?" is a dead-easy prediction routine that can play big or small, and leaves lots of room for comedy byplay.
A small stack of cards is shown, printed with flags from various nations. After a mix, the spectator eliminates cards one by one - no mental force or magicians' choice. The final flag remaining, Mexico, is shown to have been predicted by having an "X" marked on the back.
To prove that Mexico was indeed the predicted outcome, the other flags are spread on the table. When turned over, they spell out M-E-X-I-C-O!
Shipping tomorrow, we'll be filming a demo video very soon.
We're wrapping up the final edits on the newest DVD project from FUN Incorporated: Card Magic Essentials. The concept for this project was not to make yet another DVD with card tricks, but rather a video toolbox of the crucial moves and sleights that are applicable to all facets of card magic.
While not a complete reference encyclopedia on card technique, we have given you the "essential" things you need to know, shot in multiple angles (including over-the-shoulder). Everyone's favorite FUN Incorporated customer service manager/part-time handsome person, Tomas Medina, lends his hands and voice to the project.
In addition to all the information on disembodied sleights, you will also learn a few tricks with their explanations . All this, for what we expect to be a very affordable price. Be sure to look for this one in your local magic shop before the end of the year!
On an unrelated note, I just wanted to share this video that I saw posted in Tim Ellis' blog, Magic Unlimited. If you ever wondered what your average day was like if you could do real magic, this is what it might look like. Notice the lack of card tricks, though...
Most more-than-casual magicians have personal stance on the issue of exposure. No, not that kind of exposure; the exposure of magic secrets to the general public. What's yours? Are you a vehement opponent of the practice? Do you offer up secrets free of charge whenever anyone asks you how "it's" done?
I stand squarely on the fence on this issue. On one hand, I feel that anyone sincerely interested in magic will seek out secrets, so information of this nature should remain sub rosa. Seek and ye shall find.
But I also whole-heartedly believe that the exposure of magic secrets - not blatantly, and not on TV ala the Masked Magician, mind you - is a good thing, in the right venue. A book for the general public, ala Jim Steinmeyer's Hiding the Elephant, tips big-time methods like the workings of the Maskelyne-Kellar levitation. So what? If this excites one more person and sends them to a magic show, magic shop, or interests them in magic in general, then I'm all for it.
Make them work for it a bit (by picking up a book and - gasp! - reading), and the information they uncover is, I believe, well-earned. For those that are still uninterested after sating their desire to know how magic works, I'm of the opinion that the exposure won't matter in the long run. Shortly after they consume the clandestine knowledge we as magicians share, they forget about it, and you, the entertainer, will likely be able to fool them with the very same secrets they think they know.
Many of our customers receive weekly emails from me in regards to new product. They are crammed with product descriptions, information on items back in stock, and other FUN facts. Now these emails will look better than ever!
They use to be crude cut and paste jobs. Now they should be more useful than EVER. John and I are very excited here at FUN Incorporated.
Oh, and if you're not on my email list, please email me at tomas@funinc.com or call 877-438-6462 (in the U.S.A.). Sorry, only customers get to receive these emails.
By that title, I mean that we carry a lot of Three Card Monte variations. Along with the Shell Game, the Monte (also known as Find the Lady, Chase the Ace, and many others) comes in all sorts of varieties for your magical pleasure. Of course, I don't need to tell you about performing these outside a theatrical context, right? After all, if you take to the streets to run the hustle for real, expect to be taking an ambulance ride shortly after you begin.
Sidewalk Shuffle: A Martin Lewis classic has been streamlined for an even greater impact, with three phases and an incredible surprise climax.
The magician displays three blank jumbo-sized (4.5" by 7") cards along with an Ace. One of the blank cards is placed aside and a "three card monte" is performed with the remaining two blank cards and the Ace. The spectators can never find the Ace, but no wonder...the magician reveals that all three of the cards in his hands are blank and it was the Ace that was placed aside!
Find the Ace: Since every finger-stretching card man is anxious to learn the secrets, Leo Behnke has put them down in this book. He played with the moves when he was a teenager learning the basics of card craft, but it wasn't until he saw Jay Ose work that he knew what it meant to be able to fool people with Three Card Monte.
Beat 'em, Cheat 'em, Leave 'em Bleedin': A compendium on the short con. Includes a section on the Monte, marked cards, loaded dice, and double-headed coins.
David Solomon's Thoughts Across has to be the most underrated Fun Inc. product of 2008. It's received less attention than everyone here at the Fun Factory thinks it should.
Luckily, the Linking Ring is on our side. A review of the product in the latest issue of the International Brotherhood of Magicians' journal calls recommends Solomon's trick highly. We do, too.
Speaking of Solomon, Fun has a new, very clever Solomon creation in the pipeline. It'll be a long, long time before the effect is released, but it's a doozy. Stay tuned.
Since I had the chance to see Harry Anderson's "Hello Sucker!" special from HBO, I've been interested in bar bets and con games. Not that I'd ever want to try throwing the Monte myself, but just to lift a couple of drinks from my closest friends. Simon Lovell published a book to the lay public called "How to Cheat At Everything" that's got several nifty little betchas, but Diamond Jim Tyler has got a real winner in his "Bamboozlers".
This elegant little book is pocket-sized for your jaunt to the pub, along with a ribbon marker and gilded silver edges. There's dozens of bets in there that'll be sure to keep your pocket jingling with your buddies' change. You might want to pad it with some of their bills to keep the noise down.
My personal favorite is an impromptu liquid suspension using a drink that you see everyday.
I'm pretty sure most magicians have DRAWERS FULL of magical merchandise they do not use. Imagine owning a gaffed coin set which enables you to perform just about EVERY coin classic imaginable. This is it.
Make sure to watch the video demo for our new MIRAGE COIN SET. Yes, we've seen many of these routines before, but this is a one-stop-shop on gaff coin sets.
All in all, this is a great product! With Craig Petty's Mirage, 100's of routines are possible (the DVD shows you 7). The coin set is mega-gaffed and extremely useful. There's no way you're tossing this into your "magic dresser drawer".
Working magicians would appreciate the versatility. With MIRAGE, you're ready to perform coins across, hanging coins, matrix, and copper silver. The set is wonderfully produced and the DVD is jammed with moves, routines, and theory. Highly Recommended.
After a long time out of print, Meir Yedid has decided to reprint "Stars of Magic." This book features the true greats, like Tony Slydini, Dai Vernon, John Scarne, and Francis Carlyle, just to name a few. This book has been the foundation of truly dedicated students of sleight-of-hand magic. It has spawned the careers of many professionals working today, and sparked hundreds of applications and variations.
Here's the copy from Meir: If you have not read and learned the magic contained in this book you have no business calling yourself a close-up magician. The magic by John Scarne, Dai Vernon, Bert Allerton, S. Leo Horowitz, Emil Jarrow, Francis Carlyle, Dr. Jacob Daley, Tony Slydini, Ross Bertram, Nate Leipzig, and Max Malini helped shape the art of close-up magic as we know it.
Here's some video of Slydini himself performing the Paper Balls (found inside this book!)
Last week Tomas and I traveled to Manitowoc, Wisconsin for the annual Houdini Club of Wisconsin convention. Both Tomas and I lectured and performed on stage and close-up. I was fairly nervous, being my first convention booking, but Tomas was truly a pro.
My friends at Street of Cards were on hand to document the convention via web and video. They already posted video of Tomas' close-up set.
My lecture was the first event upon arrival on Friday. Having only lectured two other times before (and even then, in front of friendly hometown crowds), I was apprehensive on how it would be received. After all, the main items in my lecture are classics: things like the egg bag, cups and balls, and linking rings.
Fortunately, folks liked the blend of trick/explanation and theory that I offered. Kenn at SOC wrote this on their forum:
Classics are classics for a reason.
Ask John Sturk. His afternoon lecture featured three classics that John has made his own. He shared the routines and thinking that have made his brand of street performing a favorite all over the Midwest. No e-llusionist kid here. Sturk shared a style and philosophy that harkens more to Cellini and Gazzo and less to some other media phenoms.
Clean, crisp magic coupled with enthusiastic audience participation are the hallmarks of Sturk's performance. I hate him. He will always be younger.
That last part is tongue-in-cheek. Kenn is actually a good friend.
Friday and Saturday culminated in public evening shows. Tomas killed, as usual, with the Cigarette-Eating Act on Friday night. I was on Saturday's show. Tomas told me he was sitting near Marshall Brodien (of TV Magic Cards fame and Wizzo of The Bozo Show), who kept murmuring very positive comments during my act. I was flattered.
Then, after the evening show on Saturday, was the Houdini's Got Talent contest. Any conventioneer could participate with any kind of act, be it magic, ventriloquism, or anything else. I got up to play a little Duke Ellington on the piano, and took home the trophy. More flattery.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. I got to meet several of FUN Inc.'s customers, most of whom I usually talk to by phone. I also hope I inspired a few of the attendees to use one of my ideas, or adapt it to their own program.
Is there a single source, a single opinion you trust when it comes to reviews of new magic products?
In the last several weeks, we've posted links to and excerpts from a wide variety of reviewers here on the Fun Inc. blog.
My question is: which sources are the most trusted when it comes to product reviews? Websites? Chat/discussion boards and forums? Magazines?
I have my own answer to the question already, but won't cloud the discussion on this topic by posting my thoughts here. Let us hear from you. We'd like to know what you think!
We knew we had a winner with Boris Wild's Wild Poker Trick, but iTricks.com's Derek Merdinyan has confirmed it.
You can read and hear his review here, but here's my favorite part:
"As far as packet tricks go, I really want to commend Boris Wild and the crew at Fun Inc for putting out a packet trick that goes above and beyond what this humble magic reviewer has come to expect."
Fun Incorporated is America's largest manufacturer of magic tricks and novelties.
In business for over 70 years, Fun Inc. continues to produce venerable classic novelties like Talking Teeth and Whoops, the finest fake vomit on the market today, the Royal Magic line of tricks, and is a wholesaler distributer of thousands of other items.
As the newest member of the Fun Inc. team, I'll be hosting this blog, along with my colleagues Gabe Fajuri and Tomas Medina, writing about the newest products and latest happenings at the factory.
