Greetings from somewhere in the Atlantic ocean.

That’s me.

Engineering Tolerances

I want tricks, routines, shows, and to be honest, a life, with WIDE ENGINEERING TOLERANCES. I want to avoid having to metaphorically thread the needle. Why? Because sometimes needle threading has to happen when someone is bumping your elbow and you’ve left your reading glasses at home. Threading a needle has narrow engineering tolerances.

I’ll pass on the needle threading if I can. Instead, I want to throw a tennis ball down a wide hallway. I can do that blind folded and half asleep. Throwing a tennis ball down a hallway has a wide engineering tolerance.

I’ve insisted on wide engineering tolerances in my work for a very long time. Wide engineering tolerances in performance come from making the right choices in routines, methods, and scripts.

That insistence is the reason I created Reign Man for my show. Too many magicians flub the simple math of a magic square — because even that math can be a NARROW engineering tolerance. Reign Man makes the magic square bullet proof.

Performing with a wide engineering tolerances gives the show a built-in safety net.

Which brings me to the next tip about set lists …

A Better Set List

If you’re performing your show, while it’s perfectly fine to have a set list, you shouldn’t need a set list. One routine flows into another.

But sometime you’re not performing your show. You’re doing your new show. Or your semi-new show. Or, you’re splitting up your material into two separate shows, resulting in an order you have never done before. Then a set list is a helpful safety net to have just in case.

One downside of set lists: if you’re a variety artist, they’re best if they are not noticed by the audience. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel they can look a little tacky if obvious. If you have my FREE ebook, The Stage Magic Emergency Handbook, you already know of one way to conceal a set list. Here’s another.

For most of us, a set list ends up being a white notecard with black writing. While that’s fine, compare it to this.

It’s a black card written on with a white pen. Black card stock blends in better on a stage than white card stock. Most of the places might we might put a set list — on a case, on the floor, on a table — offer more camouflage to black card stock than white.¹

I admit, this isn’t a huge enormous game changer of a tip, but it has an economy to it that I really like. For the price of a white pen, black note cards, or cutting up a sheet of black card stock, you get a little increase the the efficiency of your show’s safety net.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

¹ The idea of using black cards with white ink was shared by a cruise ship comic on a comedian FB group. He said he saw variety acts on ships doing it. I said, “I’m a variety act on ships. I’ve not seen this and I think it’s great!” So now it’s yours.

PS #1: There are few things that will widen the engineering tolerance of your show than having a show that packs in one case. My new book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention is currently SOLD OUT, so make sure you subscribe to my newsletter to get news of the next printing.

PS #2 You could drive a truck through the engineering tolerances my routines. Three examples: Reign Man, the KING of All Magic Square Routines and MAWEEGE and Corn Hole Zero.

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On September 14, 2021 I was sitting on a couch in my home and checking Twitter on my laptop. I saw the name of Norm MacDonald come up on the right side of the home screen. I wondered why he’d be trending. Norm MacDonald had passed away. 

I confess that when most celebrities die it has little if any effect on me. But Norm? I felt like I was kicked in the chest. Felt numb for a few days. I know you and I probably don’t know each other, but trust me, that kind of response is not typical for me. I’m fairly stoic in these matters. But this? Norm? Yes. Numb is the word. It was more than the loss of a great artist. His personal humility came through his work. And there were moments when his humanity showed through, as when he was reduced to tears in his final performance on the Letterman show. 

Wait. That’s cliche and Norm deserves better. He wasn’t reduced. If anything, his tears elevated that moment. Expanded it. These weren’t the tears of someone who self-indulgently blabbers private matters every day on TV. These were the tears of a master craftsman who was expressing gratitude and honor to someone who had inspired him as a teenager. These were the tears of a man who, unknown to all but a few close to him, had acute leukemia for several years. He hadn’t shared it publicly, as he feared it would “affect the way he was perceived.”

Yes, leukemia. Imagine that. Keeping a private matter private. In an age where people puke the most inappropriate details of their lives on social media. All hail Norm. 

Contrast Norm MacDonald not revealing his health problems with magicians making up false sentimentality to tell with a snowstorm performance. One keeps private matters private. The other attempts to create a fake intimacy to share with an audience, many of whom know it’s fake intimacy. So it’s a layer of fake on a layer of fake looked at through fake glass lenses. 

Watch Norm’s two Netflix specials. They both begin with the jokes. There is no “let’s introduce the star” skit stuff at the beginning. They get right to the work at hand — the work of entertaining an audience, not the self-indulgence of pseudo-star crap many acts do. 

Magicians like to say “I made the trick my own.” OK. Sure. Good for them. Now look what Norm did to a shaggy dog story like the moth joke. He made it an all time comedy classic. Same with the doghouse joke, which I can remember hearing as a kid. Too many times magicians equate “making it their own” with “I’ve learned to competently do the lines that everyone else does.” 

Look at the leanness of this joke from a Letterman appearance:

 “Yeah, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy the more I don’t care for him.”

Followed by a strong ten second laugh. I’ve often thought that Norm doing that line is the perfect joke. It’s all punchline with the delivery itself being the setup. 

Want some inspiration for how a quick magic trick could be transformed into a longer, tour de force magic routine? Watch Norm do his Janice routine on his first Netflix special. A TWELVE MINUTE chunk of laugh after laugh ending perfectly. It’s brilliant. 

Dave Chappelle joked about how being canceled wasn’t all that bad after the reaction to his Netflix special, The Closer. When I heard his response I thought, “Well, it is easier to forget about being canceled when your net worth is about $50 million.” I think his retirement fund will probably be OK. This is not a putdown of Chappelle, rather it’s an assessment of the risks taken or not taken. 

Now look at Norm. When he was told to stop doing OJ Simpson jokes on SNL he did more. And he was fired from SNL. And he wasn’t worth anywhere near $50 million. Don Ohlmeyer, an NBC suit, told him “he wasn’t funny.” The next season Norm was invited back to host the show and addressed his firing head-on in his opening monologue. It’s brilliant. It’s fearless.  It’s hilarious. 

I have posted a few times on Facebook the comment, “One just does not watch a single Norm MacDonald YouTube video. Nope. Watch one and prepare to block out a few hours of time.” Thousands have had the realization. He was a once in a lifetime talent. More important than that, from everything I’ve ever read about him (and, yeah, I’m a fan and have read much) he was a good and decent man. 

Requiescat in pace.

Woofle Dust is what I call posts with no unifying theme, other than it’s some stuff I’d think would be helpful for you to consider. For you youngsters out there, woofle dust was once a popular presentational conceit of dubious efficacy. Have something hidden in your right hand you want to ditch while your left hand holds the thingamajig? Then reach inside your right pocket, ditch the doohickey, and come out and mime sprinkling woofle dust on the thingamajig.

Yep. Parts of Tarbell (both the book and the author) didn’t age that well, either.

A Tale of Tardiness Terror!!

For a season at a festival I shared a stage with an act that consistently ran OVER time. It was nearly twenty years ago, but the memory remains.

My stage, as well as every stage at the festival, was on a thirty minute grid. Each stage had three acts who cycled throughout the festival day, doing four shows each.

Throughout the festival, slightly before the half hour marks, the lanes would fill with patrons looking for the next show to watch.

At the same time, performers on the stages would begin hawking their shows to the lanes, encouraging patrons to join them. That is, every performer except me, because I had the bad fortune to follow, well, names aren’t necessary. He would regularly end his show five minutes late. So when he ended the show and I got on stage, the traffic in the lanes had ceased, making my job of hawking like making bricks without straw.

I told him about this.
I warned him about this.
During the festival run he and many others came to my home for a party. At my home he asked to borrow a shirt because he had not brought one to change into after the festival day. So of course, I lent it to him.
The next day the Putz still wouldn’t end his act on time …while he had food from my home in his belly and the shirt off my back.

*Sigh*

To be clear, I still ended MY act on time. Why? I thought to myself, “The virus ends with me.”

It was twenty years ago and I’m still amazed at the lack of professionalism from this guy. In the weeks after that run I asked others in the festival market if they knew him, and all, without prompting, mentioned his lateness and performer disrespecting ways.

Oh, I saw his act. Surprise — cutting ten minutes would not have hurt.

No, I’m not bitter. Why do you ask?
This leads into the next helpful gizmo:

Good = Go Over.
Bad = Go Overtime

A small device that takes up a small amount space and helps a performer be more professional.

Finishing your show at the right time is so critical.
Too short? Your client can feel ripped off.
Too long? Oh, that can be even worse! You’ve delayed the awards ceremony, or the speech from the Big Kahuna. You’ve delayed the staff from getting home to their kids – or babysitter. Or you’ve taken time away from the headliner. Or (shutters) you’ve kept the audience from getting back to those slot machines!

Years ago you’d think I was bitten by a radioactive stopwatch. Like Peter Parker has a spidey-sense, I had a timey-sense. When I was doing my stand up act I could wrap it up on time within 60 seconds. Goal was forty-five minutes. Not forty-seven. Not forty-three. A minute variance either way.

One cause for the loss of timey-sense, I theorize, was the shutdown of 2020-2021. Another cause is my act has become increasingly conversational and interactive. As I discussed in the blog posts leading up to the release of MAWEEGE, magic that opens up interaction with the audience can be a comedy goldmine. To be honest, I like goldmines, and if I have an opportunity to go in one, I’m going in. If that means I have to adjust a little on the backend to stay within the time, I’ll do it nine times out of ten.

So now, my timey-sense is not as reliable. So I always have one of these in my case. An inexpensive timer, sold in pairs, because two is one and one is none.

The timer makes my mining for gold safe.

I can’t stand this meme.

Its roots are in a graphic design meme about colors. You can get the history lesson here. Thanks go to Ryan Pilling, friend, magician, and definitely not an axe murderer, for finding the history on this.

Yes, I get this meme is literally saying the differences between card magic plots *might* blur in laymen’s minds, and that’s a fine and fair enough statement to make, but that’s not how it’s used amongst our tribe.

It’s usually shared as a way to disrespect, disregard, or belittle card tricks or someone’s effort with card tricks. You know, someone posts a video of a card trick they’re working on, often a variation of a classic. Then someone¹ comments with this meme. I hate that. Here’s why:

Not all the great card tricks have been invented. Imagine it’s 1942. Your buddy, Paul Curry, shows you his new trick where the spectator separates the cards into reds and blacks. As Facebook hasn’t been invented yet, you’re forced to go to your car and take out an oil painting of the meme we’re discussing. Curry sees it. Curry gives up magic. Because of you, he goes from out of this world to out of this art form. Congrats, Captain Sarcasm, you’ve saved the art from the burden of progress! But, you got to make snark points, so it’s worth it.

I freakin’ love good card tricks. The first very real sleight of hand move I learned over forty years ago was the glimpse from page 24 of Henry Hay’s Amateur Magician’s Handbook. We go way back. The journey to good card magic has many failures along the way and those failures don’t benefit from snark.

I make a big chunk of my living from, you guessed it, card tricks. My stand up act of 45-50 minutes is six tricks. Three of them are card tricks. At the end of the day, I hate the way this meme is used because my own work has shown it to be BS.

Finally, wasn’t the rona shutdown rough enough on showbiz? We can stop being schmucks with each other. I’m not a fan of mindless, harsh online behavior, especially within the magic community. Is this meme the worst of it? Certainly not. I address it here because it’s all too frequent, all too dumb, and this is my website. Am I writing in a ticked off mood? Well, let’s go to our next story …

If you haven’t bought Matt’s book yet …

…now would be a good time. Matt Disero’s The Fog Machine Of War has become an instant classic of comedy magic road life. And at the risk of sounding presumptuous, it’s a great companion read to The Show Is The Mother Of Invention.

Keep in mind, I plug Matt’s book sincerely, as I don’t make a dime from it, and neither does Matt. The money goes to Academia Boliviana de Magia e Ilusionismo, a magic school for children in Bolivia. From Matt’s site: Check out their Facebook page; they do incredible work. It’s a really cool project started by Mago Byron and Maria Schwieter.

BREAKING NEWS NEXT WEEK:
My New Book On Kids Magic

I’m not going to say much about it now, other than …
1. It’s coming out very soon.
2. It will be useful for you if you’ve done zero kid shows or 1,000
3. And, yes, it’s deeply rooted in my “pack small, play big, and live large” philosophy.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

¹To be clear, this is not true of EVERY time this meme is posted …probably.

PS #1: If you’d like to learn to pack small and play HUGE to the back of the room, order my new book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention. As of September 7, 2023, the first printing is almost sold out with only SEVEN books left. Act now!

PS #2 If you’re looking for a great packs small plays huge routines that uses cards and will crush in the same show , check out Reign Man, the KING of All Magic Square Routines and MAWEEGE. (For some reason, probably a Facebook post I’m not aware of, now both of these have been moving off the shelves much faster than normal.)

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Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster dancing to Putting On The Ritz is a comedy classic scene in a movie that’s a comedy classic. Just mentioning it brings to mind Peter Boyle’s garbled cry, “Puttonoj unnhhnn ritzsss” 

Gene Wilder wrote that scene. Mel Brooks did not want it in the movie, as he thought it was too silly. They fought over it. Brooks said they almost came to blows over it. Brooks, seeing Wilder’s conviction, said, “OK. I’ll put it in the screen test. But if one person says it’s silly or stupid; it’s out.” 

The screen test happens and the dance number kills. Brooks said, “The audience went crazy. And I said, Gene I apologize. You’re absolutely right. It’s the funniest thing in the whole movie.” 

Even comedy geniuses make mistakes, but they know the bottom line is what the audience thinks. Brooks wasn’t afraid to get this bit in front of an audience to test it.

We need to do the same. Sure, most of our ideas won’t be putting on the Ritz quality, but some might. Don’t dismiss your inner Gene Wilder. The only way we know if a trick, joke, bit, dancing monster, whatever, is good is to get them in front of an audience and test.

Sandwich that new bit between two old dependable ones.
Take the risk of a new bit, because stagnation is far worse.

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BREAKING NEWS:
My New Book On Kids Magic

I’m not going to say much about it now, other than …
1. It’s coming out very soon.
2. It will be useful for you if you’ve done zero kid shows or 1,000
3. And, yes, it’s deeply rooted in my “pack small, play big, and live large” philosophy.

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Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

PS #1: Be sure to check out the 2023 Labor Day Sales on Reign Man, Maweege, and MonkeyShines. Save up to FIFTY SMACKERS COMBINED!

PS #2: If you’d like to learn to pack small and play HUGE to the back of the room, order my new book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention. As of August 31, 2023, the first printing is almost sold out with only about less than 20 books left. Act now!

PS#3 If you’re looking for a great packs small plays huge routine that are NO RISK, check out Reign Man, the KING of All Magic Square Routines! (For some reason, probably a Facebook post I’m not aware of, these have been moving off the shelves much faster than normal.)

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Woofle Dust is what I call posts with no unifying theme, other than it’s a bunch of good stuff I’d think would be helpful for you to know about. For you youngsters out there, woofle dust was once a popular presentational conceit of dubious efficacy. Have something hidden in your right hand you want to ditch while your left hand holds the thingamajig? Then reach inside you right pocket, ditch the doohickey, and come out and mime sprinkling woofle dust on the thingamajig.

Yep. Parts of Tarbell (both the book and the author) didn’t age that well, either.

Hair Ties > Rubber Bands

I’m not talking about rubber band magic, so calm down Joe Rindfleisch. I’m talking about using hair ties instead of rubber band for binding purposes, like the tossed out deck.

From my experience, hair bands last longer, don’t dry out, don’t break unexpectedly, and stay looking clean and neat. They fit in well with my “set it and forget it” prop mentality. Here’s an Amazon link for a near lifetime supply. Try it.

Ryan Pilling Is Not An Axe Murderer

But he does create some very interesting magic. I recently purchased his Square Hole routine. I haven’t yet cracked the nut on what I will do with it, but I am near certain there is something there. Something pretty special, at that. Check that out and other stuff in his store. He’s worthy of your attention.

And just to be clear, as far as I now, Ryan Pilling is (probably) not an axe murderer.

The Appropriate Amount Of Egg Safety

I occasionally do a trick with an egg. In my prop case I carry two eggs. One to use. One for back up. Here’s the challenge: how to safely troupe two raw eggs?

Most magicians use one of the egg carriers made for camping. (On an unrelated to magic note: exactly who are these people camping with eggs?) Most of these carriers are made for SIX eggs, so magicians end up with a carrier that unnecessarily big or altering the egg carrier. I mean, if I need FIVE back up eggs in my case for a one egg trick, it’s time to find a new line of work. Is the bomb squad hiring?

Imagine my happy-happy-joy-joy when I found this bad boy. The perfect egg carrier for magicians. TWO eggs. One for show. One back up. Click on the pic to get one. The page even has a video for readers who are more visual egg learners.

BREAKING NEWS:
My New Book On Kids Magic

I’m not going to say much about it now, other than …
1. It’s coming out very soon.
2. It will be useful for you if you’ve done zero kid shows or 1,000
3. And, yes, it’s deeply rooted in my “pack small, play big, and live large” philosophy.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

PS: If you’d like to learn to pack small and play HUGE to the back of the room, order my new book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention. As of August 31, 2023, the first printing is almost sold out with only about less than 20 books left. Act now!

PS#2 If you’re looking for a great packs small plays huge routine, check out Reign Man, the KING of All Magic Square Routines! (For some reason, probably a Facebook post I’m not aware of, these have been moving off the shelves much faster than normal.)

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Shortly after my book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention, How to Pack Small, Play Big and Live Large came from the printer I realized I could have added one more strategy for playing big from a carryon case. And I kicked myself because it’s something I use in my own work nearly every show.

So I’ll talk about it here.

It packs small.

It is invisible until it’s used.

In fact, it doesn’t need to be packed, as once you have it you have a hard time getting rid of it.

It’s called SKILL.

Skill is what turns a small prop like a deck of cards into an impressive manip¹ segment.

To put more of a point on this, I’m not talking about the kind of skill that goes unseen, like our magic secrets. I’m talking about a particular skill subset and type of routines where the audience openly can appreciate our skill.

When a magician performs a solid book test, the audience may be baffled, but there’s usually not a perception of this kind of skill. The audience is simply amazed.

But …

When a magician performs a well routined card manip segment or …

a juggling type routine like the hoop and glass routine or …

a memory routine (mental skill) or …

a magic square — see Reign Man (more mental skill) …

the magician is showing skill.

In his fantastic lecture notes, the late Denny Haney talked about the placement of a manip piece in his show. He mentioned how he went from opening with a manip routine to following the example of Johnny Aladdin. He performed his manip segment later in his show, after his opener and audience participation routines. He wrote, “This was the formula for the club date act I would follow all my life.”

After following Denny’s advice and performing a skill piece late in my show I noticed an additional benefit. The audience’s appreciation for the skill I displayed was much greater because they already knew me and already like me. All because I listened to Denny. Denny was so great.

This has crossover value to pack big & play big goals, because few things pack smaller than skill.

Additionally, few things give you more bang for your buck on stage than skill. In close up magic, skill is something that is more easily displayed. Even the easiest cutting to the aces routine can get a response of “I wouldn’t want to play cards with you.” The perception of skill gets the performer beyond the crass assumption of “it’s just a trick” that might be in some spectator’s minds.

On stage, a skill piece accomplishes that same thing. Plus, if sold correctly, like any other routine it can share part of the performer’s personality. Denny Haney introduced his manip segment with a memory of watching the Ed Sullivan Show as a kid. This introduction gave the audience a glimpse into Denny’s personality and provided motivation for the manip routine. In his hands, it was more than “watch me show off.” It was “let me share something that is special to me and I’m sure it will be special to you.”

Bottom Line: A skill routine can pack small, play impressive, and add more variety and more you to a show.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

PS: If you’d like to learn many, many MORE ways to pack small and play HUGE to the back of the room, order my new book, The Show Is The Mother Of Invention. As of August 28, 2023, the first printing is almost sold out with only about 20 books left. Act now!

PS#2 If you’re looking for a great packs small plays huge SKILL routine, check out Reign Man, the KING of All Magic Square Routines!

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¹More formally, a manipulation routine, but I’ve always used and heard the term “manip” when talking with other magicians, so that’s what I’ll use here.

Last Saturday I performed my show at a church marriage conference in my town. About 100 couples were present for a day of speakers talking about how to have a better marriage. Understandably, that discussion can be on the heavy side. I was brought in as tension-easing comic relief at the midway point, right after lunch.¹

Two days later on Monday morning I was leaving the gym after a workout and someone comes up to me and says, “Are you Doc?”

I replied, “Yes, just a much more fatigued, post-workout version.” Then I recognized her. “Oh, you were in the show Saturday. You and your husband Tim were great!”

We chatted for a few minutes and she was very complimentary about my show. “Sunday morning EVERYBODY was talking about what a great time they had and how funny you were.” (Don’t worry, Dear Reader. The self-aggrandizement will end soon. There’s a point to this.) She continued:

“But before the show, so many of us were like (accompanied by a brutal eye roll) — Ugh. What? A magician?!? But you were great!”

It’s that brutal eye roll I want to talk about.
How does a performer overcome
the pre-show brutal eye roll?

When people hear the entertainment for an event is going to be a magician, they frequently think, “This is going to suck.”

I didn’t like typing that, but it’s true. Why? Let me do a brain dump of possible spectator thoughts, opinions, assumptions, and experiences:

magic is a kid thing …magic is cheesy …magic isn’t funny…they saw a cheesy magician once …or eight times …it’s going to be sequins and boas …more cheesy
…possible big hair …pretentiousness …corny jokes …spectator embarrassment …it’ll be boring …dumb, non-deceptive tricks …goofy looking props

I’m sure there are more reasons, but that hurt me enough while writing it.

So what can we do to take them from “this guy sucks” to “this guy rocks” as quickly as possible?

Give the client some pre-show tools to share with the audience. A great sizzle reel can do wonders. Does this mean the audience will watch it? Of course not. In fact, most won’t, but you gotta still try, boss.

Don’t dress like a dork. (Yes, that’s blunt.) How this is defined will vary with performer and venue. An 8pm theater show would probably have more wardrobe leeway than a noon gathering of baptists or accountants. Much of the audience’s fear of cheesiness can be cancelled out with wardrobe.

You open well before the show starts. Dressing rooms are great, and the next time I have one I’ll be sure to tell you about it. For many gigs the audience sees me before the show begins, so I take advantage of that time to chat with several of them like, you know, a normal, non-cheesy human being.

A good introduction helps. Have a few nifty credits that might impress the non-magic public? Those could help your introduction.

Open with you, not magic. I confess, I’ve never understood the appeal of what our tribe calls the flash opening.² Sure, Copperfield came down on the magic elevator, but a Vegas showroom is a long way from a meeting room in Orlando, or a church in Georgia. My preference is to make selling them on me job one. I don’t actually magish until a few minutes into the show.

Get a strong laugh within seconds. Then get more laughs for several minutes.

When you start doing magic, kill. Make it strong. Establish your strong amazement bona fides on the first strike.

Have a script. Deliver it. I think it’s nearly impossible to over rehearse the first few minutes of an act. It’s the golden time when the audience decides whether you’re good or bad (cheesy). Don’t pepper that time with hemming, hawing, awkward pauses.

Be alert for adlib gold and deliver. At the risk of contradicting the last point, sometimes a situation gives you some prize gems and you gotta go for it.

Example: in the marriage conference I mentioned at the beginning of this post the men were dressed casually, as in no jackets, mostly collared shirts, and a few T shirts. One of the husbands was wearing this shirt:

He was wearing a pro-sarcasm shirt at a conference promoting marital communication.
I. Love. This. Guy.

I riffed on it for half a minute early in the show. Good times.

Finally, regardless of how you deal with it expectations of cheesiness, know that those expectations could be there.

Two final points:
One, this was an odd post for me to write. Why? I’m confident in my work, but unless a magician is a egocentric jackwagon³, it feels odd to say “I killed” in a public forum like a blog for other magicians. Ugh. Don’t worry. Future posts will soon return to self-loathing, insecurity, and, you know, the stuff that makes an artist grow. HA!

Two, this is how I deal with it. It’s not how you have to deal with it, but however you deal with it, you will have to deal with it. Knowing is half the battle.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

PS: While you’re here, check out the store. These routines definitely don’t suck.

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¹ Catered by Chick-Fil-A. Yes, I live in Georgia.

² Exception: the flash opening of the great Paul Kozak back in his comedy club days. In defense of my preference, his flash opening was 50% flash and 100% cajones. You can find video of it online, but to see it live, as I did several times, was a thing of beauty …Closer your eyes – BOOM – Told you so!

³ Be honest — AT LEAST four different magicians came to your mind when you read that.
Like ____ _______ and ______ ________.

Would You Try Not To Bleed On People, Please?

It will happen. You will get cut on stage. I don’t know how it will happen, but it will. An unexpected sharp edge on a prop, an exposed nail, whatever, and BAM, you’re bleeding. It won’t be bad enough to cause you to scream “it’s just a flesh wound” with a British accent, but it will be enough that it needs to be bandaged immediately so you can move on with the show. 

SOLUTION: Have a bandaid at the ready. Have a few. Keep them in your wallet, prop case or any place that is quickly and easily accessible

What, First The Bleeding, And Now Mucus?!

Thankfully my awesome bodily fluid series is ending with this entry, so let’s finish it big with a truth bomb:

There will come a time on stage where you will have to blow your nose.

SOLUTION: Always have a handkerchief in your pocket. 

Better to blow your nose than repeated sniffles, or even worse, well, that’s just too gross to type, so just blow your nose.

Road Story: That’s Just Too Gross To Type

Well, here we are.

I was performing the miser’s dream in an elementary school assembly, concluding the routine with the classic bit of the coins coming out of the kids’ nose. 

Don’t get ahead of me. 

The kid blows — I mean actually blows — out her nose and …

IF YOU’RE READING THIS WHILE EATING, PLEASE SIGN THIS WAIVER.

…and a footlong string of mucus comes out of her nose and hangs there. 

I am embarrassed to say I just froze. Froze. Me. The guy that got the nickname Doc from working as an EMT on an ambulance as a teen. The guy who gave aid to car accident victims, assault victims, murder victims (Wow, Doc. Rough neighborhood much?) just froze. 

Thankfully, after about two seconds …two super long seconds …a teacher raced up on stage with a tissue. 

Epilogue (Thank you, Quinn Martin): I was booked back for the next year.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

PS: While you’re here , check out the store. This tricks are nothing to sneeze at. (See what I did there?), feel free to check out the store:

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In an effort to share some close-up magic and Every Day Carry (EDC) love, here’s a variation on a Roth/Slydini routine I’ve done for a million years.

In the original routine, a half dollar (or for EDC, a quarter would be fine) vanishes and reappears several times, then transforms into a jumbo coin as it lands on a spectator’s palm.

Here’s the great coin master David Roth performing it. One difference is he does the large coin appearance in his hands, not the spectator’s hand.

My EDC version:

Coins are something I carry every day. A jumbo coin? Not so much.

As you might expect from a guy that wrote a book on packing small, playing big, and living large, I’m not a fan of carrying a bunch of extra stuff in my pockets just for the chance of EDC amazement. So if not a jumbo coin, what??

I want the coin to transform into that is:
1) the right size
2) makes theatrical sense
3) is something I usually carry

I use my wallet.*

The scripting is simple enough, as this routine is fun, quick eye candy, not Atlas Shrugged. “Fifty cents here. Gone. Fifty cents. Fifty cents. (Wallet) Fifty bucks.”

For deception’s sake, try not to put your wallet in the same pocket you stole it from. And to be clear, this works with a hip pocket wallet, not the larger wallets, like the classic Seabrooke or Kaps wallets.

If you want to learn the Roth routine, track down a copy of David Roth’s Expert Coin Technique by Richard Kaufman. I’m sure there are other sources on video, but my copy of the book was literally 12 inches from me as I typed this post.

Until Next Time,

Doc Dixon

*Recent change after having gone wallet-less. I use a wad of bills folded in half in a bill clip.

PS: While you’re here and you have your wallet out (See what I did there?), feel free to check out the store:

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In this blog I talk a ton about the power of audience interaction, but I never want to give the impression that the interaction road isn’t one without the occasional pothole or detour. And so when you perform one of the Dixon Magic routines, like Maweege or CHZ, it helps to make the interaction pothole tolerant.

Here’s a technique to deal with one of those potholes.

Sometimes people interrupt your show with remarks and those remarks are funny
Sadly, this will often encourage them to say something else later in the show that is not funny. With this in mind, I give you …

The Kobyashi Maru¹ technique.

Audience member says something funny.
You: “Now that’s the way to heckle. It added to the show. Thank you. (Though this states the obvious, the observation and particularly the “thank you” will get a laugh.) But let me caution you. Your success may prompt you to comment aloud again and that comment may not be funny, creating …the awkward pause.” (See previous parenthetical insertion.)

One of two things can happen if the spectator comments again.

One, the second comment is funny. Everyone wins, as your show just got a bonus funny moment.

Two, the second comment is obviously not funny. Then all you have to do is look at the audience and shrug with a “see what I mean” expression. Now the audience laughs, resulting in another funny moment. Either way, everybody wins.

It’s important to remember, this technique, at least when I’ve done it, does not come off as mean. Rather, it’s perceived as playful teasing. I don’t use it that often, maybe once every two to three years, but it’s nice tool to have in comedy toolbox.

Best,

Doc Dixon

PS Now that you are ready with the power of Kobyashi Maru, keep it next to these routines and you’re double ready.

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PS#2: While you’re here, be my guest and check out the store:

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¹ It’s a Star Trek reference. Google is your friend.