Magic Roadshow

Hi All

Welcome to another issue of the Magic Roadshow. If this is your first visit I want to take a moment to 'Thank You' for signing up. I hope you find something in every issue to improve your performance and make you a better magician, street magic performer, mentalist, or whatever you specialty..

Take a look to your left and you should see a little 'vote' box. Voting let's me know your favorite type of magic to -perform-, and I will try to offer something special for performers of that type of magic. It helps me select content for the Roadshow. I've learned that I can't depend on my idea of what's most popular among Roadshow readers. Just when I THINK I know, I'm proven wrong. That's why good marketers always test, test, and then test some more. You can't trust your instinct when it comes to the public's likes and dislikes..

Remember, if you have any Comments, Complaints, Rants or Raves.. EMAIL ME

I don't ask you guys for much, but I would like for you to go to Martins Magic 'Top 100 Magic Websites' and vote for StreetMagic.info. I want to get our site in the top 10. We are currently #30 in the world, and moving up fast. There's no obligation and nothing to fill out. You just go to your favorite websites and click the 'vote' button beside it, and your vote is tallied.. http://www.martinsmagic.com/?html=top100

Thanks a Million!

Special note... I just got this from our buddy, Jay Sankey. Please read and respond and lets help Jay out. He does so much for magic that we can't afford NOT to help..

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Hey Guys,

Jay Sankey

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"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey,"
RIP... Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008)

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APPEARING STRAW - Effect

TRICK: The magician rolls up his sleeves and shows his hands front and back. He then makes a fist with his left hand and magically pulls a drinking straw from it with his right hand.
This looks amazing, but the secret method is a little noisy. Luckily most restaurants or bars are noisy to begin with, thus the background ambient chatter should muffle the slight noise made from this effect.

SECRET: Slyly obtain one of the restaurant's drinking straws and make your way to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, remove the paper from the straw and slit it along its length with something sharp like a knife or a pair of scissors (Fig. 1). Don't use a clear straw for this production. Try to find one that is colored or better yet the kind with stripes. Regardless, make the cut one long straight line if possible.

If someone walks into the men's room and gives you a funny look while you are doing this, simply wave your knife at them and they will most likely leave you alone. Proceed by rolling up the straw into a rolled position as in Figure 2.

Walk out of the bathroom and approach your table with the rolled up straw concealed between your first finger and thumb of your left hand (Fig. 3). If you keep your left hand's first finger and thumb pinched tightly around the rolled up straw, you will be able to show both hand's empty before producing it.

When ready to make it appear, simply make a fist with your left hand. Grab one end of it with your right hand and slowly, but dramatically, pull it from your left fist (Fig. 4). This really looks cool! It makes a little noise while it is unrolling, but it truly looks to be whole and normal.

If you'll take a few straws with you, then you can prepare them in the privacy of your own home. Then you can wrap rubber bands around them to keep them wound up and throw them in your pocket when you are ready for a night out on the town.

To order Diamond Jim Tyler's new book - BAMBOOZLERS: The Bankable Book of Bar Betchas, Brain Bogglers, Belly Busters & Bewitchery, visit.. http://www.diamond-jim.com/originals
The book is 128 pages measuring 3 by 5 inches with black faux leather binding, silver gilded edges, a black ribbon marker, over 100 illustrations and features 75 bits of business. $20 US + S&H.

Editors note.. I have been playing around with this effect for several days and I can attest that it works. With a little practice, you can make the straw appear from your nose, your mouth, a matchbox.. you can even pull it out your - ear. You cannot use the same straw over and over, as the gap will widen and the illusion will not work. Practice. RC

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What is a Corporate Entertainer?

I recently was discussing with a colleague, who is developing an entertainer's directory, about the term corporate entertainer. She tells stories about some entertainers who are insisting they be classified as a Corporate Entertainer. "It doesn't matter what type of entertainment they are – Speaker, MC, DJ, face painter, magician, etc, they all want to be lumped in to this category – 'Corporate Entertainment'" she said. Which made me think about the term "corporate entertainer"?

What is a corporate entertainer? Wikipedia defines corporate entertainer as relating to private events held by corporations or businesses for their staff, clients or stockholders. These events can be for retreats, Christmas parties or even private concerts. Does that mean a corporate entertainer is for adults only, like a trade show, hospitality suite or business meetings? What is a company picnics, holiday parties or grand openings to name a few, which are corporate events aimed at kids.

Doesn't a corporation hire you to work these events? Do corporate entertainers only work for corporations? If a company is a LLC, Sole Proprietorship or a Non-Profit Corporation would a dedicated corporate entertainer turn down the job? Is a corporate entertainer really a figment of an entertainer's imagination or just an ego boost saying I'm better than kid's birthday parties?

One can argue that a corporate event will pay more than a private. But I have seen lavish, over the top birthday parties, Bar mitzvahs and wedding to contradict that statement. I have worked with fortune 500 companies that can be more demanding, take 30 day to pay and want the invoice in tripilicate.

Are entertainers, who claim they are corporate entertainer's, saying "I don't entertain kids", and are afraid to be classified as adult entertainment? Being classified as adult entertainment caries a negative stigma associated with the term; so did entertainers create the term Corporate Entertainment to avoid the negative stigma?

Are company employees really googling "Corporate Entertainer" or are they googling the type of entertainment they are seeking. If I'm looking for a plumber I google "Plumber" -- in the Yellow Pages you look under plumbing not Corporate Plumbing.

The point I'm making is if you're going to list yourself in a directory, list yourself under the service(s) you're providing. Magician should list under Magic. Get the people to call or email you about your service or direct them to your website which explains your "type" of entertainment. If you don't do kids events than say adult business entertainment – the directory listing is a tool to direct people to your specific advertisement. Otherwise, people are going to miss your directory listing because you've listed in the wrong category.

Make it easy for "corporate" to find the type of entertainment they seek and once found, let your advertisement define and sell your entertainment.

Magical Balloon-dude Dale, Master Balloonist...
He's not your normal dog-making, heart-giving, sword-handing, balloon animal-making entertainer. His balloon animals are the coolest on the web and it's like going to the zoo.

Balloon Entertainment at its Best! http://www.mbd2.com
 

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Free Trick Thursday

Did you know Pubtricks offers one of it's array of video effects for free every Thursday? They do.. and all you have to do to take advantage of it is visit the url below on Thursday to see what they are offering. They claim to offer effects at random, which means some of their best sellers are included in the give-away.

Thanks to David Lynn for the heads up..

http://www.pubtricks.com/freedownloads.php

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Playing Card Collectors

Our friend, TheCuso, has started a new site and forum dedicated to playing card collectors. Not only does he furnish information on where to find exclusive decks, but also links to auction sales featuring desirable decks.

I particularly like the review section of his forum and all the thoughts offered by the readers. I have my own favorites, for sure, and I enjoy reading what others think of my favorites.

And if you're a collector, readers are posting links to collectables and/or unique cards they have found at other locations. Although Cuso's site is new, I think you will find something to interest you if, like me, you're a collector. ( I have hundreds of decks from around the world.. )

http://www.playingcardcollectors.com/

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Andertoons - Unique Card Sets

As I mentioned, I love unique cards.. and Mark Anderson loves to posts pics of unique cards.

Needless to say, I visit often to see what he's found. Mark lives in Chicago with, as his site describes - "his wife, their children, two cats, a dog and several dust bunnies."
 
Check out particularly the pin-up cards, featuring classic drawings of sexy women. All the cards are, at best, PG rated..

Being a well-respected cartoonist, Mark also has a nice collection of playing cards featuring cartoon characters. Many are from the 40's and 50's, I'd say, and also feature a type of art exclusive to the era. I only wish I had giant prints of some of these cards.. my office woud get a wall-papering..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andertoons-cartoons/sets/

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Create Playing Cards Photos in Photoshop

Follow this free step by step, in-depth Photoshop tutorial to design your own playing card images without photography. This site has pages of illustrator tutorials & ImageReady tutorials.

Follow the step-by-step tutorials and start creating great looking Photoshop drawings, animations, buttons, designs, drawings, effects, photo retouching, scripting, text effects, textures, web graphics and web layouts.

http://www.tutorialallstar.com/photoshop/drawing/playing-cards/

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Your Face on Playing Card - Generator

Create your own personalized playing card with YOUR face on the face cards.. Free. This online generator will let you upload a picture from your computer and manipulate it into just the right position. Everything is straight-forward and web based, to keep your computer uncluttered. Work online and download only the finished product..

http://www.festisite.com/cardgame/

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Making Custom Card Boxes

Elliott C. Evans, webmaster at 'Making Custom Card Boxes' ask:
"Why do some games come in those annoying double-wide packages? Why do some games come in boxes that are fragile or don't stay closed? Is there any alternative to those stupid plastic baseball card boxes or rubber bands? What do I do if I expand my deck so that it no longer fits in the original box? What do I do if the box my cards came in distintegrates? What do I do if the cards came in a big envelope instead of a box?"

Elliott has answered his own questions by creating a nice site devoted to making your own custom card boxes. PDF Templates are provided for making either regular boxes or bridge sized. You could easily use Photoshop or something similar to create your own custom boxes with your picture, logo, or design.

A link is provided for creating your own custom size box, up to seven inches. Now you know what to do for those giant decks you use in your routine at the retirement home!

I can think of many uses for a custom designed box. I'm sure you can too..

http://www.ee0r.com/boxes/

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Product Review: The Renegade Magician by Rick Allen

I recently purchased Rick Allen's Renegade Magician DVD.

I must say, this DVD has a lot of useful information for those of you looking to work a pitch table. What is a pitch table? A pitch table is a set-up where a pitchman sells his goodies.

Magicians have used pitch tables for years. They give a little magic show, gather a crowd and sell their magic tricks.

If you are looking to learn how to sell the Magic Mouse or the Svengali magic card deck, this is the DVD for you. There is actual footage of Rick at a festival drawing a crowd with a great little sponge ball routine, then pitching either the Magic Mouse or the Svengali deck. His presentations are excellent and this is an outstanding tool to learn how to pitch these items and adapt the skills to other items.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for a DVD to learn to run a pitch table, you will have a hard time finding this one. Absolutely nothing in Rick's sales material promoting this new product mentions or even hints at the pitch table.

Instead, Rick sells this item under the cloak of mystery. Rather than tell you what he is selling, he makes great claims that actually imply he is selling something else entirely.

Rick Allen claims, "Drop Me In Any Town, Take Away My Billfold and Credit Cards and I Will Get One or More Bookings Within 24 Hours, Without Any Brochure, Testimonials or Demo Video. And With No Out Of Pocket Costs!" Wow! This sounds great! It sucked me into reading the sales letter and buying the product.

Reading the sales letter, I was wondering who the contacts would be. Chamber of commerce? Non-profits? Comedy clubs? Turns out, Rick's secret is fairs and festivals. He suggests going to the local festival and offering to do magic shows for free as a strolling performer. Actually, he is negotiating a free opportunity to sell magic tricks. He is not "booking a show" as his sales letter claims, but getting free vending space. Sure, the sales presentation is entertaining and is a nice little show, but it is still vending.

He also recommends flea markets as a possible venue for this enterprise, but warns you may have to pay for vendor space.

What about the claim of dropping him in "any town?" Most towns only have festivals a couple times a year, so you'd better drop him in the right town.

I found the sales pitch deceptive and when the product arrived I was disappointed.
If Rick wanted to increase customer satisfaction, his sales letter would read:

Are You A Magician and Need To Make Money Now?

I will teach you how to:

    1) contact local festivals and get free vending space.

    2) make your own products for pennies apiece

    3) where to buy the two greatest pitch table items of all time: the Magic Mouse and the Svengali deck.

    4) how to gather a crowd.

    5) how to pitch these items in an entertaining way that makes for an easy sale.

    6) actual film footage of the sales pitches

Rick's product is excellent for what it is. Unfortunately, the sales pitch is deceptive and makes promises I feel the DVD did not keep.

Are you looking to work fairs & festivals this summer and fall? then check out...My Magic Rabbit

Dennis Regling is the magic editor for BellaOnline. You can find many articles there on magic.

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Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour

Magic in it's own special way. WOTRH, presented by Michael Johnathon, is a multi-media celebration of " grassroots, Americana music, folk, bluegrass, songwriting, new artists, literature, worldwide radio, television and concerts.."

This is a wonderful site to visit to listen to, and watch streaming video of, performances by some of the world's most overlooked artists. Anything by Darrell Scott (326, 109), Ottmar Leibert (339), Tommy Emmanuel (428), Indigenous (412), Mac Arnold and Plate Full 'o Blues (401), and Bela Fleck and the Fleckstones (395) is worth every moment. Artists are both interviewed and given the stage to perform live.

Listen and/or watch 500 shows in your choice of WMA, WMV (streaming video), or MP3. Actually, some of the earlier shows are not available, but virtually all the past 300 are available. All the WMV's can be watched without downloading anything, assuming you have Windows Media Player. If not, you can download their own player to access any of the shows.

If you enjoy music as much a I do, you'll find a wealth of great music at Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour archive page. Bookmark it...

http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp

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Magic on the BBC - Disappearances

The BBC explains how magicians make things appear and disappear. This is a nice 6 part series that you will find entertaining at the least. I enjoyed the footage of magicians past, particularly Doug Henning, and the conversations with modern illusionists who describe the theory of visual trickery. Look for Franz Harary trying to explain the secret of an popular illusion, without actually explaining the secret. I say.. I say.. pay attention boy.

You can watch all six portions, each 9 minutes long, directly on my blog.. No need to go to that Youtube place to see this interesting and informative series, courtesy of the BBC. Now why can't ABC, CBS, and NBC be so far-thinking.

http://rickcarruth.blogspot.com/

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All My Faves - Search Engine for those Easily Visually Stimulated.

What would a search engine on steroids look like? It would look like allmyfaves.com . Colors everywhere - Dozens of easily accessible categories aimed toward the typical user - And a sort of visual rage to comfound the mind. All My Faves doesn't utilize the typical search results and/or links of a search farm. Instead, it uses easily recognized logos to guide the reader.

What you really need to do is click the link and see for yourself.. Some of the categories with the most popular results are:

Home & Electronics, Maps, Search, Sports, Weather, Community, Shopping, Wiki, Banks, Finance, Brokers, Cellular, Magazines, News, Compare, Photo, Movies, Music, Web, Radio, Astrology, Dating, Chat, Instant msg, Insurance, Courier, Health, Info, Translation, Tech, Downloads, Jobs, Games, Gaming, On-line Games, Kids, Car Rental,Cars, Travel
  
Now, if I can convince them to add a 'magic' category..
   
http://www.allmyfaves.com

Thanks to my buddy at the Magic Portal - Jim Canaday
http://mysite.verizon.net/jhcan

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Magic For All - Free eBooks

Seven hypnosis ebooks, Houdini Escape , Poltergeist Spoon, Self folding Bill...

These are a few of the free downloads available at Magic For All. I realize some of these are duplicates of ebooks and/or downloads that I have offered, but this is still a site worth bookmarking if you like free magic. They also offer a number of instantly downloadable magic tricks in the three to four dollar range.

Check out the link for free downloads of old magic posters of Houdini and other famous magicians of times past.. Look in the left side nav bar for the above links..

http://www.magicforall.com/html/magic_etricks.html

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Free Internet Marketing Seminars

Yes, ocassionally I delve into the world of internet marketing. I actually cut my teeth on internet marketing, up to 2004, and left only after selling my newsletter, the eBiz Beacon, to a publishing house in Washington DC. I have a number of marketing eBooks I continue to sell on other web sites, but I try not to mix marketing and magic, other than the marketing of magic.

I've begun the process of putting together a web site consisting of a series of internet marketing seminars, taped and embedded to my site. Believe it or not, some of the seminars I'm going to publish over the next couple of week, particularly the X10 Seminar, costs the attendees over $7,000 each to attend. And again, if you so choose, you can watch and listen to the very same speakers, giving the same lectures, these seminar attendees paid a small fortune to hear.

Now, I'm not selling anything on this site. I've put it up for the benefit of anyone wanting the education. I will probably put up a web form to allow visitors to sign up for notifications when new videos are posted.. but other than that.. simply enjoy them at your convenience. Many of the videos are in the neighborhood of one to one and a half hours each, but, there's nothing to download. I've partnered with Google to make these videos available for you to watch at my expense.

Don't miss Dan Kennedy on the second page.. He's the 'practical' King of internet marketing..

http://freemarketingvideos.info

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Free Downloads for New Subscribers

.: Bobo's 'Modern Coin Magic'
http://streetmagicsecrets.info/bobo.htm
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.: Expert at the Card Table
http://streetmagicsecrets.info/erdnase20.htm
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.: Easy Mentalism
http://streetmagicsecrets.info/1mentalpay.htm

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I encourage you to share your favorite links, videos, and resources with other magicians from around the world. If you know of a site that has a free ebook or a wide assortment of magic related material, let me know. I'm sure all the other readers will appreciate it..

You can go to the url below and use the web form to easily send your articles and effects to the Roadshow for publication.

http://www.streetmagic.info/submit.html

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EMAIL ME
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May my next issue find you well..

Rick Carruth / Editor

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