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Isn’t it tempting to kiss your love good luck before the show?! Yes, it is. With the only exception – if you don’t perform magic. So, here comes Rule #1: never NEVER touch a magician before the performance. You never know what may pop out   And do not even think about it if he does a bird act!

When I started my career in magic, the scariest thing for me was to forgetting my choreography or to setting something up. But now, one year later, my worst nightmare is – the prop, when it does not work for some stupid reason. We had to struggle with “Impaled” till it got fixed.  It took me some time to get used to a harness, but last week something happened.  I could not even think about.  For our grand finale, metamorphosis, I opened the sub-trunk lid, my magician was still trying to put the bag on!!! What a mess! Luckily, he was low enough, so the house couldn’t see his spirited efforts. My smile immediately became wider and, I swear, I was never thinking faster than at that particular moment, when the show is in progress and the house is full of people we have no right to disappoint. Finally, he just gave up on that stupid bag and popped out. Relief. Wide smile, last chords of music and a final pose. We did it!

After the show we did talk a lot, trying to understand what exactly went wrong. We practiced, tried new things, we got it. It taught us that no matter how many shows you had, you can still make a mistake. All it takes is to lose your concentration for a one split second. But what does not kill you makes you stronger.

 

Hi. My name is Elena and I am a magician’s assistant. 

If you asked me whether I ever dreamed of becoming a magician’s assistant, I would say “NO WAY!” It’s exactly the case when a profession chooses you. I had ballet and jazz classes when I was a child, but never seriously thought of making dancing a career. So, I graduated from college with a degree in linguistics.

How many times I saw David Copperfield’s specials on TV and of course, besides all the tricks and secrets you can’t help but notice those gracious beautiful nymphs dancing around him. They, together with the magician, made the magic happen. It seemed to me they were mythical creatures from fairy-tails my mom used to read to me before I fell asleep. It was all about beauty and grace.  At it looked that way.  Now when after every single show I have to heal bruises, cuts and broken nails, I do realize that it’s not as easy as it seems. But it MUST look effortless for the audience.

When we first started to rehearse the shows, I learned everything pretty fast. We did not have any rehearsal room and had to practice in my magician’s “studio”. I mean his garage. No mirrors, no proper floor cover – I simply had to guess. I remember when I first tried “Origami”, I was talking to myself: “this is not a coffin. This is NOT a coffin.” But a good thing about illusion show – once you figure out one illusion, the others are much, much easier to do.

Our first show was a year ago on the Star Princess. I was shaking. I was so afraid to forget something crucial during the performance or preset and let my magician down. But it went on pretty well. And now, one year later after everything we’ve been through I doubt that anything can possibly scare me. We had to perform after the whole night of flying, or when I had a high temperature and hardly could stand straight, or when we had to juggle our act according to the cruise director’s demands. Once we got a schedule that left us 40 minutes between the shows for resetting pretty tough, but… doable.

So, what can I say? I got pretty lucky to have a dream job, to travel around the world and share all this experience with someone you love. What can be better?  I can’t even imagine.

Had some delicious silver king salmon at The Gold Creek Salmon Bake and spotted some whales!

  Well,  it’s that time again.  Time to open up those ATA cases, assemble those props, set those cues and do that show.  After doing five different grand class vessels for Princess, I’m so glad that all of their stages are exactly alike.  There are 6 major things that have to happen for tonight to be successful.  1 We have too get all of my props from the loading dock to the stage.  They get loaded onto deck 4, and then the stage crew will bring them to the stage.  Not as easy as it sounds.  All of my props are in cases for travel, disassembled.  The ones that fit will go on the freight elevators.  The ones that don’t, unfortunately, have to be carried from deck 4 to 7 via stairs!  There are 12 members on the production team that get this done.  It takes 2 – 3 hours.  2. Once this is done they begin assembling the props for tonight’s show which will feature 7 illusion numbers: Crystal Casket, Cube-Zag, Neon Suspension, Interlude, S piker, Metamorphosis and Backstage. This takes 2 hours.  Elena supervises this entire process and personally does the intricate assembly; attach the roller shades to The Spiker, glass pieces on The Crystal Casket, etc.  3. While she does this, I train our backstage assistants Edgar and Bernie how to run a show they’ve never seen before.  The costumes will be unpacked from their case and steamed.  4. Eddie, our lighting designer will begin setting a basic light plot during all of this, so that by the time we’re ready to set lights we already have a basic layout to work with.  5. Next comes the sound cues.  There are 16 separate cues and each one has a very clear verbal cue given by me.  David the sound engineer and I go over these cues for a bout 30 minutes and then check the levels and my microphone.  6. The remainder of time will go to programming the lights.  We may not get every cue exactly as we like it the first night, but we’ll put the next three hours in going through the show to make sure we get as close as possible.  Once this is done, it’s time for a runthrough.  We’re going to run every number cue to cue to make sure everything is doing what it’s supposed to.  Then a quick shower, maybe a bite, make-up hair and were on!   And remember you are always on stage on cruise ships– even when the show is over.

Happy Sailing

If you can’t get your show to, at least number three in it’s field, you could be in real trouble.  Things aren’t like they used to be.  Competition today is global.  Here on Princess  Cruises I’m not just competing with other magicians that we all know.  Nowadays, Princess is receiving press kits from magicians all over the world.  Often times, these guys are good, they’re polite and willing to work for less money.  You have to be able to stand up to the best in the world, not just the best in the U.S. If your show is not number 1, 2 or 3, it will be on the down-side soon. It must be distinguishably excellent, or it will eventually become a casualty of competition. The goal is to do the work once, and have the money flow in for the rest of your life.  This is what recording artists do.  They work really hard to lay down that one song that’s a hit.  Then they can live off the residuals for the rest of their life.  So, for my time, what good does it do to create a great show and eventually have it succumb to its competition?  The U.S. Economy is in dire straits, and experts say it’s going to get worse, not better.  Will there will be more recessions in the future? Can your show sustain a stream of income for you that will survive ten recessions? When times get tough, agents and buyers gravitate toward quality. Make sure the quality of your show is simply outstanding.  Before you design your show, stop and analyze your competition. Ask yourself, how your show compares. This is how companies operate. Bob Welch,the one time CEO for General Electric, has one major tenant: "Whenever we buy a new business, if it’s not in the top 5% in it’s field, we won’t buy it." You’ve got some illusions. You’re working. That’s great.  But it’s not enough. In North America alone, I can name sixty competitors with illusions and a show too. Where would you fall on this list? If you were an agent or buyer, with all of these to choices, who would you choose?  You have all of these acts fighting for the same market-share. Magicians so often tell me that they try not to watch other magicians.  I think this is poor advise.  I watch every magician I can.  You should go to their web-sites. Look at their videos. Ask yourself how you compare? What are these other magicians saying? What are their: features, benefits, claims, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats?  What are yours?  Only by approaching things from this pragmatic point of view can we hope to be successful in our magic careers.

 

Happy Sailing

“The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice”. – W. Somerset Maugham

Don’t dress like a juggler’s assistant

I’m no fashion expert, but I have tried many styles and am old enough to know what works. I was lucky enough to catch the heyday of Beatlemania, the emerging pop-culture of television, hippydom, the rise of importance of Silicon Valley, Los Angeles decadence during the ’80s… and… most importantly… the radical changes in fashion that have taken place over the last thirty years. I’ve been guilty of poor fashion choices too, but I feel there’s no better way to learn how the world works than to roll up your sleeves and get filthy with experience. I’ve been stupid, smart, cursed, lucky, broke, well off, mocked, worshiped, hated and loved in this business

On cruise ships we have lavish production shows that the cruise companies pour enormous amounts of money into. Looking at their brilliant costumes and working on ships as long as I have, I soon learned how they achieved this look. Silvia’s Costumes is who makes their costumes. And if money’s no object this is where you want to go. Now Silvia doesn’t come cheap. For me, until I’m mounting my own show in a Vegas hotel with investors, Silvia’s a little out of my budget. So I looked to foreign manufacturing.

My first discovery of getting clothes made abroad was twelve years ago while performing in Asia. I took a ten day vacation to Bangkok, Thailand to change my visa and discovered many tailors willing to make almost anything for ¼ the price of the states. So, I had a boat-load of show costumes made at amazing prices. In hindsight, these costumes didn’t really have the flair that I was looking for, but I was very pleased with the sheer volume of costumes that I could get, and my show desperately needed upgrading in this area.

Last year this time one of our ports of call was Kusadasi, Turkey. Now I must admit that before I went there I thought, “who would want to go to this place”?  But I am a coffee addict and had wanted to try Turkish coffee for many years now. You know, the kind that could put hair on your chest?  So out I ventured out into the abyss once our shipped docked. I always prefer docking to a tender boat situation because you can get off the boat so quickly. Didn’t find my Turkish coffee, but the streets were filled with vendor selling numerous things from Persian rugs (hand made on the premises), fake watches, exotic art and leather goods. Very interesting. As I strolled up a quaint street I was taken back by an amazing display of suits in a store window. I mean they just looked so chic; like they were right out of GQ magazine. I walked into this place and was greeted by wiry energetic guy with black hair named Fevzi. He reminded me of a Turkish Peter Pit.

I immediately noticed the “flair” in his suits. Then he told me he makes them all himself. Soon I met his wife Nedda who was in the back sewing. She asked me if I wanted anything to drink. Now was my chance for that famous Turkish coffee I’d heard so much about. I couldn’t resist. She mad one for me. It had a mint taste to it and was stronger than onions. It’s so powerful, after you drink it there’s sludge left at the bottom of the cup. Well, there’s still the same amount of hair on my chest but I was wired and began thinking how great some of Fevzi’s suits would look under stage light.

For the most part magicians, myself included, look like acrobats in mid-career change.   So here was my chance to finally look fashionable on stage with out paying the Beverly Hills price tag.  What impressed me most about Fevzi is that his suits were so contemporary. He’s not somebody who goes out and tries to become the most famous tailor in Turkey. He’s more like a "quiet trade secret" for those few of us with fashion needs beyond the drab. He’s one of those people you’ll rarely ever get the opportunity to find unless you travel to Turkey. (Another perk of working on cruise ships).  Well, Fevzi made a very slick black custom fitted suit out of a denim material that i just love.  It looks great on stage, accentuates my physique and feels great on my body.  I still use it in my main stage show here on The Diamond Princess

Happy Cruising!

 

Today we’re at sea.  Actually, we will arrive at Glacier Bay National Park for “scenic cruising”.  This means we don’t get off the ship, which just pull up close to the glaciers to view them.  This is quite breath-taking, but happens at about 7 am.  That’s a little early for me, so instead I’m up at 10 am and decided to write to all of you.  I want to talk to you about performing illusions on cruise ships.  A mere two or three decades ago the only illusions magicians were performing on ships on ships involved vanishing themselves when asked to host activities. Box magic on cruise ships was pretty much unheard of. Lounge seating, low ceilings, bad angles and lack of storage space made anything beyond a roll-on table, a headache. Props had to fit cabaret space requirements. Oh, a few brave souls trucked out sub trunks, broom suspensions and zig-zags. Some even performed them – usually on dance floors. But, sure as God’s sunrise, you’d never see things like a Disembodied Princesses or an Asrah Levitation.

The grand class vessels of present day come equipped large stages, sporting state of the art lighting instruments, full production crews to meet your show’s every requirement and sound systems that would even rival some of Las Vegas showrooms. Some stages even have ice rinks! This month I’m performing aboard the beautiful Diamond Princess, cruising the Alaska. It’s funny but her stage is bigger than the posh-as-posh-can-get Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, today’s port of call where so many magic greats have performed – Salvano, Norm Nielsen, Channing Pollock and Finn Jon to name a few. Much of this is going to be shot through my ‘illusion prism,’ but I think you’ll find that if one stomachs what an illusionist has to(lighting, cases, assistants, costumes, rehearsals and storage), a stand-up show is a piece of cake on ships.

I was last on this 180,000 foot vessel two years ago doing the Mexican Riviera.  Channing Pollock once told me, “We magicians must furnish glamour”. Nowhere is that adage more true than in performing illusions on the high seas.  Most of you already know something about performing on cruise ships. Some, I’m sure even make their living doing so. I’ll take a leap and assume that most who do present a “parlor act;” or as I call it, forty-five minutes out of a brief case. I’ll tell you right up front that I’m not one of you. I learned a lot assisting Chuck Jones, and if you’re going to call yourself an illusionist, you need to actually roll those turkeys out and perform illusions. Due to some sado-masochistic love I have for illusions which only Lanny Kibby understands, I much prefer doing a full illusion show on to a stand-up show on ships. You parlor guys get the same money I do and don’t even have to hire an assistant. This probably sounds very appealing, and many of you will call me stubborn, but there’s just something so much more fulfilling to me with he whole illusion thing. You see, now you’re competing with the ship’s production shows – and they have a cast of 18! Can you imagine how good it would feel to equal or surpass the energy and/or reaction of those shows with your little boxes? That’s a worthwhile goal if you ask me, and one that makes me bound out of bed in the morning. I just get a charge out of presenting large illusions to an audience, and what better place to break in a new illusion than on a ship? Expenses are low or non-existent. You’re guaranteed an audience(and a captive one). You’ve several days before the next show to “tweak,” and perhaps the most attractive factor nowadays – little or no expenses. Yes Sir, free rent, free food and you don’t have to buy gasoline. Come to think of it, just that last one might be reason enough to do ships.

Your typical ship schedule requires you to do two completely different 45 minute performances. These performances take place whenever and wherever the cruise director wants them. That’s about it though, the rest of the time is yours to do whatever your little heat desires. It’s important to be seaworthy. Your illusionary choices should meet these five requirements. They should be: entertaining, performable in rough seas, workable with one assistant, repairable with basic tools and packable into flat cases. These points are pretty self-explanatory. What I really want to talk about is love. – Yes love.

Suppose some newcomer came to me and wanted to know the single most important thing he could ever learn about this noble pursuit of performing magic on cruise ships.

Is there a single principle that’s that critical? A stand alone consideration which is truly supreme above all others? You bet there is. And, I can communicate it to you in just two words:

Love Magic!

Listen to me, I have a degree in marketing from USC. To quote the all-time marketing guru, Gary Halbert:

“No One Can Ever Be A Success Who Sells Something Of Which He Is Not Proud!”

I know you know plenty of people who make plenty of money selling crap. So what? Money is only one (and truly not the most important) of all the ingredients that make someone a success. And… making money (even millions) while losing your self-respect leads to a dry rot of the psyche and a constant patina of despair that dulls the fabric of your life.

I remember something David Copperfield once said at a lecture he gave to The Magic Castle Junior Magicians, of which I belonged. A youngster asked him about the tribulations of making ends meet with magic. David paused only for a second, looked at the kid and quipped, “Do you want to do magic or do you have to do magic?” And so it is. David HAD to do magic. It was an obsession far exceeding the bounds of a hobby. Those who have it in their heart will find a way. Period. A lot of times it’s just a matter of asking the right questions. How can I make this work? How can I get a stool made for the suspension using the resources on a cruise ship? How can I get show costumes made in Turkey?, etc. I like these kinds of challenges. Illusion road warriors like Peter Gossamer call it “Macgyvering”

A genuine love for your art will not only come through in your show, but in your evermore important ‘off stage persona’. Yup, sorry to break it to you, but if you want to get invited back and actually make a living working ships, you have to be a nice person. Cruise ship entertainment directors do not care how slick or original your show is. One blip of an attitude problem and you’re toast. There’s too big a pool of decent human beings for them to pick from to put up with primadonnas. And we all know a few, don’t we?. Ever notice how seldom they work cruise ships? Hmmm.

And I know, yo u’ve got the fastest sub trunk of the 21^st century, and your goth illusion show really rocks. You can be “totally original” till the cows come home. But as long as your market is for people who vacation on cruises; they don’t really care all that much if you invented everything you perform. Remember, it’s a ship not a magic convention. That’s not to say that you should do boring magic – but simply that, above all, cruise lines want to work with people whom they like. Speaking of people I like, our vivacious Princess cruise staff, just stopped in to check email too and invited me for lunch in the Santa Fe dining room. So, I’m going to close for now. I guess sometimes it is all glamour.

Happy Cruising!

Today our ship, The Diamond Princess docked in Skagway Alaska. My girlfriend/assistant Elena and I enjoyed a very nice train ride up the White Pass. We had a guide named "Slim Pickens" who had a guitar and sang. Our tour included the Klondike gold field which was sort of interesting. I found panning for gold was kind of hokey, but I enjoy hokey sometimes. The restaurant was fine. Bar-B-Que buffet. Had great weather, which is rare for this month there, so we walked around a while. Had fish and chips at Skagway Fish Company next to the marina. Very good. Large portions so order a large and split it. Across the street was a nice boardwalk that leads back to the ship. Skagway is one of the windiest cities. It’s name means North Wind in Chilkoot. I took some of my best pictures there. Colorful area with lots of eagles.

For most of the last four years, I’ve been traveling around on cruise ships performing my show. I always want to find out what other magicians are working on the other ships in port with us. I bumped into Jeff Peterson, comedy magician, who is performing on Holland America’s Zuiderdam for the next two months. I also had a chance to meet up with Robby Jackson, an old friend from Japan. Robby is an amazing card magician, who used to work the streets of Osaka, literally busking for tips. He knew all the moves then and still does. Now he does a comedy show and is performing another 4 weeks on Carnival’s Elation. He shared some killer new moves with cards (visually changing cards from kings to aces and back!) It led me to begin refining my own card moves.

Have you ever wondered what the most amazing card trick of all time is?

Do you think I would tell you?

If you’ve been reading my posts for any length of time, you realize that I’m pretty hard to impress, but Robby always seems to nail me. Well, these particular changes with cards were so unlike anything I’d ever seen, I began wondering if he was playing with a full deck. As it turns out he wasn’t. He was using a trick deck! One I’d never seen. It was his own creation and allowed one to make amazing changes with single cards. He gave me the deck and I’m now working with it and thinking about using it in my own repertoire. He calls it the Jewl Box Deck.

I personally think, magicians are drowning in card tricks. We don’t need another. If you walked into the Magic Castle’s Library(not just anyone can), in 1983 you could have read all the books on magic ever published. There were about 1,000 of them. At a pace of two books a week, you would have read 50 books a year and, finished all 1000 books in eight years. Today, if you add all the videos and e-books on our subject there are 12 million.

The magic world, (and the non-magic world) is very different now. Some experts estimate the world’s knowledge now doubles every 2 to 3 years. We live in a society where the daily newspaper can be so big we cannot read it all before the next day’s issue comes out. When we turn on the TV, we have hundreds of cable and satellite channels to choose from, not to mention Youtube. And every time we blink we get a new email!  Life can be rather overwhelming. We have more things to do than we can handle. We have more choices to make than we have time to think. And while we try to juggle work, health and our relationships, we are constantly interrupted by hundreds of other things life throws in our way.

Well, onward and upward! 

Anchors Aweigh,

Alexander

Watch as Wally George puts Alexander on The Hot Seat.  See his lightning fast version of Coins Across, Ring On Rope And Card To Wallet.

What do you get when we pair eight A type male celebrity personalities with eight women known more for their physical beauty rather than their brain power, throw in some mind blowing magic tricks and shake them all up in a competition on live TV?
Centerfold Magic!