Well, it’s going to be a first for me, but I’m going to write an occasional posting about magic. Mainly parlor and stage material.
The thing that caused this to happen was Google dropping me from their search queue for a few months, which caused a huge dropoff of visitors and bookings to my www.LarryBrodahl.com website.
And those few months without bookings made me realize just how much magic has done for me, and how much I enjoy it.
So, I’m going to write down things that I know and have used. I’ll try to stay away from theory as much as is practical, but in all cases, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.
I’ll start off with a topic near and dear to my heart.
Making your own props and gimmicks. Or at least modifying them.
Most stage tricks that you can buy from the dealers look horrible. They’re either over-painted/over-designed, which lends a “carnival/circus” look to the act, or they’re painted in dark tones that can’t be seen once the audience is 10 feet away.
Your entire act should feel complete. And if you go from a “jungle” theme to a schoolboy theme, to a space age theme, you’re being painfully obvious that your act is comprised of pieces that you BOUGHT that don’t fit together.
I want my act to look as if it’s stuff that I bought at the Dollar Store, or is composed of home furnishings.
Because I think that if they see a paper bag instead of a shiny red cloth with gold tassels bag on a purple stick…well, I think they’ll believe my bag to be much more innocent.
And that’s what makes magic, to me anyhow.
I’ll try to update this semi-frequently and see how it goes.’
