Every now and then, some creative pranksters, concoct stories to scare the community at large.

They then spend inordinate amount of thought and energy on making the stories viral.  In just a few days, the whole country is quaking in their shoes in fear. Over what?

Over imaginary goblins.

First there was the bird flu, then the swine flu.  While these diseases are real (not imaginary) and dangerous, the danger has been blown out of proportion. The victims don’t count as many as those killed by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, nor by suicide bombings in Iraq or Pakistan.

Yet, the bird and swine flu scare people more than the suicide bombers do. Go figure.

Lately, in the birthday party business, another scare is spread around.  Latex balloons can cause allergy, so moms don’t buy balloons to decorate your child’s birthday party venue.

While allergies may not be taken for granted, the latex balloon scare should also not be blown out of proportion, especially because no empirical data support such scare. (At least no empirical data have been cited so far for Philippine parties.)

Imagine what will happen to party decorating business if the scare tactic works and parents stop ordering balloons and start shying away from balloon decors. All for what? Because we heard of a story of a mother who has a friend whose cousin’s neighbor has a child who got sick from a latex balloon?

I think it’s unfair to the balloon industry and to countless performers, artists and decorators whose livelihood depends on balloons, to lose business over a small danger that is magnified out of proportion.

Allergy is a health issue. If balloons really pose problems to children in a big way, the DOH should have already stepped in and started banning them. But so far they have not. Maybe that could mean balloons are not more dangerous than crossing the street. In that case, the threat is in “permissible zone,” to borrow a Jun Lozada term.

I agree. As performers, we magicians in the Philippines have to follow the house rules of the performance venue. Sometimes I try to negotiate, but if they insist on banning some stuff like tigers, danger tricks, or latex from my show, it’s no big deal to me. Anyway I don’t use tigers, danger tricks and latex in my program.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

I wrote about the subject of how buying magic books from local book stores can pay good dividends.

Today let me write something similar.

For some time now, I have been meaning to buy the Magic of Alan Wakeling. However, I have been dragging my feet to do the one thing a sensible magician should do right away.  I stiffened my Scrooge-like resolve not to part with my money, even though I know the book is a good investment. Even though the book is not expensive.  Even though I have been itching to get hold of a copy.

When I started looking for it, some good online stores had it in stock.  Lately, I discovered Amazon.com says it’s out of print and of limited availability. Still the book can be had from other online sellers, but it will take a lot more efforts to find extant copies.

Enter Bob Dureza.  He works in the Bureau or Internal Revenue.  A semi-professional magician, he possesses a large library of magic.  If you want to know something about the art (history, moves, trivia, titles of books, props, etc.), ask Bob. He probably knows the answer and will take you out of the misery of your ignorance.

When I mentioned to him that I wanted to have a copy of the Magic of Alan Wakeling, he came back with an answer in .0001 seconds. “Go to Cutting Edge at Megamall,” he said. “They have a copy.  It’s not expensive.  They’re selling it for maybe P2,000.”

I was ecstatic.  The softbound book sells for $38 online (plus shipping that will cost an arm and a leg).  The hardbound copy goes for $75.  Shelling out P2,000 for a locally bought copy looked like a good bargain to me.

So panting and puffing, I went to Cutting Edge at Megamall the next day, and lo and behold! the lone copy of the Magic of Alan Wakeling sat on the shelf ready for my taking.

Barely able to control my excitement (and fearing somebody will grab the copy before I did), I almost screamed at the sales guy, “I’ll get that!”

He gave me a surprised look.  “It’s P990,” he said.

I felt like in heaven.  The book cost less than my prepared budget.  “Give it to me,” I said.

And so he took the book from the shelf and handed it to me.  It smelled ink and paper. Well, what did I expect? It’s a real ink-and-paper book.

In my glee, I also bought on the spot two bridge size bicycle decks for P175 each.  It’s kinda expensive for a deck of cards, but the words of Paul Potassy, uttered years ago, on the advantages of using bridge decks rang on my mind. I’ll tell you about it in a future post.

Cutting Edge sells mainly playing cards, expensive knives and novelty items.  But they sell also several books and instructional DVDs on magic.

If you are looking for something rare, drop by the store.  You may be lucky, as I was, to find a gem like the Magic of Alan Wakeling.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

How do you prove that a levitating lady is unattached to a thread or string?

Why, of course, you prove it by passing a solid hoop through the lady’s body while she is floating in midair.

For years magicians have been levitating their lady assistants and passing hoops through them.  I have seen many such performances and never once thought that passing a hoop could be entertaining, elegant and beautiful…until I stumbled upon Richiardi’s old video on levitating a lady.

Many magicians in the Philippines can learn a lesson or two on presentation from this video.  The levitation Richiardi does is exquisite, but the passing of the hoop is awe inspiring, if a performer will watch it from the technical and aesthetic point of view.

What strikes me most in the presentation is how Richiardi makes the hoop move a more convincing proof that the lady is indeed floating in the air. And he does it with such panache I feel like I want to float in the air, too.

You can watch the video performance by clicking the link below. (Embedding is disabled, so I can’t play the video right here.  You have to go to YouTube to view it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lBhZD-KLso&feature=related

Enjoy the exquisite artistry of Richiardi.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

My apologies to the readers of this blog.  I have not written an article for over a week.  I’m up to my neck with activities these few days, and I just didn’t have the inclination, nor time to spare, to pound articles on the keyboard.

Together with 24 other IMC members, I had been to Iloilo for three days to perform at the Festival of Magic.  It was an event organized by the municipality of Dingle, under the baton of its mayor, Dr. Beloy Palabrica.

We had a great time while in Iloilo.  Mayor Palabrica pampered us with Ilongo hospitality.  We did a five-hour magic show, which earned rave reviews from those who came to watch it.

When I came back to Manila, I was looking at a full calendar of Halloween parties, including a show at Hotel Sofitel and the two shows at Guilly’s Island in Santa Rosa.

My heartfelt thanks to Noel Aldava and his lovely wife for inviting me to perform at their bar and restaurant.  Noel is a young entrepreneur who is not afraid to give his patrons unique and novel forms of entertainment, including magic for grown-ups. I wish the couple more success in the future.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Today I stumbled upon an ad copy of Jeff Hobson’s Egg Bag.

As a magician in the Philippines performing for Filipino families, I read the ad in awe.  I’ve read it before with nary a reaction. But now, after reading it again, I’m in awe, stunned even.

The Egg Bag is sold for $150. For that price, the buyer gets a whole enchilada of bonuses and extras: the Hobson custom egg bag, two specially designed eggs, DVD instructional video, personally autographed Hobson photo card, plus private access to his website to view additional egg bag instruction and Jeff’s live performance video of the Hobson egg bag.

The Egg Bag receives rave reviews from those who shelled out $150.  I’m sure the product is outstanding, but I’m leery of reviews about pricey products gushing from the mouth of purchasers.

According to Leodini’s theory on purchaser’s remorse, 99.9 %  of people who paid good money on a merchandise will rave about their purchase.  The other 99.9% won’t give any comment for fear of being discovered they have been suckered into buying something they will not find useful.

Okay, the statistics I cited are skewed, but as they say, 60% of statistics is worthless.

Now I’m not saying the Hobson Egg Bag is not worth its $150 price tag.  Those who have bought it swear it is worth every cent and more. So who am I to argue? I don’t have $150 to buy the Egg Bag.

I’m mentioning all this only because, as I said earlier, I’m awed by the ad.

Jeff is a an outstanding sales copy writer. For making people want to go for their credit cards—even though they can sew their own egg bag and learn the handling from Tarbell—he is truly a magician.  I’m going to hire him to write the sales copy of my forthcoming magic trick: the Egg Sack.
I’ll start selling it as soon as I finish sewing it.

By the way, talking about  egg bags, my very first egg bag was sewn for me by my mother when I was still in second year high school. She based it on instructions found in the excellent book Learn Magic by my favorite author Henry Hay.

The material she used was an old US Army blanket. I still have the egg bag today. The design is not Malini, but something that precedes it.

Talking about egg bags  makes me feel so ancient…I gotta to stop this.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Wednesday’s Performance Tip: Master Your Act. If you have not yet gotten your act down pat, don’t perform it.

The audience deserves better than a half-baked presentation. If you give them less than your best, they would know.  They would feel it in their sinews if you are bluffing through your performance, pretending you know what you are doing.

You may have heard it said before: you must know your act so well you can do it in your sleep.

That’s a good hyperbole.  And an excellent advice.

You ought to remember it—while you are awake.

Stay magical

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Lengthy introduction is a surefire attention killer.

It kills interest in your speech, if you are an after-dinner speaker.  It turns off potential buyers, if you are a sales person. It sends people to dreamland, if you are a product presenter.  It bores audiences, if you are mentalist or magician in the Philippines.

A long and winding road could be a beautiful song. It is also good for your health if you travel on it for exercise.  But a long and winding performance is awful for magic and mentalism.

Performing magic and mentalism is like telling a joke.  First, you create your setup and then deliver the punchline.

In magic and mentalism, you have the  buildup (set up) and then the amazing moment (punchline).

Over the years, comedians have honed their skills and taken to heart a revolutionary truth.  The shorter the setup, the funnier the punchline.  In fact many top flight comedians would not tell a joke that has more than five lines before the punchline.  They have learned that long, detailed setups rob the joke of its humor and surprise.

In this MTV era, where crisp and compact entertainment is the norm, every field of entertainment seems to have favored short buildups.  Indiana Jones movies, for example, do away with lengthy introductions and lumbering openings.  They start with cliffhangers and action-packed scenes that older movies used to have in their climaxes.

And how are magicians and mentalists doing in the face of this trend in entertainment?

They have not experienced the same Epiphany. Some are still stuck in the long-and-winding-buildup era.

In some cases, it’s not the fault of the performers that a number of tricks take a giant  buildup before it reaches its climax. It’s just the nature of the beast that some tricks need an elaborate buildup to have an entertaining resolution.

However, this structural inadequacy could be remedied by more creative thinking and merciless pruning of the script. This means that, no matter what you say, the buildup of a trick can be shortened to make the performance crispier and brisker.

My rule of thumb is this: if I don’t reach a climax (or mini climax) within five minutes of my magic performance, the trick direly needs a shorter buildup.

Let me put it another way: if no magic happens, or if you serve no funny stuff to crack the audience,  within five minutes, then you are probably droning on and on about something boring.

Re-examine your script and presentation, cut out the extraneous parts and bin them. I assure you, doing so is liberating.

The audience doesn’t want to hear your eloquence.  They want to see wonder

If they wanted to hear eloquence, they would have gone to Congress and listen to lawmakers orate.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini

Dove magic is one of the most beautiful manipulative acts to perform.  It is elegant, amazing and entertaining.

Many magicians in the Philippines love to perform dove magic. Leodini is one of them.

Yet, launching oneself into dove magic is a difficult enterprise. First, you have to buy those doves—not just any type of doves, but the kind that God made for magic.

Second, you have to keep the doves happy.  That means you have to provide them a comfortable home, feed them well, treat them kindly.  All this requires money, time and effort to do.

Next, you have to train them, so they will perform according to your show’s script.  You don’t want them to be singing a bird song while they are hidden in the load chamber, waiting for their cue to appear.  That will forewarn the audience what is going to happen next. Also, you don’t want the doves to come out of the production boxes before it’s time for them to appear.  That will give the trick away and turn you into a laughing stock in front of your audience.

While I love to perform dove magic, training the birds is one department I lag behind.  My birds are untrained—or to put it more correctly, untrainable.  They refuse to be trained.  It is either they are dumb to understand my instructions, or stubborn to follow them.

I always wanted to perform the sleeve toss after seeing Lance Burton’s mesmerizing dove act.  But to do the dove toss elegantly, I have first to put my doves on a rigorous “return flight” training.  That means, I have to teach them to fly back to me after the toss, instead of flying away to unknown destinations.

After spending hours in practice and training, my doves would simply not do what I want them to do.  Sometime they would fly back to me, sometimes they would not.

At one birthday party held outdoor, one of my doves flew away and perched atop  a tall tree.  I had to dangle a P100 bill to a clown to go after it.  The audience was entertained watching a clown swinging from one branch to another in pursuit of an escaped dove. They even applauded the clown after he caught it.

It’s been years since I gave up on developing the “dove toss” and “return flight” techniques.  I realized I had been using the wrong kind of dove for the toss.  But once I discovered the right one, the dove flies back to me after each and every toss.

Here’s the dove I’m now using for the “dove toss” and “return flight” routine:

I toss it to my wife, and my wife flings it back to me.

Needless to say (but I will still say it), I have painful bumps on my forehead every time I perform the “dove toss.”

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Wednesday’s Performance Tip: Don’t Drag Your Feet

Dragging is the opposite of rushing. They are  equally boring. If you perform at supersonic speed, you will leave your audience wondering what the heck you are doing. Your performance will be a blur.

On the other hand, a snail-pace performance can put people to sleep.

Get to the magic part with just enough preamble and build-up. Don’t draw out your performance with long introduction or background information. No audience will wait to be amazed if you plan your performance to last until the Second Coming of Christ.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Words of wisdom from superstars don’t always apply in the Philippine  magic scene.

Take for example signature acts. Someone I idolize has been spreading the Gospel of building a signature act.

A signature act is something a performer has been doing so long that he has mastered it. It has become identifiable with him.

For example, Jeff Hobson, Egg Bag. The Pendragons, The Metamorphosis.  Leodini, looking like Mel Gibson.

As you may have noticed, a signature act takes years to reach its status. You count years.  You grow white hair.  You wisen up to the realities of performing life before you can have a signature act.

But here’s the bad news for signature-act advocates.  It’s not practical building one in the Philippines.

In a performing circuit as small as Metro Manila, which is over-populated with established and wannabe magicians, you’ll get snowed under by competition before you get your signature act down pat. And to think it doesn’t snow in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, a magician has to do varied acts instead of doing a few signature acts over and over again. The reason is that the market for magic entertainment in the Philippines is small. Clients demand to see another program if they want to hire the same performer again.

I agree that to satisfy the local market, a magician has to build a large repertoire. Just the same, I don’t prefer to go to the other extreme—the Jack-of-all-trades way.  Via this route, some performers offer themselves as magicians, party hosts, balloon twisters, ventriloquists, mimes and clowns rolled into one.

There is definitely a market for such performers.  However, I think going that way is overextending oneself.  The result is that the client  gets a multi-talented but sub-standard performer.

How sub-standard?  Well, the more talents he offers, the bigger the probability a performer can’t do them all as well as the specialists.

So if you have the luxury of time to develop multiple talents and don’t mind being mediocre, go ahead, learn every novelty act you can learn in your lifetime.

If you are like me, don’t overextend yourself. Be better than the rest by calibrating your talents.

Thankfully, I’m magic illiterate. So I’ll just use a “thumb mark” act instead of a “signature” act.

Before I get carried away by bouts of frivolity,  I’m sold to the idea of building a signature act. But for reason of the small local market for magic in the Philippines, one might build a signature act at the same time as he builds a fluid and dynamic repertoire.

I think the local market is not yet ready, or can’t support, magicians who are six-trick ponies.

And because of that, the local market will pay the price for their modest taste by enduring a lot of varied but mediocre performances.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com