First Big Magic Trick I Created

I’m always trying to add new material to my show. As a good magician I’m always creating. I had been wracking my brain for a big wild closer for my comedy magic show that would work in both corporate and college magic. The idea finally came to me as I was checking out a magic antique dealer’s collection when I discovered a notebook of a comedian magician that was over a hundred years old. In the notebook I discovered many interesting and funny ideas but they were unfortunately very dated and many of the ideas involved items that are even in use today.

I did find an idea though for an explosion gone wrong and I took this idea and developed my own based on it. It involved a cannon that shot cards into the air where I would be able to pluck the chosen card out of the sky by sheer luck or magic. Unfortunately the cannon backfires blowing me up and shredding my clothes only to have the selected card protruding to my forehead as if it were impaled in my skull.

It took me nearly a year to create everything involved in the routine from designing the cannon, hiring a magic builder to create the final product, and hiring a seamstress to create the outfit that I would be wearing when I blew up. Next came the hard part with scripting, joke writing, and blocking the routine until I created something I was so proud of that I finally got my chance to perform it live in St. Louis’s Magic on parade in 2006. I was so excited to see my magic creation on stage, yet I was still young and naïve.

The trick and the performance went over great but I underestimated certain factors in my excitement. There was such a mess that creating an explosion on stage can make, even though I was using air cannons and flash pots, the theater was cleaning streamers and confetti out of their rafters for the next year. The next problem I had was that the weight of the magic trick was almost two hundred pounds which meant there would be no way to fly with it affordably. And lastly I didn’t take into account the sheer size of the magic trick and the 2 hour set up time and additional 1 hour to take it down after the show. Even though it was a great magic trick and I do still perform it for my local corporate magic and college magic shows, it ended up being taking out of my act the following year.

I have since learned to be a little pickier in creating and adding new magic to all of my comedy shows!

February 17, 2016

Trix – Magic Trick

mctrickster Magic Tricks

Rehearsal is common in the McVicar household! I tend to revamp and rehearse my college, corporate, hypnosis, and kid magic shows during the summer. Summers in St. Louis, MO are super hot with terrible humidity so it’s the perfect time to lock myself into my studio and take out material that is no longer working and add any new jokes and amazing magic tricks I have been wanting to try out.

Sometimes rehearsing in our house can be difficult as we have two young children who find my props fascinating. So this year when I was working on some new material for my kid magic show I decided to see if my 2.5 year old son could help and he became my rehearsing buddy. He recently started showing an interest in what I was working on and would even sit through a short routine or two. This is great when I need genuine kid feedback for a new magic trick. I was excited to perform it for him for the very first time. So I performed my new magic trick which required his participation and he did great! He laughed, participated when needed and most important for a kid magic trick was that I was able to hold his attention for the entire trick!!

It was so much fun to perform for him and know that this new kid magic show trick was definitely a great new addition to my show. The only problem and possibly a lesson for me is that when performing a magic trick for my kid, trying to avoid performing magic tricks for him that involve food. Especially kid food in bright kid colored packaging. You see the new kid magic trick I added to my kid magic show involves the use of the Trix cereal box. Even though my son has never had any Trix he somehow knew it was something deliciously sugary. After I was done performing the magic trick he asked to eat some because it was “yummy.” After explaining that it was only for the magic show and not to eat he broke out in hysterics. Lesson learned. (On a side note, my wife feeling bad for him, let him try some and it confirmed what he expected…that cereal was very “yummy”.)