Born to be GREAT

We all know that you are born to perform, but what about being born to be great? What is the dividing line between somebody who is a good performer and a great one?

An example of a good performer is somebody who can do good tricks, do the sleights well, and get a good reaction. But a GREAT performer is somebody who can do all the tricks well, the sleights, and get good reactions, but also comforts the audience.

The audience is what we are all about and what we should care about. Do you slap around the audience with your humor and make them feel unwanted for your own gain, or do you put them in the spotlight and make them feel like they are the star? It's understandable that everybody has a different performance personality and nobody presents magic exactly alike.

A great example of a truly great performer is Gregory Wilson. He is able to take a slightly intoxicated, timid, and really nervous spectator and make them happy and feel great about themselves through his magic. Plus he LISTENS to the audience. It's a great skill to have.

So now it's time for you, do YOU make the audience happy?

Keep it real

Swam around today. Ate some fish. Ok not really, but you know what really melts my glacier? Un-justified magic. Magic is a craft, an artform, a way of life to some of us.

Magic is for entertainment and for fun. But when performing professional magic, you need to ask yourself "why am I doing this? Why should the audience CARE abut me or what I have to show them?"

An artist doesn't paint a picture "because they can", they paint it with emotion to tell the viewer a story. Sure you might have to look deep into it but it's there, embedded in the canvas. Leonardo DaVinci didn't paint the Last Supper because he had skills, it was because he wanted to tell a story.

Jump to 2010: Green Day concert. Green Day has been around for over 20 years. The other day they performed one of the best concerts I've ever seen. No song was just thrown into the mix because they wanted to. It all progressed and all fit together nicely and fluently. The lead singer even made a point to tell us...

Because we spent our hard earned money just to go see them, they should put their all into giving us the best show we will ever see.

That's what magic should be.

So now question for all of us is, "How?"

Personally, I like to present my magic with a story theme. Something that will (1) draw the audience in, (2) linger in their mind for the rest of the show and (3) tie everything that I do together.

BUT, it can't just be anything. Take Pen through dollar for example: Imagine having a spectator draw fangs on the president's mouth. This will justify a story that you can stab the pen right through the bill and then restore it. Sure, it's silly, but it's also plausible. "Vampires" are hot right now so it's culturally relevant.

A less extreme example: The Rising Card. What in your mind can cause a card to rise out of the deck so softly and majestically? NATURE. Suppose you told an audience you can grow playing cards. Just by placing a "card seed" in the deck, you can make the selection rise out of the deck like a sprouting flower. Little crazy premises like this give you a foundation to build a story.

Take a closer look at the effects you see on Penguin. Find the reason behind the effect. Find the reason you would want to tear and restore a bill. Find the reason you would want to make a card rise to the top. And build your story upon it.

I hope you explore these concepts and apply them to your own magic. It's a fun road to explore, if you can find it ;) Share your own examples in the comments below, I'd love to see them.

BORN TO PERFORM
-Mark

To brighten up the day...

Everyone knows that magic with a good presentation is a great way to brighten up someones day...

...but what if your spectator can't hear?

Enter Josh Janousky, who faced exactly this at a recent event he was booked to perform at.

Josh was recently asked to perform for the Long Island Disabilities Association. He spent a long time preparing material and getting the show ready, until the day of the show came. Josh went, performed the show, and was getting FANTASTIC reactions-- Until he noticed a woman in the back who wasn't really getting into the magic like everyone else.

Very quickly after, he noticed the woman sign to another person. Josh had taken a bit of Sign Language back in high school, and didn't want anyone to go without entertainment. Josh politely walked up and asked (in sign language), "Would you like to see some magic?".

Before he knew it, he was performing in sign language (with a bit of assistance from an interpreter) for almost 20 minutes! Below is some video of Josh performing in sign language; you could tell that it made the woman's day!

It really goes to show how little language barriers matter in magic. Plus, with a little quick thinking (like Josh), it is possible to make anyone's day more magical.

Awesome job, Josh!

We sell stuff. YOU are what's magic.

Thanks for being one of the most giving people on the planet. You fascinate. You inspire. You uplift. You share.

We're proud to be a small part of your team.

A glimpse at College of Magic, South Africa

College of Magic is one of the coolest organization on earth. It's the only place of its kind. What I don't understand, is why there isn't one of these in every town?

Pip Streak leaves people puzzled!

At Penguin, we LOVE our supporters' feedback. Thanks to our brand new Live Help feature on the site, the feedback has been coming in like CRAZY! Here's what people have to say about Penguin:

"YES!! thank you! Penguin Magic is always the best!!"

"I need this. I plan to order this tonight. Do you get a commission for helping me? You were a HUGE help!"

And THIS is what one of our customers has to say. Written by a Mr. Peter Gilmore, this is his review for Pip Streak. Enjoy!

"Simple premise, big punch!

Overview:

What could be simpler? They pick a card and then you visually cause the pips to start streaking or melting away until they are all piled in the corner of the card.

I've been waiting for this trick for a while and I must say, it was definitely worth the wait. When I opened the initial package and it wasn't there I was deflated. Then I saw the note: "It's coming, oh yes, you will have it soon!" (I may have just made that more creative but, as a side note, Penguins reliability with back-orders and pre-orders is really great - they are generous with their shipping to being with and they will always go the extra mile for their customers - well done!)

What you get:

Pip Streak DVD by Gregory Wilson, produced by Penguin Magic, and the props needed to do this trick.

Note: you will need your own bicycle deck as well and, at least in my case, the cards you receive are red backed. It's a bit frustrating that the cards are red back - I'm not against red decks, it's just that I normally perform with blue decks and so it makes it hard to transition to other tricks without a deck switch being noticeable (duh). I have a Fade Out deck made up with red backs which I've found useful - I perform Pip-Streak, switch out for the red backed Fade Out, perform Fade and make the cards go blank and then exclaim, "Oh well! You've ruined my deck - I need a new one!"

Details:

From the get go I have to say that Gregory Wilson is a great teacher. Of all the people I have learned magic from, I would have to say Gregory Wilson and Oz Pearlman are definitely the best. Gregory Wilson has a naturalness to him that makes him easy to listen to and learn from (see my review of Gazzo's Tossed Out Deck for the opposite type of teaching). His pace is good and I don't find myself drifting off into space because he is over-explaining something simple. The two handlings included on the DVD are great and his honesty, the real world experience and the insight that he provides are all invaluable to the keen student. I have had this DVD only for a few days and I have watched it through twice already.

The bonus colour changes are a great addition for those who don't have a colour change DVD/book in their library (Hot Shot Color Changes or Color Changes by Noblezada are good choices). I have been furiously practicing the Mayhew Flippant since I saw it and, I have to say, this is one of the most frustratingly "knack-ish" moves I have ever come across. The flippant move is a knack. The mayhew flippant move is like waiting for all the planets to align - it may not happen in your life-time.

The highlight of this whole experience was the Via Negativa with Alvo Stockman. Alvo is a humble student and the concept of learning through someone elses learning (and a lot of mistakes) is brilliant. It was perfectly placed in the DVD as well. I had just watched and played with the handlings and Via Negativa came along at the right time to correct my errors but also to reinforce the routine itself. I can only hope that Penguin uses this in all it's upcoming titles.

Conclusion:

A solid routine that will either be done well and have audiences floored OR it will be done by people who don't take time to make certain moves look natural. If you buy this, please don't ruin it for everyone else by being hasty in your performing of it. The secret is simple but that doesn't mean that you should run out and accidently reveal how simple it is.

A worthy addition to your repertoire!

(A thought: It would be good for Penguin to sell Pip-Streak refills!)

Cheers! "

Thank you Peter! We really appreciate your feedback as well as anybody else's!

-Mark
PenguinMagic.com

Tony Robbins Breakthrough on NBC - Don't miss it.

I remember watching his infomercials when I was a kid.

My Dad almost ordered them one time, but he didn't pull the trigger. Money was tight, and my Dad was always very careful with money. I remember him saying, "If Tony was really that good at making money, he'd be doing something else... not just selling people a course on how to make money." Fair enough.

But Tony didn't just make a quick buck and disappear.

When I was in college Napster hit the scene. Everybody else was downloading "free" music. I was downloading Tony Robbins. Personal Power II, Awaken the Giant Within, Living Health, Get the Edge, Power Talk, Lessons in Mastery. I had them all, and I carried them around (a few tracks at a time) on a tiny little mp3 player that held about 50megs. This is when I was a freshman and sophomore in college.

I remember thinking I must be listening to more Tony Robbins than anyone on the planet. And I'm sure there were many days I did.

I was a math major in college. I had 4 full-size chalk boards in my room that I'd bought used from the university. On the top of one of the chalkboards I wrote one of my favorite quotes...

"It's in our moments of decision that our destiny is shaped." -- Anthony Robbins

It was those words I looked up at as I made the decision to leave school. And it was that decision that led very quickly and directly to the creation of Penguin Magic.

Some people don't like Tony. That's fine. We all have our tastes. But there wouldn't be a Penguin if there wasn't a Tony.

Tony's got a new series of six 1 hour specials on NBC. As far as I can tell the show is a first in television history. It's not designed to entertain you. It's not designed to sell you something. It's designed 100% to help you make breakthroughs in your own live. You will feel the purity and power of that mission from the first few moments of the show.

This may be the best course Tony has ever produced. It's a course he could sell for thousands of dollars. It's got a much bigger budget than any video production he's ever done before. And they're giving it away absolutely free.

That has me excited. So, if you're a big Tony fan, or you're just curious to see what he's like... Here's a link to the show's website. Update: The first episode is now available on Hulu. Click here to watch Breakthrough online.

P.S. As soon as I started making money I went back and bought all of those old courses from Tony. I've bought some of them many times over because they make such great gifts. That's one very good thing about piracy that often gets overlooked. A lot of times people will download something the'd never buy, only to find out they really do want to be a customer after all.

Anyway, that's a little part of my story I don't always talk about. I wanted to give you a heads-up about the show because I'm touched by it, and I think it might resonate with you too.