264: Street Talk from Gazzo

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Scott Wells
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264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby Scott Wells » November 19th, 2015, 4:06 pm

Among magicians, Gazzo is a well-known name and recognized as being one of, if not THE, top street performers in the world. Performing 20 times a day for seven days a week over the decades makes him the one magician who has performed more than any other on the planet. Gazzo has been lecturing across the U.S. and stopped through Houston and took time to chat for the The Magic Word podcast.

On the podcast, he talks about his "competition" and his philosophy on life, performing, getting experience and working the streets of the world. He drops in a few interesting stories along the way, too.

You can watch a video of Gazzo performing on the street, see some exclusive photos taken at his lecture here in Houston, read the blog, listen to the podcast online and download the MP3 file at: http://themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwel ... /264-gazzo

Thanks for listening.
Visit The Magic Word at http://themagicwordpodcast.com/

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Re: 264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby performer » November 19th, 2015, 5:24 pm

I listened to the whole thing and enjoyed it.

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Re: 264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 19th, 2015, 9:25 pm

Gazzo is hilarious - so clever! He knows how to draw and hold a crowd. Being a street magician gives him the unique advantage of being able to play off the many passersby, and he gets a ton of comedic mileage out of it. Not that many people could get away with being that brash. He's pretty out there. It makes me wonder if he didn't ever say the wrong thing to the wrong person? I couldn't help but notice that he did in fact ask and use spectators' names notwithstanding that he's British. Don't know if I could ever do the blatant pitch for tips he does. But it probably gets a lot of the pikers to pony up when they otherwise would have jolly well stiffed him.

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Re: 264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby performer » November 19th, 2015, 9:58 pm

In his interview he decried the word "tips" as it is associated with change rather than bills. He suggested never using that word. And yes. Of course he offends people sometimes although he isn't nearly as bad as I expected. And one of his fellow buskers once told me that he has mellowed somewhat over the years. In the interview he explains that he avoids certain locations where he knows from experience they won't take to his brash style.

Yes, he asks people their names but in a brash way as part of the act. But this is a street show. When performing close up magic in an intimate setting to British people that you do not know you have to be very careful about asking names prematurely. You have to build up a lot of rapport first before indulging in such impertinence.

I am not sure Scott is right when he says that Gazzo has performed more times than anyone on the planet. After all there are many street magicians all over the world. One of them, Peter Snow is a friend of mine. He said that I "was as charming as a rattlesnake" which I found a very odd compliment. I met Gazzo once for about ten seconds at a busking festival and asked him where Peter was to be found. That was my only contact with him.

Come to think of it if you consider a svengali pitch a performance then I must have performed even more times than Gazzo having done it for decades and probably 40 times a day rather than 20. I found it interesting that Gazzo mentioned Murray from Blackpool who gave him good advice. Murray told him that he only needed three tricks in his repertoire to make a living. Murray used to give me advice too. He said, "If you go through life and never do business with a crook you will never get anything done" I have found that to be very true. Very wise man Murray.

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Scott Wells
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Re: 264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby Scott Wells » November 20th, 2015, 1:25 pm

Thank you, guys, for weighing in on this podcast. I appreciate the feedback and also knowing that you are listening, and enjoying, The Magic Word Podcast.

As to Gazzo "performing more shows than anyone else on the planet", I was copying verbatim what he told me. It seemed to make sense, but when you say that you have pitched Svengali decks 40 times a day, then...well, maybe you're the winner! :D

Suffice it to say that true working street performers really do work much more than about any other sector of performing magicians. Even those working in Las Vegas with a couple shows a day can't compete with a busker's numbers. In fact, even the restaurant magician who might work 30 or more tables a night isn't in the same ballpark, unless they, too, work several restaurants and perform every night of the week for 30 years. Certainly magic dealers who demo behind the counter are performing every day they are open, but I don't know that I would define those demonstrations as true and complete performances. I know I might be opening a snake can of worms here, but it's up for interpretation.

But if you consider that Gazzo started performing on the streets in 1983, and slowly graduated to performing more and more street shows, then his numbers must easily be well over 100,000 performances. I'm just saying that he is in some rarefied air.
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Re: 264: Street Talk from Gazzo

Postby performer » November 20th, 2015, 3:28 pm

And since I started selling svengali decks around 1964 I suppose that makes my air even more rarified. I never thought of it as a show back then but I suppose it was if you go by all the comedy in the pitch and also by Murray's definition of you only need three tricks to make a living. I think I have more than three tricks but I am not sure. I have never counted them before but I will now.

1. The Svengali Deck. That would be the main one in the same way that the Cups and Balls is the main one for Gazzo.
2. The Dutch Looper. This is the famous three card trick that dealers have sold for $15 to $20. I give them away free if they buy the svengali deck.
3. The Wonder Mouse as described above.
4. The cousin of the wonder mouse known as the Squirmle.
5. I am not sure if I should include the Spooky Pencil as it is part of the mouse demonstration but I will since I have often sold it as a separate pitch item.
6. The little plastic cups and balls.

So that is actually 6 tricks which is more than a lot of people have in their acts. I know that Eddie Tullock only did about that many in his trade show act and Nate Leipzig only did about that many in his stage act. All through their lives too just as Gazzo said.

However, from time to time I also pitched other magic tricks although not as often. I used to pitch stripper decks and marked cards from time to time. Oh, and the blank Nudist deck too. The rabbit paddle thing and I have very often sold little pitch books to make up a package.

There. I have never done an inventory like that before. It does feel terribly therapeutic. So it is about 6 main tricks and various minor ones from time to time.

I won't count all the kid shows, cabaret work and hypnotism shows I have done.Plus all the trade shows I do now. And I will ALWAYS perform close up magic free when asked. Yep. I probably have done more shows than Gazzo. Probably twice to three times as many.

The ironic thing is that it is nothing to brag about. We have both worked too hard. As he said in his podcast "less is more". And I wish I had done less, not more.


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