Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

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NCMarsh
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Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 4th, 2016, 3:28 pm

Season 3 of Fool Us premieres Wednesday, July 13 at 8p EDT on The CW.

Here's a four part series of articles about my experience performing on the show that may be of interest:

Part One (available now): http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... nd-scenes/
Part Two (available 7/7): http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... es-part-2/
Part Three (available 7/11): http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... es-part-3/
Part Four (available 7/14): http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... es-part-4/

If anyone has questions, I'll be hosting an open Q&A on Facebook Live about the episode on Thursday 7/14 at 12 noon EDT on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NCMComedyMagicShow/)

Cheers,

Nathan

fausstroll
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby fausstroll » July 5th, 2016, 5:37 am

The last three are password protected. Is there some place to register ?

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 5th, 2016, 1:22 pm

Hi Fausstroll,

They'll become un-protected on their publication dates -- part two goes live tomorrow, part three next Monday, and part four next Thursday.

Best,

Nathan

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 8th, 2016, 12:53 pm

Part two is live and publicly accessible: http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... es-part-2/

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 11th, 2016, 8:23 am

Part three (with some terrific backstage photos kindly provided by Michael Close): http://orlandocorporatemagician.com/pen ... es-part-3/

Anthony Vinson
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby Anthony Vinson » July 11th, 2016, 12:36 pm

Nathan,

I've enjoyed the first three parts of your P&T memoir and look forward to the fourth. Best of (retrospective) luck!

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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby erdnasephile » July 11th, 2016, 1:26 pm

Really enjoying this as well (although not the microscopic print ;) ). The amount of targeted work you put in on this appearance is inspiring! Loved the photo of Thompson and Close--two masters.

I didn't know that Jonathan Ross has been replaced-- I'm sure Hannigan will be (is) great, but I really liked Ross.

Looking forward to reading how it all ends!

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 12th, 2016, 10:54 am

Much appreciated, gents -- and I'll look into the font size, you're certainly right about it!

N

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erdnasephile
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby erdnasephile » July 13th, 2016, 7:46 pm

Hey, everybody! I just looked at the TV schedule: Mr. Marsh is on "Fool Us" tonight! CW channel: 8:00 PM EST and 7:00 PM CST.

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erdnasephile
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby erdnasephile » July 13th, 2016, 8:59 pm

Very nice, Mr. Marsh! You did a great job--very funny, engaged, and polished--strong work!

(For Jazz fans: we get our first chance to see (and listen to) the terrific, Mike Jones!)

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 14th, 2016, 1:36 pm

Appreciate the kind words, Erdnasephile!

Just a quick heads up in case anyone was looking for the last article today, it's going to be a little late (seeing the video I realized other things I'd like to comment on -- so it will be late but give a bit more perspective).

In the meantime, if you haven't had a chance to see it yet, here's the segment:




Hope to have it all up sometime tonight.

N

brianarudolph
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby brianarudolph » July 14th, 2016, 2:14 pm

Enjoyed seeing your presentation, Nathan.
Very well received by the audience, too!

Looking forward to part four once you have it available.

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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby Bill Mullins » July 18th, 2016, 10:53 am

I liked the discussion of being on the show, and what you were trying to do. Also a nice performance (and I didn't know that Harbin dug ditches!).

Did Teller mark the jar with a sharpie when he first handled it?

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 18th, 2016, 11:20 am

Pretty dang good.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby Pete McCabe » July 18th, 2016, 1:12 pm

Nathan I thought your routine showed a wonderful way to make the magic happen and then expand the moment at the end, leaving with an impossible souvenir. Well done.

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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby performer » July 18th, 2016, 2:47 pm

I haven't watched it yet but I am afraid to. I am very critical and very few magicians impress me. Now if I like it my option is very easy, I simply say so. But what happens if I don't? (and knowing me the odds are I probably won't) Should I be tactful and say nothing? Should I be brutal and tear it to pieces? Or should I take the middle road and mix in praise with criticism? It is very easy to find some praise somewhere. You can always say he wears a nice tie or something. Or say he shows great passion and enthusiasm. Or if he is really dreadful you can always say you admire his courage.

Just because other magicians enthuse about something does not necessarily mean that I am going to agree with it and in fact the odds are I won't.

I shall therefore leave it up to Nathan himself. If he wishes me to comment I will. If he doesn't I won't. And he can also tell me which option above he prefers with regard to any comments. The praise and glory option, the brutal option or the in between option.

If I were in his place though I would tell me to mind my own business.

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erdnasephile
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby erdnasephile » July 19th, 2016, 9:35 pm

Mr. Marsh:

Just curious: Did you receive any tips/suggestions from Messrs. Close and Thompson during rehearsals that changed your original routine substantially? (I would think one of the cool bonuses of doing the show would be to have these two greats help you hone your routine for the show).

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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby Michael Close » July 21st, 2016, 3:43 pm

In response to Erdnasephile's question:

Nathan's blog on his appearance on Fool Us is a textbook example of how a performer should prepare for a television appearance. He planned, created, designed, scripted, rehearsed, and accumulated some flight time long before he landed in Vegas. Because of that, he made Johnny's and my (and the entire crew's) job substantially easier. I don't recall giving him any notes. (Although we should have discussed the "shrinking pole" glitch; I don't know why he didn't get back on the chair to retrieve the box. It might have been a time consideration. I don't recall.)

Nathan was professional in every aspect; he is to be commended for that.

Close

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NCMarsh
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Re: Behind the Scenes of "Fool Us"

Postby NCMarsh » July 21st, 2016, 4:54 pm

It was a huge pleasure to work with Michael and Johnny. The Workers books were a major part of my education as a magician and a lot of what I know about constructing a routine came from studying the questions Michael was asking of his material. If there weren't many notes on site, a big reason was that I had already learned a ton from Michael -- just without him being in the same room.

I've gotten a lot of questions from magicians on the pole. This isn't a defense, but here's what happened -- right or wrong.

The pole (or rather the distance I needed to get) does shrink during the routine.

Image

The pole was set to this precise height -- that it needed the chair to get up but not down.

The reason: it is a massive stage. Protecting the angles on the servante meant the chair needed to be far upstage, but the central action needed to happen downstage center. There were huge crosses throughout the piece which could have been lethal down time (the worst was having to cross from P&T Island all the way upstage to the chair (something like 30-50 feet that I had to break up into three pieces, with (hopefully) interesting things to say at each stop, so it wasn't just watching a guy walk across a parking lot on TV). By the time the flashpaper goes off, everyone knows exactly where we're going, and waiting for me to cross all the way back to the chair and climb up and down risked looking awkward and throwing off the rhythm of the build to the climax.

Here is part of an unsolicited email from a client who watched the show:

I am not completely clear as to whether P & T know how you got the golf ball into the jar, and HOW you knew that it would be a golf ball that was chosen ............ one thing is for sure, Robert and I have no idea how you did it. I do think that their bantering about the height of the stand was a little 'off'. The way I saw it was that you stood on the chair to put the pink box into the other one, but when you went to take it down, you didn't need the chair as you took both boxes off the top and in so doing they were within your reach.


Laypeople (or, admittedly, those in my orbit) got it. They were looking at what was in front of them without filtering it through the lens of already knowing how the trick works.

You always have to balance priorities in these things. The Harbin aspect of the trick was never going to fool P&T (and I knew that going in). My client here was a TV show and I felt the more important priority was giving them a well-paced, entertaining segment vs. not having something feel unjustified to magicians watching

If I had thought it through enough to realize that Penn would call it out I would have done it differently...but I do think -- as entertainment for the public -- you have to do everything you can to see and think about it the way they're going to see and think about it..knowing how the thing already works can dramatically skew our perspective

Cheers,

N


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