My Show Name (Tom Stone's challenge from his February column)

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Geoff Weber
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Joined: July 2nd, 2008, 3:29 pm

Re: My Show Name (Tom Stone's challenge from his February co

Postby Geoff Weber » August 23rd, 2016, 2:54 pm

Doug Thornton wrote:Did this thread get moved? Did it begin again with a different title? How did the shows work out?
I like cliffhangers, but...


Well I can safely say that I did a lot of thinking and writing about my (2010) show concept, and even found a performing arts venue and a beautiful accordion player to provide musical accompaniment. Sadly, thats as far as it got. I think I got overwhelmed with the daunting task of actually getting all the brand new magic pieces together, not to mention the very expensive purchases many of the routines would have required.

Now, after having been somewhat out of magic for the past 1.5 years, I am going to give this challenge another shot. The prospect of building a show from scratch has gotten me excited about magic again... although I am still a little daunted by the financial requirements for getting together some of the routines I have in mind. Particularly, my underwater flea-circus routine will be frightfully expensive.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: My Show Name (Tom Stone's challenge from his February column)

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 23rd, 2016, 3:02 pm

Underwater flea circus? Would love to see that! (Unless you're joking.)
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Geoff Weber
Posts: 40
Joined: July 2nd, 2008, 3:29 pm

Re: My Show Name (Tom Stone's challenge from his February column)

Postby Geoff Weber » August 23rd, 2016, 3:37 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Underwater flea circus? Would love to see that! (Unless you're joking.)


This is definitely going to be in the show. Glad to hear you are intrigued by the premise!

Geoff Weber
Posts: 40
Joined: July 2nd, 2008, 3:29 pm

Re: My Show Name (Tom Stone's challenge from his February column)

Postby Geoff Weber » August 23rd, 2016, 4:01 pm

I guess I'll go ahead and spill some more of the details.

The title of the show:
"Mail-Order Mysteries"

Concept: Magic inspired by the novelty product advertisements that appeared in the back of comic books from the 60s and 70s (in a world where those products actually delivered everything they promised and more)

Routines:
x-ray specs (that really work) and allow me tell how many fingers a person is holding behind their back and to correctly identify the objects people are concealing in their fist.

Sea-monkey circus: see little splashes of water as they do backflips into the air to get treats. They move a little ball back and forth across the surface, raise a little american flag, and find a selected card (from the "world's tiniest deck of cards) (viewed on a video screen at x500 magnification we see cartoon renditions resembling the advertising artwork find the named card)

something with handbuzzers... (maybe a russian roulette or maybe something along the lines of the electric chairs routine)?

A variation on David Regal's cups and balls and cups and balls routine

Finale package prediction: An audience member chooses a random item from the Johnson Smith "1001 things you never knew existed" catalog and item is revealed to be inside a package that has been on stage from the start.

Other ideas:
some sort of light-heavy routine themed around the Charles Atlas strength building ads
spring snakes from unexpected places (using the Chance Wolf insta-snakes)
comedy escape routine (from a chinese finger trap)


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