Inspiration!

[Guest]

OK.......this is DEEP!!

What inspires you to creativity and excellence in your children's shows? I get inspired, on many occasions, by walking around The Dollar Store, or TJ Max, Ross or Big Lots!! I see reasonably priced goods, and figure out ways they can be incorporated in my kids shows.

I get inspired by deep conversations with my beautiful wife about the next level I may take in my shows. She comes to many of my performances, and is a wonderful critic.

I get inspired in fabric stores, as I search for a new and wonderful design for my next costume. I make all my own costumes.

I get inspired at magic club meetings, or magic forums like this one!

I get inspired each time I visit Las Vegas, and see the constant reinvention of this extraordinary city, and take in the shows.

I get inspired by nature, and all the amazing magic that is happening around us all the time.....and which we, so often, take for granted.

What inspires you? JR

[Guest]

As this post has been up for several days, it appears nobody is "inspired" by anything very much!!! JR

[Richard Kaufman]

Jolly Roger: it's the middle of August. Lots of people are on vacation. It's a slow time for businesses around the country. And kinda slow here on the Forum. What do they call it? The Dog Days of Summer.
Arf.

[Guest]

Man, Jolly, you don't know how lucky you are!

I've been asking Richard forever and a day for my own thread categories ("Me 'n' RJ" and "Magicam's Essays on Rarity and Sundry Other Topics for the Narcoleptic"), and here you just saunter in and he makes space for you on a moment's notice!

Life ain't fair...

CHS

[Guest]

This summer my family was lucky enough to be able to get away twice. The first trip took us to Texas, where we hiked in nature preserves and saw some of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area's great magicians. The second trip took us to the center of Florida where we saw a raptor sanctuary and a marine sanctuary.

Witnessing nature gives me enormous inspiration when planning my magic. Remember the story about Doug Henning performing for the Eskimos ? They saw his magic as a way for people who live in civilzation to be reminded of the real magic of nature and the world.

I find huge inspiration in working with the local community theater company. I have played in the orchestra there for years, and have been lucky enough to do several shows where I was onstage for the whole performance. Being a cog in the wheel of a large production gives me so many chances to observe and break down what is going on around me. It all transfers over to my magic shows, although in a much smaller format, obviously ! A few times, I have been blessed with gigs in the orchestras of national Broadway tours (Chicago, The Producers, and 42nd Street, among others). These experiences were wonderful studies in presentation and staging. I will remember those things for the rest of my life.

I also find inspiration in my family, and often relate stories from home as part of my show scripts. It works for hundreds of stand-up comics, and so far, seems to work for me, too.

And last but certainly not least, I get tons of inspiration from the magicians who are my friends. These are the guys who I have been brave enough to share my ideas with, sometimes even letting them call the shots on how I should procede. Some of them are well known, some will be well known very soon, and some are retired, but all give me constructive advice on how to make my act and business better. I am blessed to have these people in my life.

Keep posting, Jolly Roger, I enjoy reading everything you write.....

Mark Pettey
ROBBiE the RiNGMASTER
Naples, FL

[Guest]

> What inspires you?

Money

[Guest]

Originally posted by Jolly Roger:
What inspires you to creativity and excellence in your children's shows?

Not to be too vague, but everything inspires me.
A TV show or movie. A book. A walk through the toy store. Maybe a piece of music.
Inspiration can be anywhere and everywhere.

But inspiration is the beginning. The real work is the scripting, the rehearsing and finally the performing.

Gord

[Guest]

"Keep posting, Jolly Roger, I enjoy reading everything you write....."

Thank you so much,Trumpetman! I am just back from visiting Turkey,Greece and Italy. There was much to be inspired about whilst over there. These ancient cultures produced such magnificent art in the form of architecture, sculpture and paintings, that we have much to learn from today. I live in Phoenix, which, like many American cities, is full of cookie-cutter houses, and lacks a soul. Whilst in Turkey, I visted the remarkable old city of Ephesus. I stood in the 3000 seater theatre which is over 2000 years old, whispered, and could be heard at the back.

What has this got to do with entertaining children? Maybe not very much on the face of it. However, visiting these ancient civilizations has inspired me to return to the USA and get even more creative with my fall shows. After all, the children of today could be the Michaelangelos of tomorrow...........so surely it is our job as children's entertainers to enable them to witness great art and creativity at an early age. Surely this is a magnificent goal for the birthday party or school assembly magician, is it not? JR

[Guest]

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." --Picasso