LAAMA Lecture 1.0

Guys, Life As A Magic Assistant shortened is LAAMA. It's like llama. They are so cool. Ok well I found this exciting anyways...
So last night I was finally pushed out of my comfort zone and did a shortened version of what I hope to become my lecture. It was pretty scary, I'm not gonna lie. Acting on stage is easy, but just talking to people is a nightmare to me. It's an introvert thing. By the end it was pretty easy but man did I get myself worked out about it. I was so nervous I didn't rehearse it because I knew that would just make things worse.

I tried to focus on the most informative subjects for if you are wanting to find an assistant for your show and how they should look, stand, act, etc. Eventually I would love to dabble more into things like history, different types of characters and things of that nature.
Brandon stood up there with me and gave input to keep me in line if I stumbled but now looking back at it I probably could have done it myself once I got past the first 5 minutes and next time I will but I needed my rock there for the premiere.
One thing I didn't think about before hand is how many people are uneducated in this subject so there wasn't as much agreeing and head nodding going on like there is at most magic lectures. My very first question was how many people have used an assistant before and only 3 or 4 raised their hand. I flat out told them I was disappointed, it really shocked me. Why would you not want someone to help you, even it's just as a stage hand? We make life so much easier for the magician!
My favorite thing were people's questions. They had so many! My favorite question was what do magic assistants talk about when they get together. Horror stories usually, comparing battle scars... but my favorite thing about hanging out with other assistants is we usually play in each other's boxes. If we have never been in that illusion before the other will walk you through how to position in it. Always a fun experience!

I can understand why so many magicians don't know that much about assisting, there is almost nothing about it to research. I've gotten my hands on a handful of books about them. There can't be more than 10 out there. There's only one real documentary, Women in Boxes, which is AMAZING by the way. Then there are few books out there that have excerpts about assistants. I've tried to track down a few radio interviews about them without much luck. There's just not many resources out there sadly. God bless Ann Patchett, I'm sure her writing is wonderful but she has made researching magician's assistants a whole heck of a lot harder by titling her book The Magician's Assistant.

 I'll keep everyone updated on how this lecture thing goes, I'd love to travel with it. We shall see. Hoping to work on my book soon. I have a few more MA books I will be purchasing soon to add to my collection and research in. I also want to be able to have a few things available for sale when I go around lecturing so I will be looking into some ideas soon. Any suggestions are appreciated!
Oh yeah, I got to break in my new costume yesterday! After 4 1/2 years I am finally rid of that pixie dress that has been my signature outfit and replaced it with this one. Hope you guys like it!

Thunder & Light shows are now weekly so please come check out the show. Every Thursday at 4! Hope to see you there!