Ding Dong Merrily on High & The Witch is Dead

First off, it's Christmas! How did this year fly by so fast? We've been super busy with this year's Christmas shows. Our new trick has been going over great and we're definitely getting it worked in and comfortable with it and what all can go wrong. You do it enough, you will definitely figure it out. One of my least favorite occurrences ever in magic so far happened this past month with the new trick. There was a freaking bug in the box. So yeah, now I check the box with a flashlight in all corners before I get in.
While we have thoroughly enjoyed performing this Christmas version of our new illusion, we can't wait to finally perform the regular version. It will be a dramatic show opener for us and we are super excited!

Speaking of new illusions, we just got our two newest ones this month!
We got our original designed illusion that we are hoping to share with everyone very soon. It's one that a friend has been suggesting we get for years and once we finally came up with a unique presentation we liked we decided to order it. It's so gorgeous and definitely our new favorite baby. We finished choreographing it last week and have been showing it off for some opinions and it's gotten great responses so far. And it gave me my most unique bruise to date.

New illusion in it's shipping crate. It's a secret ;) 

Then we got an illusion that we both have wanted for quite a while. Hint, it's helping me defy gravity for the first time! The title of this blog is also a hint. So wicked fun but much harder than we both anticipated. I literally cannot wait to get this illusion completed. Fun fact, I'm super terrified of heights so rehearing this illusion has been extremely difficult for me. I'm trying to keep my cool but I'm definitely crying on the inside every time I'm in the air. And I got bruises in interesting places from the first couple days of rehearsing it. I swear all I do is get bruises with this job.

This month was also Luna's 2nd Birthday! We can't believe how grown up our baby girl is! She's almost completed her 2nd training class and she'll be back in the shows next year. We are hoping to get her appearance built soon. Today she learned where her "place" is on stage and the commands Dance and Play Dead. She's so smart and we can't wait to show everyone what all she has learned over the past few months. Luna also, thankfully, has discovered she LOVES illusions. Her favorite person is a magician friend of ours named Caleb Alexander and he's been letting her play in his illusion and she has loved every second of it. She truly is a magic dog!

I'm super happy to say yesterday we had our last matinee Christmas show at the theatre so things will finally slow down just a little bit. It's not too late to come see the show though. We will continue it until January 1st so make sure you come see The Christmas Show of the South! You can purchase tickets through here:
http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchaseorgid=40429&schedule=list&group_id=620339

 Merry Christmas Y'all!

New Boxes

Guys it's almost Halloween! First off, Yay because it's my favorite holiday! Second, holy crap didn't this year just start?! Like we start Christmas rehearsals next week. Yep, you read that right. Christmas. And I've only blogged once all year. Because I suck.

It's honestly just been crazy, but crazy in a good way. In the late spring we got a business/life coach and it's drastically changed the way we are doing everything. If you haven't already done this, I highly suggest it! 

Then came summer where we don't eat or sleep. We did 50 something shows, did our normal library tours, and broke in new material and our new illusion. Then we bought ANOTHER illusion. Which is premiering next month in the Christmas shows. We should hopefully perfect that after doing it 73 times in the next 2 months.

This was actually one of the first times this was performed so it kinda looks nothing like this anymore

Guys this never happens. We went 5 years without new illusions. Now we have 2 new ones for this year and we are about to send in an order for another! This box jumper is so happy!

Why can we do this? Because we made the decision last November that we were sick of debt and so we worked on butts off and in April we officially became debt free. It's so nice to now be online and say "Oh look here's a great deal on an illusion, cool let's buy it!" No guilt. It's awesome.

This is the new illusion for the Christmas show, it just won't be this version

This newest illusion we are about to get I'm pretty sure is about to become my new favorite. We've had a friend in magic bugging us for years to get it and we finally came up with a unique presentation that we've never seen anyone else do before. And I finally will get to show off my special trick during this routine. I've literally been waiting 6 years to find an excuse to do this on stage and I'm so dang excited. No, I won't give hints. Gotta wait and see.

With having a business coach she's really trying to help us shape our characters and who we want to come across as on stage. Creating new magic together is helping so much. Like it's not just the magic Brandon created pre Hannah. The Wagsters are creating it. We're really going to try to play off of our marriage. Our characters onstage will be us offstage, you know just a little more sparkly.

We have so many new routines that we can't wait to finally get worked in the show. We also dusted back off my old vanishing bandana routine after like 4 years since so many people asked for it to come back. 

Yes, it's a Christmas photo. From like 5 years. It's all I could find of this trick.

Then after summer we moved into a house. Guys, a freaking house. No more apartment. Adulting. We have a garage to workshop in and practice the illusions without having to travel to a warehouse. It's so much better. Like the other day we needed to practice the new illusion and we just walked in the garage at like midnight to practice. Box jumping day and night.

Next came a hurricane with evacuations. Y'all trying to protect our illusions in 3 different places when we knew we had to leave town was SO stressful. We were very blessed nothing was ruined and we returned to our house standing with minimal damage. Others were sadly not so lucky.

So yeah it's been a different year but definitely a growing year. Our business is growing, our show is growing, we got a house, and our family grew a little bigger (we got a parakeet haha). 

Oh and now Luna is going through some classes with a trainer so we are hoping to get our little girl ready to start traveling with us. It's been a long time since she's done a show with us!

Here's some Luna derp

Opps almost forgot! What are you guys planning to be for Halloween? I love hearing about costumes! We are going to be Shawn and Jules from Psych!

Well just wanted to keep you guys in the loop and I promise I'll get better about this. Thanks for reading and believing in the magic!

Long Time No Blog

So I think my last post was in November? Life happens. So quite a few things have happened since then...

I'm proud to say we finished all 80 shows at Christmas without any major accidents, that's always a plus. With illusions you just never know. I would say the year wound down quietly and the new year started the same but we were still doing shows until January 2nd. The longer I've been in entertainment the less I like Christmas music because we hear it a LOT.

We updated our website but didn't announce it for some reason. Doesn't really matter though because it's about to be completely overhauled. We are trying all new marketing. Learning search engine optimization soon and hopefully doing our promo video this week. I know, I've literally been saying that for 5 years but seriously it's got to be done.

Along with the marketing we are completely updating the promo/merch as well. We're keeping our graphics guy, Andrew, busy for sure. Since we haven't really shared any of that stuff yet I figured I'd share our new magic kit design with you guys.

Let's see what else has happened?... We started a fun part time job with a business here called The Character Company. We get paid to dress up and bring magic into people's lives in a different way than usual. I'm learning a lot about makeup and having so much doing it. This company also hires mermaids which is actually how I got the job thanks to my mermaid shoot I did last year for my birthday. I'm most excited about finally owning my own tail soon! I'll be doing some magic as a mermaid and can't wait to see what all we come up with for that.

Most recently, as in this past Saturday, I finally got to levitate for the first time! Don't ask me why it's taken this long because honestly I don't know. I actually performed it with That Magic Kid, Colin Eleazar at our IBM ring's club show. It was super fun but considering I hadn't done it before I was definitely sore the next day. Essential oils are a my hero as a magic assistant.

We also introduced some new/new again magic into our shows. I started Vanishing Bandanna again after 4 years. It always stole the show but the trick just needed a break and some revamping but I'm pleased it's back in. Brandon finally learned the Torn & Restored Newspaper and has a great routine. I've been super proud of watching him put this together. And finally we added a new illusion in. We've only performed it 4 times so far but it's not quite completed. Still waiting on costumes to come in, make the bottom fabric blue, and then paint an umbrella but I can't wait until it's a finished product!

Well this blog has been super random but trying to catch everyone up to speed since I've been kinda quiet lately. I promise I won't wait this long before I blog again. Be on the lookout for something extra special we are about to announce that's getting added to our show!

Thunder & Light is in full swing again so we hope to see you soon at The Calvin Gilmore Theatre!