Final Bows at the Beach

Long time no blog.
I apologize for taking so long to post again. Summer is a little insane to say in the least. Life has been changing drastically. Some good things, some bad things.
First things first, summer ended officially on August 27th for us. We think we did 47 shows and 13 magic classes but there may have been more. Oops. Shows went a little different this year, I did a lot more in the show like we planned which started out really bad but got better once we found the balance.
 We started to find a good schedule and get in the swing of things. Then our dog got hurt. Or so we thought. We had a lot of back and forth emergency vet visits, medicines, and very long nights. Then on the morning of August 7th she got sick, really sick and we just knew she was leaving us. I made the hardest decision of my life on August 8th by putting my best friend of 11 years out of suffering. Turns out we think she had kidney cancer. It was a long summer for all 3 of us.

Shows have been difficult lately. It's been hard to keep my shine onstage. It's hard to pretend to be happy to make others happy. I know she is healed and no longer hurting but my heart has never felt so broken and empty. Only time can heal wounds this deep. Life goes on even with it's storms and we learn to cope. We get stronger.
We made the decision around March or April to move our lives on to another place. This season of us living in Myrtle Beach is wrapping up. We've decided to not make a huge deal out of it and people will really only find out through either reading this or our newsletter which you can sign up for here: http://eepurl.com/FjeKH. We are moving to the upstate here in South Carolina, the Greenville area. Not only will it be easier for travel (we can hit all surrounding states in 2 hours) but it also will be more year round work. Obviously when living at the beach it is seasonal work for only 3 months.
We have loved living here and of course we will miss it but we really feel as though we are being called to move. It's been a great 2 1/2 years and so many wonderful people have helped us feel at home here.
Even just this summer we have done some really exciting things like perform at The Alabama Theatre for over 1400 people. Still waiting to get the photos from that but I promise they will get posted. We will never forget all the awesome memories we have made here. The beach will always be part of us, it was our first home together. Our careers really started here. We will always come back and perform here, visit here. The salty air and waves are medication to my soul and honestly it worries me to think how I can go without it soon. I guess I'll have to get a CD that has the sounds of waves on it.

Right now it's September and we are moving in October, I know we aren't giving much warning but this was a decision that we made and wanted to keep it to ourselves while we finalized things. So from the beach to the mountains we go! We found a place this past weekend and we are already so in love with our new town. It will be nice being closer to what used to be home to us. Family will only be about 1 1/2 hours as opposed to 3. It will be much easier to come and go as we please and we can raise our own family there. (No, not yet. Just planning ahead.)
I feel like I'm rambling, there's so much I wanted to say before over the past couple of months and never got to but now those things don't seem so important in the big scheme of things. This chapter of our life has come to an end, we are turning the page to start the next part and I can't wait to see where it takes us. Please keep us in your prayers and we will keep you updated with how things are moving along.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice until it's perfect. Rehearse until you curse.
A big part of our job is rehearsing new material. Or rehearsing old material to make it stronger. It is one of the most stressful, frustrating, and fun parts of our job. Working with my husband definitely has it's perks. We're best friends so we always make things interesting. Such as tonight I rehearsed in a mermaid clamshell bra. Anyone judging me? I thought not.

Right now we are working on a mostly new show for the Sea Mist resort that we will be performing at this summer. Finally I have a lot of speaking lines. Which means we are having to walk through the script line by line right now. And with that comes laughing. If there is any point that either one of us can reference a movie, book, or tv show from one of our lines we definitely do. Especially SpongeBob, when all else fails, quote SpongeBob. Or Frozen. Or just Disney in general.
One of our new magic effects will be a mentalism routine; I will be reading people's minds. Of course to convince people I'm not cheating I have to wear a blindfold. Reading a new script while blindfolded is not the easiest task.
While I've always loved rehearsing the illusions the most, I've come to really enjoy some of our new interaction pieces. Interacting with Brandon or an audience member can always be challenging but it makes for a more interesting show. Of course the "volunteers" that Brandon and I pretend to be for each other would never be that odd. We always give them interesting names and voices or make them as difficult to deal with as possible.
I honestly think if people can't have fun while working together as a team then it's not worth it. Making faces or dancing at random moments always keeps everything light. Or atleast we try to. Somedays aren't so easy. Some of the more physically challenging illusions could hurt one of us and put us in a bad mood or if we're just mad at each other (because we are a couple after all) that also definitely effects how rehearsal goes. Somedays I really get fed up with picking up playing cards.

That's part of the act though. The mess is enough to drive my OCD up the wall. We had a maintenance guy come in earlier and he had to deal with something in our magic room, I totally forgot we didn't clean it up after rehearsal last night. I'm sure he thought we were slobs. It's a jumbo rainbow of a mess.
I definitely know all the hours we put into our show pays off though. My new solo routine is coming along nicely and I can't wait to see how the mind reading is received. If you're in the Myrtle Beach area this summer you will have to come stay at the Sea Mist and see our show! Until then, it's back to rehearsal!

"Amateurs practice until they get it right; Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong" 

Miss Direction

When a magician waves his hand and says, "This is where the magic is happening." The real trick is happening somewhere else. Misdirection.

The quote above is from the movie Now You See Me. While watching it the other day for the first time since it was in the theaters, I finally got to really take in the movie. One of it's main themes is misdirection. The key to magic. Without it, well there wouldn't be "magic".
Now we assistants are usually blamed for all misdirection. Most people say oh sure, put any girl in a skimpy outfit and the magician can sneak an elephant onstage. While this could be true, I guess, that's definitely not how we do it in our show. I don't need to rely on my body to change where someone is looking.
There are a million different ways to keep attention away from what's really going on. Everyone knows that something sneaky has to happen, they just don't know where or when. And it's my job to see that it stays that way. Now that's not to say that I do all of it, Brandon does it too of course. But it is easier to rely on each other to cover for one another than to do it all alone.
Misdirection is a skill. I don't care what anyone has to say opposing that. The beauty of misdirection is you should never see it. It should be invisible. If you noticed a magician or assistant trying to make you look somewhere else, then obviously they failed. As a performer if you accomplish this, it's one of the satisfying feelings in the world. But on the opposing end, if they fooled you, it's one of the most frustrating things in the world. I'll never forget how many times during seeing Penn & Teller's show out in Vegas that I was just like holy crap, when did I look the wrong way? Or in their case, the right way.

As humans, we can't help it. We like order. So we naturally do what we're told. Whether it is someone actually "speaking" to us or not. The way that we misdirect could be a number of different things. But of course, all are natural. Our body language, facial expressions, a wave of the hand. All of things can cause redirection and misdirection. Where I look, you look. It's only natural. I look so fascinated by what Brandon is doing, you automatically want to see what I see. You want to feel what I am feeling. It's all part of the experience.
I'm not gonna lie, it's one of the harder parts of doing magic. Trying to concentrate enough on what you're doing, while not looking like you're doing what you're doing is extremely difficult. I'm working on my first silent solo magic piece and I have to do what magicians call "stealing". So obviously I have to use misdirection. And it's not easy. I can't check it or watch my hands. It's all about using a bigger motion to cover a smaller motion. Or just being gutsy. That can work too.

"It's so overt it's covert" -Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes

I'm not trying to give away some big secret here, I'm pretty sure everyone knows something sneaky is happening. It is magic after all. You watch it to be fooled, something has to hide the action of the trick so it can be magic. My misdirection has definitely improved over the years, maybe one day we can work up to full elephant status.

 

Outside Inspiration

Recently, well March 27th to be exact, I celebrated my magiversary. Four years I have been doing this! Absolutely crazy! As I think back over my time in magic, I think about how I have developed as a performer and who/what helped me with that.
Inspiration can come from really crazy places. Movies, books, pictures, art, music. Whatever helps you discover what you need to be or do. Being a magic assistant I often do a lot of dance, but also acting. Not necessarily talking, but often the facial expressions can speak louder than words.
In one routine in particular, I have to looked scared. I had the hardest time trying to figure out the right expression. I am a visual learner. I've never been super creative with coming up with my own stuff. That's why Brandon has to show me choreography so then I can copy him. Same with facial expressions. I needed to look scared so where did I go to for inspiration? Kristen Stewart. Yes, haters gonna hate, I know a lot of people don't like her but I do. She is perfect to look at for a scared face. Or a face in pain. I mean let's be honest, those are her best. Whether you like her or not, that was the perfect place for me to look. I've gotten a lot of compliments about my facial expressions for that routine so I think it was worth it!

Of course there are a million movies out there they give me little things to help like the way I flick my wrist or hold a pose. Then there's super awesome movies like Now You See Me that really helps my character develop.
TV shows can also help. So You Think You Can Dance is the most amazing thing ever to look at for beautiful dance technique and being fluid on stage. Even The Walking Dead has inspired a few things.
Then there's the subject of music. Honestly who doesn't get inspired by it? And sometimes I just use it as a confidence booster. Everybody has those couple of songs where they are just like heck yes this is me. It puts you in such an awesome mood and you feel on top of the world like you could do anything. I freaking jam out to "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" by Fall Out Boy. I seriously feel like I could take over the world with that song. Although that's probably not a good idea.
Brandon's inspiration is Michael Jackson. Honestly he was and always will be one of the greatest performers of all time. He wasn't just a singer or a dancer, he was an entertainer. That's always been our goal with our magic. We don't want to be just magicians or illusionists, we want to be entertainers first and foremost.
Everyday little things inspire us, change us, make us better people. It will always be that way. I hope to continue growing as a person and an entertainer for years to come. Then one day, hopefully I can inspire someone too.

Missing My Other Half

Yes, I do get sawn in half but that isn't what I am referring to.
Friday I had the opportunity to do something I don't always get to do. Assist another magician. Which actually is one of the most nerve wracking things for me ever. Not because I only get a little bit of time to learn brand new illusions before we perform, but because I don't have Brandon. My other half. He's my rock onstage and nothing is weirder than seeing him in the audience. I get so nervous performing for him!
I've done little things here and there to assist other magicians but I guess technically I have only ever really done legit illusion performances with other magicians only 3 times. Twice with one magician and then the other day with our good friend Russell.
My favorite thing about helping out others is definitely getting to play with the illusions that are new to me. Every illusion has it's challenges and especially with me being as short as I am, some things are a stretch for me. I keep a list of all the illusions I have got to be in/play in/perform in and I always love adding to the list.

After that show the other night I was talking to Brandon about how hard it is for me to adjust with a new magician when I'm so used to him and I realized that it's actually normal for magic assistants to not really have a set magician. Which I now see is true but for the most part I have always studied couples in magic so they always work together like we do, but that isn't normal. Most magic assistants are just available to whoever needs the help. And I'm no exception to that.
It's very different when working with another if you don't know them well enough. If something goes wrong, I don't know their "oops" face or "we need to cut this trick" face. I can't judge them as well. So I have to be watching for little things that say "I need help".

Another really cool thing about assisting a different magician is I get to be a different assistant. My character has to fit to what his character is. My costume has to compliment them. My movement and dancing needs to fit their style. Every magician is different so I have to customize to that. I am always me but just a little different version according to the situation.
While I haven't officially been "borrowed" by other magicians a lot, I definitely hope it's something I can continue in the future. I have a different experience every time and it always gives me new stories to tell!