The Rocky Racoon is one of the best items a comedy magician could have, assuming they like physical, visual comedy, and are willing to write something funny and different for their script. The Racoon being one of the most popular comedy magic routines out there is the best and worst thing about it, because chances are, if someone has seen it before, if you did it for them, you’d be repeating 90% of the same material they’ve heard before.
Nonetheless, Rocky Racoon is a very powerful routine for comedy magic, as it combines a lot of elements we’ve come to escape from the genre, and the fact that there are expectations within the routine itself that we can play with tends to open doors for creativity and new, refreshing approaches to a classic of comedy magic. I think any comedy magician worth their salt has probably, at some point, engaged in a routine involving Rocky Raccoon or a similar non-living object that is brought vividly to life by the wit, the imagination, and the skill of the performer. It catches people’s attention, and with proper handling, it does make the average spectator do a double-take because the best handlers of Rocky tend to make him appear incredibly lifelike.
I love this routine a lot, and with a wide variety of Rocky Raccoon variants available, it’s a perfect gateway into working with a “partner”, akin to how ventriloquists work with their puppets.
So, by special request, I was supposed to include Jay Sankey in this month’s comedy magic theme, and quite frankly, I’m still wondering why I’m supposed to.
If I recall correctly, you actually have to be funny to be considered a comedy magician, and I really just don’t find Sankey funny at all. It’s like he stole Jim Carrey’s hammy schtick and removed all the good parts. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan.
Still, let’s give credit where credit is due. As a creator, Sankey is very prolific. He has done a lot of different routines, handlings, and variations over the years, and nobody can deny that he has had an extensive contribution to the magic industry at large with all the things he has done. For about three decades, the man has certainly given a lot to the art, with his multiple ideas, revolutionary concepts, and most especially his coin magic.
At some point in his career, according to Genii Magazine, Sankey began experimenting with standup comedy, and this has allowed him to meet some moderate success in that particular facet of the industry. While I would readily admit that I haven’t seen any of his pure standup material, I am evaluating Sankey mainly for his comedy magic, and no matter how funny he may or may not actually be in pure standup, what he demonstrates in his magic videos certainly leaves a lot to be desired in the way of comedy.
Given that, let’s talk about what he’s really good at: coins. Sankey is known for being one of the best coin magicians of his generation, and younger magicians tend to think of him as a younger, zanier, David Roth. Some purists may scoff and cry sacrilege, but Jay’s sleights and ideas have been nothing short of revolutionary, and just watching the seminal “Revolutionary Coin Magic” DVD should give you a good idea what the man is capable of. Does he have great routines? Yes. Do I wish he stopped overacting and getting in the way of his great routines? YES.
The drawback with Sankey is that as prolific as he is, a lot of the time, he just keeps repeating himself. Over at the Magic Cafe, when Richard Osterlind joked that maybe he should just come out with one good effect and a bunch of mediocre ones on his next DVD, some rascal commented, “if you did that, you might get confused with Jay Sankey.”
There are gems in any given Sankey compilation, but in all honesty, you have to look hard. He’s good, he’s skilled, but he seems to be a lousy teacher. For anyone who wishes to learn magic, I’d rather have someone who is not as skilled but nowhere nearly as distracting. I can think of quite a few examples, and even some who are even more skilled than Sankey and better at teaching routines.
Man, I didn’t really intend to slag on Mr. Sankey. The man is a very successful magician, having established his own company, Sankey Magic. I suppose it all boils down to a matter of personal taste, and most laymen I know tend to be turned off by Sankey’s antics. As I consider myself more of a layman than a fellow magician when I watch a contemporary perform, I can see where that is coming from.
Some people might object to the fact that I pegged Bill Malone in the world of comedy magic, but while he may not be famous entirely for being funny, he still is, and it’s testament to how good he is that in certain circles, he’s more known for his skill than his ability to make people laugh, considering how hilarious he can actually be. However, make no mistake about it: the man bills himself “The CEO of Comedy Magic,” so there is no denying that comedy is a big part of Bill’s schtick at endearing audiences to him, as the case has been for years.
He’s performed a wide variety of routines, but he’s generally known for being an excellent card magician who can do the most amazing sleights with little effort in the middle of his rapid-fire patter. Anyone who has ever seen him perform “Sam The Bellhop” would probably be very impressed by how silky smooth and flawless his performance is when you watch how quickly he does all those shuffles and cuts, yet he still manages to pull off his card story as though he somehow knew where every card he needed to do the story right would happen to be in the deck after all those shuffles and cuts and various other moves that he did all throughout.
I’m not intimately familiar with Bill’s work beyond what we’ve seen from his L and L videos, but I must say that what little I’ve seen of his work has been nothing short of impressive, considering how funny he is, yet never utilizing comedy as merely a crutch to mask deficient magic skills, since the man is highly skilled and highly talented in that department as well.
I’m not really sure if his bar, Malone’s Magic Bar, is still open, but considering his resume as a performer and his business savvy, one would do well to watch Bill’s material in hopes of learning exactly what makes the man tick. He’s funny, he’s remarkably skilled, and he knows how to parlay all of that into a successful career in magic.
On Monday, April 5, I will be guesting a second time on “The Sweet Life” on QTV11, around 5-6PM.
Then, later on that evening, I will be doing standup comedy as I open for Mike Unson and the rest of the Comedy Cartel in Spicy Fingers, Greenbelt 2, at around 8PM.
Hope to catch you guys there!
.:Upcoming Performances:.
I‘ll be doing another Easter show in Hotel Intercon tomorrow. Seems to be a yearly tradition at this point, actually.
On April 16, I’ll be performing with the great Ony Carcamo and comedian extraordinaire Stanley Chi in Taumbayan.
On April 17, I’ll be hosting for Mike Unson’s awesome comedy show in the Conspiracy bar,an honor that I never expected to be accorded.
Aside from those, I have my other private shows and the like, and of course, the regular guestings I do for the Disenchanted Kingdom on 99.5 RT, usually every Mondays and Fridays, 6-9 AM.
Well, with comedy month over, allow me to shift into arguably the most popular form of magic by sheer dint of how many people do them: card magic.
Card magic is simply one of the most popular forms of magic because of its accessibility, rich history, and almost limitless potential. If you know your way with cards, you will be able to have a show to go down in history with just one piece of equipment, and though I am anything but a card magician, I cannot deny its power and inevitably still have a few key card routines that I use simply because they’re too good not to use.
The very long video you are getting to see is a video by the great Lennart Green, one of my partner’s, Jay Mata’s, favourite performers. I may or may not talk about Mr. Green more in the coming days, but this 30-minute routine just made my jaw drop when I was watching it. Every move, every card dropped, every single aspect of his performance, seemed to be a diabolical plot to mislead the audience into thinking Mr. Green was less skilled than he really was.
Anyways, card magic can be about that, because it can be about a lot of things. It can be about telling a story. It can be about displays of pure skill. It can be self-working. It can be mathematical. It can be anything at all, and only your imagination sets a hard limit on the things you can do with cards.
Personally, I’ve never been very good with cards, but I will never begrudge any magician who is skilled at it. Whoever the luminary of choice may be for you, there is just so much that could be done in the realm of card magic, and Lennart Green’s video, as astounding as it may be, doesn’t even scratch the surface of the potential for a mere 52 pieces of cardboard. There are many people who have built careers out of being great with cards, and there should be no reason why anyone who has the talent for it can’t make it anywhere if they put enough effort into the endeavour.
Join me this month as I talk about luminaries in card magic, and some of the most popular card routines ever concocted. I promise you it’ll be a blast. If you have any special requests as well, I’d be more than happy to oblige and give a few moments to discuss those particular facets of card magic.
It’s hard to go through a list of funny magicians without talking about one Mel Mellers, who has certainly become one of my favourite comedy magicians of all time, thanks to his insult theatre style of comedy, which tends to work well if you have the personality to carry yourself through it.
Mel isn’t that well known outside of Britain, and even then, he’s relatively anonymous when compared to the likes of Paul Daniels or Derren Brown. Nonetheless, Mr. Mellers has made a name for himself in the corporate circles, especially in cruise ships, utilizing a wide variety of different routines to make the audiences laugh and gasp in delight at the same time.
What is very deceptive about Mel Mellers is that despite being a comedy magician, his mastery of sleights is nothing to scoff at, and anyone who catches his first DVD entitled “Tickling The Mind” would realize this once you see him perform his version of the Miser’s Dream. The thing that makes his version extremely better than the standard performance would have to be his personal handling of the routine, which you simply don’t see from other performers. He uses a cleaner, although more physically demanding handling, but all in all, this simply lends to a more awe-inspiring routine that’s funny and fast-paced and very clean to look at.
While he is well-known for his comedic stylings and his simple yet clean magic routines, Mel Mellers is also pretty popular for doing bits and pieces of mentalism during his show, and really stumping people when he performs those routines. He’s versatile, he’s witty, he’s incredibly incorrigible, and while nobody could say I’m trying to be exactly like him, I can’t help but point out that he has had quite an influence on my performing style, especially when I work on my own, and I can’t go and do a full-blown Penn Jilette character since I don’t have a Teller to antagonize.
Mel Mellers may not have an elaborate biography to his name, but it would do good for any budding comedy-magician to take a few pointers from him, especially with his comedic timing, which really comes to the fore when he does his own version of the Card Improv routine. This particular routine only underscores how good he really is with controlling his audience and having them eat out of the palm of his hand. That’s the kind of performer I hope to establish myself as, and with Mel’s style being perfectly suited for hosting in an informal setting, I’ve certainly incorporated his approach even there as well.
It’s April, so we start a new month, hot on the heels of a very exciting escapology-themed month. I’m not one to play any April Fool’s gags this year, so let’s just theme April as the “comedy month”, which I do believe suits our purposes very well.
Without further ado, I’m republishing with a few minor tweaks a piece I wrote about the magician duo that I’ve admired and respected the most over the past couple of years…
.:91/365: Penn And Teller:.
Made for each other.
Who They Are: The Origins
According to Wikipedia, Penn Jillette and Raymond Teller have been at it since the early to mid-80’s as a duo magic and comedy act. They were initially a trio act in the 70’s along with Weir Chrisimer, but it was Penn and Teller as a duo that really made waves in the world of magic.
Known as “the bad boys of magic”, as well as “the tall, loud guy, with the short guy who never talks”, Penn and Teller took the magic world by storm with their cutting edge act. You see, unlike most other magicians, they are unabashedly opinionated (Penn and Teller are libertarians and atheists.), and when they’re on TV, they’re not always doing magic. Penn is a raconteur (A storyteller.), an accomplished juggler, and even knows how to play bass. Teller is a master of sleight of hand, and mime performances. There’s something about Teller’s amazing facial reactions that draw you to his performance despite his never having to say a single word.
Penn and Teller have had numerous TV specials, and lots of guestings. They are headliners in Las Vegas, and have an act comprised of amazing feats like the two-man bullet catch, cups and balls with transparent cups, and a host of other effects they’ve managed to tailor for their show. I’d love to link you to clips of these acts, but I think you should look for them yourself, because they are just splendid things of beauty.
What They Mean To The Industry: Polarizing
As opinionated and as high profile as these two are, they have earned the respect and ire of the magic community, insofar as their acts have garnered a lot of attention for its inherent shock value, and cruel humor, as you will see below. I’m merely reposting a video I put up for your amusement the last time, but I do believe it bears repeating.
This, along with acts where they would actually expose magic secrets for some of their routines, have earned mixed reactions from people, who either think they’re geniuses or think they’re attention-starved hacks who need cheap thrills and shocks to impress people. They’ve taken shots at other magicians like Paul Daniels, and are very opposed to quacks like John Edward, going as far as to exposing certain methods other performers also employ in their performances just to discredit him. The fact that they are very good friends with the Amazing Randi should tip you off that they’re prone to that.
No matter how polarizing the opinions may be when it comes to Penn and Teller, one thing can’t be denied: they have made their mark on the history of magic, and few tandem acts can ever approach the kind of energy and dynamism Penn and Teller inject into their performance, no matter how mundane an effect may seem to be. As a duo act, they are one of those quintessential yardsticks by which other duo acts must peg themselves against, and among comedy performers, they are quite amazing in that department as well.
What They Mean To Me: Tandem Par Excellence
As a performer, I believe that I have a long way to go in the realm of comedy. I may be a member of the Comedy Cartel, but I recognize that my yearlong body of work in standup comedy is just a miniscule drop compared to what the likes of a Mike Unson or a Tim Tayag have accomplished. I can and do inject humor even during some of my magic routines, but it’s never been the other centerpiece of my act (The first, of course, being the routines I do themselves.). I can talk, given my experience in radio and in debate, and I can hold my own for a bit in improv, but I really don’t think of myself as a comedic genius, especially not since mentalism has to have some realism and seriousness attached to it, and I do a lot more of that than magic, since I’m more adept with sleight of mind than sleight of hand, more so now than ever.
As magician comedians, this duo act sets the benchmark, in my opinion. There may be wittier or funnier acts out there, but Penn and Teller broke the mold. Their clash of personalities, their harmony as mouthpiece + performer, and their overall stage presence plainly adds up to one of the most impressive acts I’ve ever witnessed. Watching them, I never fail to laugh at Teller’s physical comedy, and Penn’s ability to just keep rattling off at a hundred miles an hour. They’re a perfect team, and nobody ever outshines the other, by sheer dint of their role division, although of course, being the silent one means Teller didn’t get a radio show when Penn did. Heh.
If I ever had the chance to be a part of a permanent duo act, I wanna be Teller! There’s just something so cool about not having to say a single word and yet holding the audience in the palm of your hands with your riveting performance. These two are among my personal heroes in magic and mentalism, and though this piece was originally written two years ago, my sentiments about Penn and Teller have hardly changed. I still hold them in very high regard, and I believe that they really put magic at a different level that is both low-brow and high-minded at the same time.
Let’s cap off Escapology month with a doozy of an escape, known as the Crate Escape, and show a version performed by Cyril Takayama.
Why is this particular escape very appealing? Well, it’s rather simple, really, because escaping from a packing crate after it has been shut down is quite a challenging situation. Now, if you wanted to demonstrate your skill at lockpicking from the inside, it would be interesting if they used some padlocks to slam you inside the box. On the other hand, if you just really wanted to show off how good you are, you can have the whole thing actually nailed shut.
The challenge level is further enhanced the minute you have to escape either while suspended from a burning rope in mid-air, or while you’re tossed into the water. There are many different options when it comes to that, but ultimately, whether you choose to put yourself at risk in this manner, or merely shut yourself behind a curtain and attempt to escape from behind the curtain, this is a particularly powerful and popular escape act that – believe it or not – wouldn’t cost you that much.
It’s rather economical to have a packing crate constructed for your needs, or to simply ask for one from a shipping yard, if needed be. Ultimately, you’re not really restricted from doing such a thing, and that’s definitely going to work to your advantage, to be performing something that plays to a really big crowd for the fraction of the cost of a brand-new full-scale illusion. A simple packing crate that will more likely than not support your full weight is sufficient as a finale, especially when it’s coupled with other challenging items to escape from, such as ropes, handcuffs, or a straightjacket, if needed be.
As the month of April will be welcomed by none other than Penn and Teller, it would probably be good to note this early that they have a particularly humorous albeit sadistic take on the crate escape, and you’ll like that version if I ever manage to find the video online.
March is over and done with, and April Fool’s will be coming tomorrow, but rest assured that the art of escapology will continue to be acknowledged as simply one of the most challenging, at times dangerous, and downright stupefying aspects of magic. That it requires a lot of skill and less of trickery is a great thing, and that there is no need to deal with sceptics and the likes when it comes to the rudiments of escapology is also a plus for the sensitive performer.
I must admit, being occupied with all those games online has managed to kill my social life after work. But whaddaheck? I love it.
So if you happen to be on my Facebook, and you play Mafia Wars, do add me up. If you’re not playing that game, try playing MMA Pro as well. It’s awesome, and I need all the friends I could get to play the game. Heh. Just use the search bar on Facebook, and you’re bound to get it.
.:Getting Back Into The Groove Of Things:.
Had an interesting weekend filled with Magic: The Gathering tournaments. I played out a Legacy and Vintage tourney, and made a decent showing out of it, as I came in 16th in a field of 63 in Legacy, then made it into the top 4 in the Vintage tournament, bowing out to Lance, the eventual champion of the day, who was using Tezzeret.
All in all, it was a pretty good outing, and I hope to write a detailed tournament report if and when I find the time. I may forget some names and which deck I fought on which round, but it should be a pretty insightful look into how my thought processes generally work when playing.
In all honesty, I still feel very rusty and my play level isn’t at the same high level it used to be. Despite that, I’ve been re-learning my way around the tournament circles, and I’m hoping to find opportunities to really make a splash in the local meta once again.
.:89/365: The Bamboo Torture Device:.
As you can tell, a lot of Dixie Dooley’s escapes are mostly classic escape acts he has borrowed mainly from Harry Houdini, although I’m not fully certain that is the case with the Bamboo Torture Device.
The mechanics of the Bamboo Torture Device are a bit more complicated than average, which results in my displeasure with the routine: essentially, the escapologist is restrained via ropes looped through a piece of bamboo, and is held in place by two volunteers who will try to hold onto the ropes with all their might so as to prevent the escapologist from slipping out of the whole apparatus. Then, after a bit of a struggle, he manages to break free from the restraints, and the volunteers have no idea how he managed to get past the ropes and the bamboo.
I still don’t get why it’s called a bamboo “torture” device, in all honesty. There’s no semblance of torture involved even when you describe how the whole thing works, and it just seems patently silly to have to call it so if there is no amount of torture involved in the whole routine whatsoever. Furthermore, even by watching the routine, there seems to be very little room for drama or excitement, and it’s not something I would want to use without making some elaborately funny script about it meant to downplay the fact that out of all the escape acts we’ve shown or described so far this month, this one happens to be the least intimidating or at the very least interesting of them all.
I can’t tell you enough how underwhelming I find the bamboo torture device to be as an escape, although I do recognize that it has its uses, especially in the hands of a good performer, but on its own, the routine cannot get by without a lot of gravy from the escapologist, which I have seen from the likes of Herman Aquino in the past. If he just decided to do it without any flair, it becomes a very rote performance that could be replaced by something far more exciting, but then, this only goes to prove that while effects are important, it’s the performer who can ultimately determine how powerful the impact of a routine really is.
