Monday, April 23, 2007

Dean's Routines


The Dean's Routines DVD will be available in about a month. The price will be between $25 and $30AUD and will include the following effects.


Very Hot Mama. (This is my take on The 'Chicago Opener' which includes a complete colour changing deck, flash paper and lots more.)

I, Magician. ( very easy stand- up card trick where the spectator plays the part of the magician. This fries people)

Spider Bite. ( A 'not for the faint hearted', hard core card effect involving Tenkai palming, The Pass, Future Reverse other very difficult moves)

Cups and Balls. (A very fast paced, funny and energetic version of the classic. I have fooled many many magicians with moves in my version of this trick. For the most part it's quite easy.

Triple Trouble. ( This is my take on the now classic, stand up, three coin effect. No shells but plenty of interesting misdirection. A joy to perform)

Credit. ( a gaffed vesrion of my effect Credit Queens. Great effect, very easy and extremely deceptive. I nailed David Jones, Kamal Bhushan, Glenn Hamilton Richard Jones and Chris Shing the first time I did it for them. Very easy.

Cash Flash. ( The most fun you will ever have with a Thumb tip)

Rip. ( a torn and restord where the pieces vanish as they are being torn. When they come back they are discovered retored in the card box which has been in full view the entire time) This is a good trick to do with the Mystery Box although My own version is more organic and uses the card box.


If you would like to reserve a copy of the DVD plese let me know and I will ship in Australia free. You can have your copy before it is sold at the Convention!

The Importance Of Being Flash Paper


Tonight I did a quick hour of roving at Yarra Yarra Golf Club.

Since I did a 50th birthday there earlier last year they have had me back 7 times to do one thing or another. The club is hidden among glades in Bentleigh and was recently re -furbished. I also did the opening in February. the crods are always fantastic. I find that the audiences at yarra really respect professionalism.

Tonight was a little bash for some of their corporate members and I was milling during pre- dinner drinks in their wonderful new members bar. I was booked from 5.30 until 6.30 to enteratain as people finshed up golf and got into the free plonk. I also realised during this time how imprtanat Flash Paper is. As part of my on going efforts to downsize I decided to remove FP from my roving all together. The gigs I did over the weekend went just fine without it but tonight I realised there was a difference. With those previous three night's worth of engagements I had already established myself with a stage spot during which I was doing ventriloquism. I did very LITTLE magic in the second part of thsoe shows but rather just mingled with people and did a few solid card tricks but really just joining the party as an fairly interesting 'paid' guest. Tonight I was doing JUST roving for the first time in a while outside of doing some stand up too. Although I went down great for the fun blokes at Yarra Yarra as I always do (and gave out 23 buniness cards which I had counted before leaving the house) I did feel, as I said to Joanne on my arrival home, that I could have done with some FP. Jo quite rightly pointed out that what I meant was I needed a bit of pizzaz. She's was right.

I also made a point of doing two of the effects from my up coming lecture DVD tonight and one of them is at a real loss without FP which I noticed as I was doing it.

I told my friend the magician Nick Morton who is producing my DVD, that he had to refuse to allow me to make anymore alterations to effects for this DVD. The shoot date set for next Monday.

For anyone interested in knowing what I have decided to put on there. With only two exceptions the material is very easy. I will give you the run down in a bew post at some point soon. I am explaining my cups and balls (with all the cute bits where I hide the bal l under my arm) for the first time but the Card to Pocket routine will remain a mystery for a while longer. I write that as a few people have asked me if I was going to incude it. Sorry but no.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

From One Extreme To Another


Kevin was not as big a hit at a house party last night as he had been in a bar the night before. The style of function was also very different. The Friday night gig had been a corporate, lot's of people letting their hair down in a public place. Last night I did an hour at a guy's 40th in Glenn Iris. We all had a great time but the Vulture was (although very entertaining) the weakest part of the show. As ever though I am probably being too hard on myself. Ventriloquism is quite a tough sell in someone's loungeroom and even though the client Nadine had done a great job at hiring caterers who created an indoor beer garden there is something just a little bit to cozy about a house party to warrant expecting people to buy into puppets without any real warning. It could have been the audience though but they were so great for the rst of it that I think it was just enviromental. There had not been that much drink passed around yet either. Also I think my delivery may have been off once i started to feel the wall growing a little. Domino effect maybe?

By the way,when I say that I don't think vent goes over in a loungroon during an adult show that's not strictly speaking true. Maybe a character who was a little easier to identify with would have been better. Kevin is a' mock horror' sort of deal, which is very funny but in a more public or corporate setting. Even though there are quite a few call backs to an audience member in his routine already I have decided to personalise the routine more and drop more of the guests names into the routine...or even just celebrities names might help to make it more identifiable and or topical. I am doing him again for a Rotary function in town next Friday night and intend on working on some new bits of dialogue this week. The trouble with Rotary is that it is not private neither is it corporate so it's tricky. I think I will still drop some of the guests names in though (if I can remember them in time) and see how I go. It all depends on how well people know each other I guess. The bit that I do with the dummy mask was a storm (last night) as it always is. Like the Vulture, the new spider bit struggled too. After the show it was on to 40mins of walk around. I don't have to tell you that was fine....yep I can do that now...that's just what I DO, what I have done for years and its just fine. based on the responses I get week in and week out my walk around is pretty much perfect. I am very comfoartable doing walk around I always have been. I enjoy it a tremedous amount.

The other extreme was Maddie and Violet's Birthday Party today at the Silly Seahorse in Chelsea Heights. One of my parents presents to them. I, ofcourse, supplied a show during which Kevin went down a storm...as did all of the other puppets. No before you ask I don't do the same routine for kids as I do for adults. There were two other parties on at the same time as us and I just said that everyone could watch my show. We had the whole place screaming and shouting.

I have to go now as I have loads of Barbie dolls to open. Why do they package them so well? The loungroom looks like Santa's grotto.