a la Paul Harris

Paul Harris is one of the top thinkers in Magic today. This is a little monte like routine of his. Enjoy.

a la Fred Kaps

I had a very rare chance to practice tonight. I've been working on this little piece of magic. It is the opener from Fred Kaps routine from several years ago. Look up Fred Kaps on youtube to see some of the best magic around. Enjoy.

Fudodo Thread

They say the old fakirs in India used thread to tell the fortunes of people. They would break the thread into several pieces and if it came back together there was good fortunes coming. If it stayed broken, well, the meaning was pretty obvious. Whether or not you believe in fortune telling and 'magic thread' is up to you, but this piece of magic is beautiful in my mind. My handling is nothing unusual, but in Japan there is a small notion called 赤い糸(Aki Ito) or red thread. They say that there is a fine red thread that binds best friends (and lovers) together forever. No matter where they end up in life, they will always have each other through that special connection. So here I am, an American, doing an old Indian magic trick with Japanese imagery. Enjoy, The Hindu Thread.

Fudodo-Sponge Balls

Sponge Balls are great. They are such a sweet, straight forward piece of magic. I've been doing this routine for many years now, mostly in my close-up magic work. The student in this clip was a great volunteer. Her name is Yoshi. Enjoy.

Fudodo Show - NewsPaper

The torn and restored newspaper is one of the classics of stage magic. I love the visual rawness of it. Its very easy to understand that he is tearing the paper, and then puts it back together. No goofy looking props, no strange moves, whats not to like? The version of the Newspaper that I do takes it two interesting steps beyond the traditional effect. First, I ask the guest to select any page from the paper he wants to. Second, He SIGNS the paper. Thanks to the modern wizard, Richard Osterlind for developing these improvements on the old classic. Enjoy.

A Familiar Show

I was recently asked to come back to one of the schools which I taught at for 3 years and give a performance. It was my fourth year in a row performing for this school. In the past, I normally juggled for this show, but this time I chose to do magic. It was nice to see the students and teachers again. This video is of a routine that I'm still working on a little. Enjoy.

I'm picky

After a recent performance, some asked me, "How do you choose what you perform?"
They had seen me perform a few times at different events, and noticed that I have done a few different show sets.
The answer is pretty simple: I'm picky. I'm very picky with what I choose to present on stage. Especially with magic. My initial criteria for choosing magic to perform is, "Do I enjoy watching it?" There are so many magic routines and effects which I don't really enjoy to watch as a spectator. For example: cups and balls, I have watched dozens of different cups and balls routines live or on the internet. Look it up on youtube sometime. I find most of them very busy, and ultimately confusing for the audience. That frustrates me as a spectator, and it turns me off as a magician. The same is true for many coin magic tricks. They are to hard to follow.
So how do I choose what to perform, I need to like it as an audience member first.
The second condition comes in the method, the handling, sshhh...the secret. I need to enjoy how it flows and plays out. Can I adapt it to my style? This causes me to search and search for various methods. Yes, there are many different ways to make a ball disappear, or change the color of a card. Ultimately, the secret is not the important part, it is how you present the magic.

I recently added two new routines to my show - the Hindu Thread and Torn and Restored Newspaper. I enjoy these to effects very much. I feel that the thread is such a beautiful visual. And the newspaper tear is one of the awesome classics of magic. Both of them are posted in videos in earlier blog posts.