Hello everyone!

Thanks for responding!



I’m just curious if any of you have performed on T.V.?



What was the overall experience like?



Steve

Hi, Steve,

I performed numerous times on Mexican televison and enjoyed it very much. They are a very warm audience.



Please let me share with you something that came up.



I was asked if I minded if the next time I performed for them, they could use more than one camera to watch my hands while performing.



Of course, I said yes! The reason was that they had a monitor near by, and when they changed cameras, I was able to change the positions of my performers (my hands) so that nothing could be seen!!



I loved that very much.

Tom Wolf

Hi Steve,



This is from the Fast&Flashey thread:



I had a TV shot when the original needle thru matchbox first came out. I was on a show with several other magicians around Halloween. The host was a noted smarty-pants and interrupter. I was the only one that nailed him.



The staff came up to me after the taping and congratulated me on really getting him good. When that matchbox dropped into his hand as heavy as it was his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He was mezmerized by the brass block for a good 30 seconds. That’s a long time in TV time.



Ciao,



Tom Cutts

I’ve done several TV spots. Here’s what I performed:

3 shell game

sponge balls

hopping half

cups and balls

a couple of card effects

rope routine

linking rings



(these were performed over the course of several shows, not all at once!)



_________________

Scott F. Guinn

Great Scott! It's Magic!

Hi Steve,



I have the chance to do ( almost weekly ) tv spot in Montreal, so if you need help feel free to ask.



But a good start will be the book on magic for tv by Gary Ouellet... very interesting



Take care



_________________

"mentalism is not boring...

it’s the mentalist!!!"



K

Another good source is Dick Williams' "Lights, camera, Magic!"

My face is appropriate for radio only!

I have often thought about the appearance of magic stars on TV and I am not satisfied with the shows. I realize that there is quite a bit on TV with super performers but I question why we don’t see, more often, people like John Carney, David Williamson?

Where were perfomers like Jennings, Thompson and Earl Nelson? These fellows are all super perfomers whom we respect and purchase their material due to our admiration of their art. It seems sad to me that the general public is not more often given a taste of such talented performers, not to mention the many other stars who are in our world of magic.

It could be that guest shots on TV programs are so short that it is hard to do a routine of magic except for a couple of quick and visual tricks.



Also, for magic to be good on TV the camera must stay in position, as if a member of the audience. Cutting from one shot to another destroys the effect and could lead to some extremely bad angles.

Mentalism is great for TV. Because mentalism isn’t generally based around visual ’props’, some people make the mistake of thinking it can’t fill a large space (like a stage) or work on TV. The truth is that precisely because it tends not to be governed by props, mentalism can fill any space, large or small, live or TV, audience of 1 or 1000. I’ve done many TV spots, and some of them can be seen on my website in the form of ’photo essays’ that recall what I did with video stills. (My website; Beyond the Psychic, TV Miracles).

I think TV can be a great ally and friend, but dealing with TV people can be stressful. Basically they have their agenda, and you have yours, and the two are rarely in sync. But hey, if you end up with nice bits for your show reel, who cares?

In ’98, David Roth was on The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman has a history of HATING magicians, but Roth really impressed him. It was great! That was only about two weeks before I got to spend a week on the road with David. I had booked him a Northwest Lecture Tour, and he doesn’t drive! A couple of those days were 8-hour drives, and let me tell you, the guy has some GREAT stories, and his lectures are marathons! This will always be one of the highlights of my magical life.

I did a show as a "Masked Magician" a couple of years ago...





Just kidding! No hate mail! That WASN'T me!

I have been performing on Television since the early age of 15 when I got my first shot on a special called "Star Performance" which was produced by Darwin Vickers (a big Canadian televison producer) I remember I performed the Zig-Zag and the infamous Sub-trunk.

Since then, I have appeared mostly on talk show type programs, mostly in Toronto and surrounding areas, usually to promote upcoming shows or tours.

Such shows as:

The Mike Bullard show

Eye on Toronto

Breakfast Television

The Dini Petty show

Cammilla Scott

to name a few. However, I have appeared on a Miss Canada Pageant as an intermission performer

I also worked with the World famous "Living Legends" show about 7 years ago as a tribute performer to Mr. David Copperfeild. We appeared on many international shows such as A Current Affair, Good Morning LA, And Entertainment Tonite.

Not that anyone really cares? I just thought I would put my 2 cents into this thread. LOL

We care Peter!

Mya

I was on a Minneapolis channel (morning news program) promoting National Magic Week (the last week in October) and performed over the course of 2 segments a short sponge ball vanish routine, Matrix (the original, for those of you wondering) and an impromptu card trick. It went very nicely!

The thing to keep in mind is that many stations have a format in which events are scheduled to the second. If they say you have 40 seconds to fill, you have ONLY 40 seconds, not 45 seconds. Keep things short and sweet and be prepared to stretch the time if the folks in the booth make a last-minute change in plans.

NEVER go so long that they would cut you off before the "big finish." That would be a pity.

Hi,

It is hot in a TV studio. It is important that you use the exact time that is allotted to you.

Avoid the close up mat, you don't want to promote your hands.

Yours faithfully


:devilish: Dan

We have done numerous TV things and recently did a guest appearence on this Saturday night Creature Feature show with a guy who shows old monster movies and does commercials in charcter as an evil but quirky mad scientist named Dr. Igor. It's really campy --the sort of thing that was popular in the 60's and 70's.
We did a sword cabniet, a guillotine ,a Niagara shuffle and a levatation. Great Fun for all.

Jarle Leirpoll, in his book "Pocket Power", has a section on doing magic on television. I've performed a few times on TV and have found that the misdirection is easier -- just move out of the frame, when they are doing a close-up, or give them a good reason to do a close-up, elsewhere.

Back in the mid-seventies I was contacted by a local TV station in Miami. They were going to put on a weekly show called Music Is The Magic... terrible name. Anyway, what they wanted to do is feature local magicians and local musicians. The IBM ring I belonged to had been contacted and they recommended me. I was working on an illusion show at the time so I told them I could do two effects for them. I invented one effect just for the show: I produced about five doves and suspended by wires was a small box, covered in paper, hovering about chest height. As I produced the birds I put them into the box. With all birds in there I put a torch to the box and it went up instantly leaving a very thing black framework. No trick photography and I believe it was kind of inventive and new. I also did a Sub trunk with my addition that my partner was put in the box and he put his hands through two holes that were on the top of the box. I handcuffed his hands so that they were visible until seconds before the change... and we still did a multiple costume change. Well, it was great doing it, but I was an idiot and never thought to get a copy from the station... this was way before everyone had their own VCR. The show played only once to no audience so they never produced another one. Working on the set was pretty cool and it made me feel like a star at a young age. I also produced my own pilot for a magic show that I tried to sell to WAMI... another local Miami station, but they went out of business right after I gave them the tape. Maybe it's me that's bringing the bad luck?

The best thing about performing on TV, IMO, is that you can get away with stuff that is more angly because of the camera.

Always have extra material with you if you're booked to appear on t.v (especially live work). I got asked to perform a 30 second teaser at the head of a show I was featured on, then with only 5 minutes until broadcast the producer pulled the idea and gave me an extra 5 minutes in the second half of the show!

Luckily I had dragged along more material than I needed.

Regards

Steven King