Magical Weddings

Diary of a Wedding Magician

Well this weekend was lots of fun with three very different weddings to entertain at

Although The format of weddings are pretty similar the feel of most weddings is very different

This can relate to Number of guests,Venue,Age of guests,if children are present and also the thing that is the hardest to relate to is the type of people

I love being asked to entertain at weddings and I often joke that for a bloke I know far to much about them

With a simple calculation I have probably entertained at 800-875 over the last 23 years

I cant say that any two were the same!!!!

• This weekend saw me entertain at a really large wedding in Cheshire where I entertained through drinks reception and the wedding breakfastAs I knew a lot of the guests there was a really personal feel
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• In the evening I entertained at a reception in Warrington where I was asked to mix and mingle in the bar performing close up magic.This was an evening of fun and banter with a lot of the guests that had been at the wedding all day
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• The third wedding of the weekend was an intimate wedding with about 50 guests in a country house hotel near Sheffield where I looked after guests through drinks reception and through the meal

As you can appreciate I had the chance to spend a lot more time with guests at the third wedding as it had about a third of the guests.Three weddings all awesome but all three very different.

I was so pleased to get an e mail from the Bride and Groom from the third wedding yesterday saying the following

A very good afternoon from the Easons! Carl we wanted to say an absolutely massive thank you for yesterday you are so so talented, read the crowd brilliantly and entertained our guests perfectly! The faces of shock surprise and laughter on our guests was literally magic! We cannot recommend you enough and have had so many compliments to pass on to you. Thank you , love Mr and Mrs Eason x x x 🃏♠♣♥💝

 The most pleasing part of this as positive feedback (and a great testimonial) is that the bride felt that I read the room and her guests to maximise the effect of my wedding magic.

She understood that there was a mix of personalities and age groups and I tried to maximise the magical effects by not just producing a homogeneous set for each group of people

The bride and groom were pleased because of their guests reactions which I think speaks volumes for the approach of any wedding magician

Last year I produced a couple of video blogs one of which was on wedding magic I will put this below



Please do like and share or subscribe this blog

Any Questions or comments very welcome

Carl Royle
www.magicbycarl.co.uk

Dr Daley on Steroids

How Ideas Can Develop

Last night I was lucky enough to see my magical friend John Carey lecture at Bolton Magic Club

Over the last few years John has produced some wonderful books on Card Magic and a number of well acclaimed teaching videos for magicians

The lecture was very good indeed and appreciated by all those that attended

It was great to sit in the bar afterwards discussing magic theory and card effects

John reminded me that I had taken one of his ideas a few years ago and changed the presentation a little to suit my style and the audiences I perform for.

What he had never told me before was how much he actually liked the presentation and he uttered the words every magician wants to hear from their respected piers 

"I wish I had thought of that"!!!!!

John did ask that if i were to use this effect in a lecture or write it up that I title it (with full credits)

"Dr Daley On Steroids"

This will only make sense to magicians!!!

I just remembered that I filmed a presentation of the effect a while ago so please see video below and let me know what you think

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Carl Royle
www.magicbycarl.co.uk

Unique Magic

What if a client wants a unique experience?

Food For Thought!

I am quite often asked to produce bespoke magic ideas for clients

This could be to represent products at a trade show,Represent a current project,To get across and idea or new working practice

In the last twelve months my favourites have been to 

• Show how a certain product was getting smaller
• To represent a National project of the laying of cable from one end of the country to the other and how teams had to work together to make this a success
• Celebration of a companies 150 years in business

I will concentrate on the third one as it is the most recent

The Remit was to do a short after dinner presentation that highlighted the fact the company I was working for was celebration one hundred and fifty years in business

Without going into the full details of the effect I put together for them I was really pleased how it was received by all the employees 

The Effect was a fun way of presenting a mathematical effect where all random numbers added up to the year the company was formed (eventually)

The reason I believe that the presentation went down so well was down to how invested the senior members of staff were in the company ethos.When after a lot of byplay they were confronted with many random events through my show adding up to 1866 I would not be exaggerating to say there was an explosion of joy from some members of staff.

As magicians we always try to make every performance unique as theory tells us no two audiences are the same.

When an audience knows that a certain performance was designed just for them the reactions increase exponentially

There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from producing bespoke presentations to represent people ,product or occasion.

The realisation that the presentation is just for them is a wonderful thing to behold

I would love to answer any questions or discuss ideas on bespoke magic

If you like this blog please do like and share 

Many thanks

Carl Royle

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

  

If Someone Else You Try To Be

Thoughts on Being Yourself Or A Character Of Originality 

Last night I was reading a book on magic (re Reading) by a famous mind reader called Bob Cassidy.

I really enjoy his writing and love his thoughts on performing and approach rather than just the effects.

There was a two line saying that really struck home to me with regard to a lot of magic I see people performing at the moment weather live,on the internet or on TV

If Someone Else You Try to Be

You're Condemned to Mediocrity

(the artful mentalism of Bob Cassidy,Page 134)

I am lucky to work with and know many leading professional magicians and one of the biggest traits of the ones that stand out is their natural and relaxed approach to performing

We are not all creative enough to invent our own effects but all the magicians I know that are workers find a way to make certain tricks their own by stamping their own personality

No greater example of this could be said by my friend Harry Robson and his Borrowed Ring on Shoelace 

The nearest I have been able to come to making something my own is probably my Gold Cup Con trick which takes a classic plot and re frames it (photo above of me performing this at a corporate event)

I am a big fan of classic effects so on many occasions I am performing magic that has been done by other magicians for many years.This is because finding plots that suit you is really important in enabling the natural relaxed performance I try to convey

This does not mean you have to copy other peoples presentation of said classic plots

I do believe that the magic clone culture is in large a result of magicians now learning most of their new material from DVD

I can only liken it to following a Sat Nav and not knowing how you got to your destination

I started this blog saying how I gain most of my knowledge and inspiration in magic and that is from books.

When reading you put your own interpretation on the writing and in a lot of cases subconsciously come up with something unique

Of course I still watch magic DVD and go to Magic Lectures and watch magic on TV etc etc

This all comes back to my previous blog on making magic memorable and why people will remember you and your magic

It is hard to be unique but there is nothing worse than a bad copy of anything whether it is a cover version of a song a piece of art or in my mind especially a magic performance

Comments or questions welcome

Carl

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

Making The Magic Memorable

Why should they remember you?

There is an old saying in magic that "people do not remember what you do they remember how you make them feel"

So how do people want to feel when they watch magic?

If I was to brainstorm this question you will get a list something like the one below (or we did!!!)

• Engaged
• Amused
• Entertained
• Astonished
• Surprised
• Comfortable
• Included (without being picked on)
• Relaxed
• Happy
• Special

This list is not in any order but if you leave any audience member feeling just half of the above they are definitely going to remember you for a long time.

My first observation of the above is that most of the list is not necessarily related to magic at all.The fact is most magic is not about the effect or the trick being performed.

Yes it is really important that any magician performs amazing magic but what makes individual magicians stand out is the way they interact with their audience.

"How they make them feel"

If people have seen me perform you will know there is a section of my close up act where I use the word awesome a lot.I get the audience to repeat the word awesome and at the end of the effect I can almost guarantee someone will say "that was awesome"

This is because by the time I get to this effect everyone feels Engaged,amused,entertained,comfortable,included and I hope special

I sort of hope they are astonished as well but I am sure you get the message

On many occasions I have met people who have seen me perform at another time and they always remember the Awesome thing!!!!! 

As I have touched on in previous blogs it is so important to listen as you perform so you can respond and make an audience feel included instead of feeling they are being performed at.

Next time you are interacting with people whether you have met them before or not consider how you made them feel and how or if they will remember you in the future

This goes for Magic and none magic interaction

Comments and questions welcome

Carl Royle

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

www.facebook.com/magicbycarl

Just Listen And Think

Some of the best lines come from nothing!

When performing I always try to have a friendly, natural relaxed approach that appears to be quite unscripted.

The truth is I plan and rehearse every routine I perform a great deal.

The thing that makes every performance of the same effect unique is the way you interact with the audience.This can only be done if you listen.

Over the years I have tried to develop a skill for taking in all the activity going on around me when I am performing which can create some little gems.

An audience does not always think you are listening as they make comment to the person stood next to them when you are half way through a routine.

When you react in a friendly way magic can become more conversational and personal for the spectators. This makes them feel more involved resulting in them investing more attention into your performance.

By listening as well as talking you will open your mind to some well rehearsed ad libs and even the odd new line that comes from nowhere.

A couple of examples from this weekend came when performing at a wedding and a corporate event

Corporate Event

With five people on stage ready to perform my version of the black ball game (Kurotske) I always go down the line and ask names and pass comments if we have met earlier whilst I was performing Close Up Magic.This is to relax spectators and also build trust and rap poor establishing that this ill be fun and nobody will be made to look silly.

On going down the line I established the first spectator was called Andy (do they call you andy because you live around the corner?) Then I found spectator number five was also called Andy!

Without missing a beat I announced we had an Andy sandwich!!!! and the other spectators were the meat in the sandwich!!

"Have you ever been in and Andy Sandwich before?" Etc Etc

(by the way all the helpers were men I may not have used that line if a lady had been in the middle!!!)

The Andy Sandwich became a thing 

People ran with it as being amusing and funny

After the show as I was leaving a member of the audience asked me how I managed to arrange to get two people called andy at each end of the line!!!!!! (True)

This is just one example of creating something from nothing by just listening

Wedding

Whilst performing my routine of The Baby Book by Stephen E Young and John Morton (which i can highly recommend) I was asked "How can you tell"

As this was being sold as a voice reading test I answered by saying "I could tell by the big pause"

As I was in a conversational relaxed state to perform I realised I had told a joke but had to give the punch line.

The spectator actually said "what pause"(thank you magic gods)

So I got the gag in of "the paws on the Teddy Bear"

I suppose you had to be there but I have now used this joke every time I have used the baby book since

Listen Listen Listen

By listening and formulating on the go you can create personal magical moments for your audience 

Whether consciously or subconsciously they will feel that the performance was personal to them and not just the recital of a script

Have a magic day

Carl

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

www.facebook.com/magicbycarl

Any questions or comments welcome

To Walk Away Or Stay?

Reacting to an audience members objection to magic

As my first real post on this Blog I thought I would share an experience from a wedding event I entertained at just this weekend

I entertain at a lot of weddings and as much as they are all different they can be very similar

It is very easy to go onto auto pilot as a magician and not react to your audience 

I believe not going on auto pilot is one of the ways to keep every performance fresh and as unique as it can be.

What happens when a person you approach makes it abundantly clear they do not want to watch magic,they do not like magic and would prefer it if you walked away?

I have had this happen on many occasion over the years for many reasons

• Some people do not like magic
• The group could be in deep conversation about business (Bad Timing)
• Family members have not seen each other for years and want to chat
• Some people think they do not like magic!!!!!!!

I would like to concentrate on the last point

I had a wonderful experience just last weekend where I approached a couple at a wedding reception who were stood on their own

They could have not been more pleasant as I struck up conversation but when it became apparent I was a magician the wife in the couple seemed to withdraw and shrink into herself visibly

I feel it is so important to observe your audience and their reactions to anything you say or do

This lady was so friendly to start with and then decided she really didn't want to watch any magic as "she didn't like to fuss"

Do I stay or walk?

On many occasions I would have walked and thanked them for their time and searched out a new audience

On this occasion though I just had an inkling that the husband wanted me to do something and also the lady might actually enjoy something she didn't have to be involved with 

My gut instinct was right I coaxed her in slowly and at the climax of the routine I did she had a beaming smile and started to gush on how the magic was just "wonderful" 

As a magician I do not see audiences as a challenge and am not a particular fan of any kind of challenge magic but if you are pleasant and conversational most people do want to watch good magic

In the case above I got so much satisfaction from the way this lady changed after watching one magic effect.Her husband later told me she was painfully shy and he had never seen her come out of herself like that before.

As Magicians we carry a great power and responsibility.If you wanted to you can make people look silly with sarcastic remarks and glib comments but as magicians we can make people feel so special even if it may be for a short time.

I am so glad I did not walk away from this couple at the weekend because that would have been the easy thing to do.

In assessing the situation and using experience I think I created a moment of magic not just for the spectator but for myself as a performer

Have a magic day

Carl

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

Any questions or comments welcome

Why A New Blog?

A New Blog?

The reason for me starting this new blog page is primarily to get down some post event ideas.
The Blogs I produce on my web sites www.magicbycarl.co.uk/blog and www.wizardry.co.uk/blog are all aimed at the general public and are really a marketing tool.

I wanted to have a forum for my magical thoughts!!!!!

On many occasions I will get back from events and something unusual has happened or  I have come up with a new line,Something has inspired a new idea.

I hope it will be beneficial to my thinking or progression and also be entertaining to anyone else that cares to read my musings

The other problem with my web site blogs is on a lot of occasions they are being written to help SEO and are a marketing tool

This Blog will be a kind of open diary that might help the odd performer or create a discussion or two

I will try to post on here a couple of times a week with comments on Magic and Events I attend throughout the year

I will also comment on new and old product effects and books that cross my path

This Blog is really aimed at focusing my own thoughts and sharing with other magicians or performers

Hope it is fun

Carl