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Martino Special user Manchester, UK 928 Posts |
Hi Bob,
Your recently released DVDs seem to have attracted a somewhat mixed amount of both praise and criticism in equal measure. The criticism seems to stem from the rather low-key responses of the audience rather than the strength of the material itself. Your reputation as a comedy magician is (almost?) legendary yet they didn't seem to "get it". What are your thoughts on the set? I presume you've seen them? How did you feel about the audience and their responses? I look forward to hearing it straight from the horses mouth. Regards, Martin.
"There's a difference between not knowing how something is done and knowing it can't be done!" - Simon Aronson
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Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
For anyone that gets paid to perform, "Bob Does Hospitality" is the set to get. I dropped a couple of my routines ( something I'm hesitant to do easily ) in favor of Bob's, simply because they had a bigger impact that what I was doing.
Gotcha and 6 Tricks In 2 Minutes are work horses!
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
wsduncan Inner circle Seattle, WA 3619 Posts |
The material is first rate, but it would have been much better to see it performed for an audience that was "lubricated."
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BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
Martino,
I really appreciate your question. It pushes many of my buttons and I realize this could be opening a can of worms so I’m going to answer your question and more. Please do not in any way take this as an attack Mr. Martino. First we all must remember copy written for the purpose of selling DVD’s is just that. All magic advertising is presented like patent medicine. They sell hope. If you want save time, become a better performer, entertain with solid material that’s already been audience tested then you at least have a chance of accomplishing that with this set DVD’s. Not all can achieve that. I believe the reputation of the performer is everything. First if I performed the show for the wall the material on these three DVD’s would be better than most out there. Because it’s my act, written, developed, and beat to a pulp before I perform it for anyone, I have the faith in it and know how affective it is. So if I don’t know who Bob Sheets is then this isn’t going to work for you anyhow. I put these tapes out because magicians have seen much of this material and wanted to see how Bob puts this kind of an act together. That was more than accomplished on this set. Magic DVD’s are an instructional medium not TV. DVD Spectators are not actors. You turn lights on them and they look like deer in the headlights. The longer you shoot and they begin to wilt. It’s all about the material. I would prefer to do them like I did in “It’s The Rules and Tonte”. No audience at all. Since I practice my stuff without an audience I’m used to punching it up like I do in live performance. If I had gone ape on those 4 people live I would have lost them right away because it wouldn’t have been real. Would I have liked them to be a little more active than they were? Sure. You can’t predict how it’s going to look until it’s done. It’s like golf. You have to play the ball where it lies. The show aspect of the DVD’s while not truly representational of my performance it does not diminish the content. In The “Killer Kitson” shoot my cameraman was a newsman from Norfolk and he knew how to come in and go out and we didn’t have to light it since it was shot at a trade show during the day. So we got a very real feel on the tape. “There are only three tricks.” If three well thought out routines are not enough for you don’t buy these DVD’s! Simple. Most videos have one trick you might be interested in and another 70 minutes of filler or just plain bad material. Lot’s of the material is put together to sell and not perform. Lot’s of the so called street material is shot in some alley with graffiti and chicks to sell to guys who want to get lucky and think “doing the Blaine” will do it for them. I go to lot’s of conventions and you don’t see any of these guys there because they can’t do a show. I would love to see more of them come out, bite the bullet, grow some cojones, dare to be bad, and figure out how to work the conventions. Many of the new guys who never perform enough to tell if their work is of any value are doing DVD’s. There are some good performers develop projects only to sell without any intention of ever performing it for a paying audience. I am not one of them. I didn’t want to do that L & L thing, which is so lame with the same audience members on 200 tapes. Are you really that gullible to believe that every single trick that goofy guy sees is the most amazing thing he’s ever seen? PLEASE. The one thing I have in my favor is I know the material is solid since I make my living from it. I only did three tricks on these tapes because I put all the real work in the explanations. Most tapes finish the explanations and you have more questions than when you started. So the real question is do you want to actually learn something or do you want filler? Real performers can tell the difference and are willing try it first. For the lay magicians if you want to save time always select material from a real live performer. You can’t lose. Lot’s of people don’t know me are going to make their minds up listening to a review from some guy who couldn’t perform his way out of a paper bag. He’s got a soap box every month, you wouldn’t want to see his show anyhow so why are you going to let him make your mind up for you? It’s their loss. If you want to know if someone’s material is any good ask a well versed professional with an opinion you can trust. I’ll give you some real facts. These DVD’s are best sellers because enough people know me, know my other material, have seen these acts and purchased them to make that decision. I am the co-producer on all my magic projects. I’m not an editor or a videographer. I depend on other people for that. But I wrote and developed all of the work in front of paying audiences. So the value has been proven to me time and time again. It’s my reputation on the line. If you don’t like this project maybe my next one will do it for you. LOL. I don’t want or need every magician out there to do or buy “BOB” for this project to be a financial success. It already is. Bob Kohler and I are quite happy with the sales numbers of these DVD’s. A bad performer can make good material look like poop. We’ve all seen that at the club. His review and opinion of the material is likely to be the same. I don’t watch, listen or allow those folks to make up my mind for me. You shouldn’t either. Who’s that guy on the board? Is it just a guy who likes to start an argument? Is it someone with a beef with me personally? I almost never answer these things because I don’t know and can’t see whom I’m talking to. What I don’t want to do is break the spirit of someone who might be new and just trying to find his way. I understand that that most people who watch any video may not have the required skill set to accomplish anything they view. It just looks to hard to them. It may be for now. I also know that I can do things today I couldn’t do yesterday, last week or last year. I know that with perseverance, study, time, and maturity in the art anything that someone else has done I might one day say, “I can too.” My job in putting anything out is to grow the art and help you to be a better performer by showing you my approach to magic. My ideas, coaching, writing, creative, performance, and teaching efforts to, for, and with many worldwide professional magicians speaks for itself. The 12,000 illegal downloads finish the argument. |
Martino Special user Manchester, UK 928 Posts |
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your honest and forthright response. You are a class act! In no way have I taken it personally or as a direct attack on me. I actually do have the DVDs (bought from Bob Kohler) and recognise how good the material is. I will be adding at least a couple of the routines to my regular repertoire to see how they play for me. Like you said, gotta try it in front of a real audience to see how it plays. In some respects I wanted to open that bag of worms to give you a chance to put your view across against those of the so-called internet magicians out there who couldn't entertain if they tried. I was playing Devils Advocate to some degree, hence the carefully chosen wording of the question in the first place. I wanted to encourage an honest answer rather than get your back up too much - I guess I pitched it about right! I feel you and the material would have been better served being filmed in an actual bar or hospitality situation doing numerous performances which could then be edited together - similar perhaps to the Doc Eason DVDs that L&L put out. We might have got to seen the true Bob Sheets then. I have another question for you though. The material was touted as being "3 trick sets" but because of the editing it didn't necessarily come across that way I felt. What are your actual 3 trick sets using the material presented on the DVDs or do you have others that you also use? Incidentally, I adopted a maxim of yours I read in an interview or article in one of the magic magazines (I forget which one), and tht was "To go out with the attitude that I'm going to have more fun than them" or words to that effect. This has helped me tremendously to get the most out of my performances and the response from my audience seems to have improved as a by product! Thanks! Best Regards, Martin. P.S. Thanks for the PM.
"There's a difference between not knowing how something is done and knowing it can't be done!" - Simon Aronson
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MacIrish Regular user 142 Posts |
Bob,
Thanks for taking the time and really putting your thoughts down for us to read. It takes time to type it all out and I imagine that you wonder who out in Cyberspace will take the time to read and digest your comments. I trust that you, your thoughts, ideas and material will find eager and receptive "ears" here at the Café. Warmest Regards, Michael |
BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
It was rather cathartic I must say. Thanks Mac. Bob.
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korttihai_82 Inner circle Finland 1880 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-02-17 01:46, BobSheets wrote Just wondering now that the Pirate Bay court thingy is huge in Northern europe news, where in the world do you get that number?!?!?!? 12 000??? Pirate Bay is supposed to be the biggest torrent place in the world, at least according to todays news and they don't even get that many downloads from something like lets say newest Batman. It just feels that you are little over the top on the number? 120 maybe but 12 000??? That said, I have to agree totally on what you said on about the tapes. They are absolutely wonderful. However the problem tends to be that this new generation of "street junkies" don't realise how good the material actually is. When your young you just tend to keep looking for the "next big thing to show off to fellow magicians". Also they don't perform too much for living either so they cant really appreciate the worker aspects of these routines. Most reset instantly, don't need a table, are visual to even bigger tables, can be cut short if needed and so on. Juha-Matti PS You could share the "work" you had on gotcha deck with others as well You showed it last summer at Kouvola, Finland before the "actual lecture started at the Caféteria. Bob was nice enough to really do two lectures. One non formal one at convention Caféteria to around 30 magicians before he did his real lecture to around 300 magicians What a nice guy |
TheAmbitiousCard Eternal Order Northern California 13425 Posts |
What I noticed about Bobs routines was they had a lot of moments for interacting with the spectators and not just: here's a trick, there's a trick, I'm great, see you next year."
Like little hooks in each routine, that lure the spectators into interacting and not just following instructions. For those that work a lot, you know that is key to having an entertaining show. An example I wrote to Bob about is spongeballs: Those that don't get it think spongeballs are bad because "nobody knows what those little red things are". Those that do get it, like Bob, understand something like that is a goldmine for bits of business. The DVDs will certainly show you how to work things like that into your act. Lots of ideas. As far as how many tricks per DVD, several of my favorite DVDs just have 1.
www.theambitiouscard.com Hand Crafted Magic
Trophy Husband, Father of the Year Candidate, Chippendale's Dancer applicant, Unofficial World Record Holder. |
Whit Haydn V.I.P. 5449 Posts |
Hey, Bob! I liked this post best of all. There is a lot to be said about what makes a solid DVD, and there are a lot of bad ones out there...
I am not a fan of fancy editing, graphics and involved audience shoots. The material is what counts. They say "sell the sizzle, not the steak," but there is a lot of sizzle out there that is just crackling cellophane and no steak at all. The great material often seems buried under a ton of crap, and maybe that will be good for magic in the long run--you will need a mentor to help you sift through it all. Great post. |
gaddy Inner circle Agent of Chaos 3526 Posts |
What makes me laugh about these "mixed critical reviews" of this DVD set is how MILLIONS of "one-trick-DVDs" (and I really don't think that's an exaggeration...) have already been sold to past high praise and acclaim, but these particular DVDs of KILLER material ("...only 3 tricks" Wahh! Wahh! Boo! Hoo!) have been singled out for criticism...
There's a word for this, it's called hypocrisy. Look back at even the past one (1) year of these reviews and you'll see what I mean.
*due to the editorial policies here, words on this site attributed to me cannot necessarily be held to be my own.*
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BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
Gaddy,
Thanks. They're still best sellers at my house. bob. |
Kozmo V.I.P. 5473 Posts |
I love bob sheets!
Kozmo |
BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
Kozmo is a great street magician. As you see I got pretty lucky and skipped the street busking part and went right to street festivals. I say that and when I saw Kozmo's lecture last night I was totally inspired. I don't think there is better work on real Busking that you can actually do than this DVD.
Someone who want to really DO street magic and make real money can pick up his DVD, 4 coins, a chop cup, a deck of cards, 4 lemons, a melon, and a hat and really do it. This could very well be the shortest distance between you and a real street show. If I was 18 + and looking to make more money than a Starbucks barista this would be it for me. You Rock. bob. |
Pete Biro 1933 - 2018 18558 Posts |
I guess I'll have to find a player and check them out..
STAY TOONED... @ www.pete-biro.com
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Whit Haydn V.I.P. 5449 Posts |
Kozmo is great, and that is an excellent DVD.
My friend, Bob--you are a very inspiring performer yourself, and a very generous and upbeat person--which is worth even more. |
BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
Thanks Whit,
You are one of my most inspirational and dearest friends and I’m also a fan. You are of course well represented in this series and my compadre along with Chef Anton in the School For Scoundrels 3 Shell Series. Many great hours I wouldn’t take back. They’re mine. I also posted how to get the most out of Bob Does Hospitality so check that one out. I’m writing up some 3-shell stuff as we speak. Ciao for now, bob. |
Kozmo V.I.P. 5473 Posts |
Were doing a great piece on whit in the upcoming April issue of rel magic magazine
thanks for the kind words guys koz |
BobSheets V.I.P. 169 Posts |
That's REEL magic magazine. Sheeesh.
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Kozmo V.I.P. 5473 Posts |
Yea REEL
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