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Todd Lamanske New user 31 Posts |
For all you workers out there:
We have the best job in the world. Hands down. There are many people out there who go to work every day dreading their job. Actually hating the thought of what they do. Ahhhh but not us. We get to make people smile, laugh, wonder and just plain freak out. People look at us with a sense of awe. We get to do what we LOVE to do and we get paid for it. We are truly blessed. I had a great night last night at my Wednesday restaurant. It's an Italian Bar & Grill called Tommy's. The food is excellent and the atmoshere is about like you'd expect a mid-scale Bar & Grill to be. Last night my friends, I was on! Have you ever had one of those nights where nothing could go wrong? Everything is clicking on all cylinders. They laugh at every joke. They look where you want, when you want. Every sleight you do is flawless. Your (mis)direction is perfect. Your delivery is smooth as silk. Every table is reacting exactly how you would want if you had scrpted it out. Last night, I had one of those nights. I usually work from 6pm to 8pm. However last night I ended up working until almost 9pm. Now of course I usually try to give them a little extra but not an hour. When 8 o'clock rolled around there were still tables requesting me and so I went to those tables because I am such a people pleaser (tonque in cheek). But that's not the real reason why I worked for an hour for free. The fact is, I was on a Magic high. It was like a drug. When it's going that well, it is such a cool feeling that you don't want it to stop. But maybe the coolest thing of all is the fact that I have been doing Magic for 28 years (started when I was 12), and even after all these years I can still get totally stoked about performing. It's nights like that, that remind me that I really do have the best job in the world! Todd |
drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
Todd,
Congratulations! You probably know that when you feel like that, people pick up on it and consider themselves fortunate to be in the presence of the best magician in the whole world! Yours, Paul |
Joey Evans Special user Fort Myers, FL 535 Posts |
Glad to hear that! It feels great when you have one of those nights when your routine is just alive and flowing. People can tell when that happens, and it seems everyone gets swept up in that moment. Hopefully, you have many more coming up!
Joey Brummett
The Visual Comedy and Magic of Joey Evans
http://www.Evansmagic.com/ The Impossible Has Never Been So Funny! |
Patrick Differ Inner circle 1540 Posts |
It's called being "in the zone." Extremely well done. How did the management take to you hanging around for an hour on your own time, just to keep the customers happy?
I expect they'll respond as positive as your guests did. Patrick
Will you walk into my parlour? said the Spider to the Fly,
Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I've a many curious things to show when you are there. Oh no, no, said the little Fly, to ask me is in vain, For who goes up your winding stair -can ne'er come down again. |
ShaunRobison Loyal user 255 Posts |
Good to hear Todd,
If I may add one of my stories, I had a group of people come in to see the magic and they were in such great moods that their laughter carried through the entire restaurant. They were very VERY verbal in their excitement. (No swearing just loud when they laughed) There was a table of "older" people who did not like all of the noise so they asked to be moved. It made for a bit of a heavy moment. Especially since I wasn't done with my set at the first table. I excused myself for a moment and explained to the manager what happened and went back to work the "happy" table. Everything went fine the rest of the night. Now dig this. After speaking with the manager he said not to worry about that one table (the unhappy one) he said we are a fun and loud restaurant. We want people to come here and have fun. Although we may lose those 4 customers which is bad; You can't please everyone. From the song we sing for birthday's and the professional but fun atmosphere-people know that this is not a quite place. Pretty cool to havethe management on your side huh? Talk abot a high the rest of the night too! I would love to hear some other stories. Here is one more. I was working the restaurant and approached one table that was waiting for their food. Everything was just great the people were laughing and eveything and the older lady (the Grandmother) was having a ball. Later as they were leaving I was walking by and the grandmother pulled me off to the side and said "I wanted to thank you for such a fun evening." "I just lost my husband and you really made me feel so much better" and she kissed me on the cheek! Better than any green tip anyone can give me! Have fun Shaun
www.shaunrobison.com
Magic and Illustrations |
Larry Davidson Inner circle Boynton Beach, FL 5270 Posts |
Shaun, your story about the grandmother can't be beat. That wouldn't have made my night, it would have made my career.
Here are a couple of experiences I had that made an impression. Scotty York and I performed at a bar in D.C. for a couple of years and one night the cast from "The King and I" came in for a cast party after their last performance. They were the most expressive audience I've ever had -- yelling, screaming, and applauding, almost non-stop. After I performed for the group, I went into the other room where Scotty was performing behind the bar and told him that I'd switch with him so he could get a chance to perform for the group. We switched, and I couldn't get him to switch back for the rest of the night. He later told me that they also were the best audience he had ever had. The funny thing is, I expected the group to be critical of my performing ability because they were professional actors, but they turned out to be the exact opposite. Maybe they weren't critical of me because their judgment was clouded by alcohol, or maybe they truly thought I sucked but were just acting otherwise. Another memorable experience I had involved a routine I developed where a signed card appeared under a small box mutliple times and then appeared folded up inside of the box for a climax (I developed this in the 80's and never published it but have seen a number of others publish similar ideas since, I'm sure created independently). I performed this in a restaurant once and at the end of the effect, one of the people at the table got on his knees, bowed, and all of the rest of them joined him as they said, pretty much in unison, "We are not worthy, we are not worthy." It totally cracked me up. Now if I could just figure out how to get that kind of reaction all the time. Larry D. |
radiantentertainment Regular user Donald Collins 112 Posts |
I carry my balloon pump tucked under my belt. The other night it was placed at the small of my back. A gentleman in his 70's asked me what I had sticking out of my arse. I paused till the laughter was over, looked around and saw no children were present, so I pulled out the pump and said "ribbed for your pleasure". The table broke up. I went one for a super long set and it turned out to be the best table I have ever worked. This particular table put me "in the zone" for the night. Its what we live for right?
So the other day I found out my contract is not going to be renewed. I had a no compete agreement and was full time at one restaurant. Several bar owners are expressing interest in having me perform. I am considering only performing at bars if possible. I believe this enviroment will give me more nights "in the zone". If anyone has experience doing this I would appreciate some advice.
Life is not a dress rehearsal!
Less is more. & Knock'em dead! |
Todd Lamanske New user 31 Posts |
Here is a short story I wrote up for the local IBM newsletter a few years ago. Enjoy!
TABLESIDE TALES I love to hear funny or once-in-a-lifetime stories that have actually happened to magicians. Here is a great one from my friend Ed Moore. Ed is a lawyer and also a great magician from Raytown, MO. He has filled in for me at Rembrandt’s about million times and this is a cool story that happened to him. Ed had finished his 2 hours of Close-Up at Rembrandt’s and was getting paid by the hostess. Now, I should tell you that, when you work at a restaurant, often times one of the employees wants you to show them a trick. And very often, they expect it every week. So anyway, as he’s getting paid, the hostess say’s “You have to show me a trick before I will pay you”. Ed of course says “O.K.”. He asked her for a dollar and he then performed the Mis-made Bill using the $100.00 bill switch that is credited to Mike Kozlowski among others. If you are unaware of this trick, it is a dollar bill that is printed off-center. That is to say, it looks like you cut a bill into quarters and glued it back together with the outer edges on the inside. It is a very interesting looking bill. Their dollar is switched for the Mis-made Dollar with a Thumb-Tip. It looks great. Ed buys sheets of un-cut one-dollar bills from the Bureau of Engraving and cuts the Mis-made bills himself. Because of the low cost of doing this, he is able to give the Mis-made bills away on special occasions. And that’s what he did. After he changed her dollar to the Mis-made dollar, he asked her if she wanted him to change it back or if she wanted to keep it. She wanted to keep it. It is a very cool, lingering miracle. Fast-forward about three months. Ed is filling in for me again at Rembrandt’s and has just finished for the night. The same hostess says, “You have to show me a trick, but I want you to do the trick I want to see”. Ed agrees. She then brings out the Mis-made bill from months before and says, “Change it back”. This could be a very sticky situation. However, on this particular night, the magic gods were smiling on Ed. As I mentioned, sometimes Ed will give the Mis-made bill to the spectator, which leaves him with a real dollar-bill in his Thumb-Tip. As luck would have it, Ed performed this trick at the last table he worked, and he gave them the Mis-made bill. So, you guessed it; he is set up for an absolute miracle. After milking the situation, like he wasn’t sure if he could actually do what she wanted, he then did the bill switch, turning the Mis-made bill into (apparently) her dollar from months before. She was converted from a magic fan to a magic worshiper right there on the spot. Needless to say, challenge situations like this don’t come along every day and when something like this happens, you just gotta smile. Here is another one that was pretty cool. Thinking on Your Feet Last Wednesday, at Tommy’s Bar & Grill, I was doing my regular thing. I had put John Cornelius’ Thought Transmitter in my pocket and was doing it at a few tables. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a wallet that let’s you secretly glimpse information written on a post-it note. I approached a table of 3 girls that were around 18 to 20 years old. Young and cute. I had one of the girls think of the name of a pet that she had as a child. I had her write it on the post-it note and I did the standard glimpse of the info. After some byplay and build-up, I revealed the name of the pet. They of course freaked out and the girl said “Do that again” By the way, if you do any mental magic, this pet thing is strong because of the personal connection. The other two girls both said “No, do it with me”. A request that is hard to say no to. As I started to do it with the other 2 girls, one of them said, “Oh, I know. When you write on this wallet, it makes a copy”. I told them that it didn’t and the other girl said “Can you do it without the wallet?”. I said “Sure”. As soon as I said that, one of the girls had removed the post-it note and was ready to write. Oh crap. What do I do now? Now before you read on, stop and think about it. What would you have done? Really stop and think about what you would do to get out of this situation before you read what I did. Put yourself in that situation; in that moment and think about it. O.K., here’s what I did. I told them to both use the same post-it note and I asked one girl to think of a movie star and the other girl to think of a date that means something to her (month, Day & Year). I asked them to write both things on the sticky side of the post-it note. As they were doing this I had my back turned so that I couldn’t see what they were writing. While my back was turned, I took another post-it note and folded it into quarters and put it in a loose left finger palm. When they were done writing I asked one of the girls to fold the paper in half and then in half again (in quarters). As soon as they had folded the paper in quarters, I turned to face them and asked them to hand me the paper but I never really let my eyes focus on the paper. I took it in my right hand and did a shuttle pass into the left hand exchanging it for the dummy paper. I then immediately handed it back to one of the girls and said “Oh wait, take this and hide it somewhere on your person. In fact, I don’t even want to know which one of you has hidden it”. As I said this, I turned around and opened the post-it note and read the info that they wrote. Pretty simple. After they had hidden the paper, I turned around and first I revealed the date, which, by the way, was the girls birthday and before revealing the date I said “The date you’re thinking of; it’s you’re birthday isn’t it?”. Very strong, because that’s information that wasn’t even on the paper. Before revealing the movie star, I told the 2nd girl that the movie star she was thinking of was no longer living. She said “Yes, that’s true”. Of course I already knew it was Marilyn Monroe. I said “Oh in that case we will need the paper”. I took the paper from the girl and took a lighter and burned it in the ashtray (destroying the evidence). A little more byplay and I then revealed the movie star. Needless to say, these girls were floored and I became their new magical hero. Well, at least, that’s how I like to remember it. Todd |
harris Inner circle Harris Deutsch 8812 Posts |
The summer has been filled with much wonder and nearly normal magic.
One of my favorite places was at the Ups and Downs Camp.(For campers who also have Downs Syndrome) I was sharing some voice magic and a young man would come from his seat to where I was performing.(Vent and magic) Papa Charlie asked him to please sit down. The young man immediately sat down at my feet. The crowd AND I cracked up. It is a blessing to be able to share with others. Harris Deutsch Laughologist
Harris Deutsch aka dr laugh
drlaugh4u@gmail.com music, magic and marvelous toys http://magician.org/member/drlaugh4u |
shawn popp Veteran user Denver 313 Posts |
Todd, you're my hero! I tried to think what I would have done, and your solution was better than what I came up with. Great lesson! thanks
shawn |
Chevrie Regular user West Texas 120 Posts |
These posts just make me feel good all over. Thanks I needed that!
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Angela Regular user Ohio 190 Posts |
Same here, Chevrie. This is the sort of thing that makes all the work we put into our art well worth it. My favorite moments are when I perform for patients in the hospital. When you're recovering from surgery, it's nice to have somebody there who isn't sticking you with a needle. If that somebody can perform a few miracles, it just gets that much better.
Angela |
Flec Special user UK 585 Posts |
All raise a glass to the best job in the world.
:bubbly: "the best job in the world!" Recently I am startin to appreciated what skills and knowledge and determination us magicians have been bleseed with. I got in the car after a weddign last week and said to my mom (I'm 17 by the way) I said "God I love my job" and we drove off. hehe. It occured to me that people actually pay us to go to parties. How cool! Some people actually get invited, but people actually PAY for us to be there? Once again, raise your glasses |
Keith Raygor Special user Naples, FL 968 Posts |
Todd,
Great to hear your stories! Just watched your videos again about 2 weeks ago. There is so much wonderful material on them, but the best part is they are for workers. You can tell it's material that's been brought to success in the real world of performing night after night. Any chance of you getting down Florida way again? Keith |
T. Lamanske New user 24 Posts |
Hey Keith. Thanks for the kind words. I'll send you a P.M.
Todd |
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