Category: Magic Blog

We’ve been lounging in Chicago

Sarah Harfield August 17, 2019 Magic Blog

I remember well my first visit to the Chicago Magic Lounge. I was in the city performing at a trade show and had the evening off. It was a Thursday night and I eventually discovered the underground speakeasy where the Magic Lounge was taking place. My first impression was that it was a venue that would suit a burlesque show more than a magic show. Which was me being astute, as that is what happened on several other nights. A fun night was had by all with close-up magic, a bar magician, and a stage show.

That was a few years ago and the Chicago Magic Lounge has now morphed from one night a week in a rented underground bar to a purpose-built building running 7 nights a week. It didn’t happen overnight and I’m sure there were many problems along the way, but now Chicago has a shiny new magic venue.

They run a variety of different evenings including Jazz and Magic, and one man shows, but the main event is the weekend which runs a brilliant evening of wonder.
Unless you know where the venue is you are unlikely to find it. The entrance is via a launderette, complete with working machines. If you know how, a secret door opens, and you walk into a salubrious bar with a bar magician.This is were we enjoyed the magic of 2 old friends from Abbotts Get Together, Jeff Bibik & Deven Brown. The bar is open to all but if you have a ticket you can gain access to the main show room. (Tip – When we were performing there you needed to book in advance as it was sold out).

The main show room is spacious with a balcony and seats (I’m guessing) about 120 people. Close-up workers are working the room while you can enjoy a cocktail and a bite to eat. This is followed by a cabaret stage show of the best magicians in Chicago, and sometimes further afield.

And if that wasn’t enough there is the after-show show in the close-up room. It is called the 654 club, a nod to native Chicago magician Bill Malone. This room presents a brilliant chance to see a longer close-up magic show, with raked seating and not a bad seat in the house.
It was such a treat to work with Chicago locals Jan Rose with husband Danny Orleans and the ‘youngens’ Trent James and Ryan Plunkett and all kept in order by Ben Barnes!
If you find yourself in Chicago with nothing to do don’t miss this magical treat, but don’t forget to buy a ticket in advance.

Cheers

Keith Fields

And dont tell them but here is the world famous John Sturk and Lady Sarah having a jolly time.

Lady Sarah’s Magic Soiree

Sarah Harfield February 28, 2019 Magic Blog

We started our mission to visit, perform and write about all the local magic shows around the USA over a year ago. It is great to see folk getting together and providing a stage where magicians can perform and audiences can experience live magic. This story is about our experience of doing it ourselves.

John Kohl performing at The Magic Soiree — The amazing John Kohl

Putting on a regular show has a different set of challenges to performing our touring theater show. The last time we did a regular show was a comedy club back in the UK about 30 years ago, that was before the internet, so it is ancient history now.
Since being in America (10 years now!) we have talked about it, thought about it, had a couple of false starts, got distracted with a residency in Gatlinburg for 3 years, but finally, we are up and running with a once a month magic show in Troy, Michigan (about 20 miles north of Detroit). The name we chose is “Lady Sarah’s Magic Soiree”, and luckily www.TheMagicSoiree.com was still available. The room is a function room in a local restaurant, complete with the heads of many animals on the wall (it’s a huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ sort of place) and the first problem was that we sold all the tickets – 83 of them. Why was this a problem? well read on…

On arrival at the venue we started to set up and hit our first snag. It was 3pm and the doors were due to open at 6:30pm. We had hired a stage (2 pieces giving us 8-foot square), but as soon as we had put it in place we discovered we couldn’t fit all the audience in! After a bit of panicking we dumped half the stage which left us with a tight 8′ x 4′. By 5:30pm we had lights, backdrop, seats, tables, table decorations, table numbers, themed cocktail menus and more, all in place. Yes, there were lots of frilly bits; we were putting on “Lady Sarah’s Magic Soiree” not just a magic show – we wanted it to look special. And it did!
Our format was simple – a close-up session with strolling performers followed by a cabaret show. There are many ways of skinning this particular cat, what mix of magic should we use? This format was decided on as we thought it would be the best for the room, for the audience, the demographic of our area,and the best way to create a performing space where many local magicians would enjoy performing.

We soon learned that in Michigan, if you say “the doors open at 6.30pm”, folk will arrive an hour early and wonder why they can’t be seated! The downstairs restaurant was overcrowded with their normal diners AND our audience so we had to open the doors a bit early and had an instant full room at 6:15! This caused a little problem as the wait staff had to get around all the tables, get drinks out, take food orders, etc. Luckily our professional close-up performers filled the void!
We then hit another tiny tiny problem – everyone ordered food, I mean everyone! The kitchen was swamped, food service was a little slow, but the wonderful close-up performers saved the day, and eventually everyone was fed, watered, and amazed by the magic!
We ended up starting the cabaret about 15 minutes later than intended but the end result was a very satisfied audience, a group of performers who all wanted to do it again, and the owner of the bar where we were hosting this shebang was very happy and keen for us to do it again.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, well we had a village and more to put on this show – many thanks must go to the many people who helped. The close-up performers – Michael Mode, John Kohl, Andy Makar and Joe Chasney (who was also the opening act). Our creative neighbors who made the table decorations and only remain nameless because they want it that way. George Tait who saved the day with techie stuff, lights, and filmed enough of the event to make the sizzle reel that you can see on the website. Also our daughter Felicity who helped in so many ways especially organizing the close-up guys so every table got to see plenty of magic.

We learned much that night. Even after being in the business for over 30 years and talking to many others who have done a similar thing, we still had surprises along the way. For the second Soiree I built a stage which was 6′ x 9′ – the perfect size for the venue, moved the sound system, reduced the audience numbers to 75, and still had the same problem with the kitchen! However the venue still wants to work with us and we have extra staff lined up for next time.
Tickets are now on sale for our third event – watch this space for an update.

Cheers

Keith Fields

Jay Alexander & The Marrakech Magic Theater

Sarah Harfield January 26, 2019 Magic Blog

Regular readers will know that I have recently been touring and reviewing magic theaters around the country. Last month, in a different vein, I shared one of those full circle stories that started many years ago in the Czech Republic. This story is almost a combination of the two, and once again it starts many years ago. Back in the days of Windows 95 when the CD-Rom had just been released…
This amazing new technology was going to change the world! You could fit a million books on it, use it as a drinks coaster and it would last forever, at least that’s what we thought back then! I was proud to be working on the first ever CD-Rom multimedia magic product. Multi-media was the new buzzword and this product would include video, photographs, audio, music, amazing graphics, we were all very excited.

magic dinner theater - The Marakech Mageic Theater

Then this Guy called Jay Alexander in America pipped us at the post and released a similar product about a month before we had ours ready. We were really pissed! So, I bought one to see what we could learn from it. It was very good.
Our product was released, won a major industry award for the innovative use of new technology, and life moved on. Fast forward 20 years, I was in San Francisco doing a lecture tour and I get an email out of the blue from a guy called Jay Alexander offering to show me around the city! We met, I had a guided tour, we swapped our CD-Rom stories, and became friends. Fast forward another 8 years and I was sitting in the Marrakech Magic Theater about to watch his show. I love the way that the magic world creates friendships, separates us and then brings us back together again.

A Magical Moment – a story that started 25 years ago

Sarah Harfield October 8, 2018 Magic Blog 1 Comment

I am a proud member of the Magic Castle and visit as often as I can. This story isn’t about the Magic Castle, it just happened at the Magic Castle, and it was a very magical experience. The story actually started 25 years ago, when an 11 year old boy bough a magic book in Prague. More on that later….

Lady Sarah and I were just finishing up our pre dinner drinks and we saw that the line for the close-up show was open. We could pop in and catch the show, an opportunity that we grabbed. We hadn’t even looked at the listings to see who was on! It was Penn and Teller fooler, inventor of the butterfly deck, you know that guy with the unpronounceable name… Ondřej Pšenička (yes I did cut and paste that bit!)

Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater

Sarah Harfield August 18, 2018 Magic Blog 0 Comments

We recently had the pleasure of performing at the Smoke and Mirrors Magic Theater just outside Philadelphia PA. At the

Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater
Photos: Costello Photography

moment the venue runs magic shows on a Friday and Saturday nights with a family matinee on Saturday afternoon. Plans are afoot to do some more and different things – get on their mail list so you know what is coming. And I have to say from a personal point of view, the shows are great fun and Marty and Danny are generous hosts and fun to hang out with.

Monday Night Magic

Sarah Harfield June 19, 2018 Magic Blog 0 Comments

Hello again! I seem to have gone mad with these news letters of late but I want to get up to date with my series of ‘Magic shows around the USA’. So here is a brief review of a recent trip to New York and what to do on a Monday night. Well…

Monday Night Magic at The Players Theater in New York

Monday night Magic is the longest running Magic show in New York. It has been through several venues, but it has persisted, and I am very glad that it has. They run a different show every week with an incredible roster of performances that reads like a who’s who of New York Magicians with the addition of a few out of town visitors like Lady Sarah and me. The Players Theater (the current Venue) is old and a bit tired, but for me that adds to the magic, it makes me feel that I have been transported back into the world of vaudeville when magic was one of the biggest draws to the entertainment loving public.

Dickens Parlour Theatre, DE

Sarah Harfield June 18, 2018 Magic Blog 0 Comments

In my last email I told of our new personal challenge – to perform in as many local magic theaters/shows as we can find, and to tell you about the experience. And thank you to those who responded and told us of small theatres in their areas that do have magic shows. As we (the effervescent Lady Sarah and me) are planning this challenge we also hope to encourage more people and more magic clubs to take on the mantle and put on a regular show in a regular venue. Or if that is too big a challenge, to commit to supporting live magic at local shows. We are here to encourage and support you if you join us in this venture. Over the next few months I hope to produce a blueprint to help anyone who wants to take on the exciting challenge of becoming a show producer.

Dickens Parlour Theatre

A week ago, we were in Delaware, about 2 miles inland from the beautiful Bethany Beach. Rich Block has developed what was a garage into the most beautiful and comfortable 60 seat theater which is perfect for the performance of magic. They also put on occasional lectures, musical performances, etc., but most of the shows are the type of magician that you would want to take your best friend and magic hater to see and be converted. We feel honored to be on the list of performers among such talent as

Derek Hughes, Francis Menotti, Will Fern, Chris Capehart, John Stetson, AND MORE

The evening starts in the Parlour where drinks and snacks are served, and you can wander around and see some amazing magic memorabilia from Rich Block’s personal collection. The assembled audience then moves into the theater where they are greeted by Jay (the resident emcee/magician with the most infectious laugh) or Rich who introduces the main event.

The main event is watching top professional magician perform for over an hour to a lay audience in a near perfect venue. What more could you ask for?

Throughout the winter months they run shows from Thursday to Saturday. In the summer it is seven nights a week with rainy day matinees which always sell out. And the best news if you are a magician planning a vacation in the area, they turnover the acts in the middle of the week so a 7 day beach vacation gives you the chance to see 2 different performers.

After the show it is back to the parlour to see some close-up magic from the emcee and a meet and greet with the magicians. This makes the evening especially memorable for the audience as they love to chat to the performers after the show.

If you are heading down to DelMarVa this summer, make plans to stop in at the Dickens. You won’t regret it. And tell Cheryl, the absolutely brilliant manager, that we sent you 😊

Looking forward to your feed back when you visit Dickens Parlour Theatre

Cheers

Keith Fields

Magic Theatres

Keith Fields May 1, 2018 Magic Blog 0 Comments

I admit it, I have been far too quiet lately! So here is a bit about a new project of mine, or I should say ours, as Lady Sarah is on my case…

Many years ago in London, my good friend John Lenahan opened ‘Monday Night Magic’. It was a small upstairs theatre located at a pub called The Gatehouse. I’m guessing that it seated about 80 people, and it quickly turned into one of those shows that everyone wanted to work. The reason was simple – the audience. They weren’t your normal comedy club or theatre crowd. They weren’t an audience of magicians. There were rules – a magician could only get in with 3 non-magicians! It was an audience of folk who love magic.

Wow! Up to that point I never knew that people like this existed! Most of my work was performing in comedy clubs and other late-night establishments where the audience had been drinking (lots), a rowdy crowd was the norm.

Since moving to the USA I have discovered several similar venues, places where there is an audience who simply love magic. The most prestigious and my favourite dining establishment is the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Performing there is just the most wonderful experience (and quite exhausting with 3 shows a night!). But there are many others that you may not have heard of… like the California Magic Club in Martinez, and the marvelous Theatre of Dreams in Castle Rock, CO. Looking at my old diaries I have so far performed at over a dozen of them, and each one is a gem.


	A Brit of Magic – Magic Castle with Lady Sarah

These venues are good for magic and a great place for us to take muggles to see professional acts. Even a magic hater can be converted if they see the right performer. And there is nothing better than seeing a good magician in a room full of lay people – it will give you a whole new perspective on our art.

So let’s make a pact. I am going to attempt to perform at as many magic theatres as I can but I need your help…

Please support your local magic theatre or magic show. Take lay people. Buy them tickets if you must (you will only have to do it once as they will want to come back)
Spread the word – use your social media to share local magic shows etc.
If you know of a local magic theatre, please pass details on to me. I promise we will be in contact with them and do our best to come and do a show for you.

I will be writing a little story about each of them as I get to work there. And as I will be in the Dickens Parlour Theatre in Delaware in a couple of weeks, expect an update very soon.

Lets all work together to make magic more popular than it has ever been.

Keith Fields

Hedgehogs & Balloons

Sarah Harfield August 24, 2017 Magic Blog 0 Comments

For the last 5 years we have had a pet hedgehog called Heidi. All that time an idea for a trick has been rattling around in my brain. It has finally happened…

Hedgehogs and Balloons!

Hedgehogs and Balloons are mortal enemies. The balloons fear the hedgehogs for obvious reasons. The hedgehogs have very sensitive ears – when they hear a loud ‘pop’ they curl up into a ball!

Suitable for all skill levels (which means it is very easy to do), and with an endearing story-line.

4 cards are shown. The backs are balloons and the faces are cute cartoon hedgehogs Someone shouts ‘POP!’ and one of them rolls into a ball! They take it in turns to curl up but eventually the brave little heroes all come back, and they are all smiling! Why? Because the balloons have all burst! You flip the cards over and show 4 different colored burst balloons!

Available in 2 sizes – pocket size (poker size) for close-up or parlour size for kids shows. The handling is almost identical for both sizes cards.

Detailed instructions are available as a video download.

Spring Time in Magic Land

Keith Fields May 3, 2017 Magic Blog 0 Comments


	We came We saw He wasn’t there!

To those who have complained, yes, I am aware that my occasional newsletter has become less occasional. I have a good excuse. I have been busy touring Hong Kong, China (well just a little bit of China), Australia, New Zealand, and Canada all within the last 2 months! Can you say Jet Lag? However I am now home and catching up on stuff, first order was spring cleaning, and the garden is waking up so that needs tending as well. All this activity got me thinking…

Is it time to spring clean your act?

Whether you are a pro, a semi-pro or a hobbyist, I am sure that like me, you love some of your old props. They can become like old friends, or a comfortable pair of shoes. And your props and your shoes say a lot about you.

This springtime, unless you’re antipodean, is a good time to carefully examine everything you use in your act. The clothes you wear, the cards you shuffle and your prop case or table, are all shouting at the audience. I want mine to say ‘this guy is a class act’. If they are old and tatty or worse, looking a tad grubby, then you have some work to do.


	Largest EVER “healed & sealed” Perth

You should not just look at the hardware, some of the software probably needs updating as well. By software I mean the stuff you can’t kick – your lines and patter. Does any of your material contain any sexist or racist undertones? Maybe they are old comfortable lines and you have been getting great laughs with them but that does not make it OK. Maybe you believe that you get away with it because of your cheeky chappy persona but I guarantee that there will be some who are not happy, maybe even offended. As times change, and they do, it is so important for us to keep up with the rest of the world. As a professional it has never been more important that we understand what sexism and racism is and how we need to work hard to avoid it. The internet has given many people a voice, somewhere that they can rant in relative anonymity. You do not want to be on the receiving end of this because there is such a thing as bad publicity!

I know that just mentioning this subject will cause some people to bristle. Some people object to political correctness and fight against it. But it is not about you, it is about your audience and how you make them feel. Our aim should be to spread wonder and happiness and we cannot do this if some of our audience are offended by our words and attitudes.

Illusionists

Keith Fields June 19, 2015 Magic Blog 0 Comments

As facebook may have told you, yesterday was my birthday and as a surprise birthday treat, I did something I don’t usually do. I went to see a magic show!

I was concerned this may be a bus-mans holiday (is this an English expression?) But it turned out to be the vacation of a life time.The show is on tour for the next couple of years, it has already played Broadway and Detroit (frying pans and fires come to mind). But if it coming to a city near you, make sure you get great seats. This is one magic show that really delivers.

Am I really that interesting?

As a new magician I used to love reading about the life

stories of the pro’s. I found their stories both fascinating and inspiring, and I still do. Learning about their struggles and their successes would motivate me to work harder, practice more, and keep going in this strange business that we call show. I am both humbled and honored to have my picture and my story featured in Vanish Magazine… I guess I’m no longer a newbie….and I hope you find some inspiration from it.

The best news is that it is available, for a limited time, as a free download. To get your copy click on the picture!

Fechter’s Finger Flicking Frolics

April has also been an exciting month – being asked to attend and perform at the prestigious magic convention 4F. We all know that performing in front of your peers can be a daunting experience so I decided to put them behind me rather than in front of me by getting a load of them up as my volunteers – how many of them can you name?

Coming soon in a news letter like this.

I am about to launch a new trick, (well technically it is a new version of a trick) but I think you will like it. That surprise will have to wait a couple of weeks. So look out for some ‘Wand-erful’ news in my next email.