A 50th birthday party

This past Saturday afternoon, I was relaxing at a local playground/splash pad with my son when I received a somewhat panicked text message from a fellow magician friend in Ottawa. He had a strolling magic gig that night that he couldn't attend and was desperate to find a replacement. I volunteered happily.

Now this created a mild panic for me because I knew that, in about four hours time, I was expected to be dressed to the nines and doing card tricks in an Italian restaurant 150 km away. Quite frankly, I looked like a slob that afternoon in the playground. I hadn't shaved in a week, my hair was a nightmare, and my sinuses' ongoing love affair with hay fever season was threatening to derail the whole thing.

But hey, I'm an optimist.

I brought my son home, had a quick shower and shave, and then came to a frightening realization – I hadn't done a strolling magic show in three years. 

Ever since COVID started, all my shows have been stage shows. There was, for the most part, a gulf between me and my audiences. They watched from afar. The only times we intermingled were the rare occasions when I enlisted the help of a volunteer.

But strolling magic, that's nothing BUT intermingling. When you do strolling magic, you and your audiences occupy the same space. And obviously, you use different props. There's tricks I do in close-up that I wouldn't even think of doing in my stage show. And vice-versa.

And therein lay the problem. It had been so long since I'd done closeup magic that I had FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO many of my favourite A-list routines.

Thankfully, I had some time to drill some of the old stuff. I wasn't able to incorporate everything though. Some of the tricks had become so rusty that it would have been a disservice to perform them at the Italian restaurant. I really want my audiences to feel a sense of transport, a sense of awe, when they watch my magic. If it looks like a clunky old beast instead of a well-oiled machine, I feel like I failed in my quest.

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The occasion, by the way, was a 50th birthday party. The guest of honour, along with his wife, friends, and family members, were sequestered in the restaurant's upper room. I found a parking spot two blocks away and walked to the restaurant in full costume, which includes my top hat. Along the way, two people asked if I was a magician. One lady, who was drinking a glass of water at a nearby restaurant patio, even had the temerity to ask if she could see a trick. I showed her one and she told me that she had loved magic since she was a little girl and never got tired of it. Made my day.

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The party itself was a blast. The guests were all in a good mood, they were eager to watch my magic, and they challenged me (in a good way.) They laughed at my jokes (even the terrible ones) and I stayed up there until the servers brought up the main course.

I was feeling pretty awesome when I left the party. I wish I could have done more of my A-list material. I guess there's only a few routines that I am so familiar with that I could do them in my sleep. For my magician friends, here's a list of the tricks I did, plus the number of times I did them:

- Finger on the card (5)

- Gambler vs mindreader vs magician (3)

- Sponge bunnies (3)

- Calculator prediction (2)

- Las Vegas Leaper (3)

- Card toon (3)

- Duck Two (2)

- The Mark (1)

- Token (1)

- Jokers, find my card (1)