KEL - MODERN MAGIC - Blog

2019 Thank you!!!

1/6/2020

Too much to sum up for my 2019 but certainly was an amazing year for me. Over 100 shows, 3 sold out shows, over 30 new insurance clients, sold my little condo that I lived in for 8 years.

I've come so far this decade. I was really lost 8 years ago when my first wife criticized me everyday for not being good enough only to have an affair with her yoga instructor and burying it with compound lies to cover up her tracks.

After our marriage ended that was the day I decided to pave my own path and chase after my own dream. Like many, I was raised in an environment where people tell me how to be, and how to act, and what is right and wrong.

I'd like to remind everyone that believing in yourself is key, even if you are alone. Chances are if you are alone, no one has done it before. No one has dared or tried, which makes you unique. Figure out a way to express your unique qualities, values, and emotions to the public other than just words, then it becomes art.

2020 fires off with 17 shows booked already for me including a Canada wide tour that I go on hitting interior BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

I now have such a great support network, and have too many friends, families, colleagues, associates, partners, magi, mentors. I will have to make a honourable mention to my lovely and best wifey Phiphy Pong, for always encouraging me to step forward and in the fire right beside me. Love you babe!

Thank you to all for your ongoing support and coming to the Havana show back in November and I am grateful for the 3 standing ovations you all gave me.

Here is the highlight video from the show!
Video credit: Taylor Lee

Focus...

5/14/2019

Yesterday, I have a friend who has been constantly listening to podcasts, reading e-books, and consuming loads of knowledge yet he hasn't been able to improve.

We fall into a syndrome called FOMO and this applies to all aspects in life. It's also called the shiny object syndrome where we are told to keep adding tools in your tool belt.

It is difficult to talk to this friend as he keeps re-assuring me that he has learned and he's better than yesterday and he's more mindful and more present and the story goes on. I'm constantly being sold that he is better than yesterday.

However the results are the same. He continues to consume mass amounts of knowledge and dips his toe into every subject of life without getting the results he needs.

The Magic of specialization is the key here instead of being the jack of all trades. Choosing a strategy can be daunting because it means sacrificing all the other paths to potentially choose from, putting your one strategy in action, and potentially failing.

What's the best strategy for personal growth? How do you teach it to others?

what is magic? What is your why?

5/10/2019

Why do I do magic? what is magic? are the single two most important questions to answer if you are looking to become a magician. It is the purpose that drives and motivates us to do what we do and why we work so hard on it. So I'd like to share in as much detail but yet concise on why I do what we do.

Growing up I had strict parents that had put together guidelines for me while growing up. It's important for loving parents to do so because setting a path to success for your children early is so important so that costly mistakes can be avoided. However over time, these guidelines became rules to me and the glass ceiling effect shortly affected my teen years growing up into my college years.

When I saw magic for the first time in my life, I was absolutely amazed and emotionally blown away. How did this card materialize and change color from red to blue? And how in the world is it my card that I picked? This can't be possible! Very quickly I didn't care about the secret so much but more so how can I do the same and give the same feeling for other people.

The emotion I am speaking of here is called wonder. It's an emotion deep within ourselves that we lose as we get older. In a child's mind, there isn't any rules about race, gender, or ethical procedures to follow, kids just wanted to play at the park and laugh with joy. As they get older, Rules get placed such as look both ways before crossing the street, go to your room, finish your homework, study to get good grades, get a job, follow the procedure and so forth. When we continue to follow orders and march along with the group, we lose that rare emotion. the one called wonder. It's the emotion that drives imagination and creativity, the one that allows us to put images together in our head and ask "what if?"

I made a commitment to myself early on that I will always stay young because I'm always full of wonder. In a more pragmatic sense, when there is a problem that is in front of you, you have to ask "how can I make this work?" See magicians when they want to create something, they start with the end result first! What do I want to achieve, what does it look like? how does it make people feel? and then work backwards using the various methods and techniques to accomplish the original vision.

I'm committed to sharing wonder and joy to as many people as possible to spark that imagination that gets buried deep within.

The Name game

5/9/2019

Remembering names is difficult. we've all said that and heard that before. I'm not sure how I came about this, but I believe I invented this technique to help me remember names when I meet them for the first time. It builds rapport with the group and your magic becomes stronger because of it. We will use an example of 4.

When you introduce yourself, it's not always 100% that you start off with getting everyone's name. It builds a bit of anxiety where the spectators are wondering why you are interrupting their group and what you are going to do. I like to have an opening effect first to relax the audience, and then start getting their names.

for the first person I ask them for their name. Lets say her name is Julia. I spend my first, in the hands trick with Julia, and so far that's easy. You thank them and move to the second person.

Here is where the name trick comes into play. I ask the name of the second person, ie: Robert, and then I will immediately look at Julia and say Julia and gesture with a nod, then Robert and continue with the trick. After this, it will be ingrained in your mind who those two are.

Then for the third person, I will repeat while looking: Julia, Robert, and then look to the third person, Hi whats' your name? This is also a way to keep control of the group and be the "alpha" of that encounter.

And finally by the time you reach the last person, you can have them sign their name on the card just for extra assurance.

At the end of the set, repeat everyone's names again, shake their hand, and thank them for their time,

I hope you like it. This has been a gold tip for me

Kel

Corporate event IDEAS

5/8/2019

For many years now, I've had amazing success performing for corporate events all over BC year after year. If you are in the corporate workforce, you'll see that organizers are scrambling for different things to spice up their staff party or find unique ways to entertain your clients.

This is because they want to increase overall satisfaction to their clients and staff and to throw on a party to celebrate successes.

In today's world, backdrops, and decorations have been a huge hit as people love taking out their smart phones to take selfies and post on social media. So if you truly want to spark joy in a cost effective way, Take a look at this candy cart below:

4 steps to mastery

5/7/2019

Years ago I watched a famous magician on DVD teaching the 4 basic steps to mastery and I really took it to heart. These days with youtube, and online media, Magic tricks are taught online and amateur magicians that call themselves professional are popping up left and right. Here are the four steps to mastery in each particular effect. When you realize that you need to apply this to hundreds of routines, and possibly any skill, you will notice how much work really goes into being a magician.

1. Play - While most people think practice a particular technique is first, it's actually the form of play. This inspires joy and creativity where you practice a series of moves without any structure or just pretend that you can do the routine already. Perfection is not the key here, it's more about enjoying the flow of a card move or technique, and then moving on to the next.

2. Practice - once you have a particular technique you are fixated at then it becomes the hardcore practice. Tiger woods hits 1000 balls a day at the range, trains and works out to build his strength. How many times should you practice? This is a sport and skill is the foundation of Magic tricks. Once you think you're done, keep going until you can come up with new ways to perfect it.

3. Rehearsal - Magic is not just about the effect or trick. It's about the setup, the script, the humour, and the construction of the routine. With Smartphones these days, it's easy to setup a selfie movie and work tirelessly on your moves and evaluate what portions feel not up to par and you can give honest feedback to yourself immediately on what you can improve. It's difficult to watch yourself and judge/evaluate yourself, however you can trust yourself the most.

4. Mastery - The true form of mastery is to go out and do it. To see what it's like under pressure with real people and then evaluate how you did after each set or performance. From there you can go back and practice the weak areas of the routine or rehearse on the script to achieve mastery.

This formula has helped me a long way and some of you just simply need to put more time in your craft to reach to the next level

Magicians for family restaunts

5/6/2019

Hello, for over 2 years now I have been working at the Boston Pizza Big Bend location every Sunday entertaining the patrons. I have learned a few things of value on how to work on these restaurants, and why family restaurant owners should consider magicians for entertainment purposes and I would like to share them here:

1. Increase the customer experience and bring back return customers. It's a broad topic and a good magician needs to do many things here to increase the customer experience. They have to be good at what they do, the timing to approach a table is after the drinks have landed on the table and after the dinner menu items have been ordered. The Magicians job here is to welcome your customers, wow, them and before they have time to think, their food has already arrived. Pizza is the ultimate answer to making kids problems go away.

2. Increase the employee experience. If you are a waiter or waitress working at a Boston Pizza, it's hard to have a bad day when there's happy children and happy parents at your venue. Things that contribute to an overall vibe include, applause, social media photos, balloon animals for the kids with more photos, smiling, laughing. For me I share my personal tips that families give to me with waitresses. Yes I have a very special skillset and I am tipped for it, however I wouldn't be there in the first place if there isn't a pizza joint to begin with.

3. Marketing - People love sharing magic tricks and photos of my balloons on social media. If you are already posting pictures of your food, UFC nights, and other activities, extra content to help draw customers in is always a bonus. See a photo of my balloon cat having a coffee!

4. Added value - Once the food arrives, I go back to my table and twist a balloon for the clients. I'm proud to say, my balloons kick ass. Lots of times, balloons are made at a carnival or a fair and there are long-lineups because it does take time for the artist to craft whatever animal that they need to make. Often times they just stick with one balloon designs so they can work the lineup shorter. While the customers are eating, I come by wearing my suit, (they just saw amazing magic!) and check on them to make sure everything is okay and give a small balloon as a gift to the kids.

5. Damage control. Things don't always go right in the kitchen and when an order has been mixed up, food under/overcooked, or anything at all, the customer is not happy. Well the best way to get over something is to direct their attention to something else! It's a principle of magic and it works perfectly fine in this case. I come by, show some magic, and the order is already fixed!

Honey mooning!

5/5/2019

Here are the TOP reasons why hiring a magician based on PRICE only will harm your business

5/4/2019

Cheaper magicians stack jobs one after another and will rush off after your event
You need to hire a magician that knows how to dress properly for your corporate event.
A professional magician well act well, professional. Do you offer dollar-store products and services for your clients or the best? Your choice of entertainer will reflect on your brand.
The booking process will be easy, professional, clear, and on time
Experienced magicians have the skills and chops. They are simply playing at a higher level.
Your boss will love you! ...
Expericed magicians can help you with other things.

How much does your reputation cost?
Your choice of entertainer will reflect back on you.

First Blog post

5/3/2019

My first blog post here on Kel - Modern magic. It's been 19 years since I first picked up a deck of cards and learning magic. One of the most beautiful things that this art allows us to do is to express our emotions, artistic creativity, our passion into a vehicle that transcends all language barriers. Are we really doing real magic? well... no. Of course we are learning the art of deception, sleight of hand, and trickery.

However, touching peoples imagination, wonder, curiosity, and bringing out joy whether you are a 5 year old little girl or a 65 year old man is by my definition real magic. Here I will have updates, tips for other magicians, discussion on how previous shows went, tips for event planners and so forth.

Thank you for stopping by Kel - Modern Magic!