I'll report back after the gig hopefully with some video footage.
_Sean
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
April Fool's Day
What's going on house? I'll be performing in Winter Park tomorrow night from 7-8 at a casino night hosted by The Athlete's Connection. You can get some info about it here:
We Have A Theater
We're not famous. We don't have our own commercial, or full-length evening show on the strip, or our names up in neon signs and marquees. We were on TV for an annonymous milli-second. Sam himself almost made it onto the NBC Show Phenomenon, but those people weren't ready for his skills. We have 94 combined friends on Myspace. We don't have our own clothing line. But! It's chill that way- the perks of performing in the underground come with an artistic freedom not enjoyed by those with agents, managers, press, public image, and fans to please.
We have a little fold-up sign, a compact sound system, and a theater the size of a park. It's actually a park. It's the ArtsPark in Downtown Hollywood- a cool, manicured median of grass and playground on the corner of US-1 and Hollywood Blvd. It's our spot, and we are fortunate enough to be able to land bi-weekly bookings with the city there. Our audience? Anyone who walks through the park. We're the only entertainment within a five-mile radius, and our little street show is as good as any live show you'd see anywhere else.
The size of the park can allow us to swell our crowds well into the hundreds. Lemonade vendors and popcorn stands provide the refreshments. There are restaurants- Japanese, pizza joints, italian bistros- all around the park, so we can call our act a dinner show. The sun or moon is our spotlight, and ancient oak looking trees and bamboo gardens our backdrop. The winding park paths are the isles. And anywhere we set up is our stage. The entire park is our stage, our jam space, and the freedom that comes with performing there is a blessing that I think we've been taking for granted ever since the city started booking us in 2007.
So with that all said and reflected upon, come see our show. The House of Flying Cards at the Hollywood Artspark. We've just been booked up through September, so check our site http://www.hofc.webs.com/ for show dates. Shouts to the City of Hollywood for the theater, the Card Sharks for coming out and jamming with us week after week, and all the performing artists out there without a theater, manager, agent, fan-base, press, etc. You're not poor- as long as you and the people you love have food on their plates, you're okay.
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We have a little fold-up sign, a compact sound system, and a theater the size of a park. It's actually a park. It's the ArtsPark in Downtown Hollywood- a cool, manicured median of grass and playground on the corner of US-1 and Hollywood Blvd. It's our spot, and we are fortunate enough to be able to land bi-weekly bookings with the city there. Our audience? Anyone who walks through the park. We're the only entertainment within a five-mile radius, and our little street show is as good as any live show you'd see anywhere else.
The size of the park can allow us to swell our crowds well into the hundreds. Lemonade vendors and popcorn stands provide the refreshments. There are restaurants- Japanese, pizza joints, italian bistros- all around the park, so we can call our act a dinner show. The sun or moon is our spotlight, and ancient oak looking trees and bamboo gardens our backdrop. The winding park paths are the isles. And anywhere we set up is our stage. The entire park is our stage, our jam space, and the freedom that comes with performing there is a blessing that I think we've been taking for granted ever since the city started booking us in 2007.
So with that all said and reflected upon, come see our show. The House of Flying Cards at the Hollywood Artspark. We've just been booked up through September, so check our site http://www.hofc.webs.com/ for show dates. Shouts to the City of Hollywood for the theater, the Card Sharks for coming out and jamming with us week after week, and all the performing artists out there without a theater, manager, agent, fan-base, press, etc. You're not poor- as long as you and the people you love have food on their plates, you're okay.
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Saturday, March 27, 2010
Magic Words: A show of magical poetry
I'm thinking of moving my show, and my audience, to another art form. Like relocating them completely. I'm tired of stepping on a stage and having them looking at me as their trickster, or "entertainer". I want to cast a spell on my audience, and make them feel something more complete than astonishment. I want to bring them back to art: all I have to do is say the magic words.
So, I am going to give them a poetry show- a collection of my original poems that I feel so much more connected to than every fancy coin vanish and elaborate card routine I do. I've scribbled out so many poems over the past two years- about magicians, skies, scholars, a day called Mayday, about miracles, and Himala, about a girl who loves me back. I feel these poems, so much more than the tricks I do, and would love for them to find their way into my audience ears. I'd be so much more excited before each show knowing that that is what I'm going to share, not tricks. I'm tired of cued-applause, and David Blaine style WTFs, and stoic I've-seen-magic-before reactions.
Each poem will slip into their ears like a whimsical encantation, a spell of rhythm and abstract visions and creative musings. They're so absurd! They don't make any sense- no one will get them. I don't mind- they don't have to be listened to fully. The energy and rhythm of the words will relax the audience into a silly trance, and the effects I will perform over each one will seep into their minds comfortably and produce a new texture of astonishment.
What a perfect candidate for patter! I hated having to tell an audience what I am doing, or what I will do, and giving them a pseudo explanation of why I am doing it. Or worse, resorting to comedy- every magician resorts to comedy. The poems themselves are patter, loosely related but intriguing in their aloofness to each effect, and will hit the ears of my audience lightly, and delightfully, while the effects I show them ease their way into their minds and blow them quietly from the inside.
It's a poetry show, with magical visuals. No-verbal with verbal. Spoken words with sleight of hand. Artistic slant. The poems will carry the show, and the magic will give each one an accent. It'll play like an open mic night, or a play, with a magician lost in a crowd of thoughts, rambling in his own dialect, surrounded by his own effects. I can't wait to try this flavor of performance on an audience. I've always wanted to do this: give my poems an audience. And I pass up that opportunity with each shallow magic trick I do. "Magic Words" might just work. And even if it doesn't, it still sounded like a cool idea.
-the antidote
So, I am going to give them a poetry show- a collection of my original poems that I feel so much more connected to than every fancy coin vanish and elaborate card routine I do. I've scribbled out so many poems over the past two years- about magicians, skies, scholars, a day called Mayday, about miracles, and Himala, about a girl who loves me back. I feel these poems, so much more than the tricks I do, and would love for them to find their way into my audience ears. I'd be so much more excited before each show knowing that that is what I'm going to share, not tricks. I'm tired of cued-applause, and David Blaine style WTFs, and stoic I've-seen-magic-before reactions.
Each poem will slip into their ears like a whimsical encantation, a spell of rhythm and abstract visions and creative musings. They're so absurd! They don't make any sense- no one will get them. I don't mind- they don't have to be listened to fully. The energy and rhythm of the words will relax the audience into a silly trance, and the effects I will perform over each one will seep into their minds comfortably and produce a new texture of astonishment.
What a perfect candidate for patter! I hated having to tell an audience what I am doing, or what I will do, and giving them a pseudo explanation of why I am doing it. Or worse, resorting to comedy- every magician resorts to comedy. The poems themselves are patter, loosely related but intriguing in their aloofness to each effect, and will hit the ears of my audience lightly, and delightfully, while the effects I show them ease their way into their minds and blow them quietly from the inside.
It's a poetry show, with magical visuals. No-verbal with verbal. Spoken words with sleight of hand. Artistic slant. The poems will carry the show, and the magic will give each one an accent. It'll play like an open mic night, or a play, with a magician lost in a crowd of thoughts, rambling in his own dialect, surrounded by his own effects. I can't wait to try this flavor of performance on an audience. I've always wanted to do this: give my poems an audience. And I pass up that opportunity with each shallow magic trick I do. "Magic Words" might just work. And even if it doesn't, it still sounded like a cool idea.
-the antidote
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Orlando House Hard at Work
So, just a quick post about the HOFC - March 20th was a date we should all note in our heads: we were booked for the first time across the state of Florida in several different locations all in one day! Go us! Big step for the House, let's keep the word coming.
Other news Sam "the Gambit" Rubman (me!) is auditioning for a job at Magic Max's in St. Cloud.
Kevin and myself are also performing at a Dance Marathon at UCF on March 27th, Kevin is doing strolling for the evening and I am doing a stage show at 11 pm. Come by and check it out!
Other news Sam "the Gambit" Rubman (me!) is auditioning for a job at Magic Max's in St. Cloud.
Kevin and myself are also performing at a Dance Marathon at UCF on March 27th, Kevin is doing strolling for the evening and I am doing a stage show at 11 pm. Come by and check it out!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Jared Say's Wassup!
Hey house,
Just had some time and wanted to say hi. Right now I am still performing at Dragonfly downtown and at Sharab. Datta came out last weekend and was slaying people with his liquid metal performance.. That shit is nice Datta. I find it really fun to be in a club and me and another magician armed with d' lights. That was a lot of fun.
I am currently learning some mentalist stuff I am preparing for this summer. I am looking for a good presentation with an exploding lightbulb finally.
Anyone?
Monday, March 22, 2010
Antino Connects!
Drinking coffee before a performance ruins your cardwork. I had a steady card hand, which surprised me, at the walk-around gig I did last night. It was for an older upscale crowd- I didn't know what to expect (uptight? stiff? seen it all before?)- I had the nerve to judge them! They were the nicest people on Earth. I knew my hands were shakey, because I had accidentally treated myself to a tall cup of Starbucks before going there, and the caffeine was just starting to take effect and make my hands sweat. These people, the way they smiled and broke the tension when I introduced myself to each group, made it so much easier to just let go and perform. Anything I showed them, they liked! I spent about 80% of the time connecting with them, talking, smiling, laughing, that the magic just came out naturally. 20% of magic performed with 80% connection is powerful. I must have handed out a million business cards that day, because every group I hit pretty much asked for one. It's connection, not sleights! Lot's of eye contact, reacting to what they're saying, melding in with their social temperature, smiling, being at ease, listening to their reactions, providing reactions of your own...my cardwork was sloppier than usual to say the least, but the connection I established with each walk-around group was more than enough. I also was happy going into this gig, because the money I would make from it would be used to fund my June Cebu trip to see her. I was excited, that I was in a position to do what I love to see the girl I love, that these people were helping me do that, that they were about to see what I could show them, that they chose to have live entertainment at their event, and I actually brought all those positive vibes to each walk-around set. Not to mention some killer sleight of hand poetry routines that I know no other magician does =p I'm glad I connected- it made performing for them so much more meaningful.
-the antidote
-the antidote
Monday, March 15, 2010
Antino on the House
Being in the House is like being in a circus tent. The characters put on a show just by being there, and watching whatever happens during our cypher sessions- a frog appearing out of thin air, a one dollar bill vanishing and reappearing on a handicap man's shoulders in the form of four quarters, a 300 pound lady being levitated- adds astonishment to life. These guys are crazy, and sometimes I can barely stand their eccentricities. Philosophies clash, and new ones are salvaged. Egos are either high fived or slapped. Crowds are rocked. Arguements are splendid until spun out of control, and it's so funny to watch these guys go at it. I sit in the corner, one of the more quiet mages in this place, and take everything in as it happens like a spectator myself. I'm amazed at what this place has become. A cardboard carnival, playing cards flying everywhere, and a bunch of kids chasing down every last one.
-The Antidote
-The Antidote
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