Magic Festival Day 1

Just back from the first day - two performances of our 50 minute 'Wizards of Aus' show - and I'm already worn out, but I have some more rehearsals to do before going off to do a 9pm corporate show...

Our first show was filled with the usual batch of surprises - Sue-Anne broke a second buckle on her straitjacket (she broke one yesterday at 'Hi Vibes') so I raced off to Juggleart and bought a new one. Unfortunately, it was a completely different design may take her a few days to master, so she's patched up the old one a little and got away with it fine in the second show.

It was great that Mat came along today as well and he gave us some notes that resulted in the second show being 100% on the first one. It's really good having that extra eye who knows your vision and isn't afraid to be completely honest with you.

Brendan was there too doing AV for the first time ever. He handled the lights well and ran sound from his computer. Again, second show ran much more smoothly from his point of view as he became more familiar with the tricks of the trade.

It's interesting how such tiny details can change a show. Some of the little gags I threw in were just a little too abstract for most of the audience, but after a quick brainstorm between the four of us, they were restructured and the audience understood exactly what I was on about the second time around.

For those interested, here are the "bare bones" of the show:

• Ellis and Webster enter through a laser tunnel and perform a 'Dancing Hanky' themed opening routine.

• Diminishing Cards/Expanding Cards

• What's Next?

• Ladder from briefcase

• Handcuff Ecape/Transformation

• Straitjacket Escape

• Sword Box of Doom (Perdentes)

• Balls from mouth/restored newspaper

• Rising Card

• Dorothy and the Magic Munchkin

• Audience Levitation

• Linking Rings