Amazing Vijay's Magic Blog

iPhone magic becoming more advanced

2012-02-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

So what if I want to do a card trick when I don't have a deck of cards? The answer is "use your iPhone". Hard to believe but true. I can actually show you a virtual deck of cards and shuffle it - looks very realistic with sound too :) I can finish this performance with an amazing prediction trick that you must see to believe. It is pretty cool if I may say so myself. I also found another great magic effect called Magic Wallet. If you ever see me - do ask me to perform these for you. I am sure you will enjoy the performance. I do not do these in my regular shows - they are better done one on one.

Speaking of shows I did several shows in January and February and they have gone very well. Do read reviews from my customers at:
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=amazingvijay&hl=en&cid=14991854654008109352

If you are considering organizing a birthday party or an anniversary party or a block party, do think about having a magic show. It is great fun for all ages.

Happy New Year - 2012

2012-01-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all my friends in magic. Whether you are a fellow magician or a past or future customer, I hope you have a great 2012 and enjoy a healthy and prosperous new year. As the year wrapped up, I had two magic shows on Dec. 30 and 31 and the shows went off very well. Both shows had a large holiday crowd and the shows were received very well.

As we head into 2012, I will be adding a couple of new magic effects into the show. So even if you have seen the show recently, there will be new things for you to enjoy. I hope you saw the recent tricks I have added with the iPhone - if not, do ask and I will show you. They are a lot of fun. I know last year, I was booked solid in January and February, so if you are thinking of having a show, do let me know as soon as possible. I do hope we get to meet at one of my magic shows in 2012.

Holiday magic shows

2011-10-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

Whether you are a small business owner considering a small party for your clients or a large company having a grand holiday party for your employees, a magic show is a great way to provide some wholesome family entertainment. As an example, last year I performed at the holiday party for a large Silicon Valley company at a Cupertino restaurant. I did an hour of ballon twisting followed by my deluxe magic show. All the kids and most of the adults watched and had a great time. These shows get booked weeks in advance - so please book early if you are thinking of a show in December.

I have also purchased a new backdrop for my magic shows, so if you have some extra space, do request me to bring it and you can have a great stage like area for the magic show. The nice backdrop with curtains and small mirrors is great for taking pictures also. See below for the picture of this (mine looks almost exactly like this). Have a great holiday season with your loved ones and do buy some stuff for yourself - so our economy can improve

Magic Coventions

2011-07-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

How does a whole day of card tricks, magic lectures, magic shows and a lot of magic dealers inb one room sound? Well it sounds and feels like a magic convention :-) In my early years of magic. I attended many conventions - some of them back to back. But now I rarely get time to go to these wonderful events. This year I was fortunate to attend one day of the Golden Gate Gathering which is a local magc convention in Foster city. Kent Gunn and his buddies arrange this great 2 day convention and it is a more intimate event as opposed to the grand national events. It is still well attended by many top magicians and a lot of fun to attend.

This year on the first day, we had letures by Bob White, Lee Asher and Curtis Kam. And of course many impromptu performances. I also had the opportunity to purchase some books from Byron Walker who was one of the only 2 dealers at this event. If you get a chance to attend a magic convention do take advantage of the opportunity. It will be a very memorable event. Convntions do end up being quite expensive to attend but you also learn a lot.

Summer is a great season for having parties and organizing magic shows. Do give me a call at least 3-4 weeks in advance if you want a magic show for your party. See http://www.amazingvijay.com/ for contact info.

Outdoor magic shows

2011-05-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

People often ask - can you do a magic show outdoors? This can happen when you want the show in your backyard or if you want me to do the show in a park. Well this weekend, I did both. On Saturday and Sunday we had beautiful weather and I did one show in someone's backyard and one show today in a park. The shows were a huge success and everyone loved the magic and the entertainment.

You do have to watch a couple of things. I need parking close by and you need to find a spot preferably in the shade - otherwise the kids may have the sun shining in their eyes. I may also not wear my grand Indian costume and may go for something colorful with a vest instead. Most of the times I can do the balloon also but if it is too hot or if you have too many kids, you may want to do the illusion show instead.

In general, it is a lot easier if you can arrange to do the show indoors but in the coming few months, outdoors is definitely an option. I am looking forward to long days and a great summer ahead. My Google places page has been very active and many of my recent customers have given me 5 STAR ratings, so do feel free to browse this page.
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=14991854654008109352

Enjoy the rest of Spring season!

Math Fun

2011-04-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

You may have seen the Fun Stuff page on my web-site http://www.amazingvijay.com/. If you have not, here's a taste of the kind of stuff I have there. Let me prove (yes mathematical proof) that 1=2. Sounds impossible - read on.

Well, that's not possible - is it? You are right, it is not - but can you spot where the fallacy (mistake) is? If you cannot figure it out, do send me an email at amazingvijay@gmail.com and I will tell you where it is.

If you enjoy this type of stuff - do read that page on my web-site or send me an email. Until next time, have a magical spring !

Magic tricks using your iPhone

2011-02-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

I recently got an iPhone in December 2010. It is amazing that there are many magic tricks you can do with an iPhone. One of them is called iSoda and I have been doing this in my birthday party shows these days and invariably the kids love it. In fact some of the kids menstion that it was their favorite trick. Basically what happens is this - there is a screen that looks like a vending machine. You press the slot and the screen fills up with a soda. You can actualy shake the phone and it appears that the soda shakes and froths also. Then you put the phone to your mouth and empty the soda. Looks very real indeed :-)

This trick is done as part of my "3 quick tricks" segment that I introduced into my show last month. If I don't do this at the show - please ask and I will do it just for you. As always go to my web-site if you want to learn more about magic:
http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Magic Contests - continued

2011-02-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

I am happy that news about our Close up contests appeared in the magazine for the Internation Brotherhood of magicians. Look here for the article that appeared in the January issue. There's a better version on my website http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Magic Contests

2010-12-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

Several magic clubs have contests for magicians. Our magic club San Jose IBM ring 216 has 3 full competitions every year - one for walk-around magic, one for close up magic and one for stage magic. This year I participated in the close up competition. The winner is decided by the audience. Unfortunately this year there were very few non-magicians in the crowd - so it was mostly magicians voting for magicians. While there is nothing wrong with this per se, it does change the tone of the competition. I did pretty well in both my perormances (each performer did their show twice) but did not win. All of us did have a fantastic time. Our club was fortunate to have as many as eight talented magicians compete that evening.

If any reader of this blog is interested in attending a magic club meeting as my guest, please do send me an email at amazingvijay@yahoo.com

Before we wrap up the year 2010, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Multiple shows on the same day

2010-09-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

This month I have had two weekends where I had to do two shows on the same day. I have done this several times before but usually the shows are far apart e.g. one show at noon and one at dinner time, But this month the shows were back to back i.e. I finished one show and immediately drove to the next one. Some of these shows were also quite far apart and hence this was an added challenge. I discovered that the shows needed to be about 2.5 hours apart if the shows were far away from each other and I had to pack quite efficiently after the first show in order to be able to do the second show effectively.

Now I bring a fair amount of stuff for my show since I believe in a large and visual show as opposed to entertaining out of a small box. I know I can entertain a crowd with a deck of cards but I also think the larger effects also have their place and kids just love large colorful effects like my popular Hippity Hop Rabbits. It is amazing how many kids have not seen this wonderful effect and absolutely love the ending. People also love the famous flower trick from India and that is also a large item that I have to pack and carry from show to show. I recently purchased a Lefler table and this makes the packing and hauling easier thought it is very heavy.

I can assure you that 20 years ago when I started doing magic there was no way I could do 2 entertaining shows (sometimes with slightly different effects) back to back but now that I have a streamlined show and effects for different age groups I can do this easily and I enjoy it. Today is the start of Fall (or autumn as they say in England and India) and I hope to do many shows in Fall and Winter.

By the way, we now have short video clips on my web-site - so do check out:
http://www.amazingvijay.com/

San Leandro Heritage Faire

2010-05-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I had the good fortune of performing at the San Leandro Heritage Faire. My show was at 11:30 and the second item on the agenda. When they started the program at 11:00 a.m. there were very few people and I was a bit worried about the sparse attendance. But the people arrived and soon we had a healthy crowd. I performed my illusion show but it was a short program of 30-35 minutes. The conditions were difficult because it was outdoors and there was a very heavy breeze but show turned out to be a big hit.

There were several kids and adults and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. It was a long drive for me and I was glad my wife and my daughter Janani joined me. In fact, Janani participated in the show as my assistant and I suspended her in the air. Everyone loved that effect and many others too including Rocky Raccoon and Hippity Hop rabbits. I ended the show with the production of a huge bush of flowers and thus wrapped up another good show. Mary Lee Barr , the librarian there was very sweet to us and super organized - the whole function went off without a hitch!

Balloon Twisiting

2010-03-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I wrote and I thought about writing about balloon twisting. I am a largely self taught balloon twister and mostly do one balloon figures. But what is amazing to me is the joy balloons bring to the kids. If you make the figure with care and love, the kids absolutely love them. Most of my shows end with a long line of kids who stand in line patiently waiting for their balloon. Sometimes I twist one of each kind to show the children the figures that are the most popular and this is always a big hit for adults as well as kids.

If you are a magician, you should learn balloon twisting - it is not that hard. For the parents/adults/kids who want to learn I have a couple of tips. First and foremost - get high quality 260 balloons and a good sturdy hand pump. I use Qualatex balloons and I am very happy with them - I think most twisters use Qualatex. I also have a red hand pump made by Qualatex and it is great. Then you have to learn twisting and how to make things. For this the best way is to buy a beginner's DVD. I learnt from the Marvin Hardy video (also Qualatex) and then purchased many other videos/DVDs and also have many books on the subject. In fact most popular bookstores carry a few intro books and these are perfectly fine. You just have to read carefully and follow the instructions well. Don't forget to let a bit of air out before you tie the balloon - this will make the balloon a bit softer and easier to twist - don't overdo this though.

Another amazing fact - you may learn many figures and do many balloons but once a young boy asks for a sword and you make it, almost every other boy is going to ask for a sword :-) Fortunately this is not only popular but also quite easy to make. For girls there is no clear favorite though flower, swan, etc. are popular figures.

Until next time, happy magic. Spring is here and I hope to do many magic shows this spring and summer. if you see me somewhere, don't hesitate to ask me for a balloon figure.

Vijay
http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Great start to 2010 at Chinmaya Mission San Jose

2010-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

I just returned from performing a fun filled show at the new Chinmaya Mission facility in San Jose. There were 200 plus kids and adults and everyone watched the show with great enthusiasm. They laughed at all the jokes, were amazed by some of the magic and in general had a great time. As usual most kids loved the "lights" trick and the "flower" trick. Several of them also like the "rabbits" trick. It was great to see everyone so engaged in the show and truly having fun.

It was a great start to 2010 for me and I would like to wish all of you a very HAPPY and FUN FILLED NEW YEAR - 2010 !

Golden Birthdays

2009-09-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

My daughter recently told me about golden birthdays. The concept is this - just once in your lifetime your age will correspond to the date of your birthday. That year is your golden birthday. For instance if you turn 11 on 11th Feb, then your 11th birthday is your golden birthday. The best example of this was a big party for a boy who turned 9 on 09/09/09. I was invited to perform my magic show last weekend for this celeberation at Basant restaurant in San Ramon,. This is a new restaurant with a large banquet room and I have performed twice in this place, It must be a good restaurant since it seems so popular, though I have not eaten there yet.

Back to golden birthdays, they wanted to cut the cake at 9:09 p.m. so I started and ended my show well before that and the show went off great. Like I say, I had fun performing and the audience had fun watching - what more can I ask?

http://www.amazingvijay.com/

San Jose Public Library show - July 2009

2009-08-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hello Vijay!
The show was funny and you engaged the children and transported them in the land of magic. The adults enjoyed the show as much as the young ones. This was one of the best attended programs we presented and the audience lined up early to see the show! Thank you for the discount and you presented a high quality program.
Cris Johnson
Hillview Branch
Library

These are the types of testimonials I live for ! I was booked to do this show in the San Jose Public Library- Hillview Branch. Unfortunately I got there about 5 min. late since there was a mjor accident on the freeway and I had to take a detour in an unfamiliar area. Fortunately Cris had kept the crowd there and as soon as I got there, I set up very quickly and launched right in. This was a mixed family type audience with lots of children but not too young.

My show, the comedy bits, the parts where everyone participates - all went great and the crowd loved the show and gave me a lot of encouragement. The Miser's Delight is now a big highlight of my show and people always love this effect. I suppose it sublimally reminds them of Christmas and they enjoy watch me catch lights from kids ears, etc. and drop them in my bag. This is a modern adaptation of the old Miser's dream and is definitely a big hit. Rocky Raccoon was also a huge hit as was the Hippity Hop rabbits and Botania. The show lasted 45 min. or so and then I had to pack up and leave since people were doing a Chess program right after.

It is great to be able to perform at various public venues like this. I hope to see some of you again at the Cupertino Diwali festival this year. Summer is over now - school is here and we are all very busy once again. I did 5 shows in August and hence was very busy and happy

http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Larger magic illusions

2009-05-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

I meant to write this for a while but somehow have been very busy in 2009. In this article, I would like to discuss the "larger" magic illusions. These are the illusions you often see on stage - someone levitating, sawing people in halves or even many pieces, the transposition where the magician changes into someone else and reappears else where. No doubt these effects are wonderful and everyone enjoys watching them on stage. Magicians have built reputations around these illusions and everyone is amazed when some of these amazing things happen right under their noses. While I have always watched and admired these illusions I have never tried to perform them. Well that changed this year when a lady who wanted to hire me asked me if I could "float the birthday child".

This got me thinking - this family had just come back from Las Vegas and wanted to recreate at least a small portion of what they saw on stage at their home. I have always thought it was impractical to carry a large, heavy illusion into some one's living room and perform it there. Now I had second thoughts about this. So I spent a lot of time learning about this and other effects that one could perform in a living room. To cut a long story short, I am now happy to announce that I can optionally include "a floating the birthday child" effect that I can perform at your next party. I have tried this a few times this year and the feedback has been very positive. Here's a comment from a satisfied mom from my website:

Thank you so much for coming today. Your show was great.
The kids loved it. The levitation was really incredible!

Sharon

This illusion is definitely a bit heavy and is not suitable for all occasions but it provides the audience with a sense of wonder that is truly amazing. The parents love the wonderful once in a lifetime photo opportunity when they can see their child suspended in the air in an impossible position. Please do let me know if you want to include this illusion at a small extra cost. See below for a picture of this.

Have a great summer - I will be away from the country for 4 weeks but will be back by July 12.

Best age groups for performing magic

2008-12-14T21:19:00.001-08:00

When can children start appreciating magic shows? What is the best age group for enjoying a magician? Do teenagers like magic? These are all tough questions and I am sure there is no single correct answer for any of these. I would just like to offer my opinion based on my performances.

I perform a lot of magic shows at "first birthday" parties. Now everyone knows that a 1 year old is not going to enjoy magic but in these parties you find kids in every age group. I usually try to get the age group of the majority of the kids but sometimes it trul is a mixed audience. Today I performed at a nine year old's birthday party and that went really well. Based on my performances I would like to propose that kids under 3 will usually not understand or appreciate magic effects. I fell that kids who are between 7 and 10 love magic and get totally into the shows. For these kids, you can even perform a full hour magic show and they will not get bored. Kids above 15 are not that interested but they soon start displaying adult like curiosity. And of course adults do not really follow a pattern. Most adults love watching good magic shows but I am sure there are some that think it is childish.

I perform for "kids of all ages" and do my shows for kids > 3 years old. Most of my parties are for kids 14 and under. I will of course tailor my effects and the length of the show according to the age group and all my audiences seem to have fun :-) Don't forget to book your shows at least a month in advance.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 !

http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Fooling people vs. entertaining them

2008-11-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

I just did a show yesterday for a mixed audience of children and adults. While I was performing the show, it suddenly struck me that the jokes I was telling, the gags, etc. generally drew a great response and really help build up the effects.

Here's an example. For years I watched magicians perform a sponge ball gag which I ignored because there was no magic in it. Now I do this every show and it draws a lot of laughs. Here's the way I do this: I give the two sponge balls names - I call them 'A' and 'B'. Then I place ball A in my hand and ball B in the spectator's hand. I then perform some magical gesture and then announce that I now have ball B and they have ball A. After a moment or so, when everyone is figuring this out, this draws a big laugh from the adults. Some of the kids will of course tell you that both balls look the same, etc. You can now continue with making your ball disappear and join the spectator's ball in their hand. If you are a magician and perform sponge balls, do try this and see how it works for you.

I also perform at least one effect like hippity hop rabbits, run rabbit run or die box and I think everyone knows the "turn it around" gags,or the "look don't see" gags, etc. These get tremendous response also. The whole idea is to keep people entertained while you are of course fooling them.

My pet theory is that people hate being fooled but they love to be entertained, so it is important to include a lot of fun gags, jokes, etc. Being a nice person helps also. So until next time, learn a few jokes and see if you can include them in your next magic show.

The holiday season is coming up and my calendar is filling up fast. So please call me if you need a birthday magic show: http://www.amazingvijay.com

YMCA family night

2008-10-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

I performed at a YMCA family night last week. I did a 35 min. magic show and balloons. Huge hit - the kids loved it and really got into it. It is amazing (no pun intended) that they love magic so much and really get into this. I have started polling people on the trick they like the most and once again everyone loved my feather flower growth i.e. BOTANIA.

I also tried a Benson bowl routine for the first time and people loved that effect also. In the end the long line for balloons moved a bit slowly but the kids were very patient and well behaved. I had a truly great time and hope they invite me back soon

http://www.amazingvijay.com

Diwali Magic shows at Cupertino Memorial Park - 9/27/2008

2008-09-02T17:00:00.001-07:00

I just finished performing my magic shows at Cupertino memorial park once again this year. This was my fourth year in a row doing this and it is a lot of fun for me. If you happen to see the show next year, do come by and say hello. There were hundreds of people this year andeveryone had a great time. My magic shows seemed to be a big hit and I had good sized audiences for each show with the last show being the biggest one.

Isn't it great that a city in the USA is celebrating all major festivals - some of them ethnic and some traditional e.g. in Cupertino, they celebrate Chinese Lunar new year, Diwali - Indian festival of lights and Oktoberfest. I find this wonderful and feel that we should all show encouragement by attending many of these festivals. They have good food, lots of activities for children and also the usual vendor booths.

The shows I perform are for kids and adults alike and last for 35-40 minutes. I usually perform 3-4 shows and start around 12:00 noon. Do stop by and watch - I promise you will be entertained and will probably be fooled also :-)

Birthday party show in a school classroom

2008-06-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have performed in school class rooms but had not been invited to do this for a birthday before. I just performed my deluxe show for one hour at this seven year old's birthday party in his class room. There were two classes watching and a total of more than 50 kids. This was a great audience and they were totally into all the magic tricks which is exactly what I try to do i.e. involve them in the stuff I do.

They loved all the effects - from sponge balls, the miser's dream, coloring book, hippity hop rabbits, spoon bending and finally "the flower trick". I have started doing a poll these days on the kids' favorite trick and once again "the flower trick" won but there were several other tricks that the kids mentioned which was a welcome surprise to me. This must mean that I am doing something right - if amond all kids, 5 different tricks stood out as the "best" !!

Once again if you are in San Jose, Santa Clara, Fremont, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Cupertino or anywhere close by in the Bay Area, do check my website or do a Google search for Amazing Vijay.

http://www.amazingvijay.com/

Blue and Gold Banquet Magic Show

2008-02-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

I just performed at a cub scout Blue and Gold banquet in West San Jose. My son Vineet was a cub scout for 5 years and is now in the Boy Scouts. I would strongly encourage young boys to join the Cub Scouts. Parents - do talk to your boys about this. It is such a wonderful program and the boys learn so much and it gets you out of the house :-)

The magic show was my short version (35 minutes) but it went very well. Several parents came after the show and said how I had related to the boys and really got them into the show. This is what I do best and I was glad to hear that people appreciate this. One guy even said that last year's magician was OK but the boys just did not seem to connect. So magicians, remember that this is very important - do not perform at them, you need to make them part of the show and get them to really participate. This is the difference between kid shows and short magic acts that are performed to music, etc. Read Silly Billy's book for a lot more info on this topic.

Have a magical valentine's day.

Purpose and target audience for this Blog

2008-01-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

This will be a blog about my experiences as a magician. I perform a lot of magic shows in the Northern California Bay Area and wanted to share some of my insights into this ancient art of magic. I am also an avid enthusiast of magic and we may discuss ocassional magic performances on TV, some of the Las Vegas shows, etc.

This blog will hopefully be interesting to everyone interested in this ancient art of magic. I am not going to reveal any secrets here but we may talk about specific magic effects and presentation ideas related to these. I hope that both my magic audiences and my magician friends will read this blog.

This will not be updated on some regular schedule - initially it will be more sporadic.

Vijay
http://www.amazingvijay.com/