Tom Stevens
Magician and Sleight of Hand Artist
We did it!
May 24th
We got a gig where I performed my “Chicago Tommy” act and also got ourselves booked as the band.
We packed up the van with so much stuff, we could not have added much more gear. 4 guitars, sound system, including two huge speakers. It is now apparent that once we add drums we will have to have a trailer. I saw one on Ebay, for $1395. Looked pretty good, but I didn’t feel ready to buy it at this point in time.
I filmed the show, but the noise of the audience makes the footage unusable for a promo.
Here is a screen capture from the footage.
The Stevens Family Band
Melbourne Magic Festival 2010
May 24th
This is the third year running of the Melbourne Magic Festival.
Tickets are already available on the Magic festival site. www.melbournemagicfestival.com
There are some great acts lined up, and I recommend that people go and see several shows.
I am doing one show, The Suspension of Disbelief.
The Suspension of Disbelief - one show only - 4th July 2010
Band names
May 21st
I’ve temporarily named our family band “the Stevens band”. Since that’s what it is. The band name has been endlessly debated and we must have considered and rejected 120,000 ideas so far, since this has been going on for the last few months, maybe a year by now.
Here’s what is limiting us: Opinions. Someone thinks an idea sounds too much like something they dislike.
So this is the challenge: Find a name that we all like and is easy to remember, and hasn’t already been used.
I told a friend about this a few weeks ago and she said that she’d been in a band with the same problem. Finally the self appointed leader just decided for everyone. And ended up using a name that everyone really hated. I wouldn’t be surprised that they hated it even more because they hadn’t been consulted.
Why is such a simple thing taking us so long. I look through the titles of CD’s and titles of songs, and it seems like all these random names are the work of an instant. But then there are lots of pretty stupid song and band names. see http://progressiveboink.com/archive/worstbandnames.html
DIY websites
Jan 24th
I have always taken care of designing and maintaining my websites myself. Occasionally one can find a template for very little expense, or even for free. Then a bit of customising. For this of course you do have to know a little of the basics of under the hood, ie the code languages of HTML, CSS, and sometimes PHP. I do occasionally get stuck trying to customise code. My usual recourse if I get stuck is to do a web search or to check the library. I am discovering more and more that the best stuff is usually in hard copy: Books. The more recent web design books are never on the shelf at the library, and have also been reserved. Therefore I have bought several web design books, several being various editions of Elizabeth Castro’s Quickstart Guide to HTML, as I found those clear, concise, and with a good reference system. Here are a couple of other ones I think are excellent.
Or try within Australia by searching Fishpond for these titles:
Flash Paper
Nov 19th
Magicians and theatre groups can contact me here to find out how to get flash paper.
Meeting Geofrey Rush
Mar 23rd
I was able to tell my kids that I performed some magic tricks for the actor who is Captain Barbossa, in Pirates of the Carribbean. “Cool” they said.
Geoffrey Rush and his family came to see the Close-Up Gala Show at the Melbourne Magic Festival. I was part of the lineup performing in the Close-up Gala show last night. During break I was out in the foyer doing a few magic tricks and introduced myself to Geoffrey Rush although I had to admit to him I assumed he must be Geoffrey Rush. I showed him and his family a few magic tricks which they really liked. He asked if all magicians use Bicycle playing cards. I said that it has become a favourite among many magicians, since more complex magic tricks will be formulated to make use of every single property of an object and that being familiar with one brand works to a professional’s advantage.
Strange and wonderful body clock
Mar 19th
It was at the age of 12 that I discovered I could tell myself to wake up at a certain time. This fact mystified me as it seemed to indicate that my conscious thoughts could somehow influence the automatic functions of my body. Having recently read the assertion that the human mind processes up to 2 million bits of information per second it should be apparent that there is a lot more we can do which we are strangely unaware of. I say “strangely” because it defies logic how we can be capable of more than we are aware of. And yet real life examples abound.
I find it fascinating that the adage “a job will take as much time as is allotted for it” more often than not becomes a true statement. When preparing for a magic show, I usually work backwards, from the show start time, calculating when I need to start getting ready by adding each task. And that always serves me well.
But take a task that has no pressing time line. No deadline. An open goal. Such as decluttering my office. My eyes glaze over just thinking about it. I can spend several hours a week on it and it is never actually finished. Even telling myself that I have a two hour limit, does not seem to work. The way to trick my mind into actually believing that the time line is real and needs to be respected is to invite someone over who is going to see my office. That is a believable deadline.
Sorry, you can’t come over this weekend…
Summer gigs
Dec 20th
Dec 2008.
Summer gigs can be excruciatingly hot. Fortunately I’ve got a nice run of shows booked at Spring Street, the Old treasury building which houses the City Museum. The Melbourne Leader newspaper sent out a photographer to promote the Hocus Pocus exhibition and I was to meet him at 10. I figured I’d be there at 9:30 to set up as last time I met a photographer he did want a little input as to where I thought a nice spot would be for the photo.
I showed up at Melbourne Museum at 9:30 but no one knew anything about a photographer. Of greater concern to me is that no one even knew anything about the Hocus Pocus Exhibition. After a few phone calls I begin to discover that there is another museum nearby. Nice. So I scrambled to get my stuff together, balancing boxes, and made it to the City Museum at 10:01.
The photographer, Tony, was great. He set up his lighting and took a few different shots.
We tried a few poses with me fanning the cards, and with my bunny rabbit. Tony thought it would be a good idea if I can spring the cards into the air and have them shooting toward the camera while holding one card in focus. This sounded like a great idea, but proved to be a bit chancy as the cards have to be controlled at a particular rate. I’m not sure if it was ten or 11 shots we took. But it was obviously worth it as of them got chosen for the front page.
Tom Stevens in the Melbourne Leader promoting the Hocus Pocus Exhibition
