Doing Magic for Megan Nicole!

[Zenn_Darkfire]

......



Anyway, I loved the second trick josh, I think the idea is great. No offense though, but the presentation and patter weren't good at all. The reasoning for pulling out a bill and making washington turn into lady gaga didn't make any sense. Saying "I'm going to read your mind in a weird way (<paraphrasing)" is a poor motivation for the effect. But if you can justify all that through patter, I think you have a neat effect. I also think it would be nice to add more humor to the effect (so many possibilities with celebs). Nothing to say on the actual effects, as both were performed well. Just work on you patter and presentation, because as these effects are, you just seemed to be a guy doing "tricks", and it was a bit dull. HOWEVER, who am I to say anything, because she seemed to enjoy the effects, so that's good (but I still think presentation would improve these a TON).
Keep it up man!


Cheers,
Ryan

Thanks for your feedback! yeah I'm currently messing around with patter on that one. The effect is still in the prototype stages. My current patter involves me making a bet with the spectator, we both bring out a dollar for our bet, but since this was webcam I had to adapt it a bit. The main reason I wanted to try out this effect on Megan is because I had just finished making up the new gaff and wanted to see the reaction I got. Next time I do this effect live in person I'll make sure to post it so I can get feedback on the patter

Thanks for your help!

 

[William Draven]

You know I've got to be honest with everyone here. I hate jumping into the middle of a fray five pages deep and inserting my own opinion, but this is one of those times where I think I'll take a side on something.

Like it or not (and I'm the first to admit skype/ webcam magic doesn't appeal to me) the one thing Josh is doing in these videos is performing. He's not just doing magic for his webcam, and posting it online hoping people will sub him. He's in front of someone (kind of) doing something. Which is more than what I can say for most of you people here. Outside of a handful of you, I can't say I've ever seen you work. I'm not talking about a battle thread, I'm talking about going outside, getting someones attention and holding it through a set. So lets not be so quick to judge, least you want to be judged yourself.

The people he's been performing for may be unknown to you, but that doesn't mean they aren't known to others. I'd give Josh props for getting out there and doing his thing.

To respond to the retorts about not advertising your video performances on a forum, I'm kind of with that idea, and I'm kind of against it. Do it too much, and yes it can look like you are bragging. However, seeking feed back, occasional bragging, and just putting yourself out there is a must in our business. I guess the secret here is moderation, and so far I haven't seen anything from Josh to suggest that he's over stepping that moderation as of yet. If you don't open your mouth, you won't be heard!

Josh, about the video. I don't know how I feel about your opening line. "hi my name is Josh, and I did magic for Megan Nicole." It just seems like bragging to me. Course then again, you have the rights to brag. You worked for Megan Nichole! I'm just going to run a flag up on that, but not expand upon it more, because I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's evoking a reaction from me, but I'm questioning myself, had I be in your shoes, if I'd done the same.

Having done magic for a web series before I can say the lag time between webcams can present hard obstacles to over come. It's always a challenge when your audience isn't right there in front of you, and filled with a plethora of distractions, but they are still interacting with you. I'm not sure if I would have done the same thing or not. I would have entertained doing the Princess trick, or mailing her a pre-set deck, and doing some kind of mem deck prediction thing... that way she is more engaged than simply watching and talking back to you. Just food for thought.

Keep up what you are doing, and keep getting your name out there. You've got a natural showmanship thing about you which makes you entertaining to watch. Keep it up!

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

You know I've got to be honest with everyone here. I hate jumping into the middle of a fray five pages deep and inserting my own opinion, but this is one of those times where I think I'll take a side on something.

Like it or not (and I'm the first to admit skype/ webcam magic doesn't appeal to me) the one thing Josh is doing in these videos is performing. He's not just doing magic for his webcam, and posting it online hoping people will sub him. He's in front of someone (kind of) doing something. Which is more than what I can say for most of you people here. Outside of a handful of you, I can't say I've ever seen you work. I'm not talking about a battle thread, I'm talking about going outside, getting someones attention and holding it through a set. So lets not be so quick to judge, least you want to be judged yourself.

The people he's been performing for may be unknown to you, but that doesn't mean they aren't known to others. I'd give Josh props for getting out there and doing his thing.

To respond to the retorts about not advertising your video performances on a forum, I'm kind of with that idea, and I'm kind of against it. Do it too much, and yes it can look like you are bragging. However, seeking feed back, occasional bragging, and just putting yourself out there is a must in our business. I guess the secret here is moderation, and so far I haven't seen anything from Josh to suggest that he's over stepping that moderation as of yet. If you don't open your mouth, you won't be heard!

Josh, about the video. I don't know how I feel about your opening line. "hi my name is Josh, and I did magic for Megan Nicole." It just seems like bragging to me. Course then again, you have the rights to brag. You worked for Megan Nichole! I'm just going to run a flag up on that, but not expand upon it more, because I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's evoking a reaction from me, but I'm questioning myself, had I be in your shoes, if I'd done the same.

Having done magic for a web series before I can say the lag time between webcams can present hard obstacles to over come. It's always a challenge when your audience isn't right there in front of you, and filled with a plethora of distractions, but they are still interacting with you. I'm not sure if I would have done the same thing or not. I would have entertained doing the Princess trick, or mailing her a pre-set deck, and doing some kind of mem deck prediction thing... that way she is more engaged than simply watching and talking back to you. Just food for thought.

Keep up what you are doing, and keep getting your name out there. You've got a natural showmanship thing about you which makes you entertaining to watch. Keep it up!

Thanks Draven, that was EXACTLY the type of feedback I was looking for. I love the idea about the princess card trick! The pre-set deck idea is cool, and even though I was asked to do magic for her, I was asked just as the show started so that wouldn't have worked out. This Wednesday SoldierKnowsBest (a tech reviewer) asked me to stop by and do a trick or two. Right now I'm working on what I'm doing. I deff want to customize it to him so at the moment I'm thinking of D'lites (plucking the light from a LED), extreme burn (talking about the cost of tech stuff), or twisting the aces with different companies (Apple, Microsoft, etc) on them. My back up is a standard ID. Since I have more notice this time, I want to do it right

 

[MattTarrant]

My lord,

The negativity on this forum has become shocking in the past few months.

Would love to see some of the people in this thread perform...

Josh, For a Magician neither of the effects were hugely amazing - though I did enjoy the second effect. Completely agree with the comments before about working on the patter, though its definitely a little difficult over a web cam as it seemed to take a couple of seconds for Megan to react for most things you said/did.

Glad you posted the video, and think you should definately post more in the future - will check out your others when you get home.

Do have to somewhat agree slightly with the earlier posters about creating a new thread for each video though. Perhaps a thread on 'Performing for YouTube Celebrities' and you could update it with your new videos each time you post (even update the first post as well with links to all the videos.) I think it could be a great thread, and makes it easier to see your improvement over time.

In closing anyway; thanks for posting and keep up the hard work and practice. We definitely have a new age of magicians coming through who are utilizing technology in some pretty awesome ways, and its very impressive.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Slicke]

@Zenn_Darkfire and formula

WoW guyz really, this is a magic forum. People watch videos to get new ideas and when i read the comments, i expect to see advices and critism on the effect shown in the video, not two guyz arguing about silly things. I mean one rotten apple is all it takes to spoil the whole barrel. In circumstances like that, one has to be the bigger man and shut up because that's really getting stupid. For the sake of everyone else, act like grown ups ... Age only tell part of the story, maturity is what really matters

@formula

If you don't like his videos, stop watching them and if you do watch them, you knew what you were getting into so remove b**ching and moaning out of your options ...

 

[alex2011]

Stupid. What do you care? Just shut up.

Good work Josh. Just continue what you're doing and don't listen to that stupid.

 

[Mouseff]

Ok just a small thing from me here: Did anyone of you "critics" even care to look up Megan Nicole? So here are the numbers:
Youtube: 55 mio views & 300k subs
Twitter: 34k followers
Facebook: 214k fans
An she is now recording her own music with Tom Mgrdichian and Chris Cox (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias)
I wouldn't exactly call this a nobody, hu?

P.S. I'm, when it comes to magic, myself just what people here call a "keyboard warrior". I'm more into cardistry & juggling and thats the reason I'm on this forum but I have to say that in this I'm on Josh's side. Someone who performs live badly is in my opinion way better than someone who does his moves perfect only to a webcam but never performs live.

 

[formula]

For the sake of everyone else, act like grown ups

@formula

If you don't like his videos, stop watching them and if you do watch them, you knew what you were getting into so remove b**ching and moaning out of your options ...

We are. Neither of us are swearing at each other or out right saying you're not allowed to do this etc...it just pisses me off that Josh uses magic forums as blogs. The reason it pisses me off is because it's not just here, it's bluecrown, DD and probably more but they're the only ones I'm a member of and I can't escape from these poor to average quality videos for so called celebrities.

I can tell a lot of people haven't read this thread because a bunch of people have the wrong end of the stick. If you read all of it you would understand my view on these updates.

 

[nooner]

formula - We must not have read the tread because we don't understand your view? Who is being the vain one now?

 

[shooting_rubber]

Ok just a small thing from me here: Did anyone of you "critics" even care to look up Megan Nicole? So here are the numbers:
Youtube: 55 mio views & 300k subs
Twitter: 34k followers
Facebook: 214k fans
An she is now recording her own music with Tom Mgrdichian and Chris Cox (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias)
I wouldn't exactly call this a nobody, hu?

P.S. I'm, when it comes to magic, myself just what people here call a "keyboard warrior". I'm more into cardistry & juggling and thats the reason I'm on this forum but I have to say that in this I'm on Josh's side. Someone who performs live badly is in my opinion way better than someone who does his moves perfect only to a webcam but never performs live.

^ This.

I have never heard of Megan Nicole before this thread either, but I didn't jump on the guy for posting a video. At least he posted a video of him actually performing.

And also, nice video, decent effects, just work on your patter a little more. Obviously it is hard to have perfect patter over a webcam performance, but you do what you can.

 

[formula]

formula - We must not have read the tread because we don't understand your view? Who is being the vain one now?

It's clear from some of the replies that some people either haven't read or understood my posts. I haven't got a clue why you would associate vanity with this topic.....

 

[acme_myst]

 

[Synth_Infusion]

I like Turtles.

 

[Simon_Magic]

I think Josh is doing good performing for 'real' people, and he's getting paid for it for gods sake! Formula I understand where your coming from, but it isn't going to go away unfortunately. The one thing you can do is just ignore it, stop posting on this thread and let it die for now. If you have a problem take it up with a T11 moderator or contact J.Bayme over this and bring up your concerns.

Josh, add me on youtube bud, we both perform live so makes sense haha!

Honestly guys, this has gotten completely out of hand. Just let it go before it gets more stupid than it is!

Simon_Magic

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

Wow... a lot happened since last time I checked.

MattTarrant - I'm actually going to talk with either Casey or Zach and see if they would merge my current YouTube Celebs threads into one. As I mentioned before I have no issue having one thread, and I liked your idea about having the list at the top

alex2011 - Thanks I'm glad you liked it!

Mouseff - I'm glad you appreciate my live performances

Shooting_rubber - haha yeah, thats why I'm scripting my patter for the video chat tomorrow

acme_myst - that made me rofl

Rahat - you would lol

Simon - sure thing! send me a PM =] btw I'm almost done with the first concept for your logo =]

 

[3ryk]

I personally don't watch Zen's videos anymore. After watching a couple of them and watching the spectators not really "care" about what you are doing... kinda got bored also I'm not a fan of your character (annoys me a big)...

but don't get mad, I respect what you are doing man! I like seeing the tread names cause I just have to read "doing magic for" and I know it's you... lol but you're still going strong man! lol..

Keep it up aight, even though I'm not your biggest fan

Rock it man!

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

I personally don't watch Zen's videos anymore. After watching a couple of them and watching the spectators not really "care" about what you are doing... kinda got bored also I'm not a fan of your character (annoys me a big)...

but don't get mad, I respect what you are doing man! I like seeing the tread names cause I just have to read "doing magic for" and I know it's you... lol but you're still going strong man! lol..

Keep it up aight, even though I'm not your biggest fan

Rock it man!

Haha thanks for your honesty! I know not everyone is going to like me, and I'm not asking them to, I appreciate though that you respect what I do. Would you mind sending me a PM as to what about my character annoys you?

 

[CaseyRudd]

Alright guys, Josh has posted a new thread containing all of his performances and will post them there from now on. This thread got a little out of hand and by request from the poster I am going to close it.

If anyone has any questions please send me a PM. Thanks!