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Ok guys I'm after your opinion.

I love the whole close up street magic thing but feel that the David Blaine stylee stuff has been done and seen so much now that I want a different slant to it.

So I've come up with an idea, introducing a touch of comedy into it, Beach Magic. This is going to involve me, doing street magic type stuff on the beaches, dressed in surf dude style, hawaiian shirt, long blonde wig, cardboard surf board with a total over the top surfer attitude. I think it could be great fun to do but how would it go down? What do you guys think?

i think it's great you used to word "stylee", brilliant!
go for it dude, give it a try out and see what the public thinks!

Thats a good thougth. In sweden there is this magician called Stefan Odelberg and he did a tv serie of magic, where he travelled around sweden doing magic, and he was 1-2 times on the beach doing magic, and it went great for him.

hEY i perform on the beach... and do comedy, but not like that. sounds good.

Will it work? Well, there's only one way to find out...

Cheers guys, that's the vote of confidance I was after. I also figured that if a trick goes totally Pete Tong, I could just brush it off as part of the gag.

Off to Rhodes on holiday in a couple of weeks so will give it a try there.

How can I say this???

It's been done!

It was done in the 1950s and 60s... in fact, my mentor (Kirk Kirkham) had a huge feature story in the old ARGOSY magazines showing him doing various major illusions on the beach, including an awesome variation to the old Super X levitation in which everthing was built into a Surfboard (it was an ingenious set up that has to be seen to be believed). Then again, most anyone living on the U.S. West Coast or Florida and probably Hawaii and Aussie land have all done beach magic.

Don't see this as a detriment! I'm pointing this out so that you know that resources exist for what you've envisioned... Doctor Cocktail (a.k.a. Docc Hilford) has built a huge following for himself in the Miami Beach area exploiting said ideas as have many others the world over. So ask around!

If you are going to do the Surf & Turf type eateries scattered about the Beach when you can get those fancy cocktails with the little Umbrellas in them... you may want to look at some of the books & videos on Bar Magic in that there are some very clever adaptations of bits associated with that area... like color changing cocktail parasols, the penetrating stir sticks or wine bottle corks and much more.

sounds like a nice idea. i've never heard of it.
go for it. make sure you wear some shades, and a billabong cap, backwards. lol.

Cant do it on a beach in england, if its hot the beach is packed, and you cant move, too cold and the opersite occurs, typical british, how about theme park magic, go to a theme park and do magic on a ride, brilliant

i like restaurant magic. or festival magic. yano like a moving festival thing, with rides and stuff etc.

If you do it entertainingly and with personality it will work. Think about the character you're intending to be and what makes him/her tick. I do a lot of character work (in the last three weeks I've been Superman, a pirate and a fat ringmaster) and the key to success is simply going for it 100% and letting the character take over. It can be great fun and very liberating to be someone else...

Let us know how it goes.

I reckon this could pull a tube dudes! So totally been working on my patter and got a session that's jammin'.

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'm going to go for this. I've got a costume sorted and it looks good. Hawaiian shirt, baggies, oakleys, and a rip curl cap all toped off with a lovely long blonde wig. I'm off to Greece for a holiday in a couple of weeks so will give it a try out there (not sure how the other half is going to react to me spending time doing magic on the beach, mind).

I'll see if I can get a video together and stick it in the file sharing area for comments.

Not sure how you will react to the heat in clothes and a wig in greece!!

ace of kev wrote:Not sure how you will react to the heat in clothes and a wig in greece!!

Ah it wont be a problem, I'm ard you see!

You could always try naked magic.. I dont recall this ever happening but no doubt Mr. Browning will know