I love networking events. This week there was a Business After Hours for the Westbank Chamber. There were something like 16 people who had RSVP’ed for the event, but there ended up being about 60 people there! It was a great opportunity to mix and mingle with different people from local businesses. I met some great people and a few of them were also interested in hiring me for different events. The next afterhours is coming up again in just a few weeks and I’m hoping it’s going to be just as big.

I’m really excited because on May 14th at Nk’mip Cellars in Osoyoos is going to be the the 11th Annual Vally Wide Afterhours! Last year this was the best networking event for me and I had a blast meeting people and performing some magic.

For more information on the Chamber or their events check out www.WestbankChamber.com

[ Taken from Optical Illusions ]

Filmed at my girlfriends mom’s house after Easter brunch. The two girls are my girlfriends nieces.

(Click the “HQ” button on the video player to watch the video in high quality.)

This week I got together with another magician from out of town and worked on some magic together. I always love getting together with other magicians and performers- It never fails to provide fuel and inspiration for whatever I’m working on at the time.

I’m slowly working on some new material that will eventually work itself into my Children’s Stage Show, and my Adult Stage Show. I’m really excited about the new magic I’m working on. I really feel that it matches my performing style, and the magic is so strong, I know my audiences will love it! I’ve recently added a new piece to my close-up/mingling magic and the reactions have been really great. It’s a trick that I’ve been working on for a while now, I’m glad that I’ve gotten it to a point where it fits in with the rest of my close-up material.

I’m always amazed when I look back on material that gets added into my show, and how long it takes to find its way there. There have been a few effects that I’ve been working on for a few years now, but no matter what I do they don’t fit. And then in other cases there’s new material that just fit me right away, and after just a few months of practice it finds its way into the show.

Hopefully the new effects I’m working on make their way into the show sometime soon- I look forward to sharing them with you.

[ Thanks iTricks.com ]

If you’re a magician reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the name Joshua Jay. He’s the author of “Talk about Tricks” in MAGIC magazine, author of “Magic The Complete Course”, and has a slew of other accomplishments to his name. The Complete Course is a great book that I would recommend to anyone who’s just started out in magic, and to anybody who wants to re-look at some the classics. Don’t overlook this “beginner” book though, it includes some classics like Crazy Man’s Handcuffs.

Today Joshua Jay launched a brand new website and online magic retailer. I’m not sure why we need ANOTHER magic retailer, but, they do have some lofty goals how they are going to be different than whats already out there. To prove their serious – Joshua Jay released a 92 page eBook – all for free. It’s called “Over, Under” and is written for those serious about their magic who are under 18 years old. The first section is for the student of magic, and the latter half is for the parents to read. Check out the website to download your free copy. I won’t bother with all the details of the book since you can get it for free. You do have to register on the site to get your download, but from what I’ve read so far, its worth it.

Today I had two really awesome shows. The first one was some mingling magic at the Lil’ Sproutz Children’s Market. There were a bunch of young families there with their young children making for a really great atmosphere. One of the little girls had seen me before and was really excited to see me perform again- she was telling me about all the tricks she saw me perform and how much she loved them. I love having fans.

There was also another family who had seen me perform last year at Westside Daze and were wondering if I would be there again this year. Yes, I’ll be performing at Westside Daze again this year. The date hasn’t been finalized yet, but it will probably be on Saturday July 4th during the Children’s day. For the first time, this year the Saturday is going to feature a FULL DAY designed especially for kids including children’s entertainment all day long. I’m really excited about this because it means that there’s going to be a huge audience for my Children’s Stage Show.

Also Westside Daze 2009 is also going to have West Coast Amusement Midway and Amusement Park. Apparently it’s the only stop they make in the Okananagan, so even for the big kids this year will be an event you do NOT want to miss.

My second show today was a birthday party show for a 7 year old girl who invited over 11 of her closest friends. The show went really well and everyone had a blast. I’m constantly tweaking various tricks on my show, and there’s one routine that I’ve been tweaking recently and I’m very very happy with the results.

You could be a 2010 Olympic Torchbearer. This upcoming fall the Olypmic Flame will make its way across Canada on its journey to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Would you like to carry the Olympic flame? You can sign up online. I signed up a few weeks ago. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

Last week at the local RBC branch Olympic athlete Andrea Holmes was showing off a replica of the 2010 Olympic Torch. I got my photo taken with my mom (left), Andra Holmes (middle), and me (right) with the Olympic Torch. The torch is very cool looking and quite a bit bigger than I thought! It’s not very heavy though. Too bad it wasn’t on fire… oh well.

I love learning new time management skills. As an entrepreneur the greatest skill you require is that of continued motivation, self control, and focus. Sounds easy enough, but for most … it’s an impossible task.

Fellow magician and magic business teacher Eric Paul has often mentioned the benefit of taking chunks of time to stay focused on a single task and work on it without being interrupted. He advocates the use of an egg timer. You sit down at your computer ready to work, you close the door, turn off the phone, turn off the email, turn off the Facebook and messenger, set the egg timer to an hour, and begin your focused work.

It sounded like a great idea, I even went out looking for an egg timer! Sadly though I couldn’t find one. I forgot about the time management technique- until today.

I was watching a video blog by Tim Ferris, Author of “The 4 Hour Workweek”, and he mentioned a website called www.e.ggtimer.com. E.ggtimer is an online virtual “egg timer”. You can set it for 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 5 hours, or however long you want. Once the time is up the alarm goes off. I’ve added this website to my quick launch bar in Firefox . Now it will always be ready at my fingertips.

I haven’t fully had time to rigorously test the “egg timer” yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a great tip. Why not try it yourself?

Set an hour aside to work on a task that you’ve been delaying for far too long.

Only 59minutes and 59 seconds to go- Now get working!

On Saturday April 4th from 10:30-11:30am I will be performing at the Lil’ Sproutz Children’s Boutique performing mingling magic. The entire event runs from 10:00am-2:00pm at Evangel Church in Kelowna BC @ 3261 Gordon Drive.

Lil’ Sproutz is a new West Kelowna company that sells gently used and new children’s clothing. For more information about the event or Lil’ Sproutz please contact Sarah at (250)212-9227.

Yesterday I stopped by CupCasions in Kelowna. I’ve hear about them all the time and since my customers often need catering I thought it would be worthwhile to check out. I picked up a sample box of the mini-cupcakes of all different flavors and they are delicious. I can see these things being a hit at any event!

I mention in my birthday party guide that cupcakes are a great alternative to serving cake because everybody gets their own, for children each piece is identical so you aren’t fighting over who gets what design, and they’re a breeze to serve, plus they taste good. Yum.

Cupcakes are perfect for any wedding, meeting, or grand opening. I’m told that CupCasions can customize them however you want. If you’d like them to match your mood or theme of your event it’s no problem. No magic required- I don’t know how they do it.

Janet, the owner of Cupcasions, was kind enough to give me some $10 gift certificates to pass on. If you have an occasion coming up and you’d like to turn it into a cupcasion email me at alikzam@gmail.com and I’ll send you one in the mail. I only have a few of them though, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

For more information contact:
CupCasions
#170-2000 Spall Road, Kelowna BC
Tel: (250)860-3690
www.cupcasions.com

Today I had two library shows in Kelowna as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. I explained how I was going to be including a brand new magic routine in my show, and I’m pleased to announce that it went over great! The kids were interacting, laughing, and were very amazed. I couldn’t have asked for more. I have one more library to perform at on Thursday, so I’m looking to perform the routine at least 1 more time. I’m probably even going to adapt parts of the routine into other routines that I have.

But something interesting did happen at my second library show today. While performing my cut-and-restored rope illusion, I managed to somehow turn it into the cut-and-restored finger trick. While cutting the rope I accidently cut part of my skin off too! Ouch! I was able to quickly clean myself up, and get back to the show though. I played some music to keep the audience interested while I took a moment to clean off my hands and get bandaged up. The ladies working at the library were quick to grab me some papertowls and gauze which was a huge help!

But like I mentioned yesterday there’s something to be learned from it. I’ve updated my small first-aid kit to include gauze and tape for starters. Also, it’s always good to see how you handle yourself in those types of situations so that you’re better prepared for them in the future. I always record my shows so I have a recording of the incident so I can see how it looked to the audience. I watched the show tonight and besides a brief break, the audience could hardly tell anything was amiss! When I got home I had an email from the client sitting in my inbox that read “Great shows. You mastered ‘the show must go on’. Hope all is well.”

And yes, I’m keeping the trick in the show for Thursday’s audience!