Vegas

I spent my last week as a tourist with my buddy from my country.
He flew from Miami and we went to Vegas and Hollywood.
Vegas was disappointing in a way. I expected much more party.
I was impressed with the strip. Those huge ass hotels and casinos are crazy.
What i enjoyed most was the shows.
We went to see Penn & Teller´s show. It was AMAZING.
I never liked them but this show KICKED ARSE.
It`s a very cool show. Their take on magic is different and fresh.
The tricks are so good. The one where they do some close-up with a guest from the audience blew me away completely.
Also the first trick, borrowed cellphone to impossible location, was the best way to start the show.
We also saw Mac King`s show. The Mac is a funny dude and the show`s lovely. It`s got some very cool stuff. The Bear trick is HILARIOUS!
We also saw Cirque du Soleil`s `Mystere` and it rocked.

Rudy Coby

The last show i saw in L.A. was Rudy Coby`s Experiment.
I was so excited to finally see this great magician perform.
The cold hard truth is that i was disappointed.
The whole thing was pretty sloppy. I expected more professionalism.
Rudy seemed too anxious.
Maybe he had one of those days.
The audience reacted very well though.
They gave him a standing ovation.

End of journey

It`s over.

My lame tourist visa expired and now i`m back to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I had a terrific experience living in the states for almost 6 months.

I learned lots.

I did not blog because i tend to get tired but now i`m back home i`ll do that.

Street performing

Wow, what an amazing experience the street performance is.

I´m learning lots of stuff.

How to stop people, how to keep them and how to hat them.

That´s a lot of work.

Add to that the ocasional smart ass and/or heckler and you´ve got a lot of learning in one day.

And then the money. I love it when they give me a 5. Love Lincoln´s face.

Also, great place to meet women.

I was very comfortable performing in private environments but this is different. The street is a different game altogether.

Good times.

lots of good things!

Haven´t posted in a while but basically i´m a street performer. Been performing in santa monica. I´m learning the craft. I still don´t know how to properly build a crowd and my funny is slowly showing up but i´m doing great nevertheless. It´s amazing because i´m gaining my money from the streets. It´s hard and i´m not getting as much money as i was getting in my past life, but all this effort and learning how to deal with the streets is amazing.

Don´t know why i can be funny in a private party but not in the streets. Maybe i´m still not acustomed to the streets? Prolly i still need to learn?

I feel like i´m constantly going back to square one. This is the longest path. The one of most resistance. I never settle for comfort. I´m always pushing myself towards effort.

On the streets people are not polite. They will comment on what you´re doing and try to discover the methods. They will try to outsmart you and say shit. That´s why the street is probably the best training. They don´t give a shit. On the other hand, when you fool them badly and make ´em laugh, they will appreciate that and give you love and money (most of the times).

I´m trying new tricks! How cool is that? I´m confident to try new tricks cos it´s the street and noone is paying me. If i fail, i don´t care cos it´s not a paid gig. I´ve been tryin´ out new stuff and i LOVE that!

Magic Castle

A couple of days ago i finally visited the Magic Castle!

A new friend of mine who´s a magician living in CA took me.

I finally got the chance to visit this legendary place!

Honestly i was a little bit dissapointed because the first magician i saw at the close-up room was rather unexperienced. I thought that to play the castle you had to have your chops earned.

Then i saw a show by my first teacher: Michael Ammar!
It was good seeing him again. I knew his stuff already but it was very good anyway. His cups and balls loads are AWESOME. His loading actions are so friggin´ smooth.

Then i saw a show by the Castle teacher and it was very well received by the audience. I liked it even though it was ´easy´ suff.

I would have loved to visit the Castle 30 years ago though. When the ´big´ guys were alive.

Happy birthday Professor!

Thanks for your tricks, sleights and stories Professor.

I wish i had met you!

Have a good one.

More Santa Monica busking!

Went there last weekend again. What a lovely place! The third street is full of performers and people who go there to spend their money. Also, lots of chics!
This time i made more money than the previous one. Still, not too much money but i´m working on it. I met another magician and he was such a good sport. He taught me some tricks to build a crowd and even did a live demonstration of how to. He built a crowd for me and then i took it from there on. Thanks buddy!

This trip of mine is being such a complete learning experience. I´m loving it. It´s a lot of effort because whatever task i start to work on, requires a lot of learning, researching and performing on my part. I´m facing difficulties often. I´m getting stronger.

Open mike at Greenway Court Theater‎

Last wednesday a friend took me to an open mike at this lovely place on fairfax avenue. I went prepared to perform. That is, a deck and a sharpie. In this case i also took the handycam to record the performance, if any. We got there and i signed up. They said that they were not sure they would put me on the list because it´s an open mike for acting stuff. They made us enter the playhouse and i was kinda anxious as i did not know if i was to perform. The show started and a lovely japanese lady played a keyboard and sang. A guy was doing the percussion. After two songs the mc entered and he had a very funny, informal and cool vibe. He made us do some warm-up excercises that included massaging the spectator next to you and stuff. Very funny and relaxing. Then he announced the first four acts. I was not mentioned so i ´relaxed´ for i thought i was not going to perform. After the four first acts they played a movie clip. Then he announced the following acts and...my name was mentioned! Ouch! I started feeling nervous. Butterflies in the stomach and all that stuff.
Finally he mentions me and i went up the stage...I KICKED ASS!! I had a very good reception. My friend loved mi little show (each one had three minutes). I was feeling comfotable and was having a very good time. They loved it and so did i.
I plan to return next month (it´s a once a month thing).

This is all good and positive. I learned this place was taking artists, signed up and rocked the house. That´s the way to do it!
Actually the whole show had an amazingly positive vibe. Everybody was doing it out of love for their craft. Noone was making money yet everybody was so commited to what they were doing. It was an amazing little evening.

GOOD STUFF.

fourth show @ the hostel

Tonite i acted again at the orbit. I´m pretty happy because i´m doing pretty prettyyy good. I´m building my confidence in Hollywood baybee :P
I´m doing mostly card tricks and raccoon work. The good thing is that i´m taping the shows. Tonite i was a little bit ´too´ confident at times. It´s always better to spare confidence than to lack it though.
I feel like trying to do some stan-up. I love entertaining with card tricks but i feel i could do well just talking. Gonna give it a run.