The Adequate Blog

 A magician is  actor playing the part of a magician.

A conjuror is an actor playing the part of a sorceror.
- Two translations of the same sentence by Robert-Houdin

Clothes make the man
- Anonymous

My show is theatrical. By that I  mean I perform, for want of a better word, in costume. I’m not one of those “Street Magic” types that just walks around wearing what everyone else wears and doing my thing.  For one thing, it wouldn’t work in the events I perform at (street clothes at a Renaissance Faire? Um, no.) and for another thing, I don’t want to look “normal” while I’m performing.

I lovingly refer to the costumery I don when I go out to do my show the “idiot suit”, a reference to my favorite hawking line of all time, and the fact that when I’m dressed to perform, I look at least a little outlandish.

For the past five years or so, my usual outfit for Renaissance Faires looks like this:

That multicolored wonder is known as the Doublet of Doom. There are pants that go with it (so to speak) which I call the Trews of Terror. That may lead to another blog post later…

While my outfit for Modern / anything historical past the 17th Century looks a bit like this:

All this is changing, though.  The next few months are going to see yours truly embark on a project to custom make new “character” pieces - specially made shirts and pants and outer wear (coats) for performing in. And then, doing Clever Things to these garments in order to facilitate more magic happening when I’m wearing them.

Like a lot of magicians, I do a lot of things by Pulling Stuff Out of A Bag.  Moving forward, I’m planning to put in special things to allow me to carry my act on my person in pockets and pouches built into the coat. Aaand I’m adding some special things to allow me to make things go away as well, because that’s part of being a magician.

Aside: This is an addition to my “character concept”  - the Tobias the Adequate show will still consist of the Core Tricks (more on that soon), but with the addition of “incidental magic”. When I’m done with a prop, it makes sense to just… make it go away … now doesn’t it? Yes. things like that. The incidental magic will add another layer to the show - after all, Tobias is just a hapless hack magician who’s tricks rarely go as planne- hey where did those scissors go all of the sudden? Weird. 

Some quick notes: The pants diverge from standard Renaissance Faire trousers in that they have both pockets and a fly  (remember Five Things About Renaissance Faires Explained ?) - since these are for a Renaissance Faire, they also have a codpiece. A pretty… big one. With a pocket in it. That’s where I usually keep my wallet. They also have suspender buttons sewn on because I don’t subscribe to the “thousand things on my belt” plan and besides… then I have to hike up the pants and the belt.  The pattern for the pants? A Simplicity sweat pant pattern.

The shirt and frock coat (that’s for Modern / Victorian, the coat is) come from a Simplicity Wild West pattern (2895)- the shirt is a placket front model that works well for just about any time period as long as I don’t use a modern pattern. Since my coats are going to be made of heavier material and, as we know, RenFaire performers work in rediculous contidions they’re of lightweight material that breathes.

For my new Renaissance gear, I’m going with a Folkwear pattern for a Hungarian coat called a Szur. This is a big thing that, to be honest, looks like something Phil Foglio might draw. I think it looks nifty. Again, both the coats will be “gaffed to the hilt”.

We’ve gotten the hang of the pants and shirt patterns - I have five pair of RenFaire long pants and short pair - all in varying weights so I don’t freeze / sweat to death.

Once we get some more shirts done… we begin work on the Szur.  Of course, there will be more on that later.

For Victorian / Modern stuff, I use “normal” dress slacks … because making tailored pants is bloody complicated and I’m not that good yet. Check in with me in a few coats.