The Adequate Blog

No one creates an act in a vacuum - what I do on stage is influenced by the acts of those who came before me, those I’ve seen live, those I’ve read, or read about.

Here’s some of those influences:

• MooNiE The Magnificent - The best acts at Faire don’t so much ‘play on stage’ as ‘play with the audience’, and MooNiE - Philip Earl - is one of the best.  People come back to his show again and again because while the structure of the show remains the same, each show is unique in that the audience is made part of the act.   MooNiE does it all, or at least most of it, silently, with only a few whistles and vocal sound effects to direct volunteers.  I have never, ever heard anyone else be so eloquent with whistling and body language - including where he exhorts someone to either turn around and watch his show or get the expletive out. Yes, in whistles.
  Phil is also a very, very nice guy.  Heck, he talks to me and I’m an obnoxious, loud cuss.
• The Swordsmen - Two men, two swords, far too much schtick. From them I learned the value of getting the audience to sound off early and often.  Also the value of coming right out and declaring that you are about to do something life-risking and foolhardy.  These two Bold and Stupid Men inspired me to become Dangerous and More Than a Little Stupid.
• Richard Osterlind - professional magician and mentalist - his eBook Making Magic Real helped to lay the groundwork for my Philosophy of Character, albeit a significantly less facile and sophisticated character.
• Mac King - Penn Gillette said it best: Mac King is a God.  He is one of the funniest, most consistent, and darn nicest pro magicians I’ve had the pleasure to meet.  If you’re ever in Las Vegas, go see his show. It’s more than worth it. He’s also the author of Tricks With Your Head, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to cause milk to come out of a friend’s nose at an inopportune moment.

That’s some of my influences. There are more, and they’ll come out as I do more of this blog thing.

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