Category: Family

Fond Memories

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The other night I received this lovely message through my website contact form:

“This is just a hello. I was tidying and came across your business card from 1995 (of course no website or email address) when you entertained our 6 year old daughter and her friends. We have a picture of her as a rabbit coming out of a hat and a slightly younger you holding the image.
Fond memories, thank you”

J.V.

These random hellos are always a treat. I’ve had them at the mall or in restaurants but this one, from about 27 years ago, takes the time-travel gold medal! Performers often like to say their show will create memories that will last a lifetime. I don’t go in for such clichés but I’m always delighted to have helped a tiny bit.

Sent a quick reply back and next day J.V., the birthday kid’s dad, sent a photo. Still have that tie tucked away somewhere but the coat is looooong gone!

Owen performing at birthday party in 1990s.
Still offer this fun photo opportunity at parties!

Search Engine Magic?

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I’m a regular visitor to Reddit, the online aggregator site, although my ‘subreddits’ tend to be quite limited; magic, local stuff, photos, videos and a few more. There’s zillions of subreddits covering just about any field of interest you can imagine. You can go down a lot of rabbit holes with, let’s say, decidedly mixed results…!

Clicked a YouTube video link on Reddit the other day called Google It Like A Pro. It’s about the way high end computer coders use some of the many refinements available for the Google search engine to improve search results. Made a few notes while watching. One of these refinements I found useful was to narrow the searched date range using a couple of periods between the dates. For example, if you want to search for stuff between 2017 and 2019 you would add 2017..2019 to your query.

So, just for fun, I used Owen Anderson Magician 2017..2019 as a search. Among the results was this link in the Wellington Advertiser about the OWoW Festival. I have previously mentioned this festival on my blog but I had not seen this local media photo before. Sharing it here for fun.

Ontario Week of Wonder Magic Festival inspired audiences in Fergus

The video is about 5 minutes long. It has 10 tips to better use search engines. These tips apparently work on other search platforms too. A couple of them were above my pay grade but you’ll probably find at least one nugget that’ll save you its 5 minute length. Hope it helps.

‘Silly’ fun for your 3-6 age range munchkins…

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Got some wee ones at home? You could a lot do worse than this charming video by Bri Crabtree. I don’t know her personally but we’re both in some of the same performer’s groups on Facebook.
Silly Circus Show is aimed at younger kids, 3-6 age range, and runs about 40 minutes. Very gentle pacing and a wonderful variety of visuals to keep ’em engaged. Silly fun? It’s so much more than that. Please enjoy this highly skilled artist!

My new ‘not-quite-virtual’ backdrop…

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Decided on a real backdrop for virtual birthday parties after finding this gem among the ‘South American River’ company’s offerings:

Photography backdrop representing parted blue theatrical curtains with many shiny lights all over it.

Many theatre curtain style backdrops offered were variations in red. As some photos on this website show my costuming has lots of red so this blue one in blue contrasts nicely. Separates me distinctly from the background (I hope!).

Had been experimenting with ‘green screen’ backdrops but, for an online home party, they can be a distraction, especially if you have props or garments with a hint of green in them. Clever for some situations but one more thing to worry about when you should be concentrating on doing the best possible show. Also, based on some of the Zoom events I’ve attended such backdrops can be distracting. At a recent magician’s lecture I attended via Zoom one of the attendees had a tank of fish swimming behind him for over 2 hours! Oy! Or, should I say Koi!

Virtual Magic…

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Birthday cake with colorful internet modem plugs instead of candles. Icing writing reads Virtual Birthday.

I’ve been dipping my toe into the world of online magic shows. Mostly on the Zoom platform. It’s pretty much a whole new art form which is both exciting and scary. Tricks that work online, tricks that don’t. Lots to learn!

One of the interesting things is that travel times are largely irrelevant. You can do birthday shows for children anywhere on the planet, as long as we agree on the start time despite time-zone changes!

Currently offering some great deals on shorter ‘virtual’ shows while I learn the ropes. If you’re interested in trying one out please contact me. Birthday kids are still featured prominently during the shows. Other kids on your Zoom party meet-up as well. Doesn’t have to be a birthday show. Family events and other groups will work too! Message me on the contact page.