October 31, 2018
Dark nights are brightened by the November Podcast contents which feature the following topics:
- The CCC rebrands as the OCCC but the meeting provides the same great stimulus as always
- online booking agencies make for lazy enquiries and encourage potentially unfair price comparisons
- does it matter that explanations of many of our tricks are openly available on YouTube?
- magicians sometimes get too hung up on moves and procedure and can easily forget what is far more important
- online video instructions provide both the best and the worst type of trick explanation
- do you feel a bit uncomfortable performing for people who know you very well, such as family and friends? I look at why this might be
September 30, 2018
An OctoberFest of magic opinion and comment featuring the following topics:
- I reflect that it's not easy as a self employed business person to clear the desks before going on holiday
- Wittus Witt asks whether close up magic really has any place at modern large conventions
- creativity is all about making choices, but this can present you with a dilemma
- Shin Lim brings a theatrical importance to his visual close up miracles in America's Got Talent
- how much do you value magical advice?
- cancellation clauses in performance contracts can cause more problems than they solve
August 31, 2018
The September Podcast will entertain you and get you thinking with the following topics:
- I get the opportunity to experience Noel Britten's Bizarre Bath Comedy Walk, and it's awesome!
- what are the best and worst parts of being a magician?
- the show format that helped me to gain invaluable performing experience in the early days of my magic career
- I discuss whether social media ever really delivers in terms of creating actual bookings or whether we are simply deluding ourselves
- the importance of how we respond to show enquiries is illustrated when my wife and I try to book some entertainment for our own party
July 31, 2018
The summery August Podcast contains the following topics:
- Why on earth do so many of us get involved in magic in the first place? I suggest a whole load of reasons why we might get involved in the art
- Duncan Trillo launches an interesting new initiative in which he invites fans of his MagicWeek website to become a MagicWeek Backer
- the football World Cup is over, but maybe there are some lessons to be learned about how not to jump on a bandwagon when it comes to publicity
- I finally release the 4th volume of my popular card magic series of E-Books
- there are many things to cope with as a table hopping magician, and none of them are anything to do with the magic itself
- download instructions are now all pervasive, a situation that has almost sneaked up on us all
June 30, 2018
A varied selection of topics this month looks like this:
- Richy Roy suggests that most of us are charging far too little for our shows and I discuss whether he is right or not
- I prove that no matter how long you have been in the magic business, there can still be things which happen to you which have never happened before
- "Strolling magic is not an art, it's a service" says Paul Brook - but is he correct?
- news of a new MLM release that is a terrific, practical version of a classic plot
- the mobile phone has changed the way spectators want to experience our magic
- why do lay people still fall back on cliched explanations for the magic that we do?
May 31, 2018
The early summer 2018 podcast has the following topics:
- I reflect on my recent US lecture tour which included some dodgy weather and a traffic violation!
- talking of lectures, I consider what magicians expect to get from a lecture that they attend
- magical fame and fortune may not always be all it is cracked up to be
- the Mark Leveridge Magic website is being re-designed and I give you some early teaser information about what it might be like when it launches later in the year
- I reflect on why it can be difficult sometimes to entertain the people who have actually booked you
- why offering advice to an inexperienced magician may not be the best thing to do
- why does magic seem to attract such high levels of incompetence!?
April 30, 2018
Podcast Gold
Here are six of my favourite Podcast articles which I have collected together from Podcasts released over the last year. I hope you enjoy hearing them again, or if you missed them, for the first time!
- Fee negotiation - do you allow your rates to be a subject of discussion with a potential booker?
- I offer a theory about when you should hand write a prediction and when it is OK to have it pre-printed
- I explain why I think going back to tables more than once is not a good idea
- comedy is as much about consistently selecting appropriate lines to suit our performing personality as it is about the lines themselves
- your credibility as a magician is important for potential bookers, so here's a way to ensure you get some
- card to wallet - is it better to go down the palm-and-load route, or are the no-palm versions just as valid?
March 31, 2018
The April edition of Mark Leveridge's magical musings covers the following:
- Richard Kaufman has a 'pop' at Magicseen
- your magic competitors may actually be your allies
- hyphens and underscores make difficult to decipher email addresses even worse
- GDPR is on its way, but will it matter to us magicians?
- a spectator accurately observes and gives a fascinating insight into the processes that we strolling magicians go through when we entertain at tables
- if you appear to be an expert at what you do, you are more likely to get the show enquiry/booking
February 28, 2018
The March miscellany of magic comments offers you....
- Walking round the dealers at Blackpool reveals that many of the stands and much of the product packaging is so much more professional than it used to be
- what makes for the best type of subject for a major headline prediction?
- The Sacred Riana - proving on Asia's Got Talent that presentation will always elevate magic irrespective of how strong the magic itself may be
- the world is awash with information and if you want to be heard you need to play the long game with your publicity
- you can find new magic for your act by looking outside the normal magic categories that you might consider
- how do you evaluate the value of a marketed trick?
- the goalposts seem to have moved for children's entertainers
January 31, 2018
This is what the February edition has in store for you
- I attended The Session last month and I offer my observations about the annual close up convention organised by Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin
- "If someone asks you to perform, you are not obliged to do so" - I explain why I agree with this assertion from Roberto Giobbi
- Mike Close reveals how to take the sting out of strong magic to make it more acceptable to lay people
- here's an important piece of advice that could make sure you get more enquiries from your website
- listen to a Mark's Monthly Message Audio File on Developing A Performing Personality
- Facebook gives you even less opportunity to get your message across via your posts
