It's gotta be Magic!!!

Thursday afternoon I got outta bed early, good thing too, My friend Chad Reibman was coming over at 2 pm to enjoy some magic session time with me... Chad arrived early, I was brushing my teeth when he showed up at 1:30..
I answered the door in my bathrobe... We both got a chuckle outta that..
We sessioned for several hours, Coins, cards an exploding light bulb... watched the dvd of our competition at Portland Magic Jam...
Something Chad said to me in the way of critique stuck with me. After complimenting me on how well (loud) I speak, and the way in which it appears that I engage the audience(I think I need to work on this area a lot more)Chad said that one of his teachers, Shoot Ogawa from Japan told him "many performers do "Radio Magic." And that I was doing that.
Radio Magic? What? He explained to me that I would say a lot of things unnecessary. Things like simple comments, "I will just give the cards a cut, or I'll turn my back and close my eyes, that way I can't see what you do." As if I didn't have an audience that could physically see me. As if I were a commentator on a radio giving a "play by Play."
As I thought about this it dawned on me, he was absolutely correct. I do do that.
Hmmm, And I thought it was all just patter to have something to say as a spectator is doing something. Sort of like filler to fill a silence. Of course the spectator can see I have turned my back. They can see that I just cut the cards.
Wow, This is a nice bit of information to assimilate. NOW comes the scary part. Will I find myself actually thinking about words I am saying and throw myself off during a performance? Nah... This will have to be something to work on during practice and rehearsals. But truly, an eye opening comment! Now if only I could remember to put it into practice~
During the Portland Magic Jam two weeks ago, Isaac Louie showed me the table I built him four years ago. It is pretty well thrashed. Not that I didn't build him a nice, sturdy table, more like he abused it! Actually Louie uses it daily and sometimes three times a day as he is a full time professional magician. Louie does a lot of shows for schools, sometimes three and four in a day. I also think he removes and replaces the table in his trunk so often... well you get the picture.
Anyway, he showed it to me at PMJ. Chad Reibman was with me and really liked the table and wanted me to build him one too. So all last week I have been spending lots of time in the garage building tables. Katie has been helping me out there and it has really been fun to teach her a few things about power saws. Mostly though it has been great to have a helping hand and spend time with her. The time flies better when you are with someone.
Here are the tables I just finished!

(Click images to enlarge)