December video (Thimble Magic)

This is going to be a once a month feature on my blog. I will film a piece of magic and put it out on the internet and only here will you find the behind the scene story of the video.

This month I performed a thimble routine. This video was very spur of the moment. I have only been working with thimbles off and on for a little over a year and as I was playing with them while watching Christmas movies with Natalie while we were snowed in. After the movie, right before midnight, I found a piece of music that I thought was short and sweet for the thimble routine and I played with the routine for only about 10 minutes before asking Natalie to film it.

I think it turned out very well considering I only had a 1 minute song and 10 Minutes of practice.



I hope you enjoy!

Wes

Snowed in, December 2009

December is a very busy time of year for us with Christmas & holiday parties running the gambit; from huge extravagant events with caterers and ice sculptures to having a veggie plate and someone who drew the short straw to play Santa. We have lots of bookings not only with companies but also family reunions, lodges, and other organizations. Needless to say the weekends are our busiest times. Living in Central Virginia snow usually is not a factor until after Christmas. This year starting on Friday December 18th around 3pm - Saturday December 19th at 8pm we received a little over 2 feet of snow. Natalie & I were snowed in, we had 4 bookings for this weekend and all were rescheduled. Natalie & I just hung out watching Christmas movies, playing video games, and baking & eating cookies. We both shoveled so much snow it hurt to sit down or stand up. We finally were able to dig out on Monday afternoon once the roads were scraped, which was great timing because we were running out of groceries.

Giving back at Christmas

Natalie & I are so busy this time of year with company parties, family reunions, schools shows, private shows and more. In our spare time we get into the holiday spirit by doing our part to give back. This year we performed our 24 hour magic show to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network the day before Thanksgiving. We perform a free magic show for the Ronald McDonald house in Charlottesville each & every year. We purchase toys for the toys for tots program and we even pick a child from the angel tree program.

During the year we visit children's hospitals and nursing homes while we are on the road but we really step it up at Christmas time. The pictures above are of me performing at the University of Virginia Hospital children's ward for their Backstage Virginia television show that is broadcasted through the hospital and is taped in front of a live audience. We know we are truly blessed to be able to do what we love for a living. Even though our schedule is sometimes hectic, we know we are so lucky to be full time performers.

With the holiday season in full swing it can get very hectic. We all need to take time out to remember the reason for the season!

#1 Entertainer 2009

Albemarle Magazine has put out its first ever awards issue and polled their readers on a bunch of different categories; favorite restaurants, parks and so on. We are proud to announce that Wes Iseli Magician won 1st place as the #1 entertainer in central Virginia for 2009. We were very surprised to win this award especially since we thought you had to advertise with them to get an award. We figure that definitely makes it more special since we earned it and did not buy it. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Wes Iseli's Magic & Illusion show

Natalie & I have been doing our Magic & Illusion shows for a while now with great response & re bookings at 99% of all the locations we have performed it at so far. We have been selling them as a fundraising Magic & Illusion show in which the school hires us to perform. We get a set amount of money and the school or charity makes everything else. We make pretty good money with these shows, but getting a new school to book can be like pulling teeth sometimes, they have been burned before by other entertainers. So Natalie & I have decided to still do those shows but we are now also working for ourselves. We will rent high school auditoriums and we will team up with a charity and give a percent of the profits to them; this way we will not have to wait on approval from any commitees. This is now a big risk for us, as we are coming into towns with no connections and trying to fill up 700 or 1500 seat auditoriums. We know we have a great product and with a little hard work this will be a success. Look for us in a town near you in 2010.