Magic Lecture in Chesapeake Va

Natalie & I were asked to come down on April 28th to Chesapeake Va to perform our magic lecture for the Society of American Magicians, Assembly 146. We arrived around 5:30 and the group took Natalie & myself out to dinner, which was so nice, and then we went over to the Hyatt hotel and set up for the lecture. The magic lecture I performed teaches some of my secrets in magic; not only tricks but office secrets. The office secrets was the first half then we took a short break and came back for the magic portion. After the lecture Natalie & I hung out & talked with several of the magicians for over an hour. Natalie & I sold magic at the lecture and I even autographed several copies of my lecture notes for those who wanted it. We had a great time and the members of the club really had great things to say about the lecture. The next morning I got this testimonial from Al Albers who is a member of that club. He said, "Had a superb time at last night's lecture. You did a fantastic job; lots of pertinent information, but what stands out is your honesty and willingness to share what you've learned."

Here are a few pictures from the lecture

Wes Iseli's Doll House Rehearsal

Back in the fall Natalie & I were interviewed by the folks at Virginia Living Television in Culpeper. After the interview Natalie & I performed an illusion; this video shows the rehearsal of that Illusion. This footage was filmed with our camera that was mounted in the back of the room. This was done as rehearsal to show the camera man the how we stage the illusion. I hope you enjoy!

Rodney Dangerfield has nothing on me...

Rodney Dangerfield's classic joke was how he never got any respect; well sometimes in my life I feel the same way. I have been a full time professional magician for 15 years now, I have traveled all over the East Coast and even ventured a time or two to the Midwest. Natalie & I have performed for CEO's of corporations, resorts, the British Embassy, and in auditoriums and theaters all over. People still ask me if I am still doing magic as if it is a hobby and I should have grown up by now and gotten a real job. Some people think I only do kids birthday parties and I get compliments like "my kids love you". That is great, don't get me wrong but I am more than that. My ego doesn't stand a chance to get big with comments like this always swirling.

A few weeks ago Natalie got a call from a customer who wanted us to perform a show for their family reunion. The lady on the phone went on and on about how excited she was on having us and that her family was also excited since they had just recently saw us at a show. We performed that show this past Saturday and I felt great on the way to the show knowing that these people were so excited to see us. When we got to the show the parking lot was packed and there was nowhere for us to park and unload. So I called and asked for the contact person. The person who answered asked "who is calling?" I said "Wes Iseli Magician" then she said "Who?" and I said "Wes Iseli Magician" then she said "Um, we don't need an electrician" and she hung up the phone. I had to get out of the car and walk up into the event location and wander around until I found the contact and ask where to park to unload.

On the way back to the car I shook my head thinking "I can't get no respect."

Wes Iseli's Baby Bunny Magic

A while back I filmed a video introducing my newest baby bunnies while at the same time using them in magic tricks. This is my only video where the magic is not the focus but the bunnies are. I will put up a real cups and balls video one day, during this video I was just messing around. I hope you enjoy!

Magic as a full time job pt 2

Natalie & I do several types of shows, from small family shows to company picnics all the way up to our full evening Vegas style Illusion show. I thought this month I would fill you in on what it takes to put on the average show. One hour prior to leaving our home on a show day I will go get the show animals out of the outside
building and put them in their travel cages, which usually entails 2 doves and 2 bunnies. Then we check the show contract to see if the customer ordered any extras, such as levitation, kid magician, magic from our web page etc. Our van is already loaded with the main parts of our show, but most extras we need to pack for each
show separately. If it is a large show our big sound system will also need to be loaded. Then we put on our show clothes and get ready to go. We then load the van and plug in the address into the navigation. Since we spend so much time in our van we try to make it as comfortable as possible. We have a Sirius radio, a cooler, a
DVD player, and a couch to nap on while the other drives. It is very common to spend way more time on the road traveling to a show than it takes to set up, perform and pack up the show. Attached are a pictures from back stage at our illusion show.

Magic as a full time job part one

I was talking with a magician friend of mine the other day and we were discussing what it takes to put on a show and how much of it is never seen. I thought I would take a minute and let you in on what is never seen on stage. During the week if we do not have any shows we work in the office booking shows, finalizing contracts, contacting new clients, returning phone calls / emails, and working on new marketing campaigns. Natalie is in her office upstairs and I am in my office downstairs. She does all of the contracts and the taking of the deposits and I focus on getting new contacts ready to book and I work on the marketing. After work I feed the show animals which are in an outside building; as of now we have 7 doves, 14 ducks and 17 bunnies. Then we work out. After my work out is when I like to research magic and/or practice. Natalie will start dinner or read for a couple of hours, then we eat and watch some TV or a movie, then head to bed. That is a typical day in the office. What people do not realize is that shows do not just appear out of nowhere, you have to market yourself and you can not wait for the phone to ring, if you are doing that you will surely starve. I have been in business since 1996 and each year we are growing by leaps and bounds, but none of this would happen if we just sat on our hands. I have magicians ask me what my secret to success is all the time and the truth is that we treat each and every show like it is a high dollar gig. Each show is appreciated and we do our best to make each and every show memorable for the client.
We will continue this story next month and we will discuss what goes into getting ready for each and every show.
Stay tuned for part 2...

Free Magic Tricks

Magic is universal, it crosses all language barriers. Magic is as popular today as ever. People are interested in magic and do want to learn, but in this era of immediate gratification the internet and information out there is a total mess. The masked magician show aired in 1997 on fox. His pitch was that he was going to reveal magic secrets, he will also provide scantly clad assistants to dance around. He did reveal some secrets in magic and he even made up some of his own secrets to reveal. My favorite is when he levitated his assistant with a fork lift and the voice over guy said this is the only way it can be done. I personally know about 15 different levitations and none of those methods use a fork lift. Youtube nowadays is also another land mine of people not knowing magic trying to reveal secrets. There is 1000 or more masked magicians on youtube giving false information without the dancing girls or production value. It is the same today as it was in 1997; if the person is such a great magician they would be performing magic and not revealing secrets. Plus knowing the secret is such a small part of the over all performance. It is just like I tell my magic students, "knowing how to make a guitar make sound does not mean you can play the guitar."