The Mark Leveridge Magic Podcast

The Mark Leveridge October 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge September 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge August 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge July 2018 Podcast

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?

The Mark Leveridge June 2018 Podcast

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!?

The Mark Leveridge May 2018 Podcast

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?

The Mark Leveridge April 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge March 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge February 2018 Podcast

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

The Mark Leveridge January 2018 Podcast

The first Podcast of a new year offers you the following topics:

• I reflect on how the Podcast has developed since its inception in January 2013
• what makes for the perfect opening trick? The current issue of Magicseen gives the views of 10 top pro close up magicians
• how to turn yourself into a Business Magician and thus open up countless new working opportunities
• attending a concert by the Bootleg Beatles leads me to wonder whether you could have 'tribute magicians' in the same way as the music industry has 'tribute bands'
• never try to second guess what fee a potential booker can afford
• with so many people wanting to get magic ideas marketed, what's the best way to get a product out there?
• how to know whether your 2018 magical resolutions are likely to actually come about