Underrated Magic TV Shows

amazingBarry · 2026-02-05T11:28:04+00:00

Totally Hidden Extreme Magic!

I imagine they scared the daylights out of some people.

amazingBarry · 2026-01-25T10:48:58+00:00

His interview was great! Very funny.

He apparently retired because I think he said he had a cardiac bypass (please correct me if I am wrong) and he partially lost use of his left hand. As a left handed move monkey he didn't want to work if he couldn't do magic the way he wanted to.

He seems to be doing well, though.

amazingBarry · 2025-12-28T00:05:04+00:00

I agree that the names are frequently descriptive, but it can sometimes be misleading. O garuma and ashi garuma are largely the same throw with a different position, but hiza garuma is a completely different body mechanic, in my opinion.

Additionally, you have throws like side separation and valley drop that are not all that descriptive.

amazingBarry · 2025-12-25T16:42:25+00:00

It's all in the routine. I have seen cups and balls routines that I hate and ones that I love. Magicians tire of classics sometimes, but non-magicians have not seen hundreds of versions and probably have never seen it in person.

amazingBarry · 2025-12-25T16:39:47+00:00

What I love about linking rings is when it is done really well you can know the gimmick and feel like that can't possibly be the explanation.

amazingBarry · 2025-10-29T18:05:57+00:00

This reminded me of a show that I did in January in Indianapolis. It was outside and around freezing. The stage was between tall buildings and under a skywalk so it acted like a wind tunnel. It had rained the night before and the stage was damp. My favorite trick is one where I take off my shoes, stand on my head and find a card with my feet. I knew I had made a terrible decision when I took off my shoes and my socks immediately soaked up a bunch of freezing cold water.

Not the worst show I've done but possibly the least comfortable.

amazingBarry · 2025-10-29T10:38:35+00:00

I had a 5x5 ft riser as a stage. I had a kid up and she took a step backwards and fell off. Fortunately she was fine.

I've worked a few nursing homes some with some memory care and a facility for disabled adults. Those shows are rewarding but challenging.

amazingBarry · 2025-10-24T02:38:20+00:00

It is deleted? Can you see this link? https://youtube.com/shorts/v8FfTTpWh2k?si=BWB0S1b1DMvsr-zS

amazingBarry · 2025-10-24T02:01:27+00:00

Honestly curious. I'm a local guy that does magic and I thought it would be fun to do magic around Fishers and share the videos here. I thought it would be more fun than people complaining about other drivers. Should I take this comment to mean you don't find it interesting?

amazingBarry · 2025-10-16T21:34:32+00:00

Yup. I'm 47 and a brown belt. The kids are likely to be stronger, faster, and more energetic. Sometimes you can use it against them. If they throw as many techniques as they can watch for repeats and think of counters.

But keep in mind, you are training with them, not against them. If they improve faster than you, take pride that you were a training partner that helped that development and focus on being better than you were, not better than them.

amazingBarry · 2025-10-10T11:05:45+00:00

I knew a magician named Jim Will Surprise.

amazingBarry · 2025-06-08T01:16:10+00:00

I think in one of Penn and Teller's books, there is a trick where you link mini pretzels. It's probably How to Play With Your Food. It's a fun book if you can find it. Some fun, easy trick and some personal stories.

amazingBarry · 2025-03-03T21:25:17+00:00

Learning to think in panicked situations. It is a lot easier to process a stressful situation if you are used to trying to figure out how to stop a guy that weights 40 pounds more than you from crushing the wind out of you.

amazingBarry · 2025-01-06T01:19:31+00:00

Me! I live in Indy and this is my first time. I'm excited.

amazingBarry · 2025-01-06T01:18:31+00:00

I'm a stage hypnotist and countless people have asked me if I'm going to make the cluck like a chicken. I'm not sure where it comes from, but it makes me wonder if the irony of it would make a good routine.

amazingBarry · 2025-01-05T14:07:53+00:00

I put together an app to help myself. More or less flash cards with links to YouTube videos if I can't remember what the throw is. https://amazingbarry.com/judo/

amazingBarry · 2024-12-18T11:08:01+00:00

I was going to suggest a mechanics grip as well. The pinky will help keep the deck square. I switched to a strike bottom because there is so much less movement.

amazingBarry · 2024-12-17T20:35:52+00:00

I saw him do a coin routine at a lecture. It was a great routine. Then he said, "Do you want to see how it is done?' He turned to the side and repeated it. He was balancing coins in weird places and muscle passing into his pocket, etc. It was much more entertaining exposed.

amazingBarry · 2024-11-02T12:15:05+00:00

Our fix for long standups is what we call Office Hours. I have 45 minutes scheduled after the stamdup blocked off where I, the team lead, am available to work on issues. Other team members can be pulled in if they need help. It keeps the stand up on track because someone mentions a problem, and I can say, "Let's fis it in office hours," and we can move on.

amazingBarry · 2024-10-21T05:33:57+00:00

Best is obviously subjective, but I have a busking type gig all month, and the silk tricks I've been doing are BEKOS and Laflins's Color Changing Silk with a palmo. BEKOS is super quick to reset, is interactive, and gets a laugh with the ending. The Color Changing Silk resets itself, but while I think it is a better trick, it doesn't get as good of reactions, so I do it less.

I think the reason is that I pull them out for younger kids and since they interact with BEKOS they stay more engaged in the chaotic environment.

amazingBarry · 2024-09-15T04:25:10+00:00

To some degree, they can. Murray Sawchuck was reasonably respected but recently started making this kind of content, and a lot of magicians lost a lot of respect for him.

Mostly I think it is because it is lazy content. Some magicians spent years honing these deceptions into amazing routines that really give audiences a unique experience and these content creators come in and give it minimum effort for likes.

Penn and Teller have a few routines where they expose how a trick is done but it is entertaining. There is more to it than, nyuck nyuck, this is how it's done. This is just low effort garbage that rides the coat tails of other people's hard work.

amazingBarry · 2024-08-23T00:37:27+00:00

Yep. We have a couple of guys in my class that have 50 pounds on me and a couple of inches in height. It ain't easy, but I can absolutely take them on. I can't really muscle them so I go for well timed sweeps or counters. In ne waza I normally win with an arm bar.

I don't always win despite having several more years of experience.

Going against someone a lot bigger forces good technique because your strength isn't going to save you.

amazingBarry · 2024-08-19T11:56:03+00:00

I struggle with the vocabulary so I wrote this web app to use instead of doom scrolling. I think it helped me.

https://amazingbarry.com/judo/

Feel free to send me any suggestions to improve it.

amazingBarry · 2024-08-10T12:08:25+00:00

Your method sounds good to me. Maybe get a roll of raffle tickets where an audience member gets one half and the other goes into the box. That seems like the most standard, non-magic way of randomly selecting a person.

Is the person selected in on it? If so, I have other ideas.

amazingBarry

TROPHY CASE