kellar, originally uploaded by undream.

HD Video Review May 2008

May 19, 2008 7:30PM TF Shows CityWalk
Shawn Greer shooting me from afar • Nice crowd shots lousy audio litttle interview

May 19, 2008 7:59PM Shawn performs at the CityWAlk Cards, Coins and Cups

May 19, 2008 8:20PM Guest magi (kid) at my pitch

May 19, 2008 8:55PM Shawn does a card trick & his 3 card Monte Routine and another show

thurston the great magician, originally uploaded by undream.

, originally uploaded by Dai Vernon.

Jamie Cullum at the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night!

Trying new things at work

One of the issues I deal with nightly at work, is where people's heads are at when they're watching me. I'll clue you in, they just spent all day in Universal Studios being visually over stimulated by the most fantastic of things to look at and experience. Besides being a working studio with a tour, its also a theme park with rides (The Mummy Roller Coaster ROCKS!). Anyways, as the sun goes down and the park is letting out, there I am, fighting the loud music piped in where I perform, amidst an amazing array of architecture, neon and over the top store fronts. They're hot, tired, broke and emotionally bankrupt but, God bless their souls, they stop and watch me like a television commercial. If they could only see their own expressionless faces.

So, I ride the roller coaster of my own emotions as I try my best to entertain these people and motivate them to give me their money. . . it's no easy job. I play all sorts of games trying to get the types of reactions I want (smiles, laughs & applause).

Lately, I've been experimenting with something a little more organic. I'm trying to "OWN" the lack of reaction. I acknowledge it, I understand it and I accept it. No more lines like, "Is this an audience. . . or jury?" I'm letting the magic speak for itself, I give the audience an opportunity to respond, if they don't, I move on with no consequence to them.

I told another street performer friend about this strategy, he asked, "How's that working out for you?" I replied, "I don't like it, but I'll try anything".

On Saturday Afternoons In 1963 • By Rickie Lee Jones

The most as you'll ever go
Is back where you used to know
If grown-ups could laugh this slow
Where as you watch the hour snow
Years may go by

So hold on to your special friend
Here, you'll need something to keep her in :
"Now you stay inside this foolish grin ... "
Though any day your secrets end
Then again
Years may go by

You saved your own special friend
'Cuz here you need something to hide her in
And you stay inside that foolish grin
When everyday now secrets end
Oh and then again
Years may go by

Chill'en at the crib

People ask me all the time, "Don't you ever get tired of doing nothing?" The answer has always been a simple. . . no. I like to look at my life as though it was piece of art. Each day another brushstroke in the living and ever changing tapestry, that is the experience of life. Some parts of the painting in my mind are simple areas of nothingness, like a plain sky contrasting a busy cityscape. I gave up the real world to retreat to a fantasy. It's amazing that life is what you make it, even if it isn't real.

Totally digg'en my scene. I love where I live, and who I live with. I love that I work 3 hours a night doing the only thing I've ever wanted to do for a living.

Been trying to get to the gym 7 to 10 times a week. Feeling better than I ever have physically. The meat of the day is spent doing whatever the fuck I feel like doing. I answer to nobody. Yesterday, after the gym I caught the 12:45 Imax showing of the latest Bat Man movie. Polly and I had seen it when it first came out on the big screen at the Cinerama Dome, but I wanted to see it in an Imax theater as a bunch of it was shot with Imax cameras. Looked absolutely fantastic. Great movie across the board.

Been reading "The Magician and the Cardsharp". The story of Dai Vernon's quest for the legendary center deal and Allen Kennedy. Enjoying the read and loving going back in time to the New York City Inner Circle Sessions in the back rooms of magic shops in the 20's and 30's. I've been so lucky in my own lifetime to have met so many influential magicians. Even luckier to call so many of them my friends.

Here I am today, weighing in at 160 lbs. Been a little over a month since I started working out and eating better. I could show you the pot belly side view, but I'm feeling too good about myself to want to do that right now. Starting to build muscle and resolve. Worked with Morisio the trainer today. Half hour with him, weights, forward and backward lunges, work with the big exercise ball (an interesting exercise for the obliques), more weights. Half hour of cardio with music blasting in my ears. 5 laps in the pool. 5 minutes in the hot tub, 12 minutes in the sauna (working towards 15), shower, head home just in time to relax, fire up a cigar and watch the afternoon breeze by under the cloudless blue sky of california. What a life.