The Magic of Jack Daniels - The Journey: An interactive experience, played at the Castle Hill RSL on the 28th of August 2015. It turned out to be a hit with the audience. A lot of wonderful feedback and the team delivered what they had been promising for the past 12 months. It was the biggest illusion show to play within the Sydney Hills District! Many thanks to our two main sponsors Rileys Gym and Big Vision Labs.
The show ran for just over 2 hrs with a 15-20min interval. Overall it was a great show. A full house with people saying they cant wait for the next one and they didnt want the show to end. The show bumped in the night before, the 27th of August at around 6pm. Thanks to the management who assisted us with this very important factor of the show. Had it not been for the management of Jack Daniels, the venue had only given us permission to bump in on the day of the show which would have been impossible to do for a show of this scale. This show needed atleast a bump in time of 3 days before show day. This wasn't a show designed to play at a RSL. Its too big of a show for a RSL club. It wasn't a tribute band show or a one man comedy show, it was an illusion show on a grand scale! We are pretty sure the club didn't even relies the nature and size of this show. Long story short we bought the show in the night before thankfully! The venue backstage was a mess. In order to make room to house all the illusions we had to spend an hour cleaning up and making as much room back stage so as not to be a OH&S issue for our crew. Lots of big equipment, lots of dangerous illusions, lots of sharp corners and very little room backstage etc etc We were at the club from 6pm Thursday to 2:30am Friday morning setting up the show and designing the lighting with our fantastic light tech crew from Cherry Entertainment. http://cherryentertainment.net.au/ We only had around 4 hrs sleep that morning as we had to wake up bright and early and be at the venue by 9am for a full tech run of the show. Thankfully the illusions that were bought in the night before saved us almost 5 hrs of set up and planning. This is why it was so important to bump in the night before! The crew were fantastic to work with. Everyone knew what was expected of each other, they didn't ask questions, they just did what they needed to do. They acted and delivered! It was a full on day for everyone. There were no breaks. It was one after the other until the doors opened for show time. A very stressful moment as we were running behind schedule and to think the club wanted us to bump in during this day. Unknown to the audience, we had a few things that went wrong backstage. For starters one of our illusions that was meant to be in Act One which had our head illusion assistant Jessica Smithson seen being balanced on the tip of a sword had to be removed from the show as the danger factor was to high and we didnt feel it was ready for the audience to see it yet. So we had to fit in a replacement effect. One part of our ghost effect "Marie Anne", short circuited itself during the tech run. We had to think of a way to fix it or replace it with something else. Our illusion tech Hugh, took off to the hardware store to see what he could do but unfortunately we were running out of time and we had to come up with another solution...Unknown to the audience. It didnt effect the illusion as much but it would have been an even better outcome had it not "blown up". Other then that there was a few minor issues using the house video screens and a few light cues not going off at the right moment but nothing that cant be fixed for the next run. Shows of this nature people only always see the end result and only see the main "star" on stage. They dont see how much money, time, dedication and number of people it has taken to deliver a show like this. Being the performer, yes we do spend every second of the day perfecting what we need to do, after all its our vision thats getting played on stage, its our idea, its our years of dedication and hardship, we try to oversee almost everything before it happens, we write the script, we test the effects, we find the music, we try to create and improve ourselves but in my own personal opinion the crew are the real stars of the show. Its due to them that the show is able to be played on stage. They make us look good! Its the stage manager (Alison Marie) who is hiding behind the curtains with the headset on and the laptop open making sure every cue (100's of them), every action is getting hit on time, every person backstage is at there stations ready to act etc etc. Most cases trying to do a handful of things in one go. A very very stressful moment considering some cues have to be hit on the second. its not a job for someone who doesn't know how to work under pressure. Its the dancers (Jessica Smithson & April Twigger) who have spent hrs perfecting/rehearsing what they need to do. Choreographing the illusions, injuring themselves during rehearsals, bruising there body until they figure out the best way to move there body while inside of an illusion, knowing how to work the illusions, knowing the illusionist next move even though they could be inside of the illusions with no eye contact. Its a split second timing and it all falls down to trust and practice. They are the ones who really help the illusionist "sell" the story line for each effect. Its the stage hands Hugh Ager, Kieran Taylor, Brett Lee who assist in the transport of the illusions, set up, break down, bring each illusion on stage at the exact right moment when its needed. There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes. All these things are never seen. In some cases during the show as the curtains close as I am talking to the audience, they have just seconds backstage to remove one illusion, bring on the next one and vanish into the darkness before the curtains re open again. Its the sound and Light guys who have to think on there feet and make last minute changes if need be. These are the real stars of the show who deserve all the credit. Now that The Journey is played in the hills we are working on the next run from here. A tour, so keep your eyes open as we may be hitting your town in the new year with the possibly of making an appearance in L.A. early 2016 Follow the next Journey through www.facebook.com/magictobelieve Believe in yourself and you will achieve what others said cant be achieved. JD
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Andre the Mysterion aka Jack Daniels featured in the new 2015 Bingle Car Insurance TV commercial.
The shoot was an amazing experience. Even though not the first time appearing in a TV commercial, this shoot was different. The stuff/crew and the production team were a great bunch of people to work with. Lots of fun and lots of magic was shared. If you havnt seen it yet here it is. Enjoy. Bingle.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAVgGnwhMDs Its been some time since our last blog. All energy has been going onto The Journey show.
Contracts have been signed, venue all finalised, costumes all purchased, illusions still waiting on one to arrive from the states but its all coming along nicely. Our team/crew has grown from 2 people to about 15 people now. Feeling very blessed. The last handful of months have been nothing but rehearsals, art directions, music editing, photo shoots and script/cue writing. The dancers we have for this show are absolulty incredible and add an extra value to our team. Passionate, dedicated and hard working! Only 4 months to go now so its full steam ahead. Tickets and venue location will be announced within the coming weeks. Keep your eyes open. This show has been a show thats taken Jack Daniels almost 13years single handedly to put together. A show that no one believed in but Jack himself. Almost everything in the show is new material. New illusions, new theme, new music, new approach and off course new magic. August 28th is going to be a special day! With our official announcement of our 2015 The Magic of Jack Daniels - The Journey - An interactive experience illusion show that was made public last month, the 28th of August a lot has happened so far.
For the past 3 years we have been secretly working on this show. From day one we knew it should be called "The Journey" as its all about taking the audience into my journey. A journey that had began when I was 14 years of age till present. So being our first proper scale production in over 13 years there was no questions about what to call the show. That was the easy part. Then came the very difficult choice of deciding what illusions to add into the show. We have a total of 10 illusions in this show with each illusion costing anywhere from $2,000.00 to well over $6,000.00. Its a crazy total when you think about this: Each illusion although there will be many smaller pieces of illusions magic show in between throughout the show, but each grand illusion after spending so much time, money and energy will only be on stage for no longer then 3 minutes. The illusions had to fit the theme of the show. We didn't want to add just any illusion. Everything was thought of very carefully. Were the illusions going to suit our style of magic? Had they been seen by the public? Was it going to be easy to transport? Would we be able to pay for it and most importantly was it going to fit on the stage magician hire and in storage. Some of the many questions that had been asked over and over again. After almost a year of just deciding what illusions we would like to be in the show we finally came to an agreement and placed an order for the building to begin. Each illusion taking well over 4 months to complete and in most cases coming from overseas. Even though we built 2 of the smaller illusions ourselves to save costs, most of the big and new ones where professionally built. All but 2 illusions are still waiting on completion. One of them has taken no joke 3 years to build and still not finished yet. I wish I was exaggerating about the time frame of this one illusion but unfortunately that's the reality of it. When it arrives from the states this will be the last illusion to complete the series of illusions. This is what people dont understand about this line of work. Yes it does take that much time and money just for one illusion. Its not something you order and receive in a months time. There is so much to think about. The size of each illusion, the design, the art work on it, how to transport it, mock ups etc etc etc... With the illusions out of the way, next came the music for the show. Mind you we already had a list of possible music to use when we were deciding on what illusions to buy. This made things much easier as in most cases we already had the music ready and waiting for the illusion. Normally in some cases you would buy a magic effect or grand illusion and then you start to search for music. Since we were working off a brand new slate, it was much easier for us to have some idea of the music we would like and the final decision on what illusions to add came very easily. All we are doing now is editing the music slightly to fit the choreography of each illusion. This method has saved us a lot of time down the track as almost everything that you normally would do when talking about grand illusions we had already done during the building processes. Now that the illusions (all but 2) are here we can rehears without waiting. So we have the illusions, we have the music our next step was to choreograph. Once again most of this was thought of during the time of music searching. Music is a very powerful tool especially in my line of work. It can help tell a story, it can move you, its magic! My strongest side other then performing is my ear to music. I know what I'm going for and I know how I can use that to really touch and move my audience. I am a story teller after all... The choreography for the show is still happening as we speak. I wrote out the style, the look, the feel I'm going for and now with the help of our head assistant, dancer and part choreographer April Twigger (more on her in later blogs ;) ) Together we are creating something incredible for you all! The next step for the moment is costuming. Once again this has take so much time and energy. At this stage the show has about 8 costume changes mostly for our dancer with me having only 2-3 changes... Just like the illusions and music the costume has to fit in with what you are doing. Again this opens up so many questions as you see so many that you would love to add into the show/illusion but then you try and visualize everything in your mind. Is it going to be easy for the girl to get in and out of? Will it create a hazard while she is going in or out of an illusion? Does it fit the style of the illusion, the music... The list goes on and on. You have to see in your mind EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING before it even happens. This is what I love about my job! People look at it differently though as its not your usual 9-5 job, however most of the people in my industry or any entertainment industry for that matter work harder and longer then your everyday person. Most people come home after they finish work and that's it for them. They may get a few late night emails etc. Us on the other hand, we are working while you are sleeping, we are working while we are watching a movie, we are working while we are traveling to a destination, we are working while we are out with family... The mind never stops. NEVER STOPS! And I LOVE IT! As the saying goes "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it" With 11 months to go and lots of rehearsals under way we hope you enjoy THE JOURNEY! Below pic: Our production folder. Yes EVERY page is full! All this for a 1.5hr illusion show. Not including the script... Winning Lotto numbers foreseen in prediction It was a wonderful sunny day today at The Sutherland Shire Business Festival run by Platinum Exhibitions.
On the 23rd of August Jack Daniels tried his luck once more into predicting the future. His prediction involved the NSW state lottery. The prediction's were written after a dream Jack had. He wrote this prediction on a big piece of paper, sealed inside of an envelope and locked in a box within a second box. This box was put on public display from the 23rd of August to today the 31st of August 2014. Half way through his show today Jack selected 3 members of the audience at random by throwing an object into the audience with his back turned. The first audience member was asked to yell out some lottery numbers of their choice. The second member was asked to call out a figure they would like to win in the lottery and the third person was asked to name a holiday destination of their choice. These were written on a board for all to see. The director of Platinum Exhibition was invited to the stage to be witness as she had been asked on the 23rd of August to play a very important role while the prediction was made. Her role was to represent the audience and be witness on its behalf. She signed a security tag along with the date and current time. This was secured on the lock of the box to prevent Jack from tampering with it at a later stage. The Box which had been hanging high above the stage for the past 3 nights was lowered and opened up for the first time in over a week. Inside was a sealed envelope containing Jacks predictions. The predictions were read out and to the amazement of his audience it matched everything that was called out moments before. The lotto numbers called out by the first member, the winning jackpot amount, one of the volunteers names as well as the holiday destination that she had called out. However, Jack had gone one step further. As he revealed the predictions that were called out by the audience members he also mentioned that there was another series of numbers that was seen in his dream last week. He revealed the following numbers 24, 37, 44, 14, 2, 40, 33, and 18. These were the winning NSW State Lottery numbers from the draw the night before. Jack Daniels will be headlining this years Shire Business Festival along with Alex Gibson from The Voice, Kyal and Kara from channel 9's The Block along with many other wonderful talents.
On the 23rd of August at the Caringbah Home Centre, Jack Daniels wrote a prediction. The prediction has been sealed inside of an envelope, secured and locked inside of a box. The box (image below) is currently under lock and key at the Caringbah Home Centre. On Friday the 29th of August it will be removed from the centre and taken to its new location at Sutherland Basketball Stadium where it will be hanging from the stage till Sunday morning. On Sunday the 31st of August at 10:30am Jack Daniels will open the box for the very first time to see if his prediction he made on the 23rd of August is to come true. His first prediction results will air on channel 9 at approx 8:40pm Saturday night (30th of August 2014). The 2nd half to his prediction will occur on Sunday during his show. To witness the impossible and have a weekend of fun for the whole family be at Sutherland Basketball Stadium, Rawson Ave Sutherland. The free event starts Saturday with payed under the stars movie screening of Frozen $10 Adults $5 Infants, Children under 3 Free. Jacks performance and prediction reveal will be on the Sunday at 10:30am Will his predictions come true? Be there to find out... I woke up this morning to hear some terrible news. A passing away of an incredible lady.
A lady who I studied day and night in my early years of magic. A lady who even though I never got the chance to meet in person, I did have the pleasure of being able to communicate with her on a number of occasions through the web. She had assisted us and given me lots of information on choreography, Scripting etc. Joanie Spina was David Copperfield's Choreographer, Co-director and his lead magic assistant for a number of years. Her work included choreographing ten of David Copperfield's CBS television specials including his Broadway show Dreams and Nightmare. She had even contributed to David's "Water Levitation" and his signature "Flying" illusion. She had both liver and lung disease. Neither disease is treatable. She recently had moved from Las Vegas to Houston to be put on a transplant list. On August 4th she celebrated her 61st birthday. You will be forever missed Joanie. On the 11th of August 2014 we took our show to Dubbo, NSW to perform for the Royal Rehabilitation Center of Dubbo.
The early morning flight was very smooth. We left Sydney airport at around 8am and landed in Dubbo just before 9am. A very short flight that's for sure. At the airport we were greeted by 2 of the lovely staff from the rehab center who then drove us to the Dubbo RSL club. Guests and patients started to arrive by 10am as the show was to start at 10:30am. Some of the guests and patients had traveled more then 2hrs just to come and see us. The show played very well. There was lots of laughs, lots of magic and a wonderful audience to share our magic with. As the show finished at around 11am we took a break and had some lunch provided by the rsl club. We had some light entertainment by one of the patients from the center. A very, very funny young man who told us some jokes. I dont like jokes too much but the ones he pulled out were absolutely hilarious. I never had enjoyed hearing jokes like this before. An absolute legend of a guy! Got to have him as an opening act for our show one day... After lunch at around 12pm we started the Project Magic lecture and demonstration. For those who do not know what Project Magic is, its a program that uses magic for therapy where patients learn slight of hand magic to improve there dexterity, coordination etc etc. A conditioning tool that will assist them in order for them to do things by themselves in due time and help with there rehabilitation. You can find out more by visiting www.facebook.com/projectmagicaustralia and through www.projectmagic.org The talk run for around 20mins and finished off with a hands on experience for the patients and there carers. It was a very fun moment being able to share what I do as a living and to show them that magic is not only for entertainment but it can also be used to help someone who may need some magic in his or her life. By 3pm I had been dropped off back to the Dubbo airport to catch our flight back to Sydney. The flight back was very interesting. The plane for starters felt like a private jet which was very cool and we only had around 17people on board. 10mins into the flight the air hostess came up to me and wanted to know what I did for a living. After telling her I am an illusionist lets just say she wasn't surprised. Her words were "I had a feeling you were a magician by the way you looked" A nice thing to hear I guess :) You got to not only act the part but look the part as well and I do that very well. After all its why I was born, to be who I am today! So now that she knew for sure that I was a magician I was asked to perform some magic. Never in my life would I have ever thought that the day would come that I would perform some slight of hand magic while being in a plane. I guess I can add that to my list of things done in my life time now ;) Anyways the flight back was once again very fast. It was the shortest flight I had ever been on but it wore me out almost the same as an overseas flight. It was very strange. Overall our journey to Dubbo and meeting the team of the Rehab Center and all the lovely people there was all worth it. Made some wonderful friends and I hope I put some magic into their lives. For the past 5 months we had been working on one of the most dangerous and "cursed" stunt in all of magic history.
An effect that had been last seen in Australia in the 1950's. Forget about being buried alive, thrown into a river or hanged upside down. The Bullet Catch has claimed the lives of at least 15 magicians and the best illusionist. The traditional effect is to have a bullet placed into a gun, the magician walks a good few feet away and faces the shooter with his mouth open. The shooter shoots right at the magician and the magician tries to catch the bullet in his teeth. Well that's the idea anyway. Our method we had lifted the risk factor to a new degree. The stunt used a real gun, a real bullet, a live audience and a number of other add on we placed that made the stunt even more dangerous. I'm not willing to discus our variations we had added for obvious reasons. Unfortunately after months of phone calls, emails, meetings and research we wont be able to present this stunt as it breaks all Gun Laws within Australia. Might need to travel overseas for this one one day but rest assured it will happen! Last night we were at Katoomba for The Winter Magic Festival. What an experience it was. A long drive but well worth it. The audience was incredible and the turn out was insane! Over 40,000 people attended. At 6:30pm from the balcony of The Carrington we performed a small illusion for the 2,000 plus people watching from below. Was a thrill to be standing on a platform that was higher then the balcony railings and looking down. So close to the edge but we still managed to partially float an object over the railings above the audiences heads. This was followed by a wonderful drum band followed by fire works from above The Carrington roof tops. Our second show was for a private event in The Grand Dinning Room of The Carrington. It was a Harry Potter theme. About 200 people had bought tickets (mostly guests staying at the hotel) It was like walking onto the movie set of Harry Potter. A room full of "wizards" but only one Jack Daniels ;) The audience once again were blown away and highly enjoyed the show. It was a very energetic room! Thanks once again to The Carrington and Katoomba for having us. |
JACK DANIELSAustralia's Premier Illusionist
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