Tom Gaddis Teaches Ron Bauer LIVE

G A D D I S
T OM TEACHES
The
Ron Bauer
Private Studies
Series
Written by Ron Bauer
REVISED EDITION ▪ The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture
DO YOU HAVE AN ACT?

Most magicians don’t.
Occasionally we do a trick for friends or family. Maybe
once a year we work up a couple of tricks for the annual
magic club show. Maybe we reserve our trickery for
other magicians at the magic shop or club. All of these
efforts rarely lead to money in.
Money out, however, is to be expected because, by and
large we spend our magic lives looking for “what’s new”
and supporting dealers and “name magicians” by buying
their books and DVDs and tricks, and going to their lec-
tures.
There are a few exceptions in every town, each of
whom is invariably known to the public as “a magician.”
And that’s how too many of us are remembered, e.g.,
“there was a magician at the kids’ party.”
An ACT in the true theatrical sense makes it more likely
your audiences will remember you instead of the tricks.
It also means you’ve got a better chance to make a few
more bucks than just “a magician.”
An ACT isn’t a SHOW which can run more than an hour.
In fact, it takes considerable talent and very special mate-
rial for one person to successfully entertain an audience
for that length of time. An ACT, on the other hand, is
less demanding on theatrical training and experience.
It’s a relatively SHORT performance, anywhere from
twelve to twenty minutes. And, it’s most likely to be de-
signed to fit into part of a varied program, show, or
event.
An efficient way to devise an ACT is by building it on a
FORMAT, which is a structure used in television and
theater to organize various types of performances, e.g.,
sitcom, children, cop, documentary, reality, western,
Page 1
Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

Copyright © 2008, 2009 by Ron Bauer
All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means prohibited.
Ron Bauer Private Studies
game, news, etc. These are all general but recogniz-

able configurations. They’ve each got familiar elements
to fit the subject to be covered.
BACKGROUND
In the late seventies, for several months, I worked as
producer-writer on the syndicated Bozo the Clown TV
series pumping out six shows per week. After each
Saturday wrap, I usually stopped by the local magic
shop to look for any good possibilities for next week’s
half dozen.
On one visit, the magician who worked there told me
he had the opportunity to do a family show for several
hundred dollars, but didn’t really have an act. I had
seen him demonstrating various tricks to customers
over the years, and he was very entertaining, so it oc-
curred to me: Why not make several of those into an
act? All that was needed was a way to tie a few of
these unrelated props and stunts together, and come
up with some intriguing production values without
spending all of his profits.
As I pondered, I noticed an item in a showcase called
“Hats and Hares.” This is sort of a Cups and Balls with
sponge bunnies and little top hats that nest. Those little
black hats were the key. The names of the tricks could
be written on slips of paper, then drawn from the hat by
the audience. They would choose their own magic
show! But, let’s make this BIG. Let’s let them choose
from all the tricks in the magic shop... and bring them
to the party in a BIG BAG.
This is the fantasy, of course. But, it could be sold with
the right PERFORMANCE SCRIPT.
Page 2

FORMAT
Years ago, I developed a simple, but versatile FORMAT
that I’ve used to devise and produce several hundred per-
formances ranging from magic acts to television shows.
You can use it to put together an ACT that is complete
from start to finish, and can be assembled with tricks you
already have.
1. OPENING
2. ESTABLISH THE CONTINUITY
3. TRICK #1
4. TRANSITION
5. TRICK #2
6. TRANSITION
7. TRICK # 3
8. CLOSING
You can, with some thought and experimentation, use
this FORMAT to tie together an ACT of unrelated tricks to
fit almost any type of audience. Once you establish the
PREMISE, apply it to this structure to build a PLOT
OUTLINE, and onward to your PERFORMANCE SCRIPT.
FORMAT Î PREMISE Î PLOT OUTLINE Î

PERFORMANCE SCRIPT
Page 3

THE BIG BAG OF TRICKS & THE LITTLE BLACK HAT

by Ron Bauer
© 2008, 2009 Ron Bauer
PREMISE... What if I could put ALL of my tricks into a
BIG BAG, and have the audience choose its own show?
Begin your PLOT OUTLINE with the UNITY elements,
i.e., OPENING, TRANSITIONS, and CLOSING.
OPENING
Getting the ACT off to a good start is your reason for using
an OPENER. You use the OPENER to POLARIZE, i.e.,
establish the relationship that you’re the performer, and
everyone else is the audience.
The INTRODUCTION and WARM-UP usually works best
with some relatable visuals. In our case, the imaginative
props, i.e., the BIG BAG and a LITTLE BLACK HAT.
Enter and place the grocery bag with the STORE LOGO
IMPRINT toward the audience onto the table.
“As you can see, folks, I brought my whole bag of
tricks with me… Oops!”
Notice that the name of the wrong side of the bag is
showing...
“(sheepishly) I have it turned the wrong way...”
Rotate the bag to reveal your name and “claim to fame.”
“Anyway, I couldn’t make up my mind what kind of a
show to do for a group like you… I know you deserve the
BEST... So, I put ALL of my tricks into this BIG BAG!”
Remove the LITTLE BLACK HAT from the bag.
“And, I’ve written the names of EVERY ONE OF MY
MAGIC TRICKS — which are ALL in this BAG — on
slips of paper... and STUFFED them into this LITTLE
HAT...”
Point out the slips in the LITTLE BLACK HAT.
Page 4

ESTABLISH THE CONTINUITY

“YOU, the audience, will determine what this magic
show will be. Then it can’t ALL be BLAMED ON ME.”
Remove and replace a few of the slips from the LITTLE
BLACK HAT.
“Here’s how it works. You pick a slip... I’ll do THAT
TRICK! This is going to be fun for me, because I don’t
know WHAT this show will be like until I see what you
pick! For example, the show could go like this...”
Select a slip, open it, and (ignoring what’s actually there)
read...
“THE DISAPPEARING ELEPHANT TRICK! ...followed
by...”
Pick another. Pretend to read...
“THE UPSIDE-DOWN STRAIGHT JACKET ESCAPE
TRICK! ...and, finally...”
Pick a third. Pretend to read...
“THE TORN AND RESTORED TEENAGER! Wow! I’d
like to see a magic show like THAT myself! However,
you didn’t pick THESE, did you?”
Discard the three slips into the bag.
“So, let’s see what REMARKABLE MYSTERY opens
OUR show...”
TRANSITION
Offer someone in the audience a choice of one of the slips
from the LITTLE BLACK HAT. When one is selected...
“Read what it says... THE CARD TRICK? (PAUSE) Oh,
I know THAT one...”
This let-down invariably gets a big laugh. Ignore the reaction,
and get the needed props from the BIG BAG.
Page 5

Since a CARD TRICK usually results in the biggest disappoint-

ment after the buildup, I recommend using it. But, you can
choose something else if you think the contrast is passable.
Each of the tricks should have a descriptive, but simple
name. Some examples are...
▪ THE CARD TRICK ▪ THE BALL TRICK
▪ THE ROPE TRICK ▪ THE HANKY TRICK
▪ THE MONEY TRICK ▪ THE BOX TRICK
▪ THE BALLOON TRICK ▪ THE MILK TRICK
▪ THE RINGS TRICK ▪ THE FLAG TRICK
▪ THE STICK TRICK
▪ THE SNEEZE TRICK (uses TISH-OOH paper)
etc...
CLOSING
NOTE: Each time you finish with a hat, drop it back

into the bag. For the banner, reach into the bag, grab
and dump the slips from one of the hats, grab the
folded “batch,” and drop it into the empty hat. When
you remove this hat from the bag, it will look full of
folded slips!
“I’m going to make the last pick of this show myself.

But, I’m not picking just ONE SLIP...”
Grab all of the remaining slips in a batch.
“See? I’m picking ALL of them... and COMPRESSING
them into ONE WITH TWO... ONE SLIP WITH TWO
IMPORTANT WORDS...”
Transform the batch into a BANNER which says...
“THANK YOU... for being such a nice audience!”
This ending leaves the audience both surprised and
mystified. (If you’re a magician, you must FOOL ‘EM in
order to ENTERTAIN ‘EM!)
Page 6

WHAT TRICKS?
PLOT is the specific sequence of all of the events, includ-
ing opening, transitions, and closing, that make up an
ACT. To OUTLINE the PLOT, choose three or four tricks
to plug into the FORMAT.
Carefully go through your PLOT OUTLINE to be sure
each choice has been guided by your PREMISE.
First TIP: The PREMISE is whimsical; so should be
the CHARACTER you present to your audience.
Second TIP: Audience participation is built into the
TRANSITIONS, but it’s a good idea to include as many
participation tricks as you can fit into the ACT whenever
possible.
Third TIP: The entire ACT is about interaction.
Ostensibly the audience controls and you react! This
tends to encourage and sustain interest as well as stir up
some sense of suspense, i.e., what will come next?
I used this FORMAT to tie some David Ginn marketed tricks
into a complete act that I published in M-U-M Magazine,
October, 1981 featuring his work. It’s also reprinted in the
first edition of these lecture notes, and on my web site
(www.thinklikeaconjurer.com) as a PDF. You can try out
this FORMAT by acquiring and learning the tricks in the
David Ginn Version. Experience has shown me that the
stuff is pretty solid. Or, use the FORMAT to help you
substitute other items. A wide variety of tricks will work.
There are some limits, of course, mostly due to the size of
the bag. (Yes, I know you could use a BIGGER bag.)
The point is that thanks to the FORMAT it’s easy to arrange
several unrelated magic tricks into a professional looking
ACT without the investment of time and money that’s
required for a high production values show. No special
writing and producing skills are required.
Page 7

If you intend to produce and star in this mini-blockbuster,

your success is only limited by how you INTERPRET the
material. INTERPRETATION is the way in which an artis-
tic work is performed in order to convey a specific under-
standing of the work. It’s about ACTING...
MAGICIANS AS ACTORS
(From #18 Xerox Money, page 19)
Many magicians don’t know how “acting” works. They
think it’s something hard to do. In reality, acting is simply
pretending, something we’ve all done as children, and still
do as adults. We just don’t care to admit it.
The pretending done by an actor, however, is actually
easier because of certain devices (techniques) acquired
through study and training, and the support of writers,
directors, technicians, and other actors. Did you ever
think about the fact that actors are honored for their crea-
tivity, but rarely write the script?
Think about it. If actors don’t create the media, the vehicles,
or the lines, why are they renowned for artistic creativity?
What are they creating?
The SUBTEXT. (See #2 Sudden Death Gypsy Curse,
page 3.) An actor studies an acting job, first searching for
ways to convey the ideas in the piece, and, second, to do
so in a way that makes the audience believe, at least dur-
ing the performance, that his actions and emotions are
real. These are then presented to the audience through
SUBTEXT rather than through the TEXT of the script.
SUBTEXT is mostly revealed through body language,
pantomime, and inflection.
The subject of SUBTEXT is too complex to cover in just
one monograph, so I’ve included various references and
tips throughout the Series. Why, here’s one now...
Even if you lack training as an actor, you can effectively and
painlessly communicate the SUBTEXT. Instead of trying to
Page 8

ACT when the need arises, REACT. Study the situations

and plot reversals in these monographs, then REACT to
them. Don’t anticipate them. Wait until they occur in the pres-
entation, then REACT. You might be happily surprised with
your newly discovered “talent.”
LET’S PRETEND!
(From #14 Four Squares & a Knot, page 8)
“Okay. Let’s play cops and robbers. I’ll be the cop, and
you be the robber trying to get away.”
“KRCHHOW (sound of gunfire made with mouth)! You’re
dead!”
“Hey! Wait! That’s not fair! I’m the good guy. I’m s’posed
to win!”
“Okay. I’ll be the cop, and you be the robber.”
“Okay!”
“KRCHHOW (sound of gunfire with mouth)! You’re dead!”
Somebody’s happy; somebody’s mad. Nobody died. No-
body really had a gun. Neither was there a real cop or a
real robber. But, there were emotions. Where did they
come from? Generating emotions this way is an age-old
interaction that’s the basis for the phenomena of theater,
literature, and art. The poet, Samuel Taylor Colerige,
called it “The willing suspension of disbelief.” In more
modern times, it has been called “getting into it.” Most
commonly, though, it’s simply PRETENDING.
Now let’s look at a familiar situation. You say, “I’m a conjurer.”
Someone says, “What’s that?”
“A magician.”
“Oh,” they say (we hope), “let’s see a trick.”
Then it’s time for the audience and you to pretend you’re
a magician. If the illusion is good enough (most audi-
ences can be very forgiving), there’s a willing suspension
Page 9

of disbelief. They get into it. They don’t believe they’re

seeing real magic. But, they can pretend you’re a magician
when the illusions look real or the tricks you pull on them
are fun.
PERFORMANCE SCRIPT
I often hear the amateurish assertion, “I don’t like using
other people’s routines!”
Well, unless you’re a master mimic, it’s almost impossible
to do things exactly as someone else. There will always
be differences. And, if you have stayed true to your own
CHARACTER and STYLE as you followed the develop-
ment of an ACT from the FORMAT, you’ll be well on the
way to having your own fresh approach to your magic.
Don’t attempt to write your PERFORMANCE SCRIPT,
though, until you’ve carefully analyzed each of the events
(opening, transitions, the tricks, and the ending) to see
that your PLOT works on every level. Then you’ll be de-
lighted to discover it will almost write itself!
HOW TO MAKE THE BIG BAG

The illustrations tell most of the story. You need two large
grocery bags, one of which you decorate.
The outer BAG should have a prominent grocery chain
logo on one side. The other side should display a fanciful
version of your name, e.g., “The GRATE TOM.” It should
“look” amateurish, but not be that way. Often you’ll be
better off having a professional do the work on some art
paper, then attaching it to the bag.
The THREE hats I use are 2 inches high, and 4 inches
across the brim. But, you can find several sizes of little
black hats at hobby and stores such as Michael’s. One
can be nested inside another for support, and to conserve
space. (Fig. 1)
The inner bag also needs some preparation. First, rein-
force its bottom with a piece of cardboard cut to fit. (Fig.2)
Page 10

Then make a hat compartment out of poster board.

Cut, fold, and glue (or use Velcro) it about an inch or so
below the top of the inner bag in one corner.
Fit the inner bag inside the outer bag, and you’re good to go.
HOW TO MAKE THE SLIPS

The slips are 2.5” X 4.25.” You need eight or more slips
for each of the tricks. (Fig. 3) For example, print THE
CARD TRICK on each of one set of slips. Fold each slip
in half twice. Put one set of slips into one of the little black
hats. You’ll need one hat for each of the tricks. The audi-
ence thinks there’s only one hat. Actually, you’re ex-
changing hats inside the bag between presentations.
(Note: In the first part of the ACT, you select three slips
and read them to the audience. The truth is, you pick any
three slips and PRETEND to read them.)
Transforming a batch of slips into the “Thank You” sign is
also shown in the illustrations. (Fig. 4) Need I mention
that you should use the same type of paper as the slips?
(I’ve caught several magicians on this transformation be-
cause they couldn’t figure where I disposed of the folded
slips. There weren’t any!)
The transformation is made by grasping the corner of
panel A with your right fingers, corner B with your left fingers,
and pulling both hands apart. Try it in front of a mirror to get
the whole effect.
You can customize the final message, e.g., “Happy Birthday,
Tommy!” or any other appropriate comment.
Nest the hats with trick number one slips in the top one,
number two in the next, number three in the bottom one.
Put the nest into the compartment.
Paper clip the “batch” to the compartment in such a way
that you can easily grab it when needed.
Page 11

You’ll be surprised how many props will fit inside. After

all, you really need only three or four tricks!
FINALLY...
Alternative PREMISES for this FORMAT are possible
with a customized “Stamp Album” or “Coloring
Book” type of device...
SCRAPBOOK
You flip through pages to show a variety of famous
magic tricks or past performances. Spectators
choose by saying stop as you flip the pages. You
can use one book for each trick. Or, make one book
force one of three or four items.
MAGIC TRICKS CATALOG

You flip through pages to show dozens of tricks
from a magic shop. Spectators choose by saying
stop as you flip the pages. With several force books
(codes on covers), several tricks can be presented.
Or, make one book force one of three or four items.
Special versions of a scrapbook or catalog can be con-

structed to unfold into a large display for a big visual payoff.
Sid Lorraine has a design in his Lecture Notes called
“Crosswalk Poster” which can be adapted to an unfolding
book that reveals artwork similar to the cartoon carnival
photo boards that fit beneath one’s head. Use your imagi-
nation! As you’ve seen, switching one for another with the
BIG BAG is easy enough. Simply put one into the bag,
and take the other out!
Page 12

Page 13

The
Ron Bauer
Private Studies Series
1. Gadabout Coins Revisited 14. Four Squares and a Knot
2. Sudden Death Gypsy 15. The Siamese
Curse Goose Egg Bag
3. Tony Chaudhuri’s 16. Ed Marlo’s
Feminine Side Time Machine
4. Butch, Ringo, and 17. Second Finger Top Deal
the Sheep 18. Xerox Money
5. Hornswoggled Again! 19. Milt Kort’s All Out’s
6. Owed to Poker Dan Think-of-a-Card
7. Dixie! 20. That’s the Spirit!
8. The Cursed Ring 21. Brother Hamman’s
9. Fair and Sloppy Final(ly) Aces
10. Charlie Miller’s 22. Jim Bergstrom’s
Left-Handed Hank Hat Trick
11. The Mechanical Deck 23. Bob Longe’s
12. Paul Chosse’s Bar Worn Out Deck
Bill Stunt 24. Don Alan’s Sneaky Nudist
13. Senator Crandall’s Rides Again
Cut-Up Card Trick
Produced by
Purchase
The Ron Bauer Private Studies Series
at Penguin Magic

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G A D D I S

DO YOU HAVE AN ACT?

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

game, news, etc. These are all general but recogniz-

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

FORMAT Î PREMISE Î PLOT OUTLINE Î

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

THE BIG BAG OF TRICKS & THE LITTLE BLACK HAT

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

ESTABLISH THE CONTINUITY

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

Since a CARD TRICK usually results in the biggest disappoint-

NOTE: Each time you finish with a hat, drop it back

“I’m going to make the last pick of this show myself.

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

If you intend to produce and star in this mini-blockbuster,

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

ACT when the need arises, REACT. Study the situations

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

of disbelief. They get into it. They don’t believe they’re

HOW TO MAKE THE BIG BAG

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

Then make a hat compartment out of poster board.

HOW TO MAKE THE SLIPS

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

You’ll be surprised how many props will fit inside. After

MAGIC TRICKS CATALOG

Special versions of a scrapbook or catalog can be con-

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

Excerpted from The Ron Bauer 2008 Lecture—Revised Edition

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