Week 1

Wow, what a week. My dad reminded me today that it's Wednesday. I feel like I have been home for 6 months, not 8 days.

In my last blog entry, I totally spaced on something awesome. I performed magic on the radio a couple weeks ago! The Tom and Emily Morning Show on 95.1 WIIL Rock plays daily, and every month or so they bring on an "expert" in some field and do "Ask the Expert." I was brought on as the expert magician!

I performed two tricks while there. The first one was moving cards from Tom (the main personality's) pocket to Duco's pocket (the comic relief). Oh, and I did it without touching anybody. It's a classic magic plot called Cards Across.

The second trick was the one that was filmed. I gave Tom a deck of cards, and told him that before I entered the studio, I turned one card backwards. It would be the only one face down. Tom then had a caller call in and name ANY card they wanted. It was a perfect match. Here's the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQIqBK9rl0

This week has been a challenge for me because I decided to try the Dr. Oz Three-Day Detox. Woof. Yay for my blender. I had four drinks a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack shake (repeating one of the other drinks) consisting of things like kale, spinach, cucumber, raspberry, blueberry, crushed pepper, coconut water, almond milk, etc... They weren't that bad tasting. I'm a texture guy though. *shivers* 'nuff said.

Last night, my friend Joe Diamond performed his first EVER magic lecture for my club, the ACEs Magic Club. If I may say, it absolutely rocked. I was thrilled as a booker, impressed as a magician, and proud as a friend. Great Job Joe!

I feel as though this entry on my blog is a bit scattered, but that is where my brain is at the moment. I have a lot of things in the works, and a lot on my mind.

On that note, I will leave you with a quote from my friend Bizzaro the Optical Illusionist: Normal is just a setting on the dryer.

Until next time
-Bill

New Year, New Goals

Greetings friends, and a Happy New Year!  I would be remiss if I didn't say it.  We're five days in to the new year, and people are still saying it, so hey, if the shoe fits....

With a new year comes New Year's Resolutions...  Everybody makes them whether they want to admit it or not.  New year resolutions usually amount to nothing, yet we annually make promises to ourselves that we can't keep.  This year, set a goal and work towards it.  I have 6 on my list this year.  I will make a bigger online footprint (hence why I'm on my Blog now...), I will create new How Magicians Solve Problems (www.youtube.com/magicbill), I will get back to publishing a monthly newsletter to compliment my weekly blog, I will have another one man show in the Northern suburbs of Chicago within the first quarter of the year, I will finally beat Donkey Kong 64, and I will continue my weight-loss journey.  The last one is a big one for most people.  Everyone wants to lose weight and "look better."  I've been at this for a year already, so I'm kind of invested.  I'm anxious to get back to my home gym and not be able to park for two weeks though.... Come Feb. 1st, the "New Year's Resolutioners" will all be gone, and it'll be back to business as usual.

I just got off of a week-long cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess, the biggest ship in the Princess Cruise Line.  Ho-Lee-Cow... This thing was HUGE.  18 decks of fun-in-the-sun and gluttony.  My goodness... I had a constant fight with my inner voice who is apparently malnourished.  All he wanted to do was eat and eat, and I kept reminding him that we're working hard to lose the spare tire.  I'm proud to say that I lost 1 lb. this trip. How do I know? ... I checked the scale.  :-)

So, I think this ship is big, right?  Yeah... We pulled into port and saw the Oasis of the Seas, the largest ship in the Royal Caribbean Fleet.  Oh yeah, and it's the largest cruise ship in the world.  Suddenly our little dingy didn't compare.  Our ship held 3,041 passengers.  Oasis holds 6,000.  Yeah.  That's a bit of a difference.  Imagine feeling tall, then standing next to Shaquille O'Neil.  You're suddenly not very tall.

Long story short, it was a fantastic voyage, made lots and LOTS of new friends, and have memories that will last a lifetime.  I thoroughly enjoyed ringing in the new year once again with my parents, and our friends.

I would like to eventually work on a cruise ship... Is that worthy of a New Year's Resolution?

Here's a fun little bit of information:  I was listed in the Daily Herald Newspaper as a 2012 Suburban Standout!  I was profiled earlier in 2012 in the paper (Here's the Link to the first Article), and here's a link to the new article: Suburban Standouts.  I'm the first "Standout."  Awesome.

If I keep going, people are gonna get turned off by the daunting amount of words, so I'll call it quits for now.  Talk to you next week!

-Bill


ps - Check out my Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Channel:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/billcookmagic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/billcookmagic
YouTube: www.youtube.com/magicbill

Obvious to you, Amazing to others

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, but I was looking for something worthwhile to share.  I have been a fan of Derek Sivers for a while now.  Derek is an entrepreneur who in 1998 created CD Baby, the worlds largest Indie Music Store.  Derek is a frequent speaker at the TED conference, and is one HECK of an incredible speaker.

Enjoy his words of wisdom:

Any creator of anything knows this feeling:

You experience someone else's innovative work. It's beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You're stunned.

Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect.

You think, “I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It's genius!”  Afterwards, you think, “My ideas are so obvious. I'll never be as inventive as that.”  I get this feeling often. Amazing books, music, movies, or even amazing conversations. I'm in awe at how the creator thinks like that. I'm humbled.  But I continue to do my work. I tell my little tales. I share my point of view. Nothing spectacular. Just my ordinary thoughts.

One day someone emailed me and said, “I never would have thought of that. How did you even come up with that? It's genius!”  Of course I disagreed, and explained why it was nothing special.  But afterwards, I realized something surprisingly profound:  Everybody's ideas seem obvious to them.

I'll bet even John Coltrane or Richard Feynman felt that everything they were playing or saying was pretty obvious.

So maybe what's obvious to me is amazing to someone else?

Hit songwriters, in interviews, often admit that their most successful hit song was one they thought was just stupid, even not worth recording.

We're clearly a bad judge of our own creations. We should just put it out and let the world decide.

Are you holding back something that seems too obvious to share?

-Derek Sivers

http://sivers.org/

I hope this has inspired you to give yourself permission to look at your ideas, and know they're great.

-Bill

Competition and being Competent

My father instilled in me that competition is for the competent.  It brings out the best, and it gives you a goal to work towards.  Sure competition sometimes causes heartaches, and sure, sometimes competitions cause you to hold grudges against people who beat you.  I know someone who still holds a grudge after he lost a competition 30+ years ago by a tenth of a point.  But none the less, competition forces you to want to do your best.  Is there anything wrong with wanting the best?  No.  The problem arises when you enter into the competition for the wrong reason.  You should never enter into a competition to win.  Entering a competition with the expectation that you WILL win only leads to the above mentioned heartaches and grudges.

Entering competitions have been some of the greatest experiences and hardest heartbreaks of my life.  I enter competitions because I get a rush out of competing.  The risk vs. reward is practically zilch:  I have worked hard at something I enjoy, thusly I'm better at it regardless of winning or losing.  For me, preparing for the competition makes me better.  The competition is then the icing on the cake.  I have won already, just by doing.  Make sense?  No?  Ok... I'll give you a quick scenario.

In 2009, I entered into the World Magic Seminar Teen Stage competition.  I wound up winning Second Place, behind the extremely talented Hiroki Hara.  Second place isn't a win, right?  Wrong.  In the process of preparing for the competition, I developed the CD and iPod Manipulation act that I still perform regularly, most recently at the Magic Castle in Hollywood California.  I was given tips from professional magicians from around the world at the WMS after my performances, and thanks to their tips, my act has gotten better by miles.  I've been invited to perform at Magic Conventions, and at well respected magic venues throughout the country.  Then, to top it all off, the director and producer of Make Believe liked my act and my story enough to want it featured in their award-winning documentary.  If you've made it this far, read back... Does second place really sound so bad?  No.  I won by doing what I love.

Competition truly does bring out the competent, but it also makes you be the best you that you can be.  One more thought my dad shared with me:  "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life."

Thanks Dad.  Love ya!

Which came first, the music or the magic?

I love this question.  If you've ever seen my manipulation act, it's a very music driven manipulation act where I manipulate CDs and iPods.  I make them multiply, vanish, appear, and explode.  I'll drop the link at the end of the article in case you want to watch it.  That act started as magic, then I found music that fit the magic moments.  Magic, then music.

In 2007, I went to the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas, and I asked this exact question to Jeff McBride.  I asked him "Jeff, when it comes to making original magic routines, do you start with music, or do you start with a magic effect."  Jeff replied with three words that changed my life:  "It all depends."  My initial thought was "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?!?"  How can it depend?  Depend on what??  I was more confused than when I had asked the question.  So, I let it sink in, and didn't think about it for a long while.  

Let's fast forward to March of 2011.  My girlfriend at the time had told me that we needed a break.  I was, needless to say, down in the dumps.  A friend of mine at school, Steve Tuplin, says to me "hey, have you ever heard the Joshua Radin version of Sesame Street?  I listen to it any time I'm having a bad day, and it makes me feel better."  After a brief YouTube search, I found the Scrubs episode where it was featured.  Instantly, I knew that I needed to create a magic trick around it.  That was the "AHA!" moment.  For years now, I have created magic effects, and then scoured through my music libraries (yes, plural) looking for music that would work perfectly.  For the first time, however, I had found a song that spoke to me.  It said "you need to use me, and I will be wonderful."  

Fast forward again to September 7, 2011.  For the first time, I performed what I lovingly call "The Balloon" at Magic Chicago.  (For those of you in the know, it's Tony Clark's Gypsy Balloon, but now I'm just getting technical...)  I wrote an original script, and I had recorded my own version of Sesame Street in the style of Joshua Radin.  In the end, three audience members were in tears.  I had created something beautiful that brought members of the audience to tears.  Music, then magic.

Looking back, I have learned to understand what Jeff had simply put to me.  It truly does depend.  In 2007, I wasn't prepared to know what he was saying, but four years later, I can look back and realize two things. I realized that Jeff was, and still is a genius, and I was naive.   With time comes knowledge, and although the knowledge was imparted onto me in 2007, I wasn't prepared for it then.   

Go with what your gut tells you about your magic.  If you find that a linking rings routine done to a Yiddish techno beat strikes your fancy, do it.  If you find that Oops I did it again works with your five-card-repeat, use it.  An original twist on a classic plot makes the magic your own.  Do what feels right.

Oh yeah, Here's the link to my act.  Enjoy!

Bill Koch's Award Winning CD Manipulation Act

Milwaukee Film Festival

What a weekend... I was privileged to be invited up to Milwaukee to take part in a weekend of screenings of Make Believe for the Milwaukee Film Festival.  MB is up for another audience award, so if you go to see it, make sure to vote for it :-).

The people that worked the Milwaukee Festival are incredible.  Every person treated Derek, Krystyn, and I like we were Kings (or Queen).  We were chauffeured to the theaters, and were put up in a gorgeous hotel.  The first night, we were in a suburb of Milwaukee, at the Marcus North Shore Cinema.  It was a fantastic turnout of about 350 people.  Sunday, the movie was screened in the Milwaukee Oriental Theater.  Talk about gorgeous!  The room had 1,100 seats, and an organ.  The art was incredible, the screen was huge, the sound system was fantastic... All in all, I liked the Oriental Theater.

I was caught in a candid moment during my "6 months later" bit.  One of the festival workers noticed that I was standing in a perfect spot, and snapped a great picture.

I can't thank the festival workers enough for their hard work, and I can't thank the people of Milwaukee who came out to support Make Believe.  It means the world to all of us involved that you came out to see it, and we hope sincerely that you loved it as much as we do.

Until next time-
-Bill



ps - This is for you Kelly:  If at first you don't succeed, Skydiving is not for you...

Square One

Hello, my name is Bill Cook, and I am a Magician.  That is one of the hardest sentences for me to write because up until today, that's not who I was.  If you're reading this, it's most likely because of my post on Facebook or Twitter.  If we're friends on there, then we probably know one another.  If so, you know that I don't spell my last name Cook.  This is going to be an ongoing change that won't happen immediately, but I hope the change will go without severe turbulence.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to new things.  This coming weekend, I'll be in Milwaukee Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Film Festival for another pair of screenings of Make Believe.  It's going to be a reunion again for me because Derek McKee and Krystyn Lambert will be there as well.  I'm excited to hang out with them again, and I know shenanigans will once again ensue.

I'll have more to say later, but until then, keep smiling!