Derek Raposo

Mother Nature and her sense of humor

derekraposo — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:06:31 +0000

Hi everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. With the holidays and everything else going on left little time for me to post something.

We recently did the holiday party for Nutter McClennen & Fish, LLP. The show was supposed to be on December 13th but mother nature decided to dump a whole lot of snow on New England. The show was cancelled and rescheduled for Dec. 20th. Of course there were some issues with schedules etc but we made it through Thanks to Eileen for helping me out on Wednesday night! We were able to get into the space to setup the curtains and most of the illusions on Wednesday which helped out so much. Jessica and Aaron both drove into Boston in another snow storm that we were blessed with that night. Jessica made really good time coming from Foxwoods where she had another gig. The show itself ran extremely smoothe and without any issues. We received GREAT reviews on the show and we had a great time. Thanks to Paul who was a great sport and was very funny during the head chopper bit. We packed up and were out of there by 10:30pm.

The holidays were wonderful! I bought myself a little gift this year. After many hours of research and playing with different options i bought myself an iPhone.I had a Treo and had nothing but problems with it. I love it! Not having to reboot your phone twice a day is making me very happy.

I hope everyone is having and had a great holiday season.

Until next time…

Julia’s Birthday and Getting ready for the Elks

derekraposo — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:00:54 +0000

Hi Everyone.

On December 2nd I got to perform for some of my family members at my niece’s 1st birthday party. I haven’t done a birthday party in years! It was a nice change of pace to only travel with a few suit cases rather than a truck full of the shows ATA cases. It was great to do a show for family members and friends that have never seen me do any type of magic (about 100 of them). Some of the hardest shows to do for me are for magicians, family members and close friends. Put me on stage in front of strangers and I am ready to go but in front of the other group…… a bit harder. The show went great and everyone had a great time. Thanks to Chris (my older brother) for helping me out. He had no idea that his neck would be on the line in front of his family and friends .

This coming Sunday I will be at the Elks Club in Woburn, MA. A group of magicians will be doing some magic for their annual holiday party. This will be my second year performing with this group for the Elks. Looking forward to it.

All of DVDs have been printed and packed up. They all arrived on time this morning which made this magician very happy.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Until next time….

DVD, Shows and Fun… oh my.

derekraposo — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:00:05 +0000

Hi Everyone. Finally found some time to post an entry. Things have been a bit on the hectic side! I think i can speak for Jessica and myself that we feel like Dorothy on the way to OZ.

The promo DVD arrived in the mail last week. I am extremely happy on how it came out. We just sent in the master copy of the dvd to have the duplicated and printed. Thanks again to the talented Tony for helping out. Our store also opened last week. The new calendar for 2008 has been posted along with some other new products. if there is something you don’t see and would like don’t hesitate to send me an email.

Last week it was announced to the firm Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP that we will be performing for their holiday party. Their theme this year is The Magic of The Season. We have planned out a great show for them and we are sure they will enjoy the audience participation part of the show.

The SAM104 convention was great! The lectures and dealers were top notch this year. The lecturers were Jay Scott Barry, Boris Wild, Chris Mitchell and Joshua Jay. Jay Scott Barry and Boris Wild blew me away! I was able to see Boris Wild lecture on Wednesday night at Diamonds Magic. His three card monte and very wild are both effects you have to see… real magic.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving! Be careful not to make too much food disappear! Until next time…

New Site Posted

derekraposo — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:06:53 +0000

Hi Everyone. As you can probably see the new website has been posted. What do you think? I hope you like it! There will be some things added and changed here and there but what you see is the new design. Thank you Ben for doing a great job with the site and to everyone that helped out along the way. The store will be coming back and will be open next Wednesday (November 14th).

Tomorrow is SAMCON! From what I’ve heard there are still a couple of openings left for the convention and the evening show…. hope to see you there.

Magical Weekend

derekraposo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:00:52 +0000

What can I say but what a weekend! This weekend was jam packed with magic.

On Saturday we had the honor to perform for the Society of American Magician Nation Council and guests at Bali Hai in Lynnfield, MA. The show consisted of 6 performers each performing about 6 - 8 minutes. Jessica and I performed two illusions JAM and METAMORPHISIS.

When I first arrived in the room where the event was being held I was a little taken back. The space would not have been able to hold one illusion let alone two. The weather was not cooperating and I unloaded the van in the torrential down pour (thanks Fran for your help). After some more people arrived and it was decided that some tables had to be moved to allow the performers to have some sort of stage… what a relief! After everything was in its place Jessica and I got to take in some of the close up magic that was going on and then some chinese food. We some saw old faces and met some amazing new people. The show went extremely well and everyone did a great job.

Today I made my way up to Diamond’s Magic in Peabody for their open house. For those of you who never have been there, make an effort to stop by. The have a great selection of magic, dvds and anything you can want. Of course you will meet the one and only Eddi Gardner. After some great conversation and company, Eddi took me around Peabody to show me warehouse spaces that he saw around town. Thank you Eddi. From there I headed over to the Grande David magic show in Beverly, MA. More about the show in another post.

That’s it for now. I will see if I can get some pictures of the show and of the weekend. Until next time….

Some Updates

derekraposo — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:20:19 +0000

Hi everyone. Thanks for coming back to read my blog.

A lot has been happening lately. We recently received some great news about a show we will be doing in November. We will be performing for the National Council of the Society of American Magicians (SAM). They are having their national meeting here in MA and requested some magicians to perform an evening show. We are honored and very excited to be performing for the council.

As you probably noticed a temp site has been posted until the main site is done. It should be up in a week or two. Ben has been working hard to get everything perfect before it’s posted.

This week one of my tasks was to start transferring old VHS videos to DVD. I thought this was going to be a task that I was going to hate. I experienced the total opposite! I started with a tape of a show that I did back in 2001. It was my first real magic show that lasted a whopping 45 minutes. It was extremely fun to watch as I went from one trick to another and having a great time. Clothes two sizes too big and tricks that needed a lot more practicing. One thing that I learned from that show is don’t use a handheld microphone without a mic stand. Looking back (I know it hasn’t been that long) it amazes me how far the show has come. It makes you appreciate what the show has become and also all the people who help you get there. I’ll see if I can get some of that footage up here for your viewing pleasure.

We are still looking for a rehearsal/warehouse space. We have a couple of leads and hopefully one of them will be our new space.

Our new promo DVD has been completed and it will be hitting the presses very soon. Tony, our video guy, did an excellent job with all the snazzy menu options and updates to the current promo video. Thanks Tony for your hard work.

I am now off to see a great group of magicians that get together weekly to sit and talk about magic. “Hi Guys :-)”

Also a plug for the SAM Assembly 104: Check out their annual magic convention SAMCON held in Peabody, MA in November. If your not a magician and don’t want to attend the conversion they have a GREAT evening show. This year they have a great lineup of entertainers…. a show not to be missed. And if you are a magician, this is a full day convention jam packed with lectures and great dealers. Hope to see you all there.

Well until next time

Turner Hill Country Club Ipswich, MA

derekraposo — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:00:14 +0000

We performed at the amazing Turner Hill Country Club in Ipswich, MA on Saturday. Located on Boston’s North Shore in the beautiful coastal town of Ipswich, Turner Hill is a private Country Club that is situated on a magnificent 311-acre estate. Completed in 1903, the mansion boasts hand-molded plaster ceilings, vivid wall friezes, gleaming oak hardwood floors and hand-carved paneling, doors and stairways. The reception hall’s wildlife motifs and windows were modeled after Haddington Hall in Scotland. These features constitute a structural work of art that could rarely be replicated today.

Unfortunatelywe didn’t have Aaron for this show but Jessica and I pulled off the 1/2 hr show. We were asked to do the show by a good friend Hank that works at the club. The show consisted of 3 Magicians and one Juggler. Jim Loscutoff was the MC and did a few tricks and Peter Jackson did a 1/2 set of great magic! After Peter finished up the talented Dana Ferranti did some juggling. This kid is amazing. I have been in shows with him before and boy this kid can juggle. After intermission we were on and had a great time! The audience was energetic and was having a good time.

After the show we packed up the 24 foot trucked and headed home. 24 truck for a 1/2 hr show? No… On Saturday we moved out of our warehouse and moved into a storage facility for a month or so. We may have found our new home in a new space.. keep your fingers crossed. Will keep you posted!

Here are two pictures of part of Turner Hill. I’ll post a short video of the room we were in later on in the week.

Until next time….

Woodstock Fair part 2

derekraposo — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:11:43 +0000

What a weekend. We finished up our second show last night at the Woodstock Fair. Audiences at the Woodstock Fair have always been amazing. They are always really into the show and really let you know they are enjoying themselves. We could not have asked for better weather! By the end of the show it was a bit chilly but people stuck around until the end.

Thank you to Cody and Mauricio for help me out on stage. I would also like to thank Sean for being brave and helping us out with the head chopper. This illusion is quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the show. Sean was a bit nervous about putting his neck on the line but who wouldn’t!

We have a couple of things in the works and looking forward to telling everyone about it. As soon as everything is finalized we will let you know!

The new website is being close to being finished. Our web designer (Ben) has been working hard to give us a great new look. I am looking forward to its release.

I just wanted to “introduce” you to my team. As I mentioned in my previous post, my assistant’s name is Jessica Hansen. Check her out on her website: http://www.jessicadhansen.com. She amazingly talented and has been a great addition to the show. Aaron Spence is my stage manager. He has worked for the Wilbur

Theatre and also has done a lot of work for The Winthrop Play Makers (http://winthropplaymakers.com). I am extremely lucky to have an amazing team.

I always like hearing from people that have seen the show or that are now reading the blog. Please feel free to drop me a note. Derek@DerekRaposo.com

Until next time…

Labor Day Weekend

derekraposo — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:00:14 +0000

Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope that you enjoy reading my postings about my life as a magician. As time goes on I will post pictures, videos and candid pictures of us having a good time.

Last night we had our first of two shows at the Woodstock Fair in Woodstock, Connecticut. The show went extremely well and the audience was amazing. Jessica made her debut performance on stage with the show. She did a spectacular job and looked like she has been doing it for years.

Thank you to my great little assistants Nicole and Elijah for helping me up on stage.

After the weekend is over I will post some more stories and events that have been going on with the show.

Again, thanks for visiting and reading the blog.