I Lost 30 Years (But I’m Not Losing My Sanity!)

Warning: Some people will think this is a blatant sales pitch. I don’t think it is, but skip it if you want.

There’s a special kind of frustration that only mystery performers know: you’ve decided to perform a specific effect, you’re getting ready, and somewhere between the drawer and the travel case you realize something’s missing. Not the whole effect — just that one piece that makes it work.

I know this frustration too well. And it’s what finally pushed me to build something I’d been wanting for years.

I performed magic full-time in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Then life had other plans — a career, a family, blah blah blah — and I put it all away for almost 30 years. I kept a hand in things via community theater, but real (solo) performing? Poof.

Then the bug bit again. Hard. (Technically, it probably never really left, because for those three decades I hauled a box of props and a box of magic books from place to place, but never opened them.)

This time it came back as mentalism. And with it came a whole new level of obsession with original routines, new effects, and the joy of making something from scratch. What didn’t come back, unfortunately, was my organizational instincts. (That’s kind of a lie — I never had organizational instincts for them to come back!)

I spent an embarrassing amount of time hunting down the pieces for something like my Specimen Roulette routine — knowing I had everything, somewhere, just not knowing where. The prop, the gimmick, the backup, the note I’d written to myself months ago about the handling. Scattered across drawers, bags, boxes, and the far back corners of my memory.

And those corners have gotten deeper and darker as I’ve aged… (Can I get an amen?!)

I looked around for tools that could help. There are general inventory apps, task managers, note apps, spreadsheets. But nothing built for the specific way a mystery performer thinks about their work — where a single “effect” might involve five physical props, a written script, a setup sequence, and a reminder about which venue types it works best in.

So I built it myself. (I’m a computer programmer by day, which helps.)

Headliner is a web app for mystery performers — magicians, mentalists, or anyone who blurs the line — to manage their props, effects, and set lists in one place. The core idea is simple: when you decide to perform something, you should be able to know immediately what you need, where it is, and whether you’re actually ready.

Here’s what it does:

• Effects Library — Track props and effects, individually or together. Add notes, storage locations, condition, whatever matters to you.

• Set Lists — Build sets by combining effects, and see at a glance what props each one requires and how close you are to performing that set.

• Tagging — Organize by venue type, discipline, practical considerations. Your system, not mine, because you can add whatever tags make sense to you.

• Performance Prep — Know what you need before you’re standing in front of an audience, wishing you’d double-checked that everything was a go.

It’s not trying to be everything. It’s trying to solve the specific problem I had — and that I suspect a lot of other performers have, too.

Honestly? It’s for me — and for performers like me. Hobbyists and semi-professionals who take their craft seriously, have accumulated a real body of work and a real pile of props, and want to approach performance with a little more intention and a lot less scrambling.

If you’re a working professional doing 200 shows a year with a road manager and a touring case system — that’s cool. You probably have this sorted.

But if you’re like me, coming back to performing after a long gap, building an original act, and occasionally pulling your hair out because you know you own that one prop you need but where the #$%^ is it — Headliner might be exactly what you’ve been missing.

Headliner is a web app, so it works on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices — Android and Apple.

There’s a free tier in Headliner, and it’s actually useful — not a teaser. You can add props, build effects, and create set lists without spending a dime. Use it free forever. If you eventually want unlimited items, PDF reports, venue profiles, etc., there’s a paid plan for that. But plenty of performers with a focused act will never need it.

No credit card to get started. No crazy pitch on the sign-up page.

If it fits the way you work, great. If it doesn’t, you haven’t lost anything but a few minutes.

Get more info at MysteryCreators.com

If you think it sounds like what you’ve been waiting for, skip the “get more info” phase and go straight to setting up a free account: Headliner Free Account

If you know someone who could use something like Headliner, please share this post with them!

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