This is the Spot!

If you do a remotely fun show for kids, you’ve have a kid pee during your show because they’re having too much fun and don’t want to get up, or you make them laugh too hard. The other night I had a kid helping me and she was laughing super hard, she stopped and said, “I just peed”!

This is always a hard thing to navigate, you need to deal with it, but in a way that causes the least amount of attention. In this instance the kid didn’t seem in distress and was remarkably calm, so I said, “we’ll pause this trick and you can take care of it”. She left and got a change of clothes and while she was gone I did another routine. Once she was back, we picked up the routine where we left off.

Oh, I had a paper towel in my case, so I put it on the spot. Not so much to clean it up, but to mark it for me so I knew where it was.

kids magic show

Every time this happens you need to instantly read the situation to know what the appropriate way to handle it is.

-Louie

Setting Up The Show Quickly

Out here on this tour, sometimes the travel time between shows is very tight and I don’t have very much time to set or strike the show. I provide everything except electricity. Knowing that some shows I may not have much time to set, need to pack out quickly, or both, I have two set ups for the show.

The normal set up takes about 20-25 minutes to set up and I use this when I have plenty of time to set up and strike.

Here’s the normal set up:

school assembly magic show

The quick set up/strike takes about 10-15 mins and I use it when I have tight travel time.

Here’s what it looks like:

school assembly magic show

The big difference is that I don’t have the banner. It also doesn’t use a speaker stand for the PA. A difference you can’t see is that the quick set up doesn’t use a wireless headset mic. Those few things make a huge difference in set up/strike time.

I use the handheld mic with a stand or a mic hanger for when I need to use my hands. I’m really glad that about a year and half ago I decided to learn to use a handheld microphone. Having practiced with a handheld really makes me a lot more versatile!

-Louie