magic show – Page 37 – MagicShow.Tips

Be Honest…

Something that’s important is to have a realistic view of your show. A good example is when you’ve just done a show that’s a disaster and you can’t admit it. Owning it is the first step to getting better.

I’ve done a million shows where I know exactly what I could do better and I tell other performers that. It’s not that I’m hard on myself, I’m realistic with myself. There’s an important difference between the two. One is saying, that you top palm wasn’t perfect and the other is pretending you didn’t drop a palmed card when talking about your show afterwards.

Knowing where you can improve and being honest with it is something HUGE you can do to improve your show. Writing this blog has really helped me!

Worst Case Scenario

Oh man, tonight I saw an act that had a really rough time…and by really rough, I mean it was probably the worst case scenario of their show. Seeing an what happened to this act, really made me think about what are the worst things that could happen to my show. We’re talking possible career ending things that could happen to you as a result of your show. It’s not a fun thought, but something we all should think of.

The act that I watched was a circus act. The act started with them having sound issues. It began with someone’s mic pack off, however in diagnosing the problem, they adjusted their levels, so when the mic pack came on, their audio started feeding back. Once they solved that, they were off their game. They kept missing juggling tricks, which further knocked them off their game. They ending with one guy on stilts and someone standing on their shoulders…and that’s where the worst case scenario happened. They fell over and they fell hard!

That was probably their worst case scenario. I’ve had people fall off the stage, trip on the way up, get stung by a bee, I even tore my rotator cuff during a show. It’s how you deal with them that makes you a pro.

What’s your worst case scenario, and how would you deal with it?

A Showcase Tip…

This week I’m at another booking conference and saw a ton of acts. I saw good acts and bad acts. For me personally one of the things that separated them was tightness. I know it’s hard doing a showcase set instead of your regular show. A showcase set is generally somewhere between 10 and 20 mins, and in a variety show type format, with multiple acts.

One of the challenges with these showcases is that they aren’t always scheduled in an order that compliments the acts. Sometimes there will be low energy acts following high energy bands, or similar acts back to back. These are things that aren’t an issue if you are doing a full show as there’s usually a gap between shows, or you have more time to have the switch gears to what you do.

One thing you can do to help in this situation is have walk up music that sets the tone for your show. You can also try to do original material, so that you don’t have to worry about overlap with other acts. While those won’t completely help out an act that super low key, following a high energy act, they do help a little bit.

Being Heard Again…

It’s funny that yesterday’s post was about being heard, and then today’s post is also going to be about that. However today’s post is about not being heard in a different context. Last night I did roving magic at an event for a conference, and the music all night was super loud, I really couldn’t be heard from a few feet away.

This problem is common, especially as we get into Holiday Party Season. The DJ was playing the music loud during the first half and playing even louder the second half. The problem was that this isn’t a gig at a wedding, and we weren’t at “da club”, so no one was dancing. In fact, the dance floor was empty and all of the people were on the opposite side of the room, where it was slightly quieter.

So how do you fix this?

There’s really no way to do it. I guess you can talk to the event planner and ask them to have the DJ turn it down, This may or may not have some effect, but odds are they won’t turn it down to an ambient level. It will still be at a “performance level”.

I adjusted my set, it was a few quick visual things and that’s about it. I also seeked out places that were slightly quieter, and there were a couple which was nice.

Let Them Hear You…

In Seattle we’re very lucky to have what is essentially a magic open mic. It’s a once a month thing, and usually has three to four performers and they all do somewhere between five and fifteen minutes. There’s good acts, there’s back acts, new acts and old acts. Last night at the show it was … Continue reading “Let Them Hear You…”

In Seattle we’re very lucky to have what is essentially a magic open mic. It’s a once a month thing, and usually has three to four performers and they all do somewhere between five and fifteen minutes. There’s good acts, there’s back acts, new acts and old acts.

Last night at the show it was fun. My one piece of advice to the majority of the performers there is to learn to project their voices. In the space that the show in is, you really can’t hear them clearly from about halfway back in the audience. Another reason to be loud is that people in the audience may have hearing issues and if you’re barely loud enough for the audience, you won’t be heard by people with poor hearing.

Being heard is soo important, especially if you’re a talking act.

Pet Peeve #731

Something that drives me nuts and I see it all the time in magicians promo and shows is when they say they “Aren’t like other magic shows”. Then they proceed to do the same magic tricks, the only difference is that they aren’t wearing a tailcoat and top hat. They are trying to break a stereotype that changed in the late 1990’s when David Blaine came on the scene.

The amount of magicians that are the stereotype are very few. What really drives me nuts is when they have to keep telling me about it in the show. Really, I can see that you’re not wearing a top hat, I can see that you aren’t making a rabbit appear. Show me with your content and not your words.

I think the space where you tell me things I can’t see or that I will figure out could be used more effectively in a show. Instead tell me how you got into magic…or better yet, tell me how you fought with your first magic teacher over how you dressed or performed. Then I’ll get some insight into you.

Ending of a Show…

The other night I went out to Hales Palladium to check out Billy Kidd’s magic show. I’m always amazed at the lack of magicians that go out and support these things. There were a few magicians there, but nowhere near how many should have been out.

The show was good, and the particular show I was at, I felt like there was an ending that was supposed to happen, but didn’t. I’m not sure what the ending would have been, or if there was something more planned, but it felt like there should have been something.

There are times in my show when something goes wrong and you know it, and you cut the big ending. Or you hit the end of your time and you just need to wrap it up. I’m curious and would like to see the show again to see if there was something that wasn’t done.

Magic Prop Problems…

There are many magic props that are a pain to use. Mostly because of either they wear our or need to be maintained. For example, you may have a prop that has a flimsy hinge or a string that rubs against something. Those are things that you need to keep an eye on. On thing … Continue reading “Magic Prop Problems…”

There are many magic props that are a pain to use. Mostly because of either they wear our or need to be maintained. For example, you may have a prop that has a flimsy hinge or a string that rubs against something. Those are things that you need to keep an eye on.

On thing that I use in my show is a remote control to run my audio. I’ve heard stories of people breaking the belt clip on it. While not a huge deal, it’s a pain the butt to not have one while you are waiting for a replacement to arrive, or trying to figure out how to make a makeshift belt clip.

I was working on another prop and had some leftover silicone, so I made a mold of the remote control’s belt clip and made a couple belt clips.

These fit perfectly onto the remote control. The are going to live in the bottom of my audio case for when I need them, or am working with with someone cool who might need one.

It’s Over!

The final two Halloween shows that I did yesterday went fine, with the usual challenges that I’ve written about the last couple of days. I just don’t get people who insist on sitting and watching a show through a mask. It doesn’t make sense and really I find it disrespectful to the performer, unless it’s a mask that’s really difficult to take off.

Oh, I forgot to mention that of the four of the shows, apparently none of the read the document I send that tells them how to set up my show. The main thing is having people seated in rows, at all of my shows but one they were seated at tables. Another thing is that food isn’t served during the show. At one show they put me in front of where the food was and kept going behind me during the show to get food to serve!!!

As much as I dislike the performing situation at Halloween gigs, I think it is good to take them. It makes you have to work a little bit harder as a performer and not let the conditions get to you.

Halfway Done…

Two Halloween shows are down and two more to go. Yesterday I did a show for kids and one for adults. They both ran into the challenges that I was anticipating and wrote about yesterday (you can read it here). Both shows went well, but I had to work hard at them.

The one thing that I notice this year, and hopefully it’s a trend, was that there were less masks worn, in fact I don’t think I saw a single person wearing a mask. I’ll never use (if I can help it) someone with a mask. This is good as it gives me a bigger pool of people from the audience to use.

The downside was that I notice more full face make up on people as part of their costumes. For the same reasons as someone wearing a mask, I avoid using someone with full face make up.

This year I’m only doing a total of four Halloween shows, so it’s not as big of a pain as when I was younger and would do two weeks of these shows!