magic show – Page 60 – MagicShow.Tips

Stick Up For Your Show

Recently I as asked to do a show as a favor for a booker, which was an show at a volunteer event. Doing this was no big deal, and something I’m more than willing to do. However when I’m doing something for free, I’m much more of a stickler for the performing conditions than when I’m being paid.

This particular gig was in a huge echoy space. The echo by itself wasn’t a big deal, however it was more than just that. The venue’s sound system was a super old school one where the speakers were in the ceiling of a very high ceiling. I couldn’t hear myself when I talked into their mic and stood in the audience. I need to be able to be heard, they told me it’d be OK. I told them that it was unacceptable.

When you’re being paid for a gig, you want it the best it can be. Usually people who pay for things are much more likely to give it what it needs to be successful. The people who aren’t invested in your show, aren’t invested in it succeeding. Personally I have no problem walking away from a free gig if I feel that me or my show isn’t being treated right.

Time To Wrap It Up…

Sometimes performing for some people can be a pain in the butt. I’m specifically thinking about a person (usually a kid) that thinks everything is a secret sleight of hand move, and feels the need to tell everyone. When they do this, it really breaks up the show and makes it a pain for everyone to watch.

Here’s an example:

I’m doing walk around magic and have a family stopped and ready for a magic trick. The kid excitedly points out that I’m hiding a deck of cards in my hand. I then tell the kid, “I’m not hiding, I’m going to do a card trick, and they are required to do a card trick”. The a moment later after someone has signed the card he tells every that he, “sees that”. I ask what he sees and he replies, “you put that in your pocket”. I ask what and he say he saw me sneak the marker into my pocket. He tells me the marker, I explain that it was no longer needed and I was putting it away. It continues like this until I leave.

I finished the card trick and wrapped it up and started to leave. When I did he mother told me, “they’re a rough crowd”. I wanted to tell them they weren’t a rough crowd, her child was simply an idiot, or an a-hole. I’m sure there was a larger issue at play with the kid, however it’s a teachable moment for the mother and child. She simply could have explained that’s he was interrupting the show and he needed to shut up

However she didn’t, and I finished the card trick and left.

I Don’t Get It…

For some reason this week magicians on the social media have been sharing videos of themselves doing the linking ring trick. What I don’t get is why is everyone proud of their linking rings…especially when 99% of them are not their routines. There are a few routines that are truly unique, like the Viktor Voitko’s … Continue reading “I Don’t Get It…”

For some reason this week magicians on the social media have been sharing videos of themselves doing the linking ring trick. What I don’t get is why is everyone proud of their linking rings…especially when 99% of them are not their routines.

There are a few routines that are truly unique, like the Viktor Voitko’s Flying Linking Rings:

There are some great presentations, like Whit Hayden’s or Tom Frank’s routines. However when you are doing those routines, unfortunately you really can’t add much new to them, and still do the routine.

So why are people sharing them?

I’m not sure, my best guess is that it’s a way to get praise for putting in the least amount of effort. Let’s face it, the linking rings isn’t the hardest trick to do from a technical standpoint. Sure there are some quiet links, but for the most part palming a card is more difficult. The real challenge with the linking rings is to make them relevant to the audience. Unfortunately most of what I’ve seen this week has failed at that.

I Don’t Get It…

Frequently I’m befuddled about why magicians love to do “throwback” acts. Not period shows like at a Ren Faire or Civil War Reenactment, but recreating things like the medicine pitch, or the riverboat gambler. Most modern audience have no idea what they are. They may be aware of them from brief little scenes in movies, … Continue reading “I Don’t Get It…”

Over the years I’ve worked with many people that do a Medicine Show Pitch. I’ve never seen one that the audience was super into. I worked with one the other night, and while the act was fine, it didn’t resonate with the audience because they don’t know what it is. No one ever gives a historical background on it before they start doing the pitch.

That’s the problem with the Medicine Show Pitch, people have to figure out what it is. Also people don’t know that there really isn’t a payoff, it’s just a lot of unusual, olde tyme talk. A simple introduction about what it is would help a lot. Something like, “A hundred years ago, adoctor would roll into town on the back of a horse drawn wagon, or wood paneled station wagon. He’d be selling a medicine that would cure everything. It would cure the common cold, it would cure ricketts, it would cure social media addiction. By the time you realized that what he sold you didn’t work, he was long gone. This is the 1912 version of the guy on TV selling Sham-Wow’s“

Now there’s a little bit of context to what’s happening. The audience doesn’t have to figure out what the hell you are doing and it’s historical place. Context is KING!

All Sizzle, No Steak…

About a week ago I wrote a blog post about working with a guy that did a superhero character. His show was an “anti-bully” show and unfortunately it really couldn’t hold an audience at a fair. I’m sure there are venues where it can hold an audience, like at a church youth group for younger school age kids, but not at the fair.

The show had a great costume for the main performer, and all of the other performer’s costumes were really an after thought, and not much energy was put into them when compared to the main performer’s costume. Consistency across the board with your props or costumes really makes a difference. Think about having a brand new suit, and wearing old faded, scuffed up shoes with it, that just doesn’t look right.

The anti bully, superhero show had a video intro, which really didn’t make sense. They were lugging a big TV and screen for a 30 second intro that didn’t add to the show. It’s a prop that felt like they bought simply because they had seen other shows that used video intros. To me it felt like the kind of intro that church’s use for kids youth groups for programs that they buy. Many summer bible day camps have themes and some makes and sells “canned” camped, where the church gets everything they need from videos to props, to decorations. This intro felt like it was trying to be that.

The show felt like it had a lot of energy put into things that didn’t matter, where the energy should have been put into the content of the show. I’ll write about what was actually in the show another day. My theory is you should build the substance first, then put the fluff around it later.

One or Two Spots…

When working in a show with multiple acts and an intermission, the show producer frequently splits up my act into two spots. One before and one after the intermission. Usually this happens in shows that have a burlesque background. The reason is the dancers can’t do one long set, they do two shorter ones. The producer then lines up the show so that everyone does two short sets.

Personally I prefer to do one longer set. The reason is that it allow me to build momentum. As a talking act, I can build to a big ending in 10 minutes. In two 5 min chunks, essentially you’re doing two openers. Sure in the second set, people already know you, but you can’t build off the energy you built in the first set.

Another thing with split spots is that your second spot is building off of the energy of the previous act. If the act before you is super high energy, and your closer is a slow burn, it makes it much harder for the audience to get into it.

The final reason I prefer one spot is that if your have a rough first spot, you don’t have time to win the audience back. You’re finished before you get a second chance, then when you do come back for the second spot, you are starting in a huge hole. It’s so much easier to dig yourself out of a hole in one long spot.

My advice is that if you are a talking act the best thing to do is a single spot. Just because everyone else is doing split spots doesn’t mean you have to!

Make Them Come To You…

This week I’m doing a lot of local gigs and it’s nice to be home. In the summer I do many summer day camps for kids. Usually I’m doing them for school age kids, but this week I’ve been doing mostly younger kids in the 3-5 age range. This is a smidge younger than my demographic, however the shows are doing fine.

One thing that I consciously don’t do in my show is any standard kids show material. No break away wands or anything like that. I want do make them come up a level. This isn’t something that’s easy to do. Making the wand break is easy, making counting pieces of string entertaining to a kid is hard. I’m purposely taking a harder route, but in doing that it makes me a better performer.

Challenging the kids to be more sophisticated separates me from most other kid shows. It also teaches the kids to be better audiences, and that listening is an important part of watching a show, and more important than screaming. Many kid shows are simply getting the kids amped up, and that’s it. They have one gear. I have some slower parts to the show, and some more high energy parts. Having texture in your show is important, even when performing for kids.

Figure It Out…

It’s rare to get an indoor show at a fair, however that’s what I have this week. It’s great to not be out cooking in the sun, and having an audience that’s also not getting heat stroke. With all of the bonuses of being indoors, I’ve been struggling through my shows, and not quite sure why.

Then yesterday morning I was reviewing video of my show and to work on a routine and noticed something. In the video I couldn’t understand what what I was saying. What the mic on the camera (which is never crystal clear) was recording was a lot of echo. To confirm it wasn’t just the camera’s placement I put my small digital recorder in the audience and recorded my first show. The audio from the audience was also very hard to understand.

I narrowed it down to the sound guy blasting the music louder than my voice. And my voice he had very loud, so it just bounced around this and the audience couldn’t make out what I was saying. I asked him to lower my volume and recorded the next show. It sounded the exact same. My conclusion was that he didn’t lower the volume, or not very much.

Here’s how I fixed it. I did my show on the floor in front of the stage. Now I could control of the volume of the music because I was in front of the speakers and could hear how loud it was in the room. This is where running your music with a remote control is helpful. Also standing on the floor he couldn’t have my voice too loud because I’d feedback. So that fixed the problem of me being understood. It worked out great, and I have my first rockin’ show of the week.

The moral of the story is that if your show isn’t working, don’t just chalk it up bad audiences. Yes, something audiences are bad, however if you are struggling multiple shows, it’s probably something you are doing.

Unique Visuals…

One of the things that I try to do with my show is to give it unique visuals. I think I’m starting to really achieve that in my show. It’s a lot of work, and commitment, but in the long run it’s the way to go. When someone describes my show to another magician, I want the magician to know it’s me by the description.

Sure a card trick looks like a card trick, however there are some ways to make them look different. For example the Card Stab trick. In my main show I use a Rat Trap, this is a less common version of the trick. I also do a unique card stab using a dinosaur costume!

In my local market, if someone describes either of these version of the card stab to a magician, they will know it’s me. I wouldn’t say either is my “signature” trick, but both are associated with me locally.

What tricks are associated with you? Are they tricks that no one else can buy? That’s the goal with the dinosaur card stab, it’s something I created, you can’t buy it, it’s 100% mine.

Learn To Play With Others…

It’s rare that I work on the fair circuit with an act that I’ve at least never heard of, however this week that happened. They act is a superhero character, and while there’s a lot wrong with his show, the thing that bugs me the most is that he doesn’t know how to work with other acts. being able to share a stage is a skill that will take you far in show biz.

When I arrived at the venue, I introduced myself to him and asked him how long his show was. He told me 45 minutes, and I mentioned that after his show we’ll need to turn the stage, as my show starts 15 mins after his ends. He said he had no gear to move off stage, and I’d have pretty much the full 15 mins to set up.

Well, that’s not what happened. His “crew” put away the front half of chairs. When I noticed this was happening, I mentioned that we need to get them back because I can’t crowd build without them there. They said no problem. This is the point when I realized this guy has never worked a fair, or with another act. The actual content of his show will be it’s own blog post, however I should mention that he didn’t need the space he cleared up by putting away half of the chairs.

His show ran way over his time…by way over, I mean he did 56 minutes and he was going to keep going until I told he girlfriend she needed to get him to wrap up.

This gave me 4 minutes to set up my show if it was going to start on time. Plus they still needed to put the chairs back. This guy burnt my set up time, and crowd build time. I had to start my show with zero audience because of him, normally even if I have 5 minutes to do a crowd build I can make something happen. However, I can’t do crowd building while they are putting out chairs and I’m setting my gear onto the stage.

The moral of the story is that when working with other acts you: Do your time

When you go over time, it really can effect the other shows. If the booker walks by at my start time and sees no audience, due to the other act running super long, it can effect whether I get booked back.