theater – MagicShow.Tips

What the Audience Sees…

There’s the meme that shows a plate juggler performing for the audience and the audience isn’t aware of how many plates were broken to get that the point they are seeing.

When I was in Mexico City one of the large venues has a cutaway model of their stage and it reminded me of the plate juggler meme. There’s soo much that that audience is unaware of, they only see a small sliver of it.

If you look at it, such a small percentage venue is what the audience sees. It’s kinda crazy, especially for someone like them that’s basically a “curtain act” that doesn’t need the full depth of the stage! The space I would use is equivalent to about 2 or 3 rows of the audience’s seats! The audience never really thinks about how little of the bigger picture they see!

-Louie

Filling the Stage…

I love how people can look at the COVID restrictions and figure things out. A while ago I did a birthday party magic show in a small theater. The thing about this is that at the time, the show would have been against COVID restrictions to do in the family’s backyard. But if they did it indoors, in a theater, we could do the show. It doesn’t really make sense why this was OK, but outdoors wasn’t. I’m not going to get into that debate. When COVID first hit, I said I was going to follow whatever the local health code said, and this was allowed.

One switch I’ve made is I’m trying to have more props onstage at the beginning of the show. Normally it’s just my prop case and table. In 2019 I added the bowl on a stand to hold a ball of yarn and now in 2021 I’ve brought back my Applause Please trick (applause sign).

Visually that puts some stuff on the stage. While my show is still primarily hand held magic props, having something onstage for the audience to look at before the show makes it feel like something more. David Hira talks about this in his penguin magic lecture, I and really agree with him. Having something for the audience to look at and wonder what it does helps build excitement (in most instances).

Tech Sheets…

One thing I think every performer should do is learn to write a tech / cue sheet for their show. I know that not everyone performs in theaters, has someone else run their music, or does a stage act. Learning to do it before you need one will save you some stress.

A tech sheet basically tells the production crew what to expect and what they need to do. I’m not an “expert” at writing tech sheets, but can convey my needs to the crew. Basically this is going to tell the crew what you are going to do and what you’ll need from them.

They’ll need the name of the routine, lighting needs, audio needs, and anything else you may need from them. It’s pretty simple, however if this is sprung on you at the last minute and you’ve never done it before, it can add a lot of stress coming into a gig.

Take a minute write out a sheet for your whole show. Once you’ve got that, it’s easy to alter at the last minute as your show has changed.

Production Value

Working more and more in theaters, it has me paying attention to the things that really aren’t possible in non theater shows. I remember when sound became a thing for me, and that was a game changer in my show. Now being able to play with video projection, video and lighting is opening a whole … Continue reading “Production Value”

I really want to add a video element to the show, where I play a video at some point. I’m not sure what, I think I want to do something with my daughter where I talk to her on the screen. I think this would be fun, but it’ll take some work for it to not come off as cheesy. Currently I call my daughter in the show and that works well, but that has a “live” feeling, where with a video I’d be worried it would feel canned.

Having these options opens a world of possibilities for my show. Like being able to do a few smaller tricks for larger audiences. I’ve been doing my mismade bill routine, which isn’t for 500 + people, however it works with the projection screen and plays well.

One thing you have to do is address the “elephant in the room” when there is one. Last night I did a show with light attendance, which was due to an unusual situation. The show was in a big theater, and it was obvious that it was a light turn out.

I opened the show with a joke about it and it went over well and the show proceeded to do great. I think that when everyone notices something, you need to say something about it, you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.

A good example was many years ago I saw the Amazing Kreskin perform. He had a light turn out, and he came out before the show, mentioned it, and invited the balcony to move to the floor. That gave him a more tightly packed audience, and really made the show better for him and the audience.

Whether it’s a light turn out, someone having a heart attack, whatever, if it’s on the audience’s mind, you need to address it.

Big Stages

The variety show that I was in last night was a lot of fun. A couple of the acts were thrown off by how wide the stage was. The stage was probably 24 feet wide and 8 feet deep. I personally don’t mind a wide stage, but work on them fairly frequently. The picture above … Continue reading “Big Stages”

The picture above is form the venue last night. You’ll notice one of the things that I do is “define my area” on the stage. My case and table create the edges of where I work. This keeps me from wandering the stage to get props if my case or table were at either end of the stage.

Having a wider stage is way better than a narrow stage where you are crammed into. Currently I’m working hard on my show to play larger. I’m not a pack small, play big person. I prefer to use props that fit what I want to do…but hopefully make it play large!

Just Another Show…

Recently I’ve started performing in a new market/venue for me. I’m lucky that a lot of my friends work, or have worked this market and I was able to ask them a lot of questions before my first show. Knowledge is key to breaking into any market. It’ll keep you from making rooking mistakes, and … Continue reading “Just Another Show…”

One of the best pieces of advice that I got from my agent was, “act like you’ve been there before”. This is an amazing mindset to have. Don’t walk in all wide eyed like a kid on the first day of kindergarten. Walk in like the senior in high school. Sure there will be challenges, but really none of it’s a big deal.

That leads me to the second best piece of advice that I was given, also from my agent was, “It’s just another gig” and that’s true. You just do your show. You can get all excited about all the bells and whistles that now surround the venue, but at the end of the day, you just do the show you were booked to do.

If you keep changing the show you’ve polished ,then your show will suffer. In my opinion, it’s better to slowly tweak the show you do to fit the venue.