Just got back home after my first restaurant gig. Again I had stressed about not having enough effects and found myself 'over stocked'. So how was it? I'm still trying to decide. The first table responded very well (despite a warning from the manager that they they tend to find something to complain about every time they went to the restaurant) I decided all tables would start with Wee Wee Mentalist as this would let me gauge the sort of people they were. The effect was incredibly well received. as was the follow up "Do as I Do" . I moved onto some mind reading before closing with Serial Killer. I used this as a special trick for one person who did not like magic as it has a comedy element of the magician being upset and crazy. Over all I had strong ractions and was well recived indeed.
The next table was interesting. 2 older couples. One man and both ladies responded very well to the Mentalist and some mind reading/invisible deck work. cartomancy was well received as well however one member of the party was constantly looking a little stand offish, he didn't like being fooled. So I switches to some basic slight work as I figured he's appreciate sheer skill over story telling and emotional effects.
A table of three ladies provided much fun for me. I worked the emotional angle building rapport and then talking about gestalt mind sets. When I performed the invisible deck one of the ladies was connived is had influence the other with body language ad claimed to have spotted little signals that she should pick the 2 of hearts. This worked well as she was happy with herself and convinced I really did manipulate her friends subconscious mind. We returned later and performed Cartomancy. They were impressed but the same lady again wanted to see me perform cartomancy on myself. She shuffled the cards but I still managed to pull the appropriate card out in time :) Now this table got interesting. I felt like all three enjoyed themselves, they did seem to genuinely connect with me. The manager insisted they did not like me however. All my tips were going in a bucket fro Children in need (As well as the staffs). They made a point of leaving a large tip for the waiter and putting only a few coins in the bucket. the barman insisted that they then came back and put more in however and friends of the manager sitting on the next table insisted that they spoke highly favourable of me. However the damage has ben done. the manager felt that the table did not like me,. I have to keep reminding myself that they did and all evidence points to it. HOWEVER when I first thought they didn't I was happy ith my reaction. I didn't think "I'm crap at magic I quite" I thought " rght time to hit the books, I';vie done a party a festival and 2 kids parties as well as this gig to try ALL sorts of close up magic. Now I know I need to work on the restaurant side and if it is my personalty then I need to work on that, but not too much as I've always been VERY well recivend in the past". I thought about taking the next month to relearn some effects and study presentation better. Now I know that they DID like me I still intend to work on these things but trust my own presentation a bit more :)
Other tables went well but I learnt the following...
Restraunt magic can be V slow at times.
I have plenty of effects, so I can now start to trim the fat
whgen you get a bad reaction 2nd hand it might have been VERY distorted..
SOme people truly aprciate sheer skill, I need more effects like the ambitouse card
THe practise is worth it :) my Erdinas is V good now
and now an exhausted dean craves sleep. night night internet
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
First large party of smaller kids...
I've just gotten back from performing what I could say was my first real kids party. My first kids party was more like an initiation for 4 young men to more adult close up magic which they loved very much. This was more of a classic kids party, 11 girls aged 9 and one little brother. As ever I stressed like mad before the gig mainly worrying about not having enough effects. With adults in smaller groups I can just use a regular Vanilla pack of cards for many different effects and keep them entertained for ages. Also when doing close up I only need a small selection of effects before moving on to another group. This time I was working to a larger group all seated in front of me. Not quite stage magic, more street magic or platform magic. Therefore this time I would not be able to use lots of cleaver card effects, the plot had to be easily followed by all the kids and the magic had to be seen with care taken to avoid participants blocking the view.
I kicked off with letting the kids play with the Magic Flying Wand. I knew from my time at the kids festival that the birthday girl loved this gadget. She even asked before I finished unpacking if I had brought it with me so I knew I was onto a winner. When the kids had calmed down and got them selves comfortable I turned on a Plasma Ball. I asked if they understood about electro statics and induction and some actually knew what I meant. I placed a low energy light bulb onto the plasma ball and it lit up this got a nice audible gasp from the crowd. I explained that the plasma ball and he wand used electro static science and that magic was knowing things that others did not. There fore when they learn new things at school they're learning - and here I paused and let them finish with the word "MAGIC" being shouted out. Wary that they may try to open a low energy bulb I went on to talk about mercury explaining that it's in thermometers and bulbs and if one breaks they needed to (and here I paused again and let them yell out "call a grown up!"). See magic, educational and fun and hopefully made the kids even more keen on learning.
My science and public health talk over I launched into some silk work. I started with a colour changing pair of silks again and two kids back to back. One seeing a red and blue hanky the other seeing a green and yellow. I changed the colours with my back turned to the audience and they assumed I just had two sets of hankies. I then changed it in front of them resulting in a gasp ad applause. IT felt great realising they were on board with the show.
Next came the Crystal tube. I wish I could just use Silly Billy's script word for word as it has great results but that would be cheating AND one part of it doesn't translate over the Atlantic . Luckily in his wonderful book "Seriously Silly" he adopts a "teaching you to fish " Strategy.We both use a red, yellow and green hankies and relate them to traffic lights, Green is go, an red is stop, so when the kids yell stop I just freeze for a few moments whilst they get a laugh. Yellow is tricky, in the states they say it means SLOW DOWN and Silly Billy starts going into slow motion, wonderful stuff. BUT here in the UK it means "GET READY" So I mime getting my props in order, it gets a laugh but being able to go slow motion would have been more fun. As silly Billy suggests I failed on the first attempt due to a lack of magic words. The kids starts yelling out all sorts of magic words, I said we couldn't use "Abra Cadabra" as the magic circle had a copyright on it (An the same went for any Harry Potter words). Instead I said we needed to yell "Wibbly Wobbly Deans got a big Belly!" THEY LOVED IT. With the new magic words the silks tied themselves into a knot and again I Got spontaneous applause. This is a great example where a book that teaches you how to think and plan and present your own effects wins over a set script. Even though I knew the original script would not work the book gave me the tools to work out my own routine.
The final silk trick again used ideas from Silly Billy. I already have a fun silk vanish which I augmented with his ideas. MY normal vanish begins by placing a very large white hanky into a change bag, saying some magic words and revealing the hanky has now shrunk! I then vanish the hanky. However NOW When I vanished the hanky I mime it flying towards a party popper (streamer) I then shoot this at a girl with shoes and socks on. I tell them the streamer has shot the silk to them and get them to take their shoe off. Then I get them to take their sock off and place a peg over my nose before revealing the silk in their sock. Vanishes always make me worried because to me they look pretty obvious, but then I was totally fooled before I knew how they were done so I guess everyone is. It boils down to confidence and I've vanished silks to some pretty tough audiences who couldn't work it out.
I moved onto some giant card work performing DO as I Do before everyone took it in turns to predict if a card was black or red for Out of this World . I then performed an effect I developed for the party. I took Darren Godding's superb Lazar Card discovery and tweaked it for the audience. Instead of a selected card being revealed by a laser burning a hole through it whilst in the pack I used more party poppers. I explained it was safe whilst donning my steam punk goggles and hat. The birthday girl did not look convinced so I dressed her up in the goggles and hat (again thanks to David Kaye's Seriously Silly ) and shot the popper at the pack she held aloft. She had selected the ace of diamonds and when she opened the pack all the cards were BLANK apart from the ace of diamonds which had holes punched through it and a little burning caused by the party popper. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!
To wined down the show I gave one of the girls a balloon 'Mouse' .This is a model where a mouses head is made and the rest of the balloon left untwisted.I then reached into a bag and got one for each child. Getting them to pinch the ends of the balloons I snipped the ends off and got them all to sing happy birthday before giving the birthday girl a '21 mouse salute' . All the girls let the balloons go and the mice flew everywhere to much laughter. My final trick was something I was pretty proud of. Whilst taking time out yesterday read a little of this months "Magic Seen" magazine. They had an article on balloon modelling and I wish I had managed to learn more than "worm" "snake" and "eel" and well as "poodle". I knew if the girls asked for a swan or crown I was sunk. The article gave me a cracking idea though! The author suggested handing out the balloon animals at the end so the kids would not be too distracted by playing with them during the show. He also suggested making models up in advance so you were not there spending an hour making things. To get around the lack of variety I got hold of a cheap pack of modelling balloons and made over 35 poodles! I then weakened the seams of a bin bag and placed the poodles in it. After the mouse salute the girls sat down awaiting some new magical treat., I asked if they wanted animals or Rubbish (Garbage). I KNEW at least ONE girl would yell for rubbish (again thanks to Seriously Silly going into child psych 101) so I quickly got the rubbish sack and pulled at the weakened seams and made it rain balloon poodles over them. The scream of delight made the hour of balloon modelling worth every second! It was fantastic!. I then let the kids take it in turns to be photographed by he mums in my top hat and steam punk goggle whilst making little alterations to poodles or showing a few elastic band tricks.
I was commissioned for half an hour and performed for nearly 2 hours in the end. Yet again I was worried about a lack of material, yet again I was worrying for nothing. All I can say is if you want to perform for kids you NEED "Seriously Silly" by David Kaye. It removes all the fear as he explains what works for what age group, how to handle unruly children and how to adjust your mindset to make any effect work for the kids.
What else have I learnt? Still great with kids of any age and that THEY DO ENJOY LEARNING STUFF
make a list, it pays off :)
I do not need as many effects as I think I need
I NEED to get my own change bag AND goggles :)
Coming up with new spin on effects is fun and rewarding. I need to spend more time enjoying myself by playing around with ideas and props, it really is work as well as fun.
ALWAYS respect the fact you're in someone's home, double check where it's ok to put your gear (I always do this but it's worth mentioning) and ALWAYS double check with goggle maps where your going
I still love magic and I'm good at it. All the kids loved the show and the mum was most impressed again :)
I kicked off with letting the kids play with the Magic Flying Wand. I knew from my time at the kids festival that the birthday girl loved this gadget. She even asked before I finished unpacking if I had brought it with me so I knew I was onto a winner. When the kids had calmed down and got them selves comfortable I turned on a Plasma Ball. I asked if they understood about electro statics and induction and some actually knew what I meant. I placed a low energy light bulb onto the plasma ball and it lit up this got a nice audible gasp from the crowd. I explained that the plasma ball and he wand used electro static science and that magic was knowing things that others did not. There fore when they learn new things at school they're learning - and here I paused and let them finish with the word "MAGIC" being shouted out. Wary that they may try to open a low energy bulb I went on to talk about mercury explaining that it's in thermometers and bulbs and if one breaks they needed to (and here I paused again and let them yell out "call a grown up!"). See magic, educational and fun and hopefully made the kids even more keen on learning.
My science and public health talk over I launched into some silk work. I started with a colour changing pair of silks again and two kids back to back. One seeing a red and blue hanky the other seeing a green and yellow. I changed the colours with my back turned to the audience and they assumed I just had two sets of hankies. I then changed it in front of them resulting in a gasp ad applause. IT felt great realising they were on board with the show.
Next came the Crystal tube. I wish I could just use Silly Billy's script word for word as it has great results but that would be cheating AND one part of it doesn't translate over the Atlantic . Luckily in his wonderful book "Seriously Silly" he adopts a "teaching you to fish " Strategy.We both use a red, yellow and green hankies and relate them to traffic lights, Green is go, an red is stop, so when the kids yell stop I just freeze for a few moments whilst they get a laugh. Yellow is tricky, in the states they say it means SLOW DOWN and Silly Billy starts going into slow motion, wonderful stuff. BUT here in the UK it means "GET READY" So I mime getting my props in order, it gets a laugh but being able to go slow motion would have been more fun. As silly Billy suggests I failed on the first attempt due to a lack of magic words. The kids starts yelling out all sorts of magic words, I said we couldn't use "Abra Cadabra" as the magic circle had a copyright on it (An the same went for any Harry Potter words). Instead I said we needed to yell "Wibbly Wobbly Deans got a big Belly!" THEY LOVED IT. With the new magic words the silks tied themselves into a knot and again I Got spontaneous applause. This is a great example where a book that teaches you how to think and plan and present your own effects wins over a set script. Even though I knew the original script would not work the book gave me the tools to work out my own routine.
The final silk trick again used ideas from Silly Billy. I already have a fun silk vanish which I augmented with his ideas. MY normal vanish begins by placing a very large white hanky into a change bag, saying some magic words and revealing the hanky has now shrunk! I then vanish the hanky. However NOW When I vanished the hanky I mime it flying towards a party popper (streamer) I then shoot this at a girl with shoes and socks on. I tell them the streamer has shot the silk to them and get them to take their shoe off. Then I get them to take their sock off and place a peg over my nose before revealing the silk in their sock. Vanishes always make me worried because to me they look pretty obvious, but then I was totally fooled before I knew how they were done so I guess everyone is. It boils down to confidence and I've vanished silks to some pretty tough audiences who couldn't work it out.
I moved onto some giant card work performing DO as I Do before everyone took it in turns to predict if a card was black or red for Out of this World . I then performed an effect I developed for the party. I took Darren Godding's superb Lazar Card discovery and tweaked it for the audience. Instead of a selected card being revealed by a laser burning a hole through it whilst in the pack I used more party poppers. I explained it was safe whilst donning my steam punk goggles and hat. The birthday girl did not look convinced so I dressed her up in the goggles and hat (again thanks to David Kaye's Seriously Silly ) and shot the popper at the pack she held aloft. She had selected the ace of diamonds and when she opened the pack all the cards were BLANK apart from the ace of diamonds which had holes punched through it and a little burning caused by the party popper. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!
To wined down the show I gave one of the girls a balloon 'Mouse' .This is a model where a mouses head is made and the rest of the balloon left untwisted.I then reached into a bag and got one for each child. Getting them to pinch the ends of the balloons I snipped the ends off and got them all to sing happy birthday before giving the birthday girl a '21 mouse salute' . All the girls let the balloons go and the mice flew everywhere to much laughter. My final trick was something I was pretty proud of. Whilst taking time out yesterday read a little of this months "Magic Seen" magazine. They had an article on balloon modelling and I wish I had managed to learn more than "worm" "snake" and "eel" and well as "poodle". I knew if the girls asked for a swan or crown I was sunk. The article gave me a cracking idea though! The author suggested handing out the balloon animals at the end so the kids would not be too distracted by playing with them during the show. He also suggested making models up in advance so you were not there spending an hour making things. To get around the lack of variety I got hold of a cheap pack of modelling balloons and made over 35 poodles! I then weakened the seams of a bin bag and placed the poodles in it. After the mouse salute the girls sat down awaiting some new magical treat., I asked if they wanted animals or Rubbish (Garbage). I KNEW at least ONE girl would yell for rubbish (again thanks to Seriously Silly going into child psych 101) so I quickly got the rubbish sack and pulled at the weakened seams and made it rain balloon poodles over them. The scream of delight made the hour of balloon modelling worth every second! It was fantastic!. I then let the kids take it in turns to be photographed by he mums in my top hat and steam punk goggle whilst making little alterations to poodles or showing a few elastic band tricks.
I was commissioned for half an hour and performed for nearly 2 hours in the end. Yet again I was worried about a lack of material, yet again I was worrying for nothing. All I can say is if you want to perform for kids you NEED "Seriously Silly" by David Kaye. It removes all the fear as he explains what works for what age group, how to handle unruly children and how to adjust your mindset to make any effect work for the kids.
What else have I learnt? Still great with kids of any age and that THEY DO ENJOY LEARNING STUFF
make a list, it pays off :)
I do not need as many effects as I think I need
I NEED to get my own change bag AND goggles :)
Coming up with new spin on effects is fun and rewarding. I need to spend more time enjoying myself by playing around with ideas and props, it really is work as well as fun.
ALWAYS respect the fact you're in someone's home, double check where it's ok to put your gear (I always do this but it's worth mentioning) and ALWAYS double check with goggle maps where your going
I still love magic and I'm good at it. All the kids loved the show and the mum was most impressed again :)
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