The Impossible Magician

A little part of me was worried that I'd hit the high point of my career early with "the Night Circus". However the gig I've just gotten in from was also quite exceptional. It may have lacked the drama and theatre of the Night Circus but it was still magical.

  This latest gig was a kids gig. I was slightly concerned, whilst I have a natural affinity with kids and can normally keep their attention well, the last two kids gig of 2012 had problems. In one an adult had messed with the props, and in the second I had two VERY disruptive kids. Part of me started to wonder if I had strayed from my early, and successful roots. When I began with kids magic I had no props and no real balloon skills. I had to adapt my close up and adult magic and make do with a sack of balloons. I now have more magical props and can make a wide Variety of balloon models. The first kids gig with these props was stellar  (the kids wedding show last year and the second gig was smaller, less intense but still good.)  I then had the two problematic shows. Of course I've also worked the kids festival 3 times as well and did very well at a school gig.

  My main problem with all the props is one area of life I often fall down on. Organization . My props migrate or get badly packed away. I end up having to buy multiple replacements which is not a good thing. It is rather ironic that kids magic tends to earn you less whilst the materials for it cost more. This time however I ran through EVERY part of my routine in the morning, and placed things into my case as I finished with them. This worked very well.  I then thought long and hard about where the props would be placed when I was finished  with them, what I needed to do to stop kids (and grown ups) messing with them and generally thinking everything through slowly.

It all worked perfectly. I managed to set up in record time (two trips to the car) and my table was in good order. I opened with the "Magic Colouring book". it drove the kids wiled, they were shy to begin with but were yelling and screaming in minutes. I MUST make my own one of these days

I then moved onto the colour changing hankies, initially changing the colours with my back turned, before doing it in front of them, teaching them that it was more impressive with the magic wasn't hidden.

I moved onto the main bit of my materials, where I've tied together many effects. I started with "Milk AutoGo" using the the fluids of "concentration, hard work and imagination". This had a subdued response  so I went onto the diminishing milk with the fluids, before turning the fluid into a silk. Both the diminishing milk and the fluid to silk got MASSIVE receptions !. The silk then shrunk, which again got good reactions before vanishing into pot of bubbles. The bubbles then sent the silk to someone's sock. The kids LOVED the bubbles, they were jumping up and down, popping them, they also loves the silk shrinking, the comedy of the bag having a hole in worked VERY well. I then went to the Silk tube and a coke bottle vanish. I finished up with "once Upon a Time, Proffesoers nightmare and some close up.

I also held a workshop with my version of "the Misers Dream". All in all I giged for over an hour and a half and didn't have to break out the balloons. I had parents telling me the y enjoyed themselves, and the kids were thrilled, including a few kids who struggled to concentrate normally.It seems at every gig at least one parent will tell me they've never seen their child sit still for so long. Is this why I'm the impossible magician? not quit. I managed this gig after a full day of helping out at the superb "Leopold Thorn" and with a foot that is gradually getting worse AND an hours drive. I also  did a little juggling, explaining how it should be impossible for someone with nerve damage to juggle. Parents seem to like that little touch.
In short as I left, with the sound of amazement still in my ears, the warm glow of turning a cynical kid into someone who at least WANTS to believe in magic, I felt like a hero of sorts, Like the character I portray at kids party, a mad man out of time. it felt good, to quote Sigfreid and Roy "what a way to make a living"
SO things I learnt
Organization works
Kids love the magic I have
Parents acept the kids love close up as well as platform
It really is worth me spending more time working on  routines, and developing areas of potential comedy