Colchester Invasion with Tea and Sympathy

Yesterday saw two events that I was really looking forward to.
Invasion Colchester is a local charity event where people dress up in sci fi and fantasy costumes and walk a round the town collecting money (normally off people having photo's taken with them). I've performed close up street magic in previous years, however this time we had other plans. Initially I was going to run an event for kids at a galleries Garden and tea shop. Due to a change in management this fell though close to the event however I did manage to get a place to perform in a different venue. Working in a coffee shop not only saved a lot of walking but also allowed me to perform on tables and to have a place for props.

  Dan was with me again and did a fantastic job performing to tables whilst I made balloon animals for the kids. This combination worked really well and I did still get to perform magic. A young girl came in dressed as Anna from "Frozen". I felt this would be the best time to make snow appear from my hands. We went outside with her mother and poured water into my hands where she magically turned it to snow. I've been working on the method of this effect and it was worth he effort. I created a full snow storm that whipped over the both of them. Research well spent. As ever "Once upon a time" truly enchanted the kids, big and small.

Dan did a great job performing to all the different age ranges and we raised a fair bit of money. However people do tend to donate for  less for balloon models than they've paid for them when I had a fix rate for them. This is the second time this has happened so in future when doing balloon models for charity I will have a minimum donation.

After Invasion we had one hour to eat  before heading to Tea & Sympathy. I had agreed to perform a little stage set and wanted to include Dan's whip work.. Making a short notice change to plans needed all the health and safety assessments on hand which Dan managed to get. This does demonstrate how important having paperwork is. I think it's time I sit down and work out all sorts of risk assessments, print them and pop them in my case along with a sheet of what was loaded into the car so I don't leave things behind.

As well as stage we were lucky enough to perform some close up table magic. I used the opituintiy to use some of my older material with new twists. The people loved them, "do as I do" one of the original effects I learnt got massive results with a little tweeking. Once the day job finishes (in 3 weeks) I intend to go through EVERY effect I perform, one a day and spend a few hours working through each and every bit of them to see if they can be enharnsed.

Fellow performers made a point of saying how well Dan was performing. Everyone found him charming and thinks his style compliments mine and Darrens' perfectly. We both dealt with all kinds of different participants from those who wanted deep intnece powerful magic to those who were maybe not in the best of moods (and soon were in good moods and wanted more powerful rich resonant magic)

Overall the day was fantastic with a broad range of magic and participants. It showed how learning your basics thoroughly is important as we both made adjustments whilst performing which you can only do when you have a solid grounding in an art. Defiantly one of those days that makes me glad I'm a magician and wants  me to learn and study even more!