Has anyone tried wearing a cloak while doing street magic?

They are very warm after a short while. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast right off the beach... it's a bad thing.

They also tend to be a bit cumbersome in windy environments.

If your persona is somewhat dark and mysterious it can help with the effect, but it can also be a bit off-putting to some people.

They can aid in the flash necessary for drawing a crowds, though. I've mixed cape twirls and throwing fire to catch the attention of quite a few people when working places where there are a lot of buskers vying for the spectators limited attention ( such as New Orleans, etc. ) In those instances, I wear a full length fire red cape that I had custom made with "special" things.

Hope that helped.

I would not recomend wearing a cloak. Picture this you're walking down the street and you see this guy standing on the sidewalk wearing this great big hooded cloak, Do you

A:stand and watch?

or...

B:Try to get away from this wacko as quick as you can?

I think most people would pick B

Hi,
I tend to wear a short Elizabethan style cloak while doing renfair magic. It comes down to about a foot below my waist and can pushed back over the shoulders when I need clear views of the hands. It's great to cover ditches while you turn, but the lining flashes doing some moves which can provide unintentional misdirection (of course you can always make use of that fact or have a black lining). I imagine you could do a great zombie ball routine by just using the cloak and there would doubtless be other routines that would lend themselves to it (the cloak and knife for example or just flinging it flat on a table and then flinging it back and producing something), not to mention bullfighter type flourishes if you're up to it (I sure am not and it probably wouldn't suit most people). There are actually numerous varieties of cloaks and you have quite a few options in terms of coverage etc. I favour the short, wrap around type (bullfighter in a way)because they are manageable (sort of). Note that you also will have handling difficulties depending on the weight of the cloak and that a good cloak is not necessarily simple to make. On the positive side, think of what you could hide in the lining with a topit arrangement. I'm looking at an upgrade of mine now mainly because of the weight and also there are few, er, technical modifications I'd like made.

Payne and Mumblepeas on the list may be able to tell you more as I gather they do a fair bit of the renfair stuff.

I've never worn a cloak while perfoming for two reasons
1. It would hinder my movements. Tippets and Bell Sleeves are bad enough (and I've stopped puttting them on my costumes for that reason) so I think a cloak would be just as bad, if not worse.
2. There warm and I perform mainly in the summer. Having to wear a woll doublet in 90 degree heat is bad enough. A cloak wuld only exasperate this situation.

If a cloak suits your performing style and character then go for it but I would cut one out of an old sheet to see if it moves well with you before going to the expense of having one made

Interesting thread! I do some street magic at times here. I do a comedy levitation with my kids and for that I introduce myself as the "Greatest Magician on Earth" and come out from behind somewhere with a long cape and a pointed hat. For that it works well for me seems to fit the character I'm portraying at the time.
JoJo

David_Libertine
I make all my own costumes and suits for various things(buisness, prom, halloween, theater) but have yet to make my "magic suit" I already have a cape and a cloak that I made and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sending me a pm with the best "special things" that you put in yours or others that you think I might be able to use. thanks

check out the great grandfatehr of magic himself: Robert Houndin. He has moe secret pockets and the like then anyone would ever guess, even if u were thinking about it! And he knows how to use each and every one of them...great stuff!

~Spiff