A libray wants me to do a pirate show in july, in most of my shows I just change the routines but I can't think of any routines so I thought I would have a pirate suit on and stuff. But I need some things that would go good with a show like that I have a circus wagon that I uselly use my birds in it but I thought about getting paper and make it look like a boat or a treasure trunk and producing gold coins or somting what do you guys think?
Kyle

Oh, PIRATE! I was racking my brains on that one! I think there are lots of routines using a pirate theme. I'm sure it's been discussed before.

How much does a pirate earing cost?
A BUCK AN EAR!!

I think you should think out the script first...what is the storyline? Why are you there? What's the point of the story...does each trick help tell the story appropriately?
I have about a zillion scripts I've written for various tricks over the years for different shows...at a certain point if you start doing this it's great to be able to pull old bits and turn them into new shows...
Have you started writing a script? Do you normally use one? Some don't, so I just wanted to ask.....
Chris

I typically use some sort of storyboard script. It may be totally scripted word for word and it may be very loose. It really depends on which effect I am doing and if my lights and music will be a part of it. Some of my act is totally in sync to sound effects/music and a script. Others are all loose and I work the audience or the volunteer. A pirate theme would be kewl. I've always loved "Talk like a pirate" day. Arrrrrr matey, shiver me fingers when I'm cold!

I think Chris is right on the money with this one. When doing a themed act.. or any act for that matter... it helps to do your homework first. This means to really define your character. Are you a bad pirate, good pirate? Are you a cook onboard the ship? What is your character and what is his background? This will make a difference on what stories will be told and how you act and your mannerisms during the show.

You then need to figure out once you defined the character, what stories you want to tell to your audience? What journeys are you going to take them on and how do these themes reflect back upon the character? Everything you do must reflect back to the character you are portraying. You must ask yourself if this character would do this certain thing and if he or she did, how would they go about it.

Once the character and the themes come together, you really have a great point in which to develop some great ideas to fit the storylines and scripts you come up with.

Kyle

I did a pirate show the other day right next to an old ship - The Polly Woodside - at Melbourne's Maritime museum ( and what a merry time it was!)

I themed my show along these lines:
I had been on the island of Smiggle Smoggle and there must have been some kind of curse there (what's a pirate without a curse?) because all these funny things had been happenning, and I go into my usual clown magic routines. The crowd was about 150 kids and they loved it! For some reason people laugh even more when I'm not dressed up as a clown and they're not expecting me to be funny!

It was a real challenge because the crowd was already waiting when I arrived. They must have been waiting for a while because some kids had been throwing rocks at the stage. But I got right into explaining the HUGE fight/battle/war I had been in for control of the magic EGGS! (that got a huge laugh!)

If you begin with the right level of energy you don't even need to do all those so called warm up routines. (I once saw a guy do a so called pirate magic show with 45 minutes of warm ups followed by 3 magic tricks: silk and underwear trick, coloring book, and professor's nightmare.)

Scripting everything is good, or at least an outline so there is some sort of ****inuity.

Continuity

Tom, That sounds great. Can you fill us in a bit more about your character you portrayed and what his story was? It seems you thought this out ahead of time and therefor the audience could relate well to you and the stories of magic you were telling to them. Nicely done.

Kyle

Aaarrrh. Me thinks the ale and drinks do flow aplenty. Bring me that topsy turvey bottle of grog and have ourselves a good time me mates. Bongo's hat grows on me and tends to look the part ye hearties.

Put together your story and build the show around it. Mostly I wore the costume and went from there. Just remember Kids Just Want To Have FUN.

Martin

There have been a few previous threads discussing pirate themed routines .

Take a look to get some ideas for your pirate show at the library :

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=17

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......;forum=3

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=17

The Trickery (and other dealers) sell the Enchanted Treasure Chest effect , which seems like a natural fit for this type of themed show :

http://www.thetrickery.com/?nd=full&key=5586

This treasure chest is large and could be used to magically produce a lot of the other objects you would use in the show . If you know how the tip over principle works (see Tarbell Course ) and you are handy with tools you could probably build one yourself by adapting one of the faux treasure chests available at import stores such as Pier 1 .

I have a trick on my site http://www.kenscottproducts.com that is called book of treasures. Basically it is reading trick that uses the coloring book principal but it has a pirates treasure chest that turns into pirates gold coins.

Ken

If there will be some good readers present, you might take a look at Dan Harlans "Captain Dred"

Kyle, I did put a little bit of thought into my routine.

It was while I was driving to the gig.

Captain Swordfish had travelled to many lands and had visited many strange places including the land of SmiggleSmoggle. There he picked up a silly curse which made his cannon balls turn into juggling balls. He tried them out and sure enough they were juggling balls. Or were they the famous Eggs that the battle of the eggs had been about? Maybe he'd better check. when he looked at the juggling balls again they had turned into spring snakes. AAARHHGG! then he went to get his sword. It had turned into a wand. then the wand fell apart! then it grew red flowers out of one end! Finally he had had enough! He ripped the flowers off and THEY GREW BACK! More ripping, this time yelling at the wand : NO MORE RED FLOWERS! They grew back, but this time they were yellow!


When doing a routine like this interspersed with magical effects, but not saying, "I'm doing a magic trick for you" it provides great entertainment, but I had a 5 yr old come up and say "You didn't do any magic." However the 7 and 8 year olds will come up and ask "Is it REAL magic?"

Thanks for all the replays Im workin on the scprit as we speek.