Tony S
Special user
New York
582 Posts
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Posted: Aug 10, 2005 03:16 pm
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Quote: On 2005-08-09 07:51, Andy Walker wrote:
When children interrupt your performance with irrelevant statements it is because their mind is thinking irrelevant thoughts. Minds wander off when they are not anticipating what is about to happen next.
This is a sign your show is too much of a series of unrelated events. Make sure all your actions have a clear apparent reason behind them. The minute you do something without your audience knowing why you loose a lot of entertainment value. You need have some type of plot into your act so they will be thinking about how the conflict in your presentation is going to be resolved. Keep them anticipating what is about to happen. You might want to expose the children to some information that you apparently don’t know. You can also foreshadow the exciting events about to happen like mentioning you will be looking for polite children to help do some magic. This also gets them thinking about what might be happening next.
If they are thinking about what might happen next they won’t interrupt with irrelevant statements. They may then interupt with relevant statements & those can even be expected or encouraged & built into the fabric of your routine. That way the performance feels spontaneous. The children get to interact & it is all part of your script anyway.
Great post, Andy. I try to build a lot of audience participation into my show, and am always looking for ways to add more. I've found that when performing for children it's always a great idea to involve the whole audience as much as possible. This will keep the kid's attention and will keep them anticipating the next time they will get to be 'part of the show.' I also agree with what you said about 'spontaneous' interaction with the kids. I always find it amazing that so many different children will react to a routine in the same way. Any time you know how they are going to react you can use it to create the feeling of spontaneity.
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Tony S
Special user
New York
582 Posts
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Posted: Aug 10, 2005 03:22 pm
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Quote: On 2005-08-08 21:36, magic4u02 wrote:
It has been discussed before, but I have no problem trying to shed some light on it again for you and ofer some advice that has worked for me. Perhaps it can work for you as well and others can chime in with helpful links or other advice also.
You are right in the fact that most kids do not realize or find that what they are doing is not appropriate for you the performer. They react to you because they want to tell you things and feel special in doing so. In most cases they mean you no harm.
How can you set ground rules to help handle some of this? Well I do this in several ways which I would like to list here:
- First, as soon as I walk into any place, I tell myself that I must be professional. This does not mean I turn it on just when the show starts. It happens from the moment I make the first call to the parent or client and continues well after the performance is over.
Being a professional means that I must show respect to everyone if I expect to get that same respect back to me. This even applies to children. I show them respect and I listen to them when I get there. I encourage them to ask me questions if they so desire cause it sparks there curiosity. If they ask questions before the show, then I can usually get it out of their system before the show starts.
Kids probably have not seen that many magicians before and you may be the very first magician they have ever seen. So it is natural for them to be curious and want to share things with you.
- I also make sure that I am not "stand-offish" to the kids when I arrive. By this I mean I do not distance myself to them. I shake their hands and I ask them if they are having a good time and if they enjoy magic. By doing so, I am showing that I am a nice guy and that we are there to have fun. In a way they are making friends with me and I with them.
In this manner, by the time the show starts, we already know each other and I can gain a much better repoire with them. this also stanslate well when I want them to quiet down etc. They are more apt to do this if they know I am friendly and a nice guy and have shown them respect early on.
- When the show starts, I do my opener number and then my standard intro. My intro is structured in such a way to set the ground rules for the show but in a non-harmful way. Too many magicians lecture to the kids and place demands on them. I do not do this. My method is setting ground rules in a fun manner in which I stay in character, I do not lecture to them and they realize my rules are not really rules to them at all. They find them to just be part of the way to have a great show.
I simply state that there are 3 ways in which we select our helpers to come up and help us work our magic. If you would like to be a helper we ask you to follow 3 simple rules. 1) you have to be seated like you all are right now. 2) you have to have your hand raised so we know you want to help out and 3) you have to have a really big smile on your face. If you can follow those simple and fun rules, you might be the person we select to work magic with us.
That is pretty much it. It is stated light hearted and it is not lecturing to the kids nor and I coming off as demanding things on them. Notice how I never once said you muct shut up, you must be quiet you must not talk. Those to me come off the wrong way.
I get the children to remain quiet simply by forcing them to smile if they want to help. When a child smiles, they can not be talking. It works very well for my wife and I.
- Use of reinforcement. By this I mean you reinforce your simple rules throughout the show. If the group gets noisy, you simply have to say.. remember how we pick our good helpers? They immediately remember and you see them sitting down, hands up and smiling. In a fun way, they recall your rules cause they want to have fun with you on stage. It is this simple reinforcement that can gain you back some control if you need it.
- The art of talking softly. If you feel the children are still getting too noisy for you, then you do the exact opposite. You start to talk softly. As you talk softly, you will be amazed at how the audience quiets down with you in order to hear what you are saying. It is pyschological in nature but it does indeed work.
- If a child does say something in the show, do not always ignore it. Sometimes ignoring it can only encourage the child to do it more often. In most cases I will listen and then address their question easily. I might say.. oh your grandad does magic.. that is really great.. he must be a great and fun guy.. but let us get back to our own fun and we can talk about others questions after the show ok? great thanks. I am pleasant to them and I address the question with a nice calm answer. It works well for me.
- When a child has said I have seen this before... it does not usualy mean I have seen this so there for I do not want to see it again cause it will bore me. Quite the opposite is what they really are trying to say to you. I have found in most cases, that them telling you they have seen it before, often means that they recognize a trick similar to it and they liked it a lot and they want to see it again. Do not always take this as a bad thing.
I hope some of this helps. It by all means is not a golden rule book on how to handle situations. These are simply things I have learned over the years that have worked for me and perhaps may work for others.
Kyle
Kyle - there's a lot of great information in this post. I've read it a few times and I'm sure there's many of us here who can learn a thing or two from it. Talking softly is not something I have tried, but will when the need presents itself. Thanks for sharing this.
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magic4u02
Eternal Order
Philadelphia, PA
15110 Posts
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Posted: Aug 11, 2005 12:02 am
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Thank you so much for the kind words Tony. I hope some of these ideas may help you or might help others as well. they are just things I have learned or tried over the years that seem to work well for me in most any inatance. The biggest tip I can give is to be professional and show respect to gain respect.
If you try any of the ideas, let me know how they work out for you.
Kyle
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