I’ve been a hobbyist magician for some time now, but I’ve never performed for a large group of people. Today I just performed my first birthday party, with about 20 – 25 people (kids and parents), not to mention camcorders. A friend was having a birthday party for her son and asked if I would come and do some magic. Being that I was doing it for free, I figured that I would only do about 20 minutes.

I did a variation of “Vanishing Bandana”, “Signed Bill in Lemon” and a coin routine. Figuring that they are fun routines and they burn up time. I actually thought if I messed anything up it would be “Signed Bill in Lemon”. I was using an automatic knife (aka switchblade) and the knife failed to open. So I reached into my case and retrieved my backup fixed blade knife and continued. Everything went well, up to the last routine, that is where Murphy's Law, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” came into play.

The last routine, coin magic… something that I do all the time is what nailed me. I failed to practice bending over so that a small child (birthday boy) could see. The very last part of the routine when I was producing a large coin, I missed catching the coin. It fell to the floor and the only thing that the birthday boy said was, “Can I keep it?” I had planned on letting him have it anyhow as a souvenir.

Anyhow, my worst critic (my wife) said she thought everything went well. Saying that I spoke loud enough, funny and even recovered good enough when I dropped the large coin. The free 20 minute performance turned into a real learning experience.

Oh, by the way… The signed bill that was used was $100, I was told to keep it. Not a bad tip at all. I would like to thank Steve Brooks for his posting of “Classic Bill in Lemon”. I never performed it before and his posting really helped a lot.

Congratulations on a job well done! Maybe others will remember you and start asking you to perform at THEIR next birthday party.

This is valuable experience for you and will go a long way in instilling confidence in your ability to perform in front of others.

You are very welcome. Glad I could be of help if even in but a small way.
Regarding your experience with the gaffed knife, that's something that could happen to anyone and one of the reasons I avoid using them - live and learn.
Anyway, congrat's on the show and the nice $100 tip.

Congrat's...