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Lord Anacho Regular user Kessel-Lo, Belgium 157 Posts |
Hi all
Friday before last, I performed for the First time. As you might have read elsewhere on this forum, I recently became a member of a magic society, a Belgian club called Lucky Ring. Twice a year they host what they call a ‘public evening’. It is a free evening to promote the society’s working. Some 100 (lay) persons are invited and are seated at tables. The idea is that the member magicians get a chance to practice their table hopping skills. They each are assigned a table, perform for eight minutes, then there’s a seven minute break to reset, and then they switch to another table. They perform four times, then there’s a 30 minute break and then they work three more tables. The evening ends with a short stage show and a raffle. As I am the most recent member of the society and being a beginner I opted not to take part. I was going to be there to help out at the till, the bar, capture the performances on camera, help out with the raffle, cleaning up... Be part of the society and doing my bit. No magic, just observing, helping out, paying my learning dues so to speak. Fate intervened. Barely did I arrive at the venue or the club’s mentor, Freddy came to me and informed me that one of the guys couldn’t make it. They were a performer short and could I fill in? I hadn’t rehearsed, I hadn’t practiced, I had been working all day around my house … I had sworn never to make any beginner’s mistakes such as performing without rehearsal. Freddy wouldn’t have any of it. “Do you have a deck of cards with you?” “Well … yes, I never leave home without it”. I actually brought a small attaché case with two decks and a close up mat. Must have had a premonition. “Well,“ Freddy said, “I’ve seen you do some card tricks at the society’s meetings and you’ll be fine. Get ready.” It’s crazy, it’s against good performing practice, but what could I do? I did not want to let the guys down … and when you’re a performer, shouldn’t you perform? So I performed. With eight minutes there is just enough time for a small routine of three card tricks. Now I must write a letter of thanks to Mr. Roberto Giobbi for he is the one that saved my neck. My routine was: 1. ‘T.N.T.’ out of Card College Light. (First trick of the first routine in the book). This is an impossible location effect. When I performed this at the society’s meeting, it floored the guys so I guessed this would be OK. 2. ‘Intuition’ out of Card College Light. (Second trick of the first routine). An Out of This World variation. Here I was going to commit an even greater sin, for I was going to perform this without having rehearsed it at all. Nil, nada, zero seconds rehearsal time. All I had done was: I read the description in Giobbi. I know, a cardinal sin. 3. Court Card Conclave (Chapter three of volume 1 of Giobbi’s Card College). This is a very quick and visual closer that looks like awesome manipulation, but all you need is one false cut. I had two things going for me. Primo, the audience was looking forward to seeing some magic, so there was no need to sell them to the idea. They were eager to see some magic and mostly not of the challenging, I-am-going-to-burn-your-hands type. Secundo, I have many years experience in acting, both on the big stage in theatre companies as in intimate solo poetry recital performances. So was there raised adrenaline? You bet. Incapacitating stage fright? Not a bit. Truth be told: table hopping, it’s a whole other ballgame. The close proximity to the audience, and the need to pick up on their reactions is a very different thing from reciting a memorised text on the big stage, secure and away from the audience, protected by the floodlights. Also, the spectators were a very mixed bunch. Children, adults, highbrow engineers, relatives (not mine), and thanks be to High Heaven, only one magician in the audience. I was particularly wary of the children. My presentations tend to be quite intellectual, posh words, some rhetoric and all. Now kids are smart, I’m not belittling them, but I was afraid to be talking over their heads. One good thing, the kids were never sitting alone at a table, they were always accompanied by elders. Now for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Let’s start with the good stuff. The evening was a success for everyone. Audience and magicians had a good time throughout. There was one other beginner in the society, who was scheduled to appear and hence was properly prepared and from what I hear he did a decent job. There was the odd glitch here and there amongst the guys, a rope tangling when it should untangle, a card dealt face up instead of face down, even a goldfish falling to the floor instead of landing in a glass. (Beastie survived the ordeal, never worry.) As I was so immersed in the job, I did not get to check out the other performers which I regret a lot. My own work went smoothly and was well received. I started out at each table by stating my name, telling them I was the newest member, that I was a beginner and you can be very sure that I informed them I was a last minute drop-in. Begging for the sympathy vote so to speak. For the first effect I could use this situation to my advantage. “I can’t do fancy manipulations like the other guys, a simple cut is all I can manage, like this”. And I cut the deck and plunge into the trick. This way I could preserve my setup and didn’t need to do a false shuffle. However, nobody challenged me on not shuffling the deck, not once in the entire evening. To continue with the first effect, I inform the spectators that magicians use a strange language among themselves. They call tricks by name for referral purposes, but this trick has a name meant for the audience, it is called ‘Not Quite Correct’. And then I can really get on with the trick. The repetition of the ‘Not Quite Correct’ gets laughs (and bewilderment). The impact on the audience is very strong. It really is an impossible location. For audience participation, I tell them at the end that I will locate their cards in 5 seconds and I let them do the countdown. The routine is well thought out and after finishing the first effect, I only need to gather the chosen cards, reassemble the deck and I am automatically set for the second effect. This Out-of-This-World variation is also a stunner as the action takes place in the hands of two audience members. Especially at my last two tables I got the reaction we all crave: wide eyes and dropping jaws. These effects take some time and the eight minutes are almost used up. So I end with a quickie. Court Card Conclave is a nice effect and is easy to do. My presentation continues in the ‘unrehearsed, thrown-to-the-lions, beginner’ slant as I state that for honours purpose I will attempt to show them a manipulation. I stack the cards and show the pairs, do the false cut and state that I will manipulate ‘not with one, not with two, but with 12 cards at once and all it takes is a double somersault and half a twist!’ I turn the deck over twice one-handed and with the aid of the other hand I twist it 180 degrees. Then I show all court cards to be nicely paired. Always got a nice reaction on this one. But now for the bad. My only excuse is that I was not scheduled to perform. Hence, presentation and patter were totally improvised. As it is, in a fast moving, table-hopping environment, the T.N.T. effect is a bit too long winded. It takes a long time before any magic takes place. Were I to repeat such a performance, (and for the next year I will be ready), I would surely choose another effect to act as an opener. On the other hand it does take some guts to do this one. I turn my back to the audience whilst two spectators give the deck a single cut. If somebody wants to get at me, it is very easy to mess up the entire trick, by giving the deck a triple cut or even a quick shuffle. I had the chance to review a bit of my performance the next week in the club’s meeting as it was caught on a camcorder. A very good learning experience. I looked confident enough but I spoke too fast. (An error not uncommon with me, when I have to improvise). With a properly rehearsed presentation, I know that I will speak slower. Body language could be better too. I often caught myself leaning on my fists on the table like some giant overweight gorilla. And now for the ugly. Of my 7 tables the T.N.T. trick failed once. I was only able to retrieve one of the chosen cards. As luck would have it was exactly that performance that was caught on tape, so I could analyse the problem. One of the spectators has to deal the deck in two piles and this has to be done correctly or I am in trouble. On the tape I could see him (inadvertently, he wasn’t out to get me) messing up the deal. And I didn’t notice it on the spot. Thanks to my initial patter I could play on the sympathy vote that I had established and state that ‘one out of two cards isn’t too bad for a beginner.’ The problem was that I couldn’t follow up with the second effect as the deck was messed up. Maybe later, when I can cull cards as a pro, this might not be a problem, but then again if I can do that, then I would have expertise enough to switch to some sleight of hand impromptu effect. On that table that evening, all I could do was play for time. Making some wisecracks and doing the third effect reeeaaaalll ssssllloooowwww… I was literally saved by the bell. Audience management is also a necessary skill. On another table one spectator looked at her cards prior to the Out Of This World effect! I managed to save the day by having her giving the cards to someone else to deal and praying to High Heaven that she would keep quiet (which she did). But I am pretty sure she spilled the beans after I left the table. And yes, you can be sure that on the next tables I chose my wording very carefully, so that nobody would be inclined to look where they shouldn’t. To summarise. Notwithstanding the fact that necessity made me break basic magic guidelines (performing without rehearsal), I think I did reasonably well. It was a good learning experience. I can now re-examine the effects and change handling and wording to make them more foolproof. To my amazement I discovered that I didn’t really get a big kick out of performing. True, out of my acting experience I think I am better suited for the stage. Then again, as a beginner, I am just making my first steps. Who knows what I will grow to like in the art? Ciao for now Erik
"The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything" (Alfred Borden in The Prestige)
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Ed_Millis Inner circle Yuma, AZ 2292 Posts |
Erik, you have me very impressed!! To go out there with no more preparation that you had was stepping into the lion's den - but you made it back out safe. And it appears even better than before.
I think the one thing that I will take away from your story is that *you* were prepared as a _performer_, though not necessarily as a magician. You drew upon years of experience in other arenas, and let the actual "magic tricks" go where they would go - because they were going to anyway! Others have come home from lesser challenges and vowed never to touch magic again. You have weathered this and come out stronger and more determined. I know such times will be coming my way as I begin to perform - I hope I fare as well s you. Thank you for sharing you story. Ed |
deadcatbounce Special user the Wilds of Ireland 863 Posts |
Well done, Eric. It's nice that you had a "cultivated" audience - one that was there specifically for the magic. That gets the problem of rejection when you approach a table out of the way, and when your'e starting off, it's a crusher to get a refusal when you approach a table. You probably also had a bit of advantage, having space on the table to work with. In a restaurant, this can sometimes be a problem - so you have to perform the magic in your own hands, liek Professors Nightmare, for example..or youcan improvise with a plate on top of a beer glass so everyone can see, and so on.
Now that you've been "christened" - get out there, do it again, and do it better! Good luck! DCB
"With every mistake - we must surely be learning..." George Harrison.
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MattSconce Special user 654 Posts |
Wow! Trial by fire indeed! Congrats on performing and it seems like you learned a lot!
Other effects:
http://www.penguinmagic.com/magician/matt-sconce |
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