|
|
WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
It was Saturday evening and we were hosting a dinner party. This would be the first time I would perform that my performance would actually be anounced and people would then turn their attention to the table and me!
The time finally came. I was nervous. Everyone there were friends of ours, but still, I did not want to make any mistakes. To my surprise, I did not mess up at all from the audience perspective, but sadly, I did mess up from what I rehearsed. I started the show off with a D'Lite sequence. I just recently got the 2 gimmicks and felt it good to try it out, but I was worried that I will be caught out. My friend was at our house earlier the week and I performed a sequence to him. He was quite close and he could not tell how it was done. This made me feel a lot less worried that I will be caught. My reheased sequence worked out perfectly, excpet for one part when I was suppose to place the light in my hand and make it vanished. I was suppose to slip the gimmick off and ditch it in my pocket as I did with the first one, but my thump got stuck and pressed activated the gimmick, but I just carried on by just repeating my rehearsed move straight after that. I don't think anyone caught on. The only thing that I was (or maybe still am a bit) worried about is the moves I did when ditching the gimmicks. I tossed the ball of light into my right hand, then tossed it from my right hand into the air and my eyes were watching it as if I'm watching a real ball that I was about to catch. I turned my body slightly, and whilst all attention was on my right hand (hopefully), with my left hand I slipped the left hand's gimmick into my back pocket. When it came to the second gimmick, I did a kind of "put and take" move like with sponge balls. I put the ball of light in my left hand and shook my hand a bit and at the same time I asked my audience to "blow". When all this happened I dithced the second gimmick in my back pocket. What I am basically worried about is the fact that they might have seen these sitches. My friend did, pure because he new the gimmicks and he wanted to see how I was going to dithc them. My wife, the only other person who knows the gimmicks, did not see how they were ditched. Next came a sponge ball routine. I started off my turning a sponge rabbit into a sponge ball, which was perfect except once again I am worried that maybe they saw me ditch the bunny in my back pocket. Everything else went fine untill one part in the sequence. The sequence called for me to put two balls in my hand and one in my pocket, only to reveal there are three in my hand. I did it fine the first time, but the second time I did not drop the secret load into my hand. I realised this before putting the third ball into my pocket, so I just continued to put the third ball in my hand again and asking them how many in my hand. The answer came "three". I just went on and did the sequence I was suppose to do, followed by the final sequence where, by now, they think there will be three in my hand only to reveal there are none! I don't think they caught on either as I mananaged to make it look as though it was part of the sequence. What followed next was 3 card tricks. I started off wih "Further than that" followed by "Las Vegas Leaper" and ending with "The Insurance Policy". These actually went as rehearsed. I ended the show off with "Gregory Wilson's Ring Leader". The only comment my firend made, this was ofciurse after the show, was that when I did a certain move (the one Gregory Wilson calls "That ring thing", well the woman in the video actually named it this). My friend said that when I did the move, one of the other guys had a "Hey, that move seemed a bit fishy" look on his face. Apart from my friend, all of the other people there were friends with my wife first and she assures me that if they did see anything, they would surely call me on it. I know that one girl in particular is not afraid to voice her opinion. When I got my first lot of tricks, which included invisible thread, she walked up to me and waved her hand above the bill, causing it to move around, and she did not call me on anything. Although they did not react as lively as the previous group I performed for, my wife told me that one of her friend had like a "frozen" look on her face and the other kept on looking at her shaking her head and a third girl did ask her "How does he do it?" She just said that she doesn't know - I trained her well ;-) The crowd did seem to react well to the jokes I made. All in all it seemed to have been a great 15 minute show. So what did I learn: Before performing a trick, make sure you know it well enough so that if something does not go according to what you rehearsed, you will be able to make the mistake look like part of the performance. When you do ditch something ar do a "sneaky" move, you msut know how to do that move in your sleep. You must do it wothout thinking about it, because when you think about it some of your focus and attention will go to that move and the slightest bit of focus might cause your audienece to focus on the move. Not all audiences react the same.
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
mimo67 Veteran user France 322 Posts |
Thanks very much again for your sharings here, I love to read those because I'm a beginner in performing too and I'm glad that others struggle too their way into performing magic ... (sorry my english isn't perfect)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~MiMo~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
muse Special user Scotland 925 Posts |
It's good to read how things went for you. Well done for incorporating the small variations as they happened
|
Yekrats Loyal user Dayton, Indiana 209 Posts |
Thanks for the run-down. This sort of play-by-play is helpful for the rest of us who trailing behind you. ;-)
--
Corporate or event magic & mentalism: http://WizardoftheWabash.com |
Blackghost83 New user Selden, NY 36 Posts |
This is a very valuable post. It holds a very good lesson:do not let that which is not planned scare you.
When asked, "Would anybody play cards with you today?" Ricky Jay simply responded, "Sure."
"Silly People." |
D Walker Regular user 124 Posts |
It sounds like this was a very good experience. I think it is important to remember that a mistake is only a problem if you tell the audience. It sounds like you covered your errors nicely.
Have you notice less shaking as you are getting more time in front of an audience? |
WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
I definately didn't shake as much. I felt the nerves, but that's about it. I sat down and sort of scripted exactly what I was going to say and so on. That helped alot!
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
DavidLynn New user Rural Victoria, Aus-(Oz)-tralia 43 Posts |
WV,
Scripting will go a loooooooooong way to overcoming your shakes. The fact that you take the time to write a script and keep fairly much too it develops memory! ie Your show will flow smoothly because your mind will be linking, from the script, what comes next, thus mind blanks are less common and your over all confidence skyrockets. Making mistakes......... Well only you know it was a mistake. Most times the audience have never seen you do a trick, your way, so they are most likely to miss the "mistake" because they don't know your script. Even your wife missed it, and wifes see EVERY thing. Your final words are a resounding gong in my head. Every book I read, DVD I see, fellow magician I talk too, all say " practice practice practice." Even I'm saying it now.... Regards Dave |
viler Regular user Norway 186 Posts |
Hi WV
This was a sure pleasure to read. Very well written. regards Vidar |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » New to magic? » » I performed! Part 2 (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.04 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |