Rachel (in 4th grade, age 9) asked me to post her act, for all you experts to check out ...and maybe you can offer her some performance tips. Feel free to be candid / honest.

Click her to view Rachel's act

..and in addition to any comments you might make in this thread,
it would mean a *lot* to Rachel if you'd type a short comment
just below the video player on the youtube page here.

thank you!
Mark (Rachel's dad)

GREAT routine. Your opening was a better performance than almost all of the performers I've seen who are twice your age. I really liked how you used the newspaper for multiple effects. It made it more than just a prop for a specific trick. However, the ONLY things I would have done differently would have been including the newspaper once more, for example, instead of the change bag. I was also surprised you did not do a torn and restored Newspaper, lol. But these are minor, and you were great!

Rachel has real talent. That was outstanding!

-JoeJoe

Good Job! I liked the ending with the flag.

That was one delightful performance!

Rachel, I can only repeat what has been said above - delightful and refreshing.
Best of luck with your future in magic.

Dave

Very good.

I would shorten the dancing hank routine next time. But also, clip the video at the part where the curtin closes.

That was absolutely wonderful!!! I LOVE the energy and body language she put in the dancing hank... GREAT JOB!!!

Uncle Harry upstaged by a 9 year old. Who woulda thunk?

Gdw:
Thanks for your great input,and that's a good idea
to keep continuity by doing Mismade Flag
with the newspaper instead of a change bag.
Oh and thanks for posting a comment to YouTube!

JoeJoe:
Thanks for your comments here and on YouTube!
About the floating necktie in your avatar photo,
is that similar to Ballerina Hank?

martin1025:
We retrofitted an "Appearing 8-foot pole" into a flagpole.
It's a little tricky to set it though, but once its set,
the performance is as easy as doing it without the retrofit.

karthik:
Thanks for your kind words!

Daveandrews:
The silly-looking creature really adds to your avatar photo.
And so does the elephant. (haha just joking, I'm sure
you've delivered your fair share of the classic vent
line: "hey who's the dummy here")
Anyways Dave, thanks man for your comments.

Justin Style:
Good suggestion to shorten the Ballerina Hank routine.
Rachel is definitely going to do that.
About your comment: "clip the video at the part where the curtin closes", do you mean after the appearing 8-foot flagpole?

Father Photius:
Rachel will love what you wrote. I assume Uncle Harry
refers to Blackstone. From the last line of your post here
I take it that Uncle Harry is up in your family tree heritage?

Michael Paul:
Thanks for your kind words. About the body language...
you may have noticed in the video that Rachel dedicated
her act to her magic teacher Diane Lane (here in San Diego)
who passed away a few months before the variety show.
Diane always encouraged Rachel to put style and flair into
hand gestures and body motions. I wish Diane could have seen
Rachel doing it on stage! (though I'm sure she was watching)

It's actually something new I've been working on, I haven't really named it other than "floating knot" (need something clever to call it). You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJlh5AluERk

-JoeJoe

Rachel was truly magical!

I can't thank you enough for sharing the magic your delightful daughter did for her school.

It was a wonderful demonstration of many great effects by a truly charming performer.

I was taken aback at the level of sophistication and aplomb in one so very young.

Bravo! Bravo!

Rachael you are now my first lady of magic
the godfather.

Great job. I Have been performing for 25 years now and have never seen a 9 yr old with the talent that you Have. Keep up the good work.

I really like that, wish I was that good a her age. One bit of advice is if you must use a stand mic move it next to the table so you don't have to walk back and forth.

Gil Scott

Much better than the women I've seen on Masters of Illusion.

Mark without know this post here's my thread start

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=217

Yes in my post though her act was flawless really like her shaking her head and hand at the mismade flags, but yes get a headset mic. As I said that wasn't your girl's fault though. Yes I though it was a appearing poll with a flag attached. See my post Rachel too. Happy Easter...JESUS HAS RISEN ! Ed, (Eddini), C.H.

Ed:
Thanks man! Great to hear your wonderful comments and very specific input and suggestions. About the bad audio... during the performance the audio was loud and very clear. The audience had no problem with it. However I unfortunately I had left my camcorder's directional mic at home, and the built-in mic had picked up much noise from the audience to my front left and right. The audio on our video recording was pretty good, say A- or B+ however it seems even worse when hearing it out of sync with lip movements. (see below)

As for the audio being out-of-sync with the video: That's a common problem when uploading videos to YouTube. As many of us know, it can take hours, even up to a half day or more, to upload a 10 minute video. (this is addressed in YouTube's Help/FAQs) I believe the long upload times occur because YouTube has bazillions of uploads going on, and they multi-task their bandwidth among all current uploading processes. It seems that when my uploads take longer, the audio is almost always out of sync. But when the uploads go quicker, the audio comes out okay.



kentfgunn, vinsmagic, MagicB1S, and markmiller:
Thanks guys for your GREAT input and compliments! As I said before, your encouragement goes a long way
with Rachel.



Gil:
thx for your kind words, and for the mic stand tip.


thank you!
Mark (Rachel's dad)