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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
So I was doing a levitation for my old nanny, who is about to get married, and as I span hoops around the object, she was amazed. I've gotten very good at levitation's and such.
She asked me if I wanted to perform a bit at her wedding, and I said yes. (because I was excited I suppose) Yet I have no real plan. Any suggestions on where to get started? What do I need to build/buy? What would you do in this situation? Any help is much welcomed Quote:
When is the wedding? 3 months. Plenty of time, I'm a quick learner. Quote:
Are you getting paid? Probably not. If she offers me some then I won't refuse, but I certainly won't ask for payment. I enjoy magic, and it will be my first "gig". Quote:
Do you have a show that you can actually present? I do not have a stage act yet, though I know how to do many tricks, I do not know where to purchase them, or the equipment for them. For example, I would LOVE to do the floating lightbulb routine, but I do not know how to do a horozontal hookup. All I have is the Tarantula. I could probably do a closeup table hopping act. That would be fun. But I would probably need a few more tricks (with instant reset) first. Any suggestions on that? Tom xx
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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Mary Mowder Inner circle Sacramento / Elk Grove, CA 3659 Posts |
If you can do Close-Up do that. I usually bring many more effects than needed and tend to do the same three or four over and over. If you have three or four bring them and move around the party. Remember to have fun with the people.
It can take longer than you think to develop a Stand-Up set and you don't want to embarrass yourself or your Nanny on her Wedding day. |
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Christopher Lyle Inner circle Dallas, Texas 5698 Posts |
Tom,
There are so many things WRONG about your posts, so I'm just going to give it to you straight. If your offended by my comments, then maybe you'll learn. YOU NEED TO DEVELOP AN ACT! There's a big differnce between being some 17 year old kid who does tricks for friends while roaming the halls at school and being able to entertain an audience. The questions that your asking us just SCREAM "Hi! My name is Tom and I don't know what the (insert F! Bomb here) I'm doing...but I'll do what I can to learn as I go!" Your first post (that I can recall) into the Table Hoppers Section was asking about how to book a resturant, tricks to do, etc. I gave you the benefit of the doubt assuming that you were just trying to gain the knowledge so "someday" you could go out and book restaurant work. Jim Sisti brought up a valid point about WHY are you trying to go out there and find work when you don't even have an act? I said this earlier to you which has obviously fallen on deaf ears. Because I'm an idiot, I will repeat myself. No amount of Magic that you buy will make you a good Magician. READ! The titles that I provided you in the previous thread will provide you with enough materail to put on a 10 hour show chock full of awesomeness! If I were you, I would think very hard about WHO you are and work on developing an act BEFORE you try and accept work. You can't sell a service if you have no service to provide. Christopher
In Mystery,
Christopher Lyle Magician, Comic, Daredevil, and Balloon Twisting Genius For a Good Time...CLICK HERE! |
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pepka Inner circle Uh, I'm the one on the right. 5041 Posts |
Reading Tom's question, I was going to have something thoughtful and insightful to say. After reading Chris's response, there's nothing left to add.
Listen to him, Chris knows his s@*t. |
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stijnhommes Special user 568 Posts |
I once ended up table-hopping at a family wedding. I made the mistake of showing one person a trick and then everyone else wanted to see me perform. The key to making this a succes is to be able to think on your feet. I had a deck of cards on me, but the fact there were paper napkins and coins around helped a lot. Make sure you know a wide variety of effects front to back. You might not need to use them in the end, but it's good to have more effects just in case you can't perform another one for whatever reason.
Christopher is right. Develop an act; start collecting effects you know well and think about how you can present them well for an audience. Three months should be enough time to work something out, but pulling out all the stops is a must. |
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
Interesting how people keep telling me, in CAPS I might add, to develop an act by reading - and yet I kept a party of 10 entertained for half an hour yesterday. A solid act is best, yes, but it develops with time.
Tricks come first, then you develop patter, than the develop the full act. I refuse to go at that in reverse order, I am a good personal performer Quote:
Christopher is right. Develop an act; start collecting effects you know well and think about how you can present them well for an audience. Three months should be enough time to work something out, but pulling out all the stops is a must. Indeed, I agree. But I need to find suitable tricks first. Yesterday I finished gimmicking 52 cards, each one lovingly turned into a "Holy Grail" card. I could have just done one and forced it, but then I cannot show the same trick twice, and the card would wear out. Also, bear in mind I am not selling anything. I would not ask for any money, but I do it to entertain people. I'll give you a list of the tricks I did last night: Skywalker, Holy Grail, Master Prediction System (solo), Tagged, Invisible deck (presented as a mentalist force), Levitations Those tricks were enough for the small party, and thankfully all those years at drama and acting have helped me to think on my feet fast. The Skywalker I saved till last and it actually made two people scream. My only problem at the moment is that I cannot reset all of these tricks instantly, or repeat them to same audience -which sometimes is unavoidable- so I need to find a wider array of tricks. I know you are my senior Chris, and I respect you, but I think you are trying to teach me to set up a routine. Unfortunetly a routine requires tricks that are instant and resetable, and I already have patter and things working.
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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Spinnato Elite user 428 Posts |
Unbelieveable!
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
Well I genuinely don't understand how the mannerisms of a performer come before the performance. Can someone please explain this to me?
Please don't hate me, but for some reason whenever I ask for routine or trick recomendations, people instead say I need to learn patter first, and I think to myself... "What? That makes no sense?" And then things get all messy :s
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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Christopher Lyle Inner circle Dallas, Texas 5698 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-10-26 08:21, Eshla wrote: Yet you refuse to listen to ANYONE who gives you this advice. Quote:
- and yet I kept a party of 10 entertained for half an hour yesterday. A trained monkey could entertain a party of 10 people for 30 minutes as well Tom...are you an artist or are you a chimp? Don't answer that...we already know. Quote:
A solid act is best, yes, but it develops with time. Indeed! You FINALLY hit the nail on the head. It takes time to develop an act. Just when I think it's all starting to sink in, then you turn around and say... Quote:
Tricks come first, then you develop patter, than the develop the full act. I refuse to go at that in reverse order, I am a good personal performer Wow! That has to be the best example of idiocy that I have ever heard. You have it completely BACKWARDS!. To quote Danny Doyle (man I hope his ban is lifted soon as he would have a FIELD DAY with this), "it's all about the sizzle, not the steak!" I had written a full several paragraphs of advice for you...I JUST DELETED ALL OF IT becuase you won't listen. Do whatever you want, but my advice for you is to stop asking us for advice. To ask for advice means that your willing to accept what we're telling you and obviously your not looking for that. Your looking for an ego stroke or for confirmation or something...? Who knows... I've now written you off as a lost cause. Good luck to ya...you're gonna to need it! Still shakin' my head in disbelief, Christopher
In Mystery,
Christopher Lyle Magician, Comic, Daredevil, and Balloon Twisting Genius For a Good Time...CLICK HERE! |
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
I am still waiting for your explanation of how I am meant to develop that routine you wish me to, without know what tricks are appropriate first. You have never mentioned that; instead filling your post with insults.
Please Chris, do not reply to any of my threads again. Its not constructive. Yesterday for example I got a really good bit of advice: "Try involving as many audience members as possible, tricks which can be done across the whole table are best. There's the MPS which can be used to draw in as many people as you like for example, though really any prediction will do. Mentalism is good for you I think, because it can be used the eviroments you request, like surrounded and on the move, with not much reset times and so on." This is GOOD ADVICE. Why? Because it is simple and correct. In the end I used my own version of the MPS to form a story, using everyone around the table. It was fun, quite easy to set up, and entertaining so far as I could tell. From this post I learnt two things: 1. Draw audience members in more often than not, it makes them happy. 2. A new trick recommendation, which turned out to be very fun. Tom xx
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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Christopher Lyle Inner circle Dallas, Texas 5698 Posts |
Tom,
I have not insulted you. If you feel insulted then that's on you. I have tried to provide you with sound advice, as have others. You elect to dismiss everything that people are telling you b/c it's not the advice you "want to hear." It is strange how kids today seem to want to be experts, without learning fundimentals first. Heck, Pete Rose took batting practice EVERY DAY and he was a pretty good hitter as I recall. Knowing "how" tricks are done is not relevant. I know "how" this computer works, but would never try to build or program one. It is this reason that causes magic to be thought of so poorly by the general population. It is worse than exposure. It "exposes" the public to very bad entertainers. Chinese painters used to have to do thousands of brush strokes, then move on to the next and the next and the next, each doing thousands of strokes just to get the feel for them. It is pathetic that guys go into a magic shop and suddenly with a thumb tip, an invisible deck, a routine for a hand chopper and 21 card trick and a business card they now consider themselves a peer. I'm done with this! Per your request, I shall never waste my time responding to any of your lunacy. As I said before...best of luck to you...yer gonna need it! Christopher
In Mystery,
Christopher Lyle Magician, Comic, Daredevil, and Balloon Twisting Genius For a Good Time...CLICK HERE! |
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
Firstly, you were trying blatantly hard to insult me.
Secondly you seem to be one of these people that consider sleight of hand to be the only real magic. I would disagree with that, because everytime I see a great bit of sleight of hand, it has no magical effect. I just think "wow.. nice skill." There's no magic to it however, but when you float a ring in mid-air, rotate hoops around it which are themselves floating, and then have the ring land on the spectators finger... that's impressive to me; because it seems like real magic. I have no doubt that I could perform any trick for you with the utmost skill and dexterity, and you would not consider me a good performer. This is true. It takes a smiley face, a good personality, and a lot of charm to pull it off. Also, what makes you think I don't know the fundamentals? I may not enjoy sleight of hang magic, but I can certainly do it. Though I admit I am having a bit of difficulty with Singularity at the moment. (I always have at least 3 ways of doing each trick, making Singularity necessary) Tom xx
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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RobertlewisIR Veteran user Colorado 367 Posts |
Tom,
I have a lot of respect for your "gung-ho" attitude. Quite honestly, the guy who gets out there and starts performing is probably going to do better than the guy who always second guesses and never thinks he's ready. But Chris' point is certainly valid, that there's a very delicate balance between good ambition and crazy ambition. I'm not going to suggest you've necessarily crossed that line, but you're dancing close to it. And I certainly mean no offense, because I've been the same way both in magic and in my other pursuits. When I wrote my first novel, for instance, I sent it to an agent immediately after finishing it, failing to realize what a steaming pile it actually was. Perhaps you should have waited a bit longer before agreeing to perform in a more formal setting, even without pay. But I'm going to look at the situation from the point of view that you're settled into this deal and going to do it one way or the other, so the best thing to do is figure out a way to make it as good as possible. You've got some time to prepare, so the important thing is to make sure you use that time as fully as possible. That means first, you need to figure out what effects you're going to perform and make sure you can do them in your sleep. I don't care if they're sleight heavy or self-working (whatever THAT means), but they need to be impressive either way. I'd recommend staying off the stage and doing some walkaround work for two reasons. 1) I'm guessing you don't have experience on the stage, so it'll probably be an easier transition. 2) That way you don't need as much material, because you can use the same effect on two different groups at opposite ends of the room. Once you've selected your material, you need to make sure you have a strong presentation. I recommend having a look at some of Eugene Burger's thoughts on the matter. Just to make a point, the Card Warp is a pretty good trick. But when Burger performs it (using his story of the Spanish Inquisition), it's a miracle. The presentation makes the trick, the trick does not make the presentation. So come up with a story, or a strong hook. Make sure it suits your personality and you're not just copying something off a DVD. So stage one, make sure you have quality material. Stage two, practice the hell out of it until you can do it frontwards, backwards, and in your sleep. Stage three, rehearse the hell out of it, adding a strong presentation. It's a little late, perhaps, for this particular performance, but I also recommend reading the Fitzkee Trilogy. Those books are a gold mine of quality information.
~Bob
---------- Last night, I dreamed I ate the world's largest marshmallow. When I woke up, the pillow was gone. |
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
I agree Robert, I was not planning to get a "gig" anytime soon. But when I was asked to do a wedding the word "Yes" just tumbeled from my lips. Its a hard thing to say no too
I agree with you also on the close-up table hopping thing. I do not have any experiance in stage work, and while I have many designs and blueprints, I do not have any stage props at the moment (besides my own version of "One"). I find this post very informative and helpful thank you, its almost like a plan of things to do. The first stage and the last stage will be hard I fear, working out WHAT I am going to do is tricky, and working out WHAT I should say to fit it is tricky. Practicing is the easy bit thankfully. If you have any tips for stages one and three, please tell me. If you don't mind I will PM you, because you seem jolly helpful (god I sound posh...) Tom xx
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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Jamie D Inner circle Ontario, Canada 2292 Posts |
Performing for friends, friends of friends and family is one thing and that's great that you are eager to show people what you can do. Now, performing for comeplete strangers is a comepletley different world. You will get people out there that are going to give you a hard time and ect. They don't know/care who you are and if they have been drinking, watch out. My advice to you is like some others have said, read. Read as many books that you can about how to control/win over your audience before you start your first trick. I personaly believe that the magic starts as soon as your spotted by any spectator at the table as your walking over to them. Creating Rapport, body language ect. is just as important as you knowing your tricks 100%. It can make or brake you. For me being a mentalist it's all about presentation/patter and that is also just as important as to what tricks you are doing. As far as tricks go know one can really tell you what is right and what is wrong because only you know what works for you. Maybe take what you allready know and adapt it to walk around, Change things up such as patter ect. When I do walk around I try to make sure almost everything is instant reset, in some cases it is not always possiable but I try to make sure that the reset is very quick.
I would say three strong routines would get you buy but that's just me, that's what I like to do is three. Some may like more some may like less. Make sure the routine flows and is very smooth. Again I can't give you a whole lot of advice on effects as I am a mentalis and all I really carry with me is my wallet, pen/pencial,nw, business cards and one other thing that I love that I like to keep to my self. Good luck Tom but I would listen to others here as there is some great advice. Daren
Twitter @darjames
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derrick Inner circle I dug holes for 1044 Posts |
1. Instant reset
2. Perform what you know and can do in your sleep 3. A great pair of nice clean polished shoes and spotless crisp outfit to match Go perform -- live or die. If you die, then it won't be the trick that's bad. Good luck. |
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Adam1975 Special user UK 900 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-10-26 12:42, Eshla wrote: Yes,I always enjoy a good performance of "dangling ring"
Ive upped my standards.Now,up yours!
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Eshla Inner circle 1239 Posts |
Quote:
Yes,I always enjoy a good performance of "dangling ring" Firstly its not "dangling ring", its "spinning rotating ring with hoops gliding seemlessly over it unsupported" And secondly shhh... don't ruin da magic
I come from the future to culture you poor sods with fire.
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RobertlewisIR Veteran user Colorado 367 Posts |
Sure, PM away if you want. Lord knows I'm probably not the best person to ask for advice, but I'm always happy to kick around ideas.
Regarding choosing what to do, at this stage, I would recommend taking inventory of everything you're comfortable doing right now, and all the things that need only a small amount of work to get there, and see how much you're left with. From those, try to find things that would fit in well with your style, your setting, and perhaps most importantly, go well together. Since it's a wedding, I'd recommend learning some variation or other of the Anniversary Waltz if you don't already do it. There's a very good chance that you already know the necessary sleights, so it shouldn't be too hard to make that one work. Working out what to say (or do, other than the actual mechanics of a trick) is really the hardest thing to give any advice on, because it is necessarily a personal choice. For instance, a young guy probably shouldn't patter about an obviously nonexistent trip to India, an old guy probably shouldn't talk about whatever musicians the kids like these days (unless it's deliberately structured that way as a character trait), a football player shouldn't patter about Chess and a Chess man shouldn't talk about football. Silly, obvious examples, but you get the point. Oftentimes when I'm working on something, I'll approach the problem from numerous angles. If I have a trick, I might try to find a story to work around it. Other times, I'll have a story and try to find a trick that fits it. Sometimes it's just an image that strikes me and I want to find a way to recreate in some way or other. I'll get all these lines of thought going and start to see what takes shape. Though that may be easier for me because I have experience as a fiction writer as well, so stories come more or less naturally to me.
~Bob
---------- Last night, I dreamed I ate the world's largest marshmallow. When I woke up, the pillow was gone. |
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Ronald72 Loyal user Holland 249 Posts |
Hi Tom,
As you see Robert has really good advice. I add "character" to it. It's what Robert is saying. Find peaces that fits your character. Look around and see eugene burger, mac king, the amazing jonathan, lance Burton and you know what I mean by character. One advice (not from me) but from eugene burger, the magic that takes you wondering or feeling like real magic will fit the best to do. First if you are wondering then the audience will follow. This should help to pick the right stuff for you to do (close-up and stage). have fun and make some magic! |
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