Hello everyone,

Tomorrow I have a chance to perform magic for the patients in the psychiatric ward.
It's the first time for me so I'm excited.
But I'm wondering what kind of magic should I perform?
Or what should I be aware of?
Because there are some patients with delusion and hallucination, I don't know that if they will become more severe after seeing my performance.
Am I think too much?
Sincerely request your advice.

Luc

Ask the staff, who they think can handle it.

Then, just work your repertoire avoiding anything that suggests mind reading or true "God like" powers. Just keep it fun and entertaining.

- Mary Mowder

Definitely avoid mentalism and anything with knives.

Also I'd recommend avoiding audience participation. Just put on a show.

Mike

An illusion of magic can be scary to those that don’t know it's an illusion but when they know its just an illusion, a trick, it doesn’t freak them out. So I would start by exposing a simple trick to make sure they get the idea..

I'd assume that, if it were a danger, the shrinks'n'staff (A good name for a snack food, now that I think about it) wouldn't have booked you or would've given you some guidelines beforehand.

-Philip

Probably should avoid any kind of pyro work!

Don't tip the straight jacket escape!

MMc

Treat them like any other audience, you will probably not notice any difference from a non psychiatric audiences. I do shows in mental institutions all the time, in fact I met my wife in a mental institution, perhaps you have heard of her Loraina Bobbit.

I heard you met her on the main drag in town. She cut you off in traffic. (rimshot)

-Philip

I would NOT do magic in this venue without the consent and/or advice from the staff. You would be amazed at how fast someone who can react in a situation like this can move.

Be very careful. Best,

Guy gets a flat and pulls over next to the fence of the State Insane Asylum. He starts changing the tire and notices one of the patients staring at him through the fence. He gets the flat off, puts the spare on the hub, but just then, he knocks over the hub cap, sending all five lug nuts into the long grass.

The patient watches him searching, and after several minutes, he can only find one of the missing lug nuts.

The patient clears his throat and says, "Hey!" The man tries to ignore him.

"Hey! Why don't you just use the one lug nut you found and take another from each of the other tires? That will give you four on each wheel -- it should be enough to get you to a parts store."

The man thinks and then looks at the patient admiringly. "Thank you. That's a wonderful idea."

The patient, turning away, says, "Well, I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid."