What do you look for in an out-of-the-audience volunteer, whether a child or an adult?

I typically look for people that have consistently been having a good time. They are smiling or are obviously enjoying my show and preferably well dressed. They must want to help, or I ask someone else. I put no pressure on my audience members.

With that said, what do you look for when choosing a volunteer?

I usually try to find the most beautiful girl out from the audience. Then I can flirt with her.

Perform trick: "Red rose from hanky". Dancing like Michael Jackson, doing moonwalk (girls go crazy) while handing over that rose. BTW, it's one of the best parts during my shows, at least for me.

After that I go on with the show.

If one of them is staring intently while polishing the blade of a bowie knife I generally avoid them, otherwise it's someone who seems receptive, laughs at the correct moments and makes comfortable eye contact.

I usually start with a routine that involves the audience in general, and use that to chose which ones I'm going to ask to help. I don't ask for volunteers directly.

Don't forget here the WAY you invite them up also. On two levels.

I have seen many magicians perform (as we all have) and I have seen many treat people from their paying audience like second rate citizens also.

On the flip side, if you have Wonder Words, Kenton gives some suggestions for increasing your odds of actually getting people up in the WAY that you invite them.

Soemone that isn't going to upstage me or the show. After doing shows for awhile, you can pick out the good from the bad.

Not to get too esoteric...I go for someone with "good energy". To try and bring that down to the real world I would say:

1. Good posture
2. Wide open eyes (not bulging)
3. Well dressed (in whatever style, a man can wear ripped jeans well)
4. A connection to the person they're sitting with
5. A GOOD SMILE

That's my four schillings.

Whitelephant; excellent list of characteristics to look for. The key to selecting the "perfect' assistant is observation and the talent to "read" people, I suppose.

One of the reasons I learned circus skills in the first place was because I got so fed up of being picked out of the audience at every show I ever saw. Whether it was on the street or in cabaret, I had to get on the other side of the divide out of self defence. I heard from some of the performers who I subsequently got to know from the scene, it was because I had an "interested face".

It did give me an extremely good perspective on how you treat volunteers. As gambit put it: there are some performers (generally the more obnoxious ones who are yet to realise that being nasty on stage is actually one of the hardest things to do successfully) who treat their "volunteers" like pieces of crap to be made fools of. That's just asking for it when you've got someone in the perfect position to sabotage your act if they want to. For all you know, they may know how (the only reason I never did was sheer good nature, because there were a couple I could name who did tempt me). The ones who did it right were able to walk the line between making fun of audience victims in ways in which they were in on the joke, and ways in which they were not. It's no coincidence that these were also the ones who were approachable afterwards. They were the ones who were rebooked the following year in the case of festivals. and who got better hats when busking.

As a performer myself, one of the best comments I've read on this sort of thing is to remember you're not superior to your audience because you know a few tricks. Some people would do well to remember this (or to put it another way, nobody likes a smartarse). Personally, as a fan, the one thing I cannot forgive in a performer is an arrogant disrespect for his audience. If you disrespect them without first getting them on your side (watch Jerry Sadowitz for a study in how the nasty approach should be done) you deserve to, and will, die on your arse. They have to be able to respect you for something.

These posts have been great. I agree with testing out the audience and then selecting your volunteer. I generally choose the type of people that are someone ditzy and that make people laugh because of the ignorance...(that isn't meant to be insulting). People love to see their friends/family amazed and befuddled.

Thinking about kids shows here, but how does anyone deal with upset kids that aren't picked...."it's not fair, I never get picked" and so on?

Stu Di Doo

No they don't. They are thanking God that you didn't choose to humiliate them. They only laugh because they are mortified, but want to be polite and don't know any other way to react.

"Not all laughs are good laughs." - Eugene Burger speaking to me, Jason Michaels and Rick Green.

As to the topic at hand. Ken Weber addresses this process of choosing volunteers very well in his book Maximum Entertainment. You have read it right? If not, do not do another thing until you do!
Get it today!

I ever choose smiling people. If they are smiling, they are having fun and don´t be a problem for you.

(sorry about my english)

Important things to look for when doing an audience search are:
Eye contact
Posture
General Apperance
Etc.

It is also important to bring a mixture of people on stage thoughout the show. Example...I have a tendency to want to bring a certain type of person on stage time after time ( ....very very very attractive females ) but make sure to mix it up, and get different kinds of people involved.

The people that you bring on stage should have some energy and character to them, but be careful not to bring someone on stage that will be difficult to control, and hard to manage. You don't want someone that will try to "steal the show."

Just some thoughts...

Reza

When I saw Copperfield he brought many different ages a genders on to stage. He created each trick to have a certain type of person. For an example when he threw out the pickles if guys coaght them he would tell them to pass it to the closes female which they did. In anouther Illusion "The Baby" he brought up an old lady. Now this was just hilarious. The routine was cornie but was just the funniest one cause of the lady he brought up.

So look out in to the audience before the show and get an idea who you want to use when that routine comes up. But keep an eye on them if you can to see how they are reacting.

For me I normaly pick anyone and we just have fun up on stage. IT all depends on you how you want to do it.

Michael

Well said White Elephant!

Without sounding esoteric myself, It is something quite inexpailable that you actually FEEL that the volunteer is right for you. They exude a positive aura. The rest is comon sense. You don't want to get a volunteer fiddling around with his Cel phone, or the yawning , grumpy guy at the back!

Peace,

Rannie

When I picking children I want someone seated, calm, smiling, and not squirming in their seat. When I pick an adult I want someone that looks me square in the eyes, is calm, smiling and with rare excepions I want the homeliest woman in the room. This way when you flirt with her it is funny and no one gets jealous. If you pick a beautiful woman the other women in the room will roll their eyes and say "I can see why he picked her". My show is all about my jokes, and my tricks the last thing I want is to be upstaged by a jiggling giggling bimbo, I'm there for a pay check not a date.

At the deepest level this is a most serious topic. You are inviting someone to sit with you on a seat of power and participate in a magical experience and help the audience experience that vicariously through emotion. So we must consider what emotions we conjure in this person - a serious topic. What emotions are you trying to send out into the world? Humiliation or Joy? Ridicule or Wonder?

Part of the hesitance on the part of our audiences to participate is their experience with past magicians who have treated this responsibility with flippant disregard and provided the conclusion that magicians are cruel to "volunteers". I cringe when I think of that. We attempt to conjure childlike emotions, one of which is a desire to participate and help and then some choose to trample on those precious and powerful emotions and thoughts. Perhaps, at some level, magic is responsible for the ambivalence and decline of community in the world. It is within our power to change this through our work as artists. What if our art gave people positive associations to living more, experiencing more, participating and helping and let them live a sense of community while in our presence. Perhaps that would be a gift they could take home.... and share.

So Mote It Be.

Clifford
Are you a magician or a politician?

I am a Mage and an Artist. I would never be a politician as they seem to inherently lack substance, but I would consider serving if they would finally agree to make me benevolent dictator. Not sure if your question was truly inquisitive or merely an uneasy laugh. Both are fine with me.