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Joseph_Then Special user 747 Posts |
I may be crazy but I always carry magic items that I can do sliently and I always have a backup music for the silent act. It can last 10-15 minutes, depending how long I want to play with cards.
I took Jeff McBride's "Commando Act" and I add-on to his act to suit me and I pack them into a SMALL box which takes up little space (except the rings). It happens to me once where I have a crowd and they are ALL JAPANESE. None of them speaks English and I already have 15 minutes given to Ventriloquism act. Ventriloquism act will not work with them because they don't speak English and so I have to whip out my backup stuff and use them to replace that 15 minutes. In the end, the show was great and the clients are happy. Whew! |
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Emazdad Inner circle Plymouth UK 1954 Posts |
During Emazdad's world tours 97' (24 shows in 8 different countries) & 98' Shows in Latvia and Russia, (HMS Somerset’s South Atlantic and Baltic deployments) I did many shows for kids who didn't speak English. I had an interpreter who did the job splendidly. I did my normal show, which the interpreter, my facial expressions, body language and visual gags got the kids laughing just as much as English speaking kids.
One show springs to mind, the liaison officer had arranged with the Guatemalan liaison officer for me to do a show, I was picked up and taken to the venue. All I had on me was my kids show, I set up and watched as Guatemalan Soldiers and sailors came into the room and sat down. “Where’s the kids” I asked the interpreter / liaison lady. She gave me a strange look and told me she didn’t know I was doing a kids show. So there I was stood in front of 150+ hard looking Guatemalan armed forces and just a kid’s show with me. My mind went into over drive working out how I could present some of the stuff to adults, meanwhile the liaison lady shot off to find some kids. She came back with about a dozen; I don’t know where she found them. In the end I did my normal show, with minor adjustments thrown in, and used both kids and soldiers/sailors to help and. the show went down really well, everyone seemed to enjoy it and rewarded me and my roadies (My mates that came with me to the shows) with copious amounts of alcohol afterwards. I had lots of guy's come up afterwards for balloon swords and the went away fighting each other like kids. When we left I was given a big bag of Guatemalan coffee, (basically ground up mahogany sawdust). It was horrible and one cup kept you awake for days. Being matelotes we didn’t throw it away, every watch we had to have a cup, and anyone who came into the machinery control room had to have a cup (including the skipper) until it was all gone. Funnily enough the number of visitors to the control room dropped until the bag was empty.
Yours Funfully
Clive "Emazdad" Hemsley www.emazdad.com "Magic is a secret, without the secret there is no magic" Remember there are only 3 types of people in the world, those that can count and those that can't. |
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Joseph_Then Special user 747 Posts |
Quote:
On 2005-01-12 03:20, Emazdad wrote: Woah... World tour... That's impressive. How do you do it? |
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Julian Kestrel Loyal user 269 Posts |
Quote:
On 2005-01-11 19:57, magic4u02 wrote: Come on Kyle, How about Mime, Music, Dance, Painting, Puppetry, Shadowgraphy, etc Love your posts but I know you are more expansive than this. Respectfully Julian |
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Julian,
I stand corrected. You are most certainly right. What I meant to say was that it was ONE of the universal languages. It is just amazing how through magic and without saying a word, we can share soemthing with someone and they will understand. Magic really does have a nice power to it in that sense. Thank you for correcting me. Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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RJE Inner circle 1848 Posts |
Lol That must have been a funny sight Clive, a bunch of soldiers jousting with thier balloon swords! lol
Rob |
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bnadworn Regular user Western New York 131 Posts |
I have done shows in Hebrew, Spanish, English, and American Sign Language. But the Magic I do is a true international Language unto itself. I have performed for people that did not know any English and we got along great. One evening I found myself in an area and there were 2 little kids that spoke only Arabic. I started doing some magic (I was there on vacation so I only had a pocket full of some things) and before I knew it the whole family of theirs who had come to this vacation spot show up and I am performing for over 30 people who don't know English. Had a great time and they almost wouldn't let me leave. 1/2 show with nothing. Hint: It is really easy to make nothing disappear. Ask me about that and I will share one of my greatest tricks with you.
I did a sit-down dinner show with 300 deaf adults. Usually I do a comedy routine but found that since I have to "talk" with my hands I had to do all of my tricks by either putting down the props, tell the joke, pick up the pros, or just tell my jokes between the tricks. Obviously "sound gags" like the die box slide did not get noticed. It was a very interesting experience. I did a lot of magic that goes well with music in the background just without the music. I'm enjoying the stories here. The fact that the show went on after a few mishaps shows a good showman. My line here is that you either have a good time or a good story. It is great when you have both. - Brian Nadworny
"They say the hand is quicker than the eye but I won't believe it until I see it."
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Emazdad Inner circle Plymouth UK 1954 Posts |
Hi Joseph, basically I let it be known that when we deployed I wanted to do shows hospitals, schools and orphanages in the places the ship visited.
As normal I knew I had to push it as the Officers are usually only worryied about organising their own cocktail party. We got to Ghana and I pestered the liason officer about a show. He went into the wardroom and bought out the British Consul. I explained what I wanted and he said he'd get his wife to organise something. The next day I got picked up by his driver, taken to his house, then to an orphanage on the outskirts of the City. It was boiling hot, and I did my show on an old battered table, out of a suitcase. (lack of space restricted me takingmy magic box on board. there was only supposed to be about 20 kids in the orphanage, but word got out to the shanty town nearby and I had an audience of about 150 kids ranging from 4-18. They'd never seen Balloon Animals before so after the show I made them all one, and while I was making them they sang to me. As we left the car was chased down the road by the kids waving their models. a truly memorable experience. See this Photo http://uk.geocities.com/emazdad/Ghana1997.jpg That night the Skipper went to the British Consuls house for a cocktail party, his wife was telling him how wonderful it was etc etc. After that everywhere we went the liason officers had to organise a show. The Skipper would stop me in the passageway and ask if anything had been organised in the next place we were going to, if I said I hadn't heard anything yet, he'd go up his cabin and you'd hear the liason offer for the next place getting piped to his cabin. I got flown off by helicopter twice in the Falklands for shows, being quite rough down there onboth occassions it was a case of the Sea king Helo hovering abvove and I got winched up. I was'nt scard of that, but watching the suitcase with my props going up, with the hook through the handle was very worrying.
Yours Funfully
Clive "Emazdad" Hemsley www.emazdad.com "Magic is a secret, without the secret there is no magic" Remember there are only 3 types of people in the world, those that can count and those that can't. |
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magicgeorge Inner circle Belfast 4299 Posts |
Great story, great pic, Clive.
What a wonderful way to start your career. George |
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Emazdad Inner circle Plymouth UK 1954 Posts |
My business survived the 7 months away as well, and ?I returned to a ful xmas diary. Anyone who phones was just told by my wife, "I'm sorry he's fully booked". This then gave me a reputation of being a very busy magician without me being around to do any shows.
Yours Funfully
Clive "Emazdad" Hemsley www.emazdad.com "Magic is a secret, without the secret there is no magic" Remember there are only 3 types of people in the world, those that can count and those that can't. |
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harris Inner circle Harris Deutsch 8812 Posts |
Over the last 5 years I have had the opportunity to do shows for International Students just starting at our local university. I also have done some at family programs for English as a Second Language.
Magic is one of the universal languages. Be safe, well and creative. Harris
Harris Deutsch aka dr laugh
drlaugh4u@gmail.com music, magic and marvelous toys http://magician.org/member/drlaugh4u |
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Lord of Illusion Veteran user Has his enemies stuck on 310 Posts |
Of all the shows I've done, I've only had a couple that were total (or semi-total) disasters. In atlanta I did a benifet show @ my apartment building and not a single child in the audience spoke english - talk about reworking a show on the fly - whew...Disaster # 2 was a birthday party where a kid came up and peed on me.
Azrael
Edward Wolfgang Poe,
The Necromancer of the South |
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okito25 Regular user Victoria BC Canada 145 Posts |
I enjoy performing for kids always have, a few years ago however ,, I decided after hanging out with some clowns I became quite fond of .. we thought I should take the lessons .. learn the gags join the Alley , and Hence after about six weeks Buster was born .. My idea was to add value to my show create a new energy , shake up the tricks , first two parties .. I was quickly dubbed Buster ButtMan , I decided hmm this just isn't going to fly , so it was back to me just being me , Buster does visit every so often , for parades and festivals,when the whole alley is doing something but no more will he visit Home parties
Keet |
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chris mcbrien Inner circle Chicago 1235 Posts |
My worst disaster was doing a show for a client even though I called to cancel before...due to the loss of my voice! I tried 4 different voice "rechargers" I knew from my theater experience...and on top of this I had the flu. My client said she was desperate, and could I just show up and do my best. I got sick over night, and even though I tried to warn her, I gave in and did the show. The show was a school reading night and for an audience of 350 people.
Amazingly, my voice, although really rough, did ok. And I still did my vent act (get that...and I actually liked the dummy's voice better kind of gravily!)...the horror part came in the fact that the client had the nerve to complain to me that my voice wasn't very good (yes, the same person who knew I was sick, who heard me barely speaking to her with what little voice I had over the phone trying to cancel, the lady who told me to just show up and do my best). Not only that, but sacrificing your vocal chords like that can lead to permanent damage to your voice....I ended up losing my voice again for the next 3 days! And...I still had little kids coming up to me and hugging me, parents standing there and thanking me for a great show, and kids asking for my autograph all the way to my car! And all this right in front of my client. Get this, though. I actually got bookings off this gig! I was on TV for this gig like others (Lord, I love the 10 o'clock news!) and people were calling me the next day for shows! I also even had these clients refer to the lady who hired me! (this was before I got my evaluation sheet back from her...she gave me all indication that night that she loved the show...darn those evaluation forms..darn them!) The other was another gig when I dropped my zombie ( I could use the fact that I left my house at 4 am to get to this gig at 9am, but I won't) ...the CLANG of it hitting on the floor got a BIG laugh (which I did'nt mind at all! I'm very comfortable on stage, and my character is a wacky wizard dude anyway, and screws up everything...why not this,too?) , though, so when I end up with it balancing on the cloth, then "dropping" again, then it floats back up, it got a HUGE round of applause. Wish I could play that gag all the time, but my Zombie would look like a model of the moon!(I super glue my Zombie together, and was really glad I did that day!...can you say "safety"?), Chris |
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Sam Tabar Inner circle Austin, Texas 1050 Posts |
I also had an experince when I performed for a certain kids party with her classmates from school and halfway through my show most of the kids were up fron with me trying to get hold of everything they see in my table. The parents just watched their children and did nothing about it so I had no choice but to stop the show coz the kids weren't listening to me. Later on the celebrants mom came to me and apologized saying the kids went into this certain unorthodox school which believes in teaching children critical thinking and not letting the parents discipline them. Well, critical thinking my a** but it ain't my duty to discipline their kids. I'm glad they didn't call again.
"Knowledge comes from finding the answers, but understanding what the answers mean is what brings wisdom." - Anonymous
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DeWayne Veteran user Greencastle, PA 361 Posts |
I'll make a long story short. It was a company picnic. This happened after the show so there was not an audience in seats, but people were leaving and standing around.
I once had an aluminum spinning plate kick off the stick a hit a 5 year old girl in the outside corner of the eye. IT BLED LIKE CRAZY! The mother freaked out the girl way crying. I was sick! I thought for sure at the very least I would have a hospital bill headed my way, if not a law suit. I'm sorry to say I never followed up (which is what I should have done). But no news is good news..I guess. I still feel bad! -DeWayne |
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
I think the important thing to note here is that we all make mistakes and we all have had disaster moments. They key is in learning from these moments and really studying why they happened and how you can avoid the same mistake from happening again. This helps you to continually grow as a performer.
For me, I try and do 2 things at all my shows to help me evaluate every performance. 1) I video tape every show that I can and watch them when I get home. This can really tell me what went over, what did not and how I can change things around 2) I always write my evlautaions of the show as a whole and notes on things the minute I get in my car to leave. This way I have fresh notes on things I may want to pay closer attention to. Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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b-gann New user 62 Posts |
I have done some kid shows I did one for 5 year olds I did not feel like it went over as well as it could have, but they did not know any better they liked the show.
Oh yes I forgot I have to applaud those of you who are able to perform for children, I have done shows for children but it is really hard. good job |
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
If your audience enjoyed the show, that is the key point. You are there to entertain your audience in the best fashion that you can. Of course you must also self-evaluate yourself and continue to grow with each show you do. If the audience was happy with what you did and had a fun time with it, that is critical.
Performing for children is not for everyone. It is very true that performing for children can be the hardest crowd you will ever perform for. However, to me, it can also be the most rewarding and certainly worth the effort you put into it. Every performer must decide if performing for children is their "cup of tea" and they must also be string enough to admit to themselves if they are not 1) ready for it or 2) not cut out for it. There is nothing wrong with realizing that you are not a kid's performer. What is terrible are those who never really evaluate themselves enough to realize that they are just not cut out for kid's show performances. Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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Zorak Regular user Maryland, USA 114 Posts |
Many years ago when my son (a body builder) was assisting me at a huge Christmas show, in the round. I was about to take the Dove streamer from my son when I noticed the bird wasn"t fidgeting during the hand off. After the showy waving of the banner the dove was produced. It was dead. My son had crushed it in his grip.
I removed the streamer an flapped the doves wings up and down and immediately vanished it in a dove tearapaart. The audience was oblivious to the fact of what just occurred and gave a rousing applause. It was my favorite dove.
Magic is in the hearts of children from 1 to 101
Please check out my Website: kiddiekazam.com FREE ORIGINAL CLIPART FOR MAGICIANS & CLOWNS PROP DESIGNS MAGIC CARTOONS all drawn by Zorak |
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