Don't help him create too good of an act, I might be competing against him.

Shane: hehehe

I will help anyone who is willing to work with me on one. I have no problem with that at all. I just need background information first in order to gather ideas and to find out what we have to work with.

Kyle

Kyle, Did you ever get that email to work ?....

;-)

Maylor:

Nope, I never did get that e-mail to work. Sorry =(

I am still decideding on a character, but I want to REALLY funny, any suggestions?

Become a clown? j/k I don't think anyone can help you be funny. Just do whatever your effects are, and try to sound entertaining. Wait, why am I helping you? I mean, sound very boring and do your worst effects.

I would never do boring and bad effects, I would never copy your act.

Let's start at the beginning.

You wrote "I want to be funny..." Your focus is on the wrong thing. Performing is not about what you want - it's about what the audience wants. Your intention should read, "I want to make the audience laugh."

I know it's a subtle distinction, but important.

You wrote, "I am still deciding on a character.." Don't "decide" on a character, discover the facet of your character that is funny. Comedy is about failure and pain. A clown is a character that simply fails in front of an audience.

Viola Spolin, author of Improvisation for the Theater, posited that your should never superimpose the goal upon the activity, allow your goals to grow naturally out of the activity your are engaged in.

First, don't try to do any new material, you don't have enough time. Work with tricks you currently do that can play under the conditions you will be facing (that's why Kyle asked all those important questions. Take another look at them.) You don't want to be worring about technical details, you need to focus on presentation.

Comedy can be either physical or verbal (or both). Which direction will you go? If you go verbal, start writing material, however, given the amount of time you have, I doubt that will be writing a lot of original comedy material, so start researching jokes and one-liners. You will need a minimum of 4-6 laugh lines per minute.

If you are going for physical comedy, start with your entrance. How will you walk onstage? Remember that in physical comedy, exaggeration rules. Imagine Jim Carrey doing magic. Rent the classic Jerry Lewis movie where he plays a bumbling magician on a USO tour (the name slips me right now). Study Johnny Thompson, and Kohl and Company.

Structure your act to grab their attention in the first 30 seconds by doing something quick and visible.

Then do 60-90 seconds of "establishing magic," intoducing yourself to the audience. Perhaps this is the section for your ball manipulation. After the first two minutes, the audience will have already decided whether or not they like you, so put a lot of time into this part of your act.

After you have them on your side, you can slow down and do a slightly longer routine. Not to long, however, they aren't completely sold yet, perhaps 1-2 minutes. This is a good spot to do a novelty trick, something they may not have seen before. Don't forget, 4-6 laughs per minute.

You are halfway there. Now you should have the audience in your hand, and you can do your feature routine. If it's a classic like Bill in Lemon, remember that it is not the trick that's important, it's how you get there.

You will need to develop your own bits of business, gags and jokes. I hate to say it, but that's not something you can do in 2-3 weeks. It can take years in front of audiences to find and polish your bits.

Finally, if you are really going to do this, don't play it safe. Take some risks and have fun. If you are going to go down, go down big. You may not win, but they will remember you.

Jim Snack
http://www.success-in-magic.com

PS: Don't forget to video the show, so you can review it later.

Oh, you want to take this outside? For those who don't know, Kyle is about 3 feet tall, and looks like an 8 year old. As cruel (and lame) as your joke was, I still wish you good luck.

Guys this is getting personal. It's the wrong attitude to enter a competition with. Someone taught me it is taking part that counts, winning is the bonus. No matter what the outcome is, I am positive you will both leave with a smile

I know you guys are probably just joking and kidding around, and that is all cool and such. I just wanted to hear more about what each of you plans on performing and what base effects you want to do.

I would like to offer some suggestions to you and work with you on making the routine the best it can be. but, in order to begin, we all need some background info. on the exact effects you want.

Kyle

Shane and I are good friends, so I don't think that a lil compitition will effect anything.

Also I really want to thank all the advice you have given mem, especialy the post 3 behind this one. (sry cant think of your name) and VERY special thanks to Magic4u02 (go KYLES)

This just in; I get a DOVE in 2 weeks, baby dove hand feed. YEAAAA!!!!

Sounds great and congrats on the dove. What effects are you thinking of doing in the contest? lets start to work on them and the routine you plan on doing.

Kyle

Ok, I was planing on doing the multiplying balls, bill to lemon, silk to egg, and a dovepan incorparated into one of the effects.

Not too bad. Ok now we have something to work on. How long do you have again for the contest? 10 mins?


First off, do you see yourself more as a comedy or funny-guy performer, do you see yourself more suave and debonair? Tell me what style of performance you see yourself as and what is most comfortable for you.

You will also need to time out your routines. I always say one really great routine that is well thought out, works better then 3 routines that are just "ok".

Kyle

Hey, its about 8-9 min.

And I AM a spontaneous funny guy. I make jokes acording to what just happened. I will joke with people in the audience that suits the moment.

I also want a FEW good one liners to fall back on.

But to answer you question I'm not like a comic trying to make people laugh I'm more of a guy who makes jokes, then acts like nothing happened, rather than a person who laughs with them selves. ("accidently funny")