Hi... Looking for thoughts on this...

I am working through Bill Abbott's Pack Smart Play Anywhere show. One of the routines he uses in there is called "Pokerface", in which he has 5 guys come up and he essentially does a TOD routine, but really playing up the "reads" and "tells" of the 5 male volunteers. My question is, how the heck do I practice that? I record my "technical stuff" with my phone and watch it and perform any single assistant stuff with my wife... but how do I get the experience of doing this effect with 5 people? Do I just make sure I have the moves and the patter down and learn the assistant interplay during real performances?

I'm replying to my own post to try and bump it back up. Come on... someone must have some good suggestions on how to practice group routines... What do you do?

Ideas...
- Call a family reunion and practice magic the whole time?
- Go to the local bar, buy a round of drinks, then perform?
- Be "that guy" at work (for those of us that have a day job)?
...

Hi Im a Professional Corporate performer, I practice TOD & Banknite or Bill in Lemon etc routines by going through the whole routine based on what happened at the last show,,pretty much action & word for word, I always allow on the night obviously for comments,audience interaction & other spontaneous comments etc, I find in rehearsal it works really well as you have a basic format to the entire routine, just make sure you speak in your normal voice & imagine the interaction.