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Tyler Salvador New user Toronto, ON 33 Posts |
Hi everyone!
I performed my first show EVER on Saturday and it went way better than I was expecting! I believe this was largely because of the amount of time I put into research and rehearsal before the show. With that in mind, the magic Café was a great source of information and I wanted to say thanks to everyone, past and present, that supplied me with the information I needed. This first show was a sign as to whether or not I could actually pull it off and I can confidently say the answer is "YES!". Obviously the first show is not the end. It's the first step in an bigger journey and I fully expect to have disaster shows in the future. I would like to outline what I performed and what I plan to do going forward in order to keep myself learning and improving. Any comments, criticism, etc... would be appreciated. Thanks! My show is a pirate show by default. This was a birthday party for a 6 year old. There were 12 kids and almost as many adults. For ease of reading, I'll keep it short and simple. I begin the show without a hat or coat, I'm trying to be as 'plainclothes' as possible. I start the show speaking in my normal voice. A - The show opens with Danny Orleans' finger exercise. B - I introduce myself and bring up the birthday boy. I explain that he's going to be our captain but we need don't look or sound like pirates. C - I ask for some pirate words and then audibly change my voice to a pirate accent. I get the birthday child to try. D - I ask what a pirate needs to wear. I dress up myself and the child with coats when it's called out. E - There is a pirate hat sitting on a table the entire time. When pirate hat is called, I reach behind the actual hat and pull out a goofy hat (parrot). I play around and then throw it away. F - I keep searching for a hat and this time I find a shark hat. I run around in panic, and pull it off. It ends up on my hand where the child pulls it off. My hand is 'gone' but is revealed to be in my sleeve. G - I finally notice the actual pirate hat but when I reach for it, I place it on the child's head and grab a small fez that was hidden under it. Standing proudly, I realize the child has a better hat and I get one of my own. H - The last thing we need is a flag. I perform a standard MIS-MADE FLAG with a black/white silk, a racing flag, a zebra-stripe flag, and a pirate flag. During this trick, I introduce my MAGIC WORDS (Bubbly Barnacles) and a do a BREAK-APART WAND bit . I - The birthday child is sent back to his seat and I do a CHOP CUP that ends with the children saying the magic words incorrectly to produce oranges. After two oranges, I decide they want to see a trick with oranges and I move into my next trick. J - The oranges link directly into a MILK PITCHER routine (pretty much the Silly Billy version) except I am pouring orange juice into a hat so they can drink it through their head ('cause pirates don't have time to hold cups!) I use one child for this. Same dress-up gags as the SB routine. K - The next routine is a SUCKER DICE BOX. I got this trick last minute so it was performed very simply. Great reactions but nothing special performance-wise. L - At this point I pull out some jumbo flash cards and play around with the kids making noises and asking questions that pertain to a story. It's fun and goofy. M - The story then leads into a custom COLOURING BOOK that is made to be a photo-album of my crew. The routine ends with the children erasing everything and leaving a blank book. N - Saddened by my empty book, I plan to start a new book from scratch. I call up a child, dress him up and draw him on the AXTELL DRAWING BOARD. We pose for a picture with the board and it says "CHEESE!" with us. I do a bit of Look-don't-see and then finally declare that if the picture is moving, it must be haunted. If it's haunted, it should be able to talk. I ask if it's haunted, it says "Sure am!". I get scared and erase it. I send the child back to his seat. O - I end the show by bringing up the birthday child (still dressed as Captain) and we make a treasure chest appear inside a BREAKAWAY BOX after we put in a bunch of random things. The chest has chocolate coins. P - Everyone claps. The kids can grab coins. The show is over. --- I was able to film the whole thing so I plan to analyze it later. I've heard about checking for interactions per minute so I'm gonna do that. I realize I didn't go much into the patter and such, hopefully you get the gist of it. Once the show is done, I set up the treasure chest with my business cards inside it. I don't have any BOR stuff yet, but I plan on making mini versions of my colouring book photo-album (non-gimmicked). Any help, analysis, comments, criticism or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Once again, thanks for all the information that let me get this far. Here's hoping for many more!
Tyler Salvador - Barnacle Bart the Pirate
www.barnaclebart.com |
Robin4Kids Veteran user Lower Alabama 396 Posts |
Congratulations Tyler!!! Sounds like a well-planned show with great results. Now comes the fun part... make it better!
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gmsmagic1 Elite user 405 Posts |
Tyler,
You already sound like a pro! It sounds like a creative, well thought out show with nice interaction and transitions. It's great that you caught it on video so that you can learn from it and possibly find highlight clips to market yourself with, but don't over-analyze it. In the end, what matters most is that you and the kids had a great time, and that other parents want to hire you! Hopefully you had cards or flyers to pass out. If you're committed to the pirate image, find some hooks (pun intended!) for branding yourself. For example, consider adding a nice parrot puppet to tie into your routines or to plan a comedy skit around. For example, the parrot could provide a nice cover during your chop cup routine by visibly stealing balls from under the cups with its mouth while you're not looking to get the kids screaming. All the kids will be staring at the parrot, which will take all the heat off your loads with the other hand. You could even pretend to keep taking endless balls from the parrots mouth using a palmed ball and then have the ball appear back under the cup to transition right back into your standard routine. - Gary |
Bazinga Loyal user 277 Posts |
Sounds like a fun show, and well thought out. Congratulations.
Bazinga! |
The Mighty Fool Inner circle I feel like a big-top tent having 2140 Posts |
Sounds just fine! Howzabout posting it on the vidclips section?
Everybody wants to beleive.....we just help them along.
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
Not only well-planned and well-rehearsed, but your set list sounds well-rounded, too. There was a GREAT variety of magic, some of it linked together by natural segue, some simply held fast by the common thread of the character. Brilliant construction! I would hire you just based on your description.
(...and congratulations on crossing over to "been there, done that"!)
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
Tyler congratulations
More than 1/2 of my show is made up of stuff I picked up here at the magic Café, and I love the way you researched your show before you did one. With an attitude like yours you have a long future of successful magic shows ahead of you. Toronto is a hot spot of great local magicians too.
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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