I approached a small but very decent village pub in the middle of the Shropshire countryside a few months ago and asked if I could book their function room and put on a magic show..(a night of mentalism is what I had in mind).... The initial response from the owner was of great interest. She was so pleased to have someting a bit different that she gave me a date and the use of the room for free... I was pretty chuffed. I had asked three other magicians I know from my local area to perform. One of these, Paul, is a close friend and the other two, Jason and Steve Dela I know from my local magic society. So once us four had had a chat and decided to go ahead with it, I put it on the back burner for a while.

With a few weeks to go I made a small number of posters and put them around the village, I also kept popping into the pub from time to time and doing a little close up stuff to generate some more interest. As it drew nearer I got a more nervous but hey, if you wanna do it you got to do it......

The local papers phoned, I was gonna call them but word had got out about the show and the local village journo gave us a bell so I told her all about it and asked for a big spread in the paper, they were only to happy to oblige..

In the mean time the top of the bill act Mr Steve Dela had only gone out and won the magic circle young magician of the year, so I made some more posters, told some more people and looked forward to the night.

We got there, moved some chairs and tables around and tried our best to make it look as nice as possible without to much trouble.. We opened the doors at 8:40 pm.... I was thinking of about 25 mins each for me and Paul, then a ten minute break the two more sets of about 30 mins each.... finishing for about 11:10... We discovered that the bar could stay open later than that so I relaxed a little and thought "well if we over run, no reals problems"...

So people started to turn up, golly, some I didn't even know?????? We had about 52 chairs in the room and their was more room for people to stand at the back by the bar should they want to. Well, the chairs filled up and it was looking cool, not packed but a decent turn out. I had put the entrance fee at £3:00, I wanted people on seats, Money was not the object of the night, a chance to perform was.... Anyhow we pulled about £168 quid.... I was quite pleased. split four ways it doesn't go far but hey, its just pin money...

At nine I went on and introduced the evening, thanked everyone for being there and introduced the First Act..... Me. Golly..

I did a silly/comedy one ahead thing that went between the effects I performed which included a couple of Nyman effects from get Nyman and a silly thing with a whisk and a tray.... I enjoyed myself, could of done a couple things better but I got a decent round of applause then it was Pauls turn.... He was cool, but a bit quiet, we had no microphones or PA system. Pauls act only lasted about 15 mins so when I returned to the stage to introduce the ten min break I performed a quick card effect from PRISM, It got a wicked reaction and everyone went into the interval happy.... The stress was off me now also because I knew the next two magicians were very competent and professional..... I sighed a breath of relief.....


Jason was on next, A very cool set containing some very strong mentalism confidently performed, I noted that he over ran, which at first worried me because it was getting late and Dela was yet to perform but the audience were glued to what Jas was doing on stage so my worrys faded... Dela went on at about 10:45 pm. He was extremely cool, slick, confident and amazed the audience, Dela looks about 6 years older than his seventeen years and carried off each effect with style and a bit of boldness, Paul and I watched on, the audience continued with him until about 11:15 when he finished with the strongest book test I have ever seen that left some of the audience gasping.... Then the show was over, all four of us returned to the stage and took out final bow.

When It was finished I was shattered with the stress, worry and adrenalin that had been pumping around me, I thanked Jason, Paul and Dela and sat down and had a pint.....

So there we go, I was just thought I would share that with you guys, If you guys and gals are thinking about putting on a mentalism show do... DO... DO IT.....

We are thinking about taking this show and doing it elsewhere, getting some nice flyers and posters printed and taking this to other villages and halls in the west midland area.....LOOK OUT FOR US.

Sounds like a good idea. You don't often get to see mentalism in your local pub. Although people may have seen Derren Brown etc on tv, many people haven't see any sort of mentalism live. To lay people a lot of mentalism looks completely unexplainable. Good luck with future shows.

Sounds great !
Maybe a few drinks makes the audience less cynical ?
Piers.

Hey ninja duffy,
chatted to steve over the weekend. he said the show was great fun. shame I missed it would have been great to watch. let us know when the next one is!

Matt.

NIce to hear this story! It's similar to what me and my friends have done in our local London pub. We had two stage performances (3 with introduction) and then 2 close up workers working the room between the stage performances. It's a nice concept!

Sincerely,
Daniel Young

Well done, I say! There are those who talk, and there are those who do the business.

Good on you, mate!

Drew McAdam

I started doing hypno shows that way. If you put in a little effort you could have 10 or more shows lined up easy. Most hotels/pubs that have function rooms will be happy to accomodate you for free and collect ticket money for you. Some will even pay for adverising you in the local rag..

This would also be a good way to pick up psi parties and or private bookings. You can leave cards on each of the tables....

Shrink

I understand the adrenaline thing the first few shows are a killer well done!

Always go for establishments with fuction halls and not regular bars. The reason being is that a function hal is for special occasions and this helps set up the mindset of expectancy. Bars just turn into rabble. Plus its a good idea to advise the pub hotel to put on entertainment after to keep the crowd usually a disco. The more you can help the hotel/pub get what it wants the more they will try and h elp you..

Shrink

Ninjaduffy, sounds fantastic! I think it's the adrenaline rush that makes it worthwhile and of course the sweetest sound in the world: applause.

I have a question, though. How was it dealing with drunk people? Were any of them difficult?

Thanks.

Another similar venue here in the States is the Golf Country Club. Ours freguently hold private parties - for birthdays of adults, business and service groups (ie Rotary), and special occasions for members. Often they are looking for something different for adults like mentalism. They know about magicians and clowns for the kids functions. Keith

Well done Ninja..respect for getting off yr bum and making it all happen..really glad for you dude..

Great initiative! Keep it going. Sounds like a great time in a pub......by the way...What's a Quid?...errr.....and Pin Money?
Thanks
Dave

Pin money = spending cash,, ie not rent or food money.
quid = a British pound.


didn't have to worry about drunk people, everyone was well behaved and polite... the main bar was downstairs and this was in a function room kinda thingy... with a small bar at the back.....

thanks for your positive comments people......

kev...

Sounds like a good experiece!

Magixx

Drunk people stay in the bar they only want to drink. When you charge ticket money the drunks stay away. Some pubs will give you a fee to do a show in their bar but they are to be avoided. that's why function halls are the only place to do them.

Shrink
Plus if someone has paid they want to see the show..