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Shaner316 Loyal user St. Catharines, ON. Canada 213 Posts |
The place where I work is having it's annual employee talent show tomorrow night. I thought it would be fun to enter it and do the dove act I have been working on for several months now. I went to rehearsal tonight and got all set up. My first production is a sleeve toss, however, my bird decided when it turned around to head straight up and perch up on the lighting scaffold (which they lowered for me to get the bird back.) After 2 more unsuccessful attempts, my bird just did not want to come back and land on my hand.
I have been practicing this move for months with this bird in my basement, which is 10'X 12'and surrounded by black curtains with a spotlight at the far end of the room to simulate a stage atmosphere. He is doing his job 99.9% of the time in practices, but on a an actual stage he just seems to forget what he is supposed to do. When I brought him home after the rehearsal, I ran through the routine a few more times and he did not have any problems. I am quite stressed about this (as it is now 5 a.m. and I have been up thinking about this for the past 2 hours). I do not want to drop out of a show that I have worked very hard on for several months because I am afraid my bird won't do what he is supposed to do (Yes, I do realize he is just a bird!). I would hate to have him land on someones head and cause a bunch of havoc while I am trying to get through the rest of my act. This is a really important show for me as it will be seen by approx. 1300 people, including family, friends, and co-workers. I thought this free show would be good for future business, and possibly increase my birthday party bookings, but now I am having second thoughts. |
Dave Scribner Assistant Manager Lake Hopatcong, NJ 4855 Posts |
Shaner, that happens to all of us once in awhile. You dove performs perfectly in your basement because of the confined space with a light pointing directly at it. During rehearsal, was the room dark with a spotlight on so it simulated your basement? Don't be concerned about it flying off and landing on someone. If it does fly off, it will seek a perch to land on, in your case it happens to be the scaffold.
You really only have two choices with such a short time before your show. One is to go on with your act. The audience is really forgiving if the rest of your act is good. They will actually think the flying dove is cute. The other option is to take that opening effect out of your act. I know that's difficult to do just before the show but if you go on feeling uncomfortable about the effect, the audience will sense it. With a room full of people, your dove may feel safer with your and do exactly what you have been rehearsing. I did a show a short time ago and one of my birds flew into the rafters at every rehearsal. In the actual show, he performed fine. Good luck with your show and let us know what happens.
Where the magic begins
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Bob Sanders 1945 - 2024 Magic Valley Ranch, Clanton, Alabama 20504 Posts |
Shaner,
My nick name is The Amazed Wiz because no one is more amazed than I am when things work perfectly. Working with animals on stage is like flying standby: the plan is to be surprised! (And I love it!) Bob's Rules of Stage Survival with Animals #1. Have and extra dove available somewhere. Sometimes they are needed. #2. Make friends with the lighting tech. Doves go to light. A good tech on the spot light has saved my dignity many times. They can bring the bird to you. #3. Know your animals. (Some are never worthy of trust. Others just make the act interesting. Being the animal's victim isn't all bad. Make use of what the animal does naturally.) #4. Always be aware that the audience will never forgive you for mistreating an animal. #5. Remember that this is entertainment and not brain surgery. Make it fun. Doves prefer the "safe place" even more so in a strange environment. Be the "safe place". Just another little note: doves just don't have a two-hour attention span. Twenty minutes is forever. Keep training sessions short. Enjoy your dove magic. The world will notice and hopefully join you! Bob Sanders Magic By Sander |
Shaner316 Loyal user St. Catharines, ON. Canada 213 Posts |
Here's what happened............
Now remember, I have never performed on stage before, I have only performed in peoples house for birthday parties, etc. Never mind the fact that this is the same stage that people like B.B King, Tom Jones, Paul Anka, and Michael Buble have recently performed on. (ahhh the pressure!!!) We had a special guest star singing right before I went on named Matt Dusk (I think he was on the TV show "Casino" from what I have been told, but I had never heard of him before) Anyway, his song was on stage for just over 2 minutes, and I was told he would be there for at least 5, as he was shooting a new video there(Here is where problem #1 comes) He left the stage and the MC introduced me. I DIDN'T HAVE ALL MY BIRDS LOADED YET!!! My music starts playing, and I am still trying to load my last bird and set my loops. Now in a state of semi-panic, I loaded my last bird as quick as I could without rushing the poor thing into my sleeve. Just at that moment, one of my loops decides to pop out. GREAT!!!!! I tried to reset it while walking to the curtain...didn't quite get it...oh well...the show must go on. I am walking out on the stage now, already about 1 min into my music, the spotlight hits me and the crowd applauds. Great..now where to start the act. I am already a minute or so behind (I am not exactly sure) so I just decide to wing it (Excuse the pun) My sleeve production went just as I thought, the bird took off and landed on someones head (The audience loved it though!!) So now I am really frustrated (Although still smiling and trying to make it look like part of the act) The next few minutes were near perfect, except for when I had to fish around for one of my detached loops, but now having been home and watching the video my sister-in-law took of it, it really wasn't too noticeable to someone who didn't know what they were looking for. From the audience view, it was a really good show, (Except for the 1 min delay at the beginning, which I was later told really helped build the suspense of the act)and I received many compliments in the lobby when I was leaving. From a technical/magicians view, it did not go as well as I had planned, and I had to skip a few effects to make sure I stayed withing the time span of my background music. I guess what it boils down to, is the audience did not see any problems and were delightfully entertained. I guess that is all that really matters. At least at next years show, I will have a bit better understanding of how a large variety show (20 acts or so)is produced and make sure to leave myself a few extra minutes in case the act ahead of me goes short again. It was a fantastic experience for me (First time on a big stage) and I can't wait to do it again. BTW...Did I mention this talent show raised $10,000 for the United Way?? |
Dave Scribner Assistant Manager Lake Hopatcong, NJ 4855 Posts |
Congratulations Shaner, you're now a certified dove worker. In dove magic, Murphy's law will always prevail. If it can happen it will and will happen at the worst possible time. If a finger pointing is necessary, I would blame the MC in this case. There's no way he should have introduced you if you weren't ready. It's his job to stretch where necessary and cut where needed.
At my last show, I had a loop problem similar to yours except that it broke just as the MC was starting his introduction. We just got his attention and had him "stretch" a little. I didn't get the loop fixed but went out anyway thinking ahead of how I was going to produce this bird without a loop. It so happened that in this routine, I was doing a torn and restored newspaper and just reached into my coat when I did the restore and made it a dove from newspaper instead of dove from silk. Of course my wife was caught by surprise and had no idea what to do as she was set up for the next effect and had nowhere to go with the dove. She improvised as well and just acted like it was normal. The audience is never aware of what is going to happen and you'll find that you are your own worst critic. What seems like a disaster to you most of the time will go unnoticed by the audience if you just keep going. I once actually had a dove fall out of my jacket onto the stage floor. My fault for bending the way I did but since I was doing a silk effect, I just kept going. At the end of the routine, I reached down, picked up the dove (still in it's bag) and added it to the silks ultimately making the production. People in the audience made mention to me later that it was too bad I dropped the silk but the production was great. Go figure. Bottom line here is you raised a lot of money for the charity and that's the important thing. Sounds like you made a good impression and that's even better.
Where the magic begins
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g0thike Special user 722 Posts |
Shane,
Good job, I live in Los Angeles and have the opportunity to perform in some of the ritzy celeb filled benefits, some of them I am shocked at the money they make. I always find out the schedule from the stage manager and then talk to the performers before me and ask them how long their set is "because I have to prepare some magic stuff". Load the doves on time and just stand their carefully waiting for your spot. I would also have a intro track so the sound guy can adjust the levels of your music CD and provide him with some que card. Finally be careful in providing your services for FREE you might get categorized as a "publicity ***" and organizations will not want to pay you since you did all these benefits for Free. You might offer a discount rate. My good friend performs in all these events for Free and I have seen him in clips in E Channel, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight but they never paid him. Now its hard for him to get any money from anybody since he does all these Free events. Personally I say "I would love to perform at your charity event, I can offer my services for a discount rate but I am not an A list celebrity that makes millions of his residuals, its only fair and is the same offer I gave given these events .............". The sad truth and sad side to some benefits is the organizers sometimes only donate 30% or less of the raised money and they keep the rest for the inflated income and retirement plans. Non-profit does not really mean no profit. They also just to advantage of struggling performers promising they will get more work. You might get a contact or work but its similar to throwing dice at a crap table. G0THIKE |
Bob Sanders 1945 - 2024 Magic Valley Ranch, Clanton, Alabama 20504 Posts |
Way to go Shaner! Congratulations! Stress is just another day at the office.
Besides, remember Pete and Tillie? "Love without irritation is just lust!" Keep up the good work! Bob |
1906Alpha1906 Special user North Cacky Lack 516 Posts |
Great Stuff Shaner!
You learn a lot from actually going out there and doing it! Mistakes happen all the time, you just learn how to overcome it. As Dave says, "the performer himself/herself, is the worst critic". We know what we wanted to do, but it may not have happened how we planned it to. But always remember that the audience has NO IDEA what you are going to do next, so if you mess up, they have no idea. They are just delighted to see you performing! I, as Dave, have had a bag fall right out onto the stage floor in front of an audience, but no one knew what it was (the laymen didn't). They thought I meant to do it, and was part of the act. Unlike Dave though, I had no silks, and no assistants and I just eventually walked over to it, and made a magical-type gesture and released the dove. Afterwards, people were coming up to me and asking me how I produced 'that' dove from the small sock I dropped on the floor. Yeh, I know - WHAT?! *HAHA* - you'd be surprised how people want everything you do to be magic, and make the magic happen in their minds, even when you didn't intend to do it. Also, remember that from an audiences stage POV (Point of View), its harder to see everything that is going on. Audiences don't have the same point of view that you have, so you have that advantage! Anyhow, GREAT JOB!!! Would love to see a video clip of the performance sometime! |
Shaner316 Loyal user St. Catharines, ON. Canada 213 Posts |
G0thike,
it wasn't so much a FREE show, as this was actually a talent show consisting of nothing but employees that work in the same casino I do. It was more so to showcase the many talented people that work at the casino (And there were many of them) The ticket sales were dirt cheap ($10 to see about 20 acts) and the casino just donated that money to charity. So, it was not like the charity was banging down my door saying "Can you please do a free show for us?" Even if the charity was not involved, I still would have done the show (For free). It was a great opportunity to perform on stage with some of the people I work with side by side everyday and share our talents with the rest of our co-workers, family and friends. Besides I really enjoyed my first experience at working on a stage in front of 1000 people, a first for me. Thanks to everyone for your encouraging words. The video was done on an analog recorder, so if I can get it transferred to digital, I will be sure to put it up somewhere so you can see it. |
Jarana Regular user 183 Posts |
Congratulations Shaner, like you I also do mostly children's parties but about two months ago, was asked if I could do a school stage show for about 500 students, 11 year olds- and since my show is mostly towards the 4-8 year old range- and its a magician/clown show- I felt an 11 year old student crowd will not like to see a clown magician show-and a big part of my turn down was cause I couldn't figure out how to star and older kids show- on my regular one I start by saying that I cant do the show cause I forgot my wand- then my wife who also dresses like a clown says make it appear- then I go on to bring out different objects that are not wands-which makes the kids laugh until I bring out the real wand-even though I have a regular black tuxedo, I turned it down cause I felt I was not ready for a large stage school show, and also how to change the start with a more professional one- but maybe I should just jumped in the pool and somehow I would have had to swim, hopefully someday I can have your courage- and more time to develop a real magicians stage show, as I work a regular full time job and we have two small kids- so its hard to practice at home, but I hope that someday I can do one.
If anyone has any tips or advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Jaime
Got a website? We can help--> www.clorus.com
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Michael Sullivan New user Australia 86 Posts |
G'day guys,
Since getting my very first dove a couple of years ago and trying to train it using methods explained by most other magicians in books or on tapes and finding out the same problem I now realise that this type of black curtain and bright light method is not the best and is not the best way to go about it. I now train my doves in a large and small area but do not hang curtains or use bright lights. My 4 birds that I need to return fly are trained will plenty of perching place and distractions. Yet all 4 bird will return to me 99.9 where ever I am. The reason why is because I am not training them in any particular scenario which is what I think they look for if trained in this way. I train my bird now using rewards and trust. What I mean is that I have my bird feel the safest and best place to be is with me and reward them for this and when the birds trust you and want to be close too you then they are going to return fly to you a lot more times than not and as I said I leave them with plenty of places to land yet they don't. I also take them to as many different place to practice as I can come across as in friends garages or local halls, where ever I can find as this way they are more trained to you being the common object in any open space. Hope this help. Michael |
Dave Scribner Assistant Manager Lake Hopatcong, NJ 4855 Posts |
Michael, I don't think anyone has said that the black curtain and lights was the best method to train, only that it was one method. I, like you, work with my doves in an open basement without the backdrop and lights and it works for me most of the time. I have had a few birds in my career however, that I had to use the backdrop. It all depends on the dove. What works for you, may not work for me and visa versa.
Where the magic begins
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