I don't want to be a hypocrite here. I HAVE done unpaid gigs, but they were very professional, and I did not use them as a way to fine tune the act. They were done for Publicity only. I'd spent several YEARS on this Café BEFORE I did ANYTHING in public.
That too, is my advice.
(My Mama isn't on the Café....yet)

I´m not suggesting for one minute that unpaid gigs need be unprofessional - attitude is everything and if anyone is serious about becoming a professional performer then they need a professional attitude from the start.



So you are saying you had an absolutely polished product from the start?

Let´s take Osterlind as an example - I think most would agree he´s a good model of a professional working Mentalist. Most of us have seen his DVD´s and most of us, therefore, will have seen and heard how he developed his effects, how he would try a line one way or another way, how he would change things around or make little adjustments so that the effects he does today are different in many subtle ways from when he first started. That´s called fine-tuning.



Well, I worry about your shows if this is where you learnt your showmanship. Yes, there is some great advice from some great guys on these forums but there´s also a heck of a lot of contradictory advice and a heck of a lot of stuff that´s just plain wrong.

People aren´t born with the skills to entertain an audience. True, some might learn some of the basics of they are used to presenting in front of an audience. Some may well develop into being naturally extrovert personalities (although it doesn´t follow that they´d be entertaining). However there are certain things that can only be learnt by performing in front of an audience, no matter what prior experience your lifestyle has given you.

And if you are SERIOUSLY telling me you have given nothing but slick, professional presentations from the first time you´ve performed in front of an audience and you´ve never had to change anything then you are either very lucky, or you´ve not been paying close enough attention to your audiences.

You gotta get out there and try...you are going to stink the joint up the first few times but hopefully less so than the future.

You can read about riding a bicycle all you want but you gotta get out there and fall to learn.

Simple fact is, everyone is rough when they start and there is no substitute for a live audience...this is true of mentalism, magic, hypnotism, pitching, readings, zbits, and pretty much everything I can think of.

I booked my first show at a University where I had been hired several times for palm reading. When I told my friend I was doing a mind-reading show she said with great concern, "What are you going to do, you can't read minds?".

I had the red, blue, and green books of mentalism (missing the middle pages in one of them, I never did find out how the prediction got into the rubber duckies' mouth). I put together a show from them and it went well. The same thing would be true today of Richard Osterlind's work. There are complete shows, from a technical standpoint, in his DVD's. These are very well structured, thought out shows...you can buy some experience.

But it's like a song, you can sing the same song as everyone else, but you will be different.

Very few people deserve to be paid for their first shows...that is a fact. It is a question that has been asked over the years, where do you go to be bad when you start? Free shows for groups that aren't markets for you anyway are a good start.

I will not use any audience as a way to see how I'm doing. Sure, I've made mistakes like everyone, but not because of lack of planning or rehearsal. I don't play. When the time is right...I DO!
Mota said:

Shame on you for stinking up anything. Doesn't have to be that way!

Everyone has bad shows, more so when you are beginning. Ford Kross once told me if you aren't doing any bad shows you aren't doing many shows at all.

Slim,
I have not said, at any stage, that free shows = lack of planning or rehearsal. Naturally, I advocate that anyone hoping to become a professional performer remembers the professional part. But no matter how much you rehearse, no matter how much you plan, actually DOING before audience - especially if you have NO experience of that - is a completely different matter. There is only so much that can be learnt from books, websites and mentors. If one suffers from nerves (and many, many performers do) then there is only so much advice that you can take on the subject - the reality is you have to keep on performing in front of an audience and the nerves will calm gradually (although for some not completely).

Like I´ve said, I´ve read lots of bios of lots of entertainers (hardly any of them magicians) and they´ve all had to start somewhere and that somewhere is usually a free or underpaid show. And they all learnt from their bad shows to become good entertainers.

I want to second what bartlewizard said.

Free shows do not equal lousy shows.

In fact...

Paid shows do not equal good shows. (Ever see Kamar on Letterman?)

Nowhere did I say or even imply that I expect to do "subpar" shows. I'm charming, I'm well spoken and I know a lot of dynamite mentalism. What am I not, thus far, is a paid mentalist. I'm not giving my first show this week, this month or even this year. I have much to learn, practice and rehearse. My first show, I assure you, will be as close to perfect as this human can make it.

HOWEVER...

I sincerely doubt that I will charge any money for that very first nearly perfect show. It will probably be a benefit, open mic or talent show of some kind. I'll do a few more of them in the following months, gathering quotes, reviews, clippings and testimonials. And although I will never lie about what I've done previously, the first person to hire me will probably not realize it's my first paying gig.

Because I'll be very good. And there will lots of people who will be happy to attest to that fact.

No wonder mentalism isn't any more popular than it is. It seems everyone is going around performing stinky sub standard and bad shows when they should be working with other Pros removing all of the bugs before they just jump on stage. It's like a little kid with a new trick that wants to show it to his friends just minutes after he's learned it. No discipline. No planning. No practice. No forethought....No PRIDE in doing a perfect performance.....Bottom line....One bad show hurts us all. Don't do them .....PERIOD!

I am a performer. I do not do Experimentalism everyday, but I do perform ( As an entertainer) at least 15 times a week for several hundred, sometimes thousands of people, at each show. After 30 years of performing I don't get nervous. Any excitement that I feel I channel into the performance.
I'm not here to blow my own horn but you guys act like I never hit the stage.

Example..Criss Angel did a muscle reading routine in his last series. He had Banachek and several others working with him before the show. Making it perfect! He didn't go to the local open mic and stink it up. NO....he did it the RIGHT WAY. Success the very first time on stage/TV. Can't you see that?

You should learn what you can from books, CD's, and sources.

Then you practice, usually with friends.

Then you go out, do the senior shows and open mikes.

Then paid performances.

Many, many magicians learned how to be good with this process...no one starts good, except in their own minds. The learning process continues all through. I remember seeing college reviews of Max Maven...some reviews praised his show, others said he was no psychic, he just did cards tricks. The audience can vary, you can be off, something physical can happen...you do what you can with what you have but you won't be perfect...

My very first mentalism performance was used on a TV pilot with many other performers. It has landed me several gigs at Universal Studios. No bad shows so far. I rehearse my patter several hours, at least three times per week. I pester several Pro's on the telephone weekly. I've got a small library and I frequently "Appear" on the radio. I am NOT a full time Experimentalist, as I do not have the time right now, nor can I take a cut in pay. Maybe some day.

So far, most everyone here has suggested you might be bad at times to start, places to go to get their first public shows...you do your best (several hours of rehearsal, as Slim does, cuts down on a lot of problems), and handle what comes up. There are things that books can't teach you, things rehearsal can't prepare you for.

So, Rocketeer, are you having your questions answered? There is a consensus of opinion here. If you have more questions, post them. I don't know what kind of mentalism show you want to start with, but give some more ideas of where you are headed so this can go in a more productive direction.

Well, only a couple of people actually told me about their first shows. We kind of got off on a tangent. As for what I'm looking for, I need to learn a lot. I was just curious about that critical period when you make the transition from wannabe to actually doing it for people, paid or unpaid. It seems to me that it's relatively easy to show somebody a card trick or the latest Tenyo toy but a little more complex to get into doing mentalism.

At the ripe old age of nine my daughter Kyleen performed her first Mentalism Show at Universal Studios, City Jazz on City Walk. She and the crew, myself included, were given four Dinners ( Very good indeed), four Movie Passes and Four Passes to all of the nightlife etc. that Universal offers. Value of about $200.
She did the same thing when she was 10. She's also been on four or five radio shows. She was in the studio (Alone, except for Grandpa giving her a ride there) for three of them.( I have MP3's of all of these performances) She has a credit there for several hundred dollars of "FREE" radio spots reserved for any LIVE performances in the area.
On the strength of these performances we were able to have lunch with a TV producer( He Paid). We discussed a TV Pilot, and we are still negotiating something along those lines.
She will return to Florida in a few weeks and we will try again. If the schedule permits, she will be doing Mind Reading in a remote broadcast from the IBM Convention in Miami on the First of July. It will be on the net and also Broadcast live on a station here in Daytona Beach.
She will be reading the DJ's mind as well as those who call in.