All the best folks - Kill 'Em

I am confused as I thought tickets were already selling and you kind of knew who and how big your crowd was going to be.

I HOPE you are not counting on everyone who expressed a passing interest actually showing up. If so you may be in line for a major disappointment.

This is why I track each and every sale and only handle all the advance tickets as well. it really gives me an idea of how many folks I know will be there ahead of time and can help me know what marjeting avenues worked the best.

Jaxon: I wish you all very much success in your show this weekend. I know you put a lot of sweat and tears into this and I wish you all the best. Please keep us all posted. I have been in your shoes and it can be nerve racking for sure. But I also know that each time out I learned so much and every show I did I got better and better and was successful with it.

Kyle

Thanks guys.

The show is tonight. I had the strangest dream last night about it. I dreamed my friends and family gave me a surprise and redecorated the place for me. It looked awesome but it totally messed up my entire act. LOL It was a very strange dream.

I'll let you know how it went tomorrow. Thanks everyone for all your advice.

Ron Jaxon

Jaxon,

Go out there and have the night of your dreams my friend. You put a lot of hard work into this and I look forward to hearing all the details. Sure it will be hectic and crazy today, but good things usually are. Here is to your success.

Kyle

Break a leg!

Wow! I just found this thread and read the whole thing!! I started reading about 11:00pm on Saturday, November 18th----SHOWDATE!!! Now it is a bit after midnite, and I can't WAIT to read about how the show went.... Retroactive Best Wishes, and BREAK A THREAD!!!

Wes

I will be dealing at a magic convention all day but look forward to hearing how it went for you when I get back in tonight. Hope all went well.

Kyle

Whew! I made it through it. It's a little after 1:00 pm the day after the show and I slept in until noon..

Kyle, you where right. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people showed up. When 7pm rolled around (The time we opened the doors to let people in). There only a few people there. Mainly friends of mine. All of them must have had it in mind that they'd come early to see if I'd need any help with anything. That made me feel good but of course my mind was thinking (I hope more then just my friends show up!).

7:30 rolled around and there where about 10 - 15 people there.

8:00 about 50 people.

By 9:00 (Show time) all the seats we had set up where filled.

About 9:30 so many people where there we had to add more tables to the room. Groups where moving smaller tables together to accommodate fitting more tables and chairs in. Half way through the show many people where there standing around the room. So I'm very happy with the turn out. You wouldn't believe how much pressure was lifted off me when I saw all this. So the night was very successful.

Mike McNee did a great job as Emcee. He was really prepared. He spent a lot of time talking to all the acts before the show and making sure he got everything right. Thanks so much Mike.

John Sturk opened the show with an amazing act as usual. He did a great job getting the crowd warmed up. They turned out to be a great crowd too. Very responsive with their laughter and applaud.

Scott Raymond was the next act. Now, you'd probably all read my thoughts on mentalism magic. Not that I don't like it but that I can't experience it as well as most because of my hearing limitation. But as Scott was up there I was scanning the crowd and he was getting a lot of laughs. Way to go Scott. Thanks so much for showing me and all of them how much fun and entertaining it can be.

Next up was Keith Stickly from Vegas. He had the audience rolling with a strait jacket escape act. A true professional and it showed in the audiences reaction to it. Thanks so much for taking the time to come and perform for us all.

Knotty bits (cafe names: gsidhe & Sylver Fyre) Where up next. Their act was very unique. Sylver never talks but she's very good at talking with just facial expressions. All the while Gwydian is talking and Sylver is torturing him in humorous ways. They really added an unusual style of magic to the show. Unfortunately we had an issue with the fire Marshall. The end of their act includes fire eating and painting. Even though they are very professional about the use of fire in their act and take every precaution imaginable. The fire marshall wouldn't allow the use of fire in the building because it's an old building and no sprinkler system. They found a way around it though and as there where doing this part of the act (In a very unusual way) I saw a lot of ooo's and Aaah's around the room. Thanks so much guys. It was a pleasure meeting you and having you in the show.

I was up next but I brought Chuck Strout up to do his juggling act at the beginning of my performance. I was back stage so I didn't get to see much of it. But I had some people comment on it after the show. So thanks so much for coming Chuck.

Now for my own act. To be honest I wasn't very happy with myself. Many things went wrong but I seem to have gotten a lot of positive feedback. I had a few issues with the microphone and one of the things I had set up to perform went wrong so I had to exclude it. It's funny. I rarely get so nervous that it effects my act. It's usually before the show I feel it a little but while up there it goes away. But I felt it more this time. Maybe it was because it was my home town and I see a bunch of familiar faces instead of strangers. Or maybe it was because it was the end of this show I've been planning for so long. But it went okay. I just don't feel I did my best performance. My Sheet Morph seemed to have been the hit of my act. I can't wait to see the video of that.


So the show was a hit and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Some glitches along the way of course but that's expected. IT couldn't have happened without all these great performers taking a risk and coming all the way here to perform not knowing how much they'd be making. Then they all gave top notch performances.

It also couldn't have happened with out all of your help and advice shared in this discussion. I learned a lot and I'm sure the next one will be even better as far as my approach to putting it together. Now I have this experience behind me and lessons to learn from it. But I'm giving serious thought to either producing a show or performing in a show. Not both at the same time.. LOL

I'll get some pictures and possibly some videos up to show you all as soon as I get them.

Now I'm going to relax for a day or two..

Ron Jaxon

Ron –

Congratulations on putting together such a fun event! I think it was a success far beyond anyone’s expectations!

I also want to thank you very much for your kind words about my act. I have worked hard on it, and it was an absolute pleasure to share it with you and your guests. You brought out a GREAT crowd – no easy task!

You really worked hard putting the event together, and I am lucky I was only 2 hours away and able to participate.

Hopefully you will have many more successful events like last night! If I am close by I hope I can participate again.

Keith

Hey Ron,

I too wanted to say congratulations and thanks for the kind words you had about my part in the show.

Your hard work really paid off, it was a great night for your guests and performers

Thanks again for inviting me to be a part!

Scott

Thanks guys. I was so lucky that you where there to help make it all work. In this discussion it's been mentioned quite a few times that no matter how good the show is it won't matter if people don't show up to see it. That's very true but if the show isn't good no one will be coming back to the next one. I'm sure there will be a lot of positive word of mouth advertising for the next event thanks to all of you who gave great performances.

By the way. Sorry I didn't make it to eat with you guys after words. I didn't leave the place until about 1:30. The staff had a lot of stories to tell me about. I warned them that they should have extra servers available but they felt they could handle it. I'd imagine their feet are still hurting.

Ron Jaxon

Congratulations Ron,

It was so rewarding participating in this discussion watching you consider all the issues and then take decisions. Having spent years, first appearing in, then directing and producing nights like this, I learnt the hard way NOTHING can be left to chance.

You are a rarity in having made it work the first time and you have your dedication, persistance and work ethic to credit for that. I also suspect that you have a very good reputation in your local area - first time crowds don't rock in like that unless people 'know' they are going to have a good night.

You also obviously chose good acts - the most basic requirement. Good that Gwyd and Sylver could construe a 'work around' - true professionals.

PRODUCING AND PERFORMING
Sometimes we have to produce the show ourself to get the work we want. BUT - we are first performers. You performance will suffer at first, no matter how prepared you are - the weight of responsibility is heavy. This is the unseen genius of entertainers like Copperfield - that they can arrange such vast and intricate entertainments and then be able to take their hands off, become detached and step away and perform, apparently without a care in the world.

My personal opinion, from reading your posts on The Café, is that you have the dedication and work ethic to do both, and while your own performance will inevitably suffer the first few times (and this will be demoralising) you will quickly learn from it and organise for it.

I think you have to do it again for all of us, because when Kyle puts his thinking cap on we all learn so much.

This has been an excellent adventure.

Plastic,

Thanks for the kind words. I do appreciate it. I will write more later for sure when I get the time. However I just want to say this.

The hardest thing anyone can ever do is simply the art of taking action. The art of DOING is so hard that many simply don't do anything. They have big dreams, big wishes, big ideas but these things never come about. why? Because they never DO anything.

Jaxon... you DID it. You took the action upon yourself not to sit there and DREAM about doing this, but actually taking action to try it and do it, and see what happens. That to me is very rewarding. You will never ever know just how much you can accomplish if you are too afraid to try.

You my friend have earned so much respect from me because I know how much work you put into this. Sometimes just getting up and taking action is the hardest part of the process.

Congratulations. You did it as I knew you could.

Kyle

Hi All!
What a night it was!
Ron...I realize you were not happy with certain aspects of your performance, but you have to trust me, you had a great act and it went over well. Yeah, there were mic problems, but you covered and everything still looked great! It was brilliant the way you worked out effects specific to the venue, and those went over incredibly well. You could feel the vaccuum created by dropping jaws all through the place.
Not only did you have a really good personal act, you pulled the whole thing together. It was amazing how many people showed up (So many having to stand because we ran out of chairs??? Sweet!!) I was just watching the seats, getting more and more giddy as they filled up!
Mike did a great job with the MC work (Sylver was very pleased that she did not have to do him bodily harm for calling her an assisstant) He was great, communicating with the acts, asking the right questions, he should be proud of the work he did that night.
The line up itself was very very cool. You brought in acts with varying performance styles and looks covering almost every type of magic. Opening with John Sturk, a classic magician with Rings ropes and silks (technically flawless, beautiful to watch and funny!), then into a fun and upbeat mentalist act with a lot of visual stuff that is missing from so many performers in that genre(Scott...I now know that a mentalist act can be done with a real sense of humor!! Thanks for that!), followed by an absolutely frenetic escape (Keith...Got the audience completely wired!), then us with the sideshow stuff (We had one small struggle with the fire performance, but the rest went pretty well I think...), then the juggling (Chuck...I never saw a juggling act quite like it), and then you with Grand Illusion to finish off the night (I know the audience was not expecting what happened, and it really freaked them out!!)
It was well rounded, balanced and a lot of fun.

You pulled a great show together Ron.
Sylver and I would be glad to work with you again anytime.

Gwyd

Yes thank you Ron for a wonderful experience! It was a real pleasure to be a part of your event. Everyone was friendly and supportive. It was a real treat to work with so many talented individuals and to have the opportunity to get to know them better. The night was a huge success and it couldn't have happened without everyone who helped make it happen. So thank yous all around to those who contributed to the night.

I just found this post ...
and would like to thank everyone for their kind words and a big thank you to Ron for having the event ... and I would love to do it again... I had a ball.

Chuck (juggler)

(P.S. it gave me a chance to work a new bit out.. some thing out of my normal juggling)

Wow! I just came across this thread and read it all the way through. What a great adventure! It was thrilling to follow another artist's success. I've been thinking of promoting a show myself and this thread has inspired me to more fully investigate the possibilities. It it comes off it would be about this time next year. I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out.

Just keep in mind that anyone wanting to do what I myself have done, and what jaxon has done here.. remeber it takes a LOT of hard work. In fact I bet jaxon can back me up when I say, you will spend more time organizing and marketing the event wel, then you will with the actual show itself.

This is not to discourage anyone doing this, it is just a big reality check for anyone and everyone. If you want to do this you will have to remember one key thing I told jaxon at the start of this project.

"having a great show means NOTHING unless you can get people into those seats."

Jaxon has managed to do just that and has done an amazing job in the process. I am sure he will tell you he spent a lot of time working on this and putting this entire evening together. It is not easy, but when it comes togteher like it has, it can be a wonderful thing.

Way 2 go.

Kyle

Hey Ron,

Any pictures frm the event to share?

Best!
Scott