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afillius Regular user 199 Posts |
Let me start by saying that I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to magic. I practice pretty much every day, and I rehearse whenever I get a chance. For the most part I only perform for friends and family, until a couple of weeks ago.
I was in Houston and Baltimore doing audio for the Auto Shows and one of my friends also happened to be working the same 2 shows but for a differnt auto manufacturer, so I spent most of my 3 1/2 weeks of travel hanging out with him since he was the only person I knew in those cities. In Baltimore we found a local bar near our hotels and ended up hanging out there pretty much every night. They had good food and were open late so it fit our wierd work schedule. Anyway...after about 3 nights of hanging out in this bar my friend tells the bartender that I am a magician. Well the bartender gets very exited and she tells me that she loves magic and asks me to do a trick for her. So I break out a deck and do the Chicago Opener. Well she starts freaking out and now we are attracting attention. I ended up doing an entire performance for the whole bar for about 45 minutes. I was really on a roll. I even tried something new by making a card dissapear from the deck and end up in someones beer bottle (thanks Jaxon). The crowd was going nuts. I did some of Doc Easton's Card under glass/Ambitious Card, copper/silver/brass, Hundy 500 (which really got people screaming) and I finished off with by doing some mentalism with a few of the ladies at the bar and ended with ashes to arm (I have never seen so many stunned faces than after that effect). The manager gave me and my friend free drinks and food all night, and the remaining nights in town our dinner/bar tab never ended up costing us more than $10 for the both of us. The manager thanked me for being so entertaining, and she mentioned how much longer people stayed to drink because of my performance. I of course suggested that she find a professional magician to hire for Friday and Saturday nights. This was pretty much the 1st time I have done any real performing for strangers, and I couldn't believe how much easier it was than for friends/family. Of course I had most of my patter down and knew all my moves/slights inside and out. I don't think I have had as much fun in a single evening in a very long time. I know that if it weren't for my friend bringing it up I never would have mentioned that I did magic and I certainly wouldn't have offered to perform. I only happened to be prepared because I was showing my friend some stuff earlier in the day. Every day after that random people would come up to me and ask me to show them something and I had one bartender keep repeating "wow, you are amazing" all night. So, my advise to all the other newbies out there is don't be afraid to perform. If you don't feel comfortable offering like I was, then have a friend bring it up. I learned so much during that one night I spent a 1/2 hour in my hotel taking notes that night. Stuff like this certainly makes it easier to keep practicing.
www.stsgroupinc.com
pro audio/video/lighting Great magic is about creating great images - Jay Sankey |
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Mark Wilden Veteran user San Francisco 375 Posts |
Thanks for the inspiring story! That really does make me want to improve and break into real performance.
///ark |
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Andy the cardician Inner circle A street named after my dad 3362 Posts |
Great story . . . thanks for sharing this.
Cards never lie
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Jim Poor Special user Fairfax, VA 676 Posts |
That's awesome, now pass along the name of the place to a performer in B-more area so he can go get a job
<<-- doesn't live close enough to make it worth the trip |
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kroberge New user Old Town, Maine 75 Posts |
Great story! Congratulations, you must feel fantastic.
Cheers, Kevin |
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Habu Veteran user Texas / Alabama 393 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-03-02 00:52, afillius wrote: This is some of the best advice I have heard in the Café for someone wanting to do magic for strangers for the first time. I might add, just thought of it, you could just sit at the bar and do magic for a friend so others notice. Thanks for your story and advice.
www.magicbyhabu.com
Real name: Rick Jackson Habu: Taken from SR-71 spy plane I worked on. It's name came from a poisonous snake on Okinawa. Hope my magic isn't poisonous! |
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blink_inc Loyal user Hamilton 278 Posts |
What an inspirational story.
So true. Like Nike said "Just do it" (Packing up my stuff and going to the bar) Will//
I am a Sankey addict....please, help me!
My name is Will, my company is Blink, an experience in transposition. |
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abc Inner circle South African in Taiwan 1081 Posts |
If you have fun with something that you are good at it is sure to be a success. Hope you have many more of these nights.
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Mark Fifield New user Barrie, On 51 Posts |
Thanks you for that story its given me a little more confidenes
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lilkohn New user Los Angeles 14 Posts |
That is great advice. I know exactly how you feel about performing for strangers vs friends and family. I feel like its easier to perform on strangers as well. friends and family sort of expect magic from you so its never a surprise anymore. when I perform in front of new audiences it makes me remember why I love to do magic so much
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gaddy Inner circle Agent of Chaos 3526 Posts |
You da' man.
*due to the editorial policies here, words on this site attributed to me cannot necessarily be held to be my own.*
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BrianMillerMagic Inner circle CT 2050 Posts |
Rare to hear such a great story of an impromptu performance in a pressure situation. Hopefully you can continue working towards performing more frequently now that you've seen how much fun and beneficial it can be. Thanks so much for sharing!
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afillius Regular user 199 Posts |
Well. last night was my first official performance. IBM Ring 280 did a charity stage show for the Boys and Girls Club. I put together a close up set to perform in the lobby before the show. There were about 4 of us doing closeup during that time and we each had 2 hours to perform for the roughly 200 people that came to the show.
Wow, I couldn't believe how well it went. My set consisted of: Sponge Balls (more of a gag than a trick) Hundy 500 A Simple Spell Chicago Opener PHIL Cut to your card and a gag where the spectator picks a card and then can't find it in the deck so I slip in a jumbo card of their choice to help them find it. Thw whole routine had a gambling theme and I used the $100s from Hundy 500 to "bet the audience" that I found find their card or predict their card. I learned some very important things.... 1) be careful about the length of your closeup show. At home mine timed out to about 15 minutes, but a the show it went almost 20 minutes, and that was WAY TOO LONG. After my first 2 sets I started dropping a couple of effects to shorten it. 2) Kids can be a real pain in the butt. I've never performed for any kids before and this show was a mix of adults and kids. Every kid that knew any magic at all would lean over to his buddys to tell them when they thought I did a sleight 3) Watch your angles. This goes for all magic, but I nearly had people behind me at times. I never got busted on anything because of angles, but I really had to keep alert about this. Anyway, I had a great time and it was so great to hear people talking about me later during the night to their friends and to hear them saying "Oh, you didn't see Adam? Oh wow, he was really amazing". So once again newbies...once your effects are ready, don't be afraid to just do it.
www.stsgroupinc.com
pro audio/video/lighting Great magic is about creating great images - Jay Sankey |
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milespianoforte New user 3 Posts |
What should I do if someone says "I know how you did that!", while I'm performing a trick??? I mean, if I do the trick perfectly, and they just HAPPEN to maybe already be a magician, and know the trick, and blurt it out...
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milespianoforte New user 3 Posts |
I'm thinking maybe I should just say: "well, if YOU'RE so good, why don't you come up here and do the show for me!" What do you guys think?
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Sekhmet New user Nacogdoches, TX 54 Posts |
I think if the person's actually a magician, they won't be so pompous as to show you up like that and tell the secret. Most people who are really into this would have more class than to tell everyone how it's done. Also, if they aren't and they still know how the trick's done, you do just that. Hand them the deck of cards (or whatever you're working with) and ask them to do the same thing. More than likely, they'll try and mess up from lack of practice.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
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blink_inc Loyal user Hamilton 278 Posts |
Play do as I do with them.
Charlier False.... End of game.Back to performance.
I am a Sankey addict....please, help me!
My name is Will, my company is Blink, an experience in transposition. |
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afillius Regular user 199 Posts |
If someone blurts out "I know how you did that!" I just blurt out "Really! So do I!" It usually gets a laugh and the embarrasment keeps them from doing it again.
I won't lie, I got busted twice in my performance the other night, once by a kid and I played it off like it was a little secret between the 2 of us, and once by an adult. With the adult I kinda froze and did a really lame reveal of their card. But a few minutes later I realized that the world didn't end because I blew a trick, in fact everyone forgot all about it when I did my next trick. Don't be afraid...."you have nothing to fear but fear itself". Before my perfomance I was really nervous so my wife sat at my closeup table and told me to do my routine for her, about 1/2 way thru they opened the doors and peopl started sitting down with her. Having her start me off really calmed my nerves and let me get on a roll.
www.stsgroupinc.com
pro audio/video/lighting Great magic is about creating great images - Jay Sankey |
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damkat69 New user 59 Posts |
Good to hear you just got out there and had a good time entertaining people. I think you are always going to have the odd person know how to do a trick....When it happens to me I just play it off as nothing...or ask them if they know this one and to a trick like Airtight where they would have to be into magic to know it...they don't and are usually amazed and leave me alone after that cause they are embarrassed.
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Wes65 Inner circle I've said very little in 1219 Posts |
The following link has some pretty mean come-backs for hecklers
http://www.magictricks.com/jokes.htm
Wes
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