I do table hopping at a restaraunt in Disney, and about 40% of my audience is from overseas, and I'd say 20% speak little or no English. I know German, which is USELESS because even the dogs understand English in Germany. I speak broken Japanese, along with the Spanish I've picked up after living in Florida for 26 years, but I don't use any of the above for performing. When I get a table that dosent speak English, I simply switch to tricks which are purely visible, and talk in meaningless gobbeldygook with a East-European accent. This works great and the kids find it hysterical. Now for doing parties, I suppose it would be wise to learn a dozen or so key phrases in the language like the colors, 'here' 'there' 'watch' 'shut-up' etc.

"which is USELESS because even the dogs understand English in Germany" lol , love it!

I speak French, German, a little Spanish, and a little Italian. I'd say a good kids show should work very well, if you simply translate your patter into another language(I've even done shows in four languages at once before, and it's no problem). As long as the kids know what you're trying to tell them - even if your translation isn't so good, they will lap it up! I've presented shows entirely in French, and had 500 kids mesmerised.
good kids' magic is mostly visual, the patter is kinda secondary. But of course, if you talk in a language they simply don't understand, you may have trouble. To give an example, I presented Bill Abbott's "Chico" in French, and realised I needed a few words which weren't in my basic French vocabulary. So, I learned to say "Je veux eternuex" (I want to sneeze); "Faire tremper le pirate" (soak the pirate); "lever la main" (put your hand up); "marionette" (puppet); "agrarafeuse" (staple gun); chatouiller (tickle); "t'ais mort" (you're dead!). this, accompanied by a few simple words in French, allows youb to present the entire "Chico" routine with aplomb. Remember, you don't need to be able to speak fluently, just to b e able to communicate.

A few seasons ago I worked the Irish to France ferry. Very quickly I realised my audience had French people as well as Irish people, so I got the Michel Thomas set of CDs (which I highly recommend). Within a week I was able to throw in enough French to keep that half of my audience happy.

The nice side-effect was that I was able to order my lunch in Cherburg and Le Harve in French, which I liked.

Didn't Paul Daniels once present a show at a competition in Spain, in spanish after a week of learning the language? I can't remember all the details, but I love the idea of being able to work in more than one language.

Thanks jestnjoker! I just learned something new!

Yes, I remember that. I read an article a while ago that said he did his act in pigeon spanish and the crowd lapped it up.

Fellows,if you want to know more about Harpo read "Harpo Speaks", it's excellent. And yes, he just made up the tuning which apparently caused much interest among professional harpists.

Having said that though, I'm a sucker for Chico shooting the keys.

[quote]On 2011-08-02 19:21, magicgeorge wrote:


I am a big Harpo fan (followed by Chico). I will have to look up "Harpo Speaks". Thanks magicgeorge!

Wolly

I'm currently reading Harpo's book and I can't put it down. It's great!

Do like Italians do,speak with your hands.
Apart the gag friend,in Italy for example baptism is a big deal with children about the age of 9-10,there is almost some sort of intertainment that is booked by a parent and most are in restaurants of various prices. Some of them are treated like weddings. Often there is an animation agency that caters the needs of intertaiment along with what is defined as an animator wich in poor language means a super baby sitter who provides games to keep them busy apart the artists, In most cases it's big money. Not to speak of the weddings expecially in the south of Italy. Some of these actually call upon many well to do singers that for example,for 4-5 songs ask about 2000 euros if not more. Naturally the economy has now put a damper on most of these.

Harpo's genuis is clear, and so is Chaplin's, of course.

In one of his multitude of brilliant films, Chalpin does an incredible bit where he is about to perform as a singing waiter for a noisy dance hall. He loses the words (they were written on his cuff and his cuff goes flying off at his very first arm gesture just as he is about to sing the song. So, he "wings it" and sings in complete gibberish using his body language to communicated the essence of the song. The crowd is wild with delight.


IMHO, and as others on this thread have already sagely pointed out... Non-verbal communication is definitely an art that should be explored, enjoyed and mastered by those performers playing to international audiences --and even by those that do not.

Jonathan

How does a silent film indicate that Chaplin is singing gibberish (or is it a talky)?

"How does a silent film indicate that Chaplin is singing gibberish (or is it a talky)?"

Great question Professor Q.B.

I will only attempt to answer it as best I can and briefly...

...From what I recall Chaplin was known to hate the birth of talking films. This particular film was released just around the launch of "talkies", and instead of embarrassing the new technology, Chaplin scripted his earliest films with sound to include "sounds" that served to mock what talking films were suppose bring to its audience. His film the Great Dictator, was also a film made at the onset of talkies and shows Chaplin in front of a microphone giving a speech to a crowd, again using pure gibberish --as a way to mock.

However, I am not an authority on Chaplin --far from it. There is a much more knowledgeable Café member here named Paul Romhany, who does his own very original tribute to Chaplin show. His user name her on the Café is "comedy". Hopefully, Paul will see this thread and be kind enough to add further insights and accuracy to what I have suggested above.

Jonathan

Wow - I do an entire lecture on performing without speaking. I spent over two hours last week sharing my thought on this for an upcoming article that is coming out. Having been a fan of Chaplin since I was eight (now 42) and studied every move, nuance etc. I can tell you it's a skill that does take practice. I perform all of my close-up magic without speaking. I'm not going to write a thesis here about it other than to say I find it can make a performance much stronger.
To answer the question of 'how' it require mime. It is possible (as Chaplin does) to get what you want across to an audience without speaking - but it requires a different kind of skill. It's an amazing skill to have. Having this skill will also help you get certain jobs over other artists. I have been hired to entertain an entire 3000 passenger ship because nobody spoke English - it was a chartered cruise of 3000 Korean Amway people. I performed my full one man show without saying a word. (It only took twenty years to get to that stage of being able to do it).

Here is an exercise you could try. Take all of your working repertoire (either close-up or stage) and imagine doing the entire show without speaking. Yes, it CAN be done - think about how you would do it. Chances are you will start to develop new skills that you need to pull this off.

It's a very passionate subject for me and if anybody ever gets the chance to attend my lecture I will talk about it.

Paul

Wonderfully insightful and encouraging input Paul. Thanks! As you well know, both my wife and I also perform all of our close-up magic for corporate clients without saying a word (cocktails, table-to-table), as well as our stage show (which has the added feature of being choreographed to music), but still allows for great spontaneity/improv during our on stage interactions with our volunteers. So much fun!

As Paul says above, if you have never tried this, begin by simply "imagining" yourself performing the tricks you do all the time speaking, but in silence. Then, muster up the courage to actually try it on a live audience --perhaps walkaround ("mingle magic")at first. Of course you will have to develop a non-speaking persona to make this work. In addition to Paul's videoclips of his Chaplin show, if yo have not done so already, consider checking out the work of other current working pros such as: Charlie Frye, Avner the Eccentric and Jeff McBride. And while yo are at it enjoy the DVD series on the works of Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Arkbuckle and Keaton. Red Skelton is another great genius to observe and learn from.But the best way IMHO, is to just start "doing it" you may not be in your comfort zone at first but yo will grow to enjoy and master the art of silent comedy through repeated experiences and over time.

For me one of the main keys to success has always been that although on the outside I am not breathing a word, on the inside (in my inner thoughts/self-talk process) I carry out a non-stop running dialogue with my audiences and volunteers. In fact, most of them simply can't wait to join in the interactive magical fun and forget that I am not saying an audible word to them during this entire entertainment process.

In addition to viewing Paul's wonderful clips of his show at http://www.chaplinmagic.com and on http://www.Youtube.com , we also invite you to check out our clips while you are at it over at: http://www.maxmagician.com

Hope you enjoy them!

Jonathan (aka "Max)

If you please Mr. Romhany, where and when will this article be appearing?

I got "Harpo Speaks" today and am looking forward to a long good read by a comic master.