Hey Silas!

I'm going to start by saying WELL DONE! That's not an easy audience to perform to.

As the video shows, you can hear so many people talking between themselves, not paying attention (quite rude!) and then as it progresses, you can hear them start to take notice.

The mic fumble - PAH! You handled that really well. You could've lost the plot, but you didn't - You just continued as before.

My god, if Atlas had a similar situation as stated above, then anyone can. As he points out - Now you know what to expect - Next time will be even better.

Take up Looch on his offer of help. That man is another friendly, extremely experienced individual.

Good luck for the next one!!

First of all Silas, well done for taking the first step into performance. I won't lie, it was a rough six minutes - but we've all had them and so you aren't alone in that!

It sounds like you've considered the evening from at least a few different angles and are now collecting and refining the data you've gathered. I hope the following advice is helpful.

My initial consideration is that you were instantly up against a fairly apathetic crowd. It took you several minutes to bring them with you and even then, there were a number of distracted parties. One thing I learned pretty early on is that if you want to get the talkative members of your audience to be a bit more respectful, you have to indirectly show them that their chatter is unwelcome. This can easily, and nonconfrontationally, be done by showing them that they are behaving in direct contrast to everyone else. Of course, if everyone else is chattering away, then they will continue to do so. But if you've gained the attention of the rest of the room, then they tend to quiet down.

How to do this right out of the gate?

Encourage the audience to shout out in response to some initial question, and then follow it up to build the noise.

"Good evening everyone! You right there - I love your shirt. What's your name?"

"Robin."

"Everybody say 'hi' to Robin with me. Ready, on three - 'Hi Robin'. One, two, three..."

"Hi Robin!"

"We can do better than that! Come on, make it loud! One, two, three..."

"HI ROBIN!"

"Awesome. Robin, come on up here and join me on stage. Everyone else, make noise for Robin like she's been your best friend for ever."

This is an easy scenario to manufacture and acts to ensure that there are three distinct points of audience participation, each of which grows in volume and and the unified crowd reaction acts to drown out the periphery chatter and draw those people's attention to what is happening. In the meanwhile, there is no fluff and you've selected your first participant.

Oh, nuts. My son just busted his lip and I've gotta save the rest of my feedback for later.

Best,

Atlas

In my professional opinion, this paragraph is the most important thing that you shared. It showed that you had the ability to go with the flow, adjust, don't let little hurdles get in your way.

You jazzed this performance.

Whether you want to do it or not, if your continue to work with audiences in venues that have a mixture of variety entertainment, you're going to have to jazz and adjust again and again.

It's a perfect way to become a really good entertainer.

I do a comedy mentalism act ( and a comedy magic act), and I can't remember once, in over 40 years of preforming, that I didn't have to adjust, on my feet, over and over.

It's actually a thrill.

Good show, pat on your back.

Congrats on the open mic. Lots of great advice in this thread too.

Thank you everyone for the feedback and advice. I have a lot to work on and that is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. I am heading out to another open mic tonight and I'm going to do my best to act in consideration of your recommendations. Things that I am going to change FOR CERTAIN:

-I have purchased a sketch pad to enhance and control revelations

-I am going to keep the energy high, but avoid being so "gung-ho" I believe it added a lot of unnecessary artifice

-I am going to revert back to Name/Place unless it is necessary to do otherwise

-I am going to make sure I entertain rather than "show". I feel much of my performance before was AT the audience rather than WITH them.

-I will be more aware of my internal script so as to not ramble.

-I will take stock of my surroundings and the mic/mic stand so as to avoid further mishaps

I'll record the performance tonight and post it tomorrow!

Silas, just a few comments on your performance which was overall fine for a first time on stage...

First off, I would tone it down a little bit... Don't feel that you need to "keep the energy up" too much. It can come off a bit like a morning DJ... Secondly, slow down a bit, especially when introducing yourself to your participants. Rather than say, "What's your name?", say, "Thanks so much. It's a pleasure to meet you... I'm Silas [as you extend your hand to shake their]... and you are...?"

In other words, try to act as if you're meeting someone of great importance... because you are. These people will make or break the show, after all.

When it comes time to introduce the procedure to the participants, try to avoid saying anything like "I want you to...". That is very off putting to some people and sounds like what magicians often say. Instead, say something like, "Alaina, can you think of someone near and dear to you? A friend or family member that I could not possibly know?" Naturally they will say "Yes...".

For the guy, "Andre... I'm not saying you would ever USE illicit drugs... but can you THINK of what illicit drug you MIGHT use if you were so inclined?"

(Sidenote: I'm afraid that asking about an illicit drug is not a great choice at this time... Not sure you're aware, but heroin overdoses are an epidemic across the country and many people are dying... it's highly likely that someone in that audience lost someone to an opioid overdose or knows someone who did... Why risk bringing up that painful thought?)

Around the 2:30 mark, your speech patterns start to become somewhat uneven and choppy... You seem slightly unsure where things are going. This is because the method part of the routine has begun and you're still aware of that. This will go away with experience but it is felt by audiences and you should be aware of it. Once you are more comfortable on stage and have truly mastered the method(s), you won't have this issue (hopefully!).

Around 4:00, again the somewhat uncertain, disjointed speech patterns... Also just because you're thinking to yourself, "What do I say? How do I build up this reveal to make the most impact?" That is also something you learn with time, but my advice is to script out as much of your reveals *as you possibly can* and rehearse that script over and over and over until you want to puke. ;-)

On the first reveal, your reaction... honestly, I hated that. The "God d*m*!" felt really weird to me. I imagine you were going for a sense of surprise or relief, but it comes off a bit egotistical, like "*** I'm good!". But really in such a short set, you haven't the time to really make the audience feel that yet.

I hope you take all of this the way I intend it. These are a lot of the very same things that I struggled with when I started going stage work. Overall it was fine, no need to feel any embarrassment or whatever about the performance. But try to slow it down, try to make the PROCESS of the mind reading feel like more is happening.

One last tip: when the room is noisy and people are distracted, don't be afraid to DEMAND that things quiet down. Don't be rude or harsh, but say something along these lines... "Friends, please! I really need to get 'into the zone', so if we could quiet down a little bit it would help me focus... I'm attempting something very difficult here but I promise you, your attention and silence will be well worth it!"

Thank you Robb! I ended up trying a lot of new things that night, many of which did not work haha.

The weirdness at 2:30 was due to a malfunction in the mic stand as well as being too aware of the method

The choppy speech at 4:00 was unfortunately apprehension due to not knowing what was written down. I knew "what" was written, but I was genuinely confused as to whether is was the mathematician or a strange street drug. I had to do a little pumping to make sure I was addressing the correct person.

With the illicit drug thing, I agree. It seemed topical due to the material comedians were performing before me, but it ended up being awkward.

The excessive energy was, to my own dismay, intentional. Those performing before me were fairly low-key and I was trying to counteract that, resulting my shock-jock morning program haha.

Thank you so much for your analysis, this is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for.

No problem. Keep it up! After about a dozen performances you'll start feeling like you're making good progress.

This proves what many of us know; although we ramble on about mentalism here, there and everywhere and it's in most of our thoughts, almost nobody has ever seen any.

(Caveat: Not to take anything away from your performance! Sounds like you may be a natural.)

Thank you Bev!

So I went out and performed at another Open Mic last night and I would feel confident saying it was much better than my first. I felt more fluid and more like comfortable in character. I know I have a long way still to go, but I am going to do my best to do two public performances a week going forward. This week I have a two hour table-to-table at a restaurant I have residency at.

+'s and -'s of this last performance

+ I was more fluid and had a lot more fun
+ I used a sketch pad for my revelations which made a world of difference
+ I felt I genuinely connected with the two guys on stage to a greater degree than my previous performance
+ I feel the audience was having more fun as well

- I need to get better at audience and volunteer management
- I need to run my script more so there are fewer pauses
- I need to understand my character and process more

Again, any and all feedback is appreciated. If you are so inclined, feel free to follow the link below to watch the performance.

https://youtu.be/wqINiXKKZoI

Congratulations on getting out there. I perform often at open mics myself. I don't have much advice here to offer that no one has mentioned yet. It seems to me you have used all this advice so far in your latest performance.The crowd seemed to enjoy what you were doing. It's great that you are recording these also. It makes it easier to see where you need to work on things. Open mics have been a great learning experience for me. Keep it up. You will just end up becoming a better performer each time.

SilasJude: Thanks for starting this thread and having to courage to not only got out there and do an Open Mic but also post your performance and allow others to critique it. It is really heartening to see experienced and respected performers like Atlas, Robb, Al etc taking the time to support and advice those who are willing to get out there and giving them the encouragement to be as good as they can be. I enjoyed reading their advice and have learned a lot. It's also been interesting to see how you have responded to their suggestions and how you appraised your own performance.
Hope things keep progressing at this pace and good luck with future shows.

Good job on taking your first steps towards stage performing! If you don't mind, post more of your performances (when you do them). I've never been on an open mic night, so it's good to see how it looks like in general from other's experience.

Congrats bro. This has been a great thread thanks for starting it. I have been picking up some pieces here and there from it that apply to my performances as well. Thank you.

Hello again! I performed at a coffee house open mic for the first time last night, and it was an entirely different affair.

Upon arriving at the shop at 7pm, nothing had begun yet. It all seemed a bit thrown together. The people running the show that evening showed up around 7:10 with a sub-par mic and/or amplifier, resulting choppy over-basses sound at best. Sign ups happened then and there, and it was announced everything would be done round-robin style. At the time of signing up, there were only three people performing. As the night went on though, people were showing up and signing up immediately resulting in about 12 acts.

My performance was not good. I was testing a new routine utilizing a p-a*agr*m in conjunction with Cassidy's "Sc*ry M*vie" packet principle. Things went awry when the participant didn't act as I had anticipated. His selected character was Flash and when I was proceeding with my reading, he was responding as if the characters name was *THE* Flash. In turn I had to find a way to save myself, which resulted in a huge amount of dead air as the participant took nearly a full minute to write his thought down.

So unfortunately, this round sucked. Hard. Though all is well that ends well, I was really unhappy with my performance. I hadn't practiced enough before-hand, and I ended up selecting the wrong person to help me upfront. On the flip-side, this open mic was far more beneficial to me than the other two I've done. It pushed me and broke me down a bit, and forced me to re-orient mid-performance. Additionally, the atmosphere was far superior to the comedy nights. Everyone that came out and performed music, performed spoken word art, or sang all gave themselves entirely to their art. The environment was a hotbed of creativity and passion for the arts. I felt empowered rather than defeated afterward.

Feel free to learn from my mistakes! Link to the video is below.
https://youtu.be/9KleVV5E5-4

Thank you man.

You encourage me to perform on stage.

I am on my way!

Solid effort Silas! These outings are where you learn how to take the theoretical and apply it. My suggestion would be to simplify as much as possible and keep trying material to find what you feel suits you. When you are first taking the stage, work material that is as free from sleights and gimmicks as you can. It makes it easier to focus on entertaining.

Despite the bumps, I personally think you look more comfortable than you did on your first video. Remember to capture the crowd from the start, a good performer knows how to bring their audience along with them from the moment they take the stage.

Well done and keep at it.

Best,

Atlas

This response will be two part. First, I haven't read the other comments since my last comment, but I did just watch the clip. So this is my response to the clip. After, I'm going to read the rest of the comments and chime in wherever people are.

First, congrats on truly being focused on improving your act. Congrats on the boldness of presenting this board of critical eyes with your process and asking for their input. That's not easy. Your strong suit is your confidence. You exude a sort of I've got this attitude which will catch people's attention. In the future I recommend having a friend come to the show and film for you, and when they do to do it so we see your face and your volunteers. So much is told through the face and the feedback you'll get from others and even from your own viewing will help you better.

I've done a lot of open mic nights so I know you felt pressed for time, I'm sure they gave you something like five minutes, however, I highly recommend doing something in the first ten seconds to let them know what you're show is about. Especially, as was the case here, if the Emcee gives them nothing. Usually in a show the Emcee with prep the audience on what's coming so as to give them context. In this case they don't know if you're a comedian or something else until maybe halfway through the set. Give them something so they know your act is one where you read minds. Also, look into having a Big effect with the whole audience to get them all involved and reacting as one entity in the beginning.

Remember that the performance of mind reading is an intimate experience of getting inside the head of the volunteer. The last thing they should seem like is props for your effect. Ask them what they do, humanise them, lift them up. There is a risk in your character. You come off (from what I can tell watching your posterior) as an athletic, confident, leader type. The risk in that character is being seen as a jerk or bully. Basically you come on saying "let's do this" you pick a couple people, tell them to write something and then tell them what they wrote. Your character and tone is consistent and everything rides on the energy you're giving it and that it works in the end. What this lacks is drama and vulnerability. If they don't doubt you're going to get it, then it's a magic trick and you could loose the audiences support because you don't show that it could fail. Remember that audiences like drama and drama is created through conflict.

Why a drug? When you say to the guy something like write an illicit drug you like or prefer (I don't remember the actual words but the first time it sounded like you were asking for his drug of choice) you are characterising him as a drug user, probably why he picked coffee. In the end of a name and place routine, part of the fun is drawing a connection between the two. For example "I don't think they had coffee when Pythagorus (is that right?) was alive, Imagine how much more he would have come up with if he could have had that cafine boost!" Or something.

I couldn't tell what you did to destroy the first selection. I imagine you might not be allowed to burn it, but if not, try tearing it up and putting the pieces in a beer bottle. Make sure that what you are presenting is clear to the audience. Also, with name and place, the first reveal can be backed up by the supposed billet, but the second reveal is dependant on the honesty of the volunteer. This is a point of drama. "Whatever drug he has written down has been destroyed, I'm going to try to get a sense of it, but I also rely on the honesty of this gentleman. He could easily just kill my whole routine by naming a different drug, but I can tell that he's not that kind of guy..." Also, with the choice of a drug, you could ask him to close his eyes and imagine the way the drug makes him feel, then you pick up on that and say something like "okay, I'm getting a strong feeling, definitely an upper, but not as intense..l imagine...as cocaine or meth.." there's so many possibilities here.

Mic control! One of the key reasons I make everyone who takes a lesson from me do an open mic is mic control. The first thing I recommend doing when you get on stage is to adjust the night of the mic stand. Then take off the wireless. You don't want the dead spot in the middle of your performance. You're going to need to use it both ways because you need your hands free at times. Another good thing to have is an around the neck mic holder. They look a bit stupid but they also look like someone prepared. When you get the the venue, check out the mic stand and make sure you know how to raise and lower it, how to lock it and if it sticks or slides. I do a regular open mic where the stand doesn't get tall enough for me. Every time I go on stage there this gets a laugh off the bat. Notice that in the clip your struggle with the mic had them laughing. This can be great if it's routined into something.

In your closing you repeated to them the impossibility of what just happened. In essence what you are presenting is an act where you are asking the audience to be amazed by you and your ability. It would be interesting to see what other dynamics, texture, and conciet you can add to this. The line when you said something self depreciating, something about not being naturally funny, was great, look into more relationship building stuff like that to deliver who you are to your audience.

Okay, now I'm going to read the other responses...

Okay wow, two more performances. Good on you brother. Also, Great thoughts from Atlas and nice to see you are attempting to put them into the act;

I was lucky a few years ago to do weekly sessions over skype with Bob. One of his assignments for me was to master name a place so I would always have it, and I'm so glad I did that. I recommend keeping with your name and place and working the hell out of it. The best way to progress at an open mic is to work the same set over and over until it's totally solid. I see now from the second video that you are doing a variation of the routine. I recommend going and really studying what Bob does and seeing why he does it. In the second video one guy catches you in some way. And even if he didn't he thinks he did which is enough. He saved that in the end but that's the kind of thing to look for and eliminate.

It's good that you are explaining more what you do to the audience but it will flow better if you just tell them instead of waiting for them to respond to questions. For example: "I'm Silas Jude and I'm a mentalist...that means that I..." or say something like. "I'm Silas Jude and tonight I'm going to step inside a few people's minds and reveal some of their thoughts..." or "...and tonight I will attempt experiments of mind reading!..but first I need two minds to read..."

A few technical notes. Go study your CT more, practice never looking at the paper as you tear it up. Be obvious about looking away. Go watch Osterlind. Also, watch Oz Pealman in his first AGT. In the case of the structure of your third video however, you could use the old classic method as you have the drawing pad. PM me if you don't know what that means and I'll explain. Also, go reread Atlas's work on anagrams and how to word things.

In terms of building your stage confidece, another thing you could do is preshow something and only perform the reveal. Or perform a stage version of an ID or something such as that, like Atlas said, so you have a sure fire routine and can establish your stage persona better. I agree that you come across better in the most recent one despite the difficulties.

Those rooms are hard, but that's the best way to learn. Once you work a good room you'll feel fantastic. the hosts really should do more to get everyone to shut the f up. But live and learn brother. Every failure, no matter how small, will make you exponentially better as a performer. The right thing to do is to perform as much as you can. Well done on that. I look forward to seeing continued progression on this work.

Haha, great input StuartPalm, I told him many of the same things, some practically word for word after his first video post. I would have like to seen him implement some of the things I suggested as it could make a world of difference in his performance and acceptance by the audience. Just having a decent MC that understands their role could help set all the acts up for better acceptance.

This is the problem when trying to do open mics, is the performance dynamics are usually against you and not optimal. One of my companies hosted open mics for years, and it can be done in a much more professional way to better enhance the experience for the audience as well as the performer. One factor is we professionally videotape very performers set and provide them a video of it for critiquing. So many open mics are just a minimally or unstructured casual event, as opposed to an actual entertainment offering.

Stuart's post hit on most of the same points I was going to mention. Try to slow down, get to know the people. You still seem to me very conscious of the method and worried about failure and it is what will constrict you, preventing a fluid, relaxed yet focused performance that marks a professional or "star". Your confidence is good but perhaps almost TOO much... like Stuart said, a touch of vulnerability goes a long way, but don't make it contrived... so moments of sincere uncertainty... it's your opportunity to vent those emotions! Without getting carried away of course; you don't want the audience to ever pity you. That is the worst.

Overall, I think you're very smart to video every performance and very brave to share them here. You seem to be objective to your performances and able to take constructive criticism so to me that says you'll get better and better and be a pro in no time! Keep working hard and having fun!

One last thought... This really, really takes time. But you need to find and preferably create material that is specific to you and your world. Not ABOUT you, but material that feels very natural to you, connected to your unique life and viewpoint. Keep doing the "covers" but don't discount the importance of creating original material. In the end, it's what really separates the stand out from the run of the mill.