I had a show this afternoon where something interesting happened...and I think it is something worth sharing here. The show was for a government agency. My agent initially told me there would be 200 people there...then the number grew to 350. When I got there to perform there were over 500.

The room was a horror -- an L shaped building with probably 150 people at the end of the "L" who could see little or none of the stage.

You know this is a recipe for disaster, right? People who can't see (or hear) what's happening simply do not pay attnention.

My client was oblivious to this...which makes sense. Her job was to arrange for some after lunch entertainment for their awards banquet...and she did that. But when I told her what would happen when I started the show, she literally shrugged and told me to do my best with the way things were.

"I am doing my best," I told her. "This is not going to work."

She looked exasperated. I think she felt I was a performer with attitude, trying to rock her carefully constructed apple cart.

"I need to make sure this event works. It's what you hired me for. We need to move those people out of the back of the room and put them in front of the stage theatre style on the dance floor."

She looked at me like I was a bug on her salad leaf. "How do you propose to do that?"

"We could...tell them to move," I said.

She sighed and told me to do whatever I thought would work. So I did. I told those people to bring their chairs to the front of the room five minutes before the show started. No one did. I asked the MC to help me out and he went out to the far reaches of the room and MADE people come forward. They were lined up in neat rows. And....?

The show was perfect. Total room focus. Delighted client. All over wonderful.

Before this starts to feel like a "gee look at me" post...let me tell you where I learned the lesson. It was a similar show in Calgary seven years ago. The client there said much the same thing to me about doing my best...keeping it easy...for her. And...?

The show was a freaking disaster. The second worst one I've ever done. (The worst is another story entirely.)

We, as performers are the experts in what we need. Doing this kind of work before the show is as important as the show we do.

Hopefully this is useful to you.

David

This is one of those short stories that contains a really important lesson. Thank you for sharing, David. I learn a lot from your posts.

But can we please have the story of the worst show you ever did?

-Patrick

This is about something that in all of my years here I rarely see discussed. It can be one of the single most differences between a great show and a bad show, a good show or a disaster - especially for mentalists and hypnotists, and that is performance dynamics. Performance dynamics is one of the most important elements to what we do and yet very little attention is every discussed or put upon this. Other than Ken Weber's book it hardly gets any attention.

We can have the best talent in the world, but poor performance dynamics can make even the best of performers look like a youtube amateur.

It's great that David bring this up and shares this with us. So many times performers here only talk about their methods, the latest and greatest effects and such, yet rarely is something as important as this addressed giving it the attention and thought it deserves. Also it's not just the performance dynamics, but what we absolutely must do to create the best dynamics possible. No client, event planner or facility manager understands this and it's importance to present best performance possible. As a performer we wear many hats and taking control as David did, and making this happen is one of these important hats we must wear, apply and enforce to truly serve our clients (whether they realize or understand it or not).

I am often asked by those I consult and coach what I consider to be a "professional?" Those that have my materials know I have a 50 point criteria to being professional performer or entertainer (two different things), of which performance dynamics in one of them. Thanks David!

From David's very useful and reflective post, let me suggest that the overall issue is the SETTING for the performance. People in the audience need to be able to see, hear, participate, etc.

If the setting is not conducive to an effective performance, and a simple change can make it more conducive, an intervention is part of the performer's overall management of the performance.

Since the host may be without relevant experience, and may be clueless, the performer should graciously insist. One way is to express it as a personal "need," as in "I need for those people in the back to come down front so they can be part of the show." Another way is to insist on it for the host's sake, as in "Let's set it up so people will enjoy and remember your program for this evening."

George

This is brilliant David. Dare I ask what the worst show was? :-D

John.

When I read this thread earlier this morning, it made think about my experiences working as mobile DJ. I often say that it's one of the few jobs that your boss (the booker) has no idea how we do our job. But they want to tell us how they think we should do our job. Often clients think we as entertainers can pull miracles out of the hat(no pun intended)

I spend a lot of time talking to my clients. I also try to manage their expetations. Often they can seat all the guests in one room and me in another where they can't hear the music. Then they wonder why no one is up dancing. This is why I invest time to inform the client the best way around this. Not so relevant to magic but I ask the client to have reasons to bring the guests into the disco. For example, the first dance is a good reason to invite the guests to watch. Then it's my job to keep them in the room with me.

Of course having another room away from the loud music is great for magicians & mentalists.

I agree we need to help our clients to set the event up for success. I/we need to educate the how this is best done.



I look forward to reading more comments as there is always something new to learn. Even though I have been a Pro DJ for over 30 years, there is still much to learn. When I started on the magical path I found that things I learnt about performing magic improved my DJing and the other way around.

There are many people that I enjoy reading like mindpro who always has useful advice.

Excellent and truly useful insights, David. Thank you for sharing.

Yes, thanks for sharing this David. I don't get this a lot, but even after sending detailed performance riders, phone discussions about set up, etc., I arrive at an event and things are not at all what they should be or like you've described here; just different enough to make things a real problem. The client says something like:

"We weren't able to get such-and-such for you, so will THIS work?"

"Umm...well...not really." Then I kick them in the groin, take my check, and leave.

Just kidding. I take the check FIRST, and THEN kick them...

Another good reason to always arrive plenty early whenever possible. I've had to have whole rows of tables removed, sound people make major changes, rows of chairs moved, etc.

For me it is imperative to make sure that they set things up as close as possible to meet my demands so that they can have the best show. I don't worry about upsetting the person who failed to listen to me in the first place or see that their staff did what was required. They will be even more upset if the show doesn't go well and will blame you for it anyway and will never admit it was because they didn't provide the proper set up.

Thanks again for sharing, David. Nothing like real-world examples to remind us of such things. This is the type of "tide that raises all of the boats" as the saying goes...