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gotgot New user 79 Posts |
Hello
I live in the france/switzerland area so of course, all of my march, april and may gigs got cancelled. now things are opening up again, and I have a few bookings for june already. the conditions have changed and it'll mostly be outside, with social distancing and so on. I have to change many things in my act since I used to ask the kids to come up and help (and touch things), and I had a few things involving my mouth that would be considered even more gross nowadays. so my question is : what routines are you going to to? how do you plan to get the kids involved even from far away? my act used to be, more or less : - coloring book - pick a card, it disappears, chop cup routine (a la Scott Alexander, (with the help of a child, ball through the bones and so on) ending with lemon and the card is inside. TO BE CHANGED. - Daryl's rope routine and rope thru body - sponge ball with the help of a child, then balls coming from my mouth. TO BE CHANGED - hippity hop rabbit or multiplying soda bottles - silk routine with 2 kids helping, from Johnny Ace. TO BE CHANGED. - traveling cards from kid's pocket to another kid's pocket. TO BE CHANGED - Tommy James' Lopsided Cyclop - a comedy handchopper (do you think it can be done, by staying as far as possible from the child?). TO BE CHANGED - mouth coil with a kid dancing with me and getting the paper out (it has to go away, even if I do it all by myself my hands will be considered even more untouchable after that). TO BE CHANGED - sometimes Inject 2.0 with some eggs crushed on my head by a little one if I fail. TO BE CHANGED. - teleporting water from cups (Scott Alexander) - princess in a pickle (sadly it has to go away, it was a nice closer, do you have something in mind about it?). TO BE CHANGED. that is a lot of changes for me do you have ideas of routines that play big but don't involve coming close to kids or them touching props? I was thinking of putting a desinsfectant gel bottle on my table and kind of as joke, using it in between each trick, and in case some kids come and help, having them use it too. thank you! (pleaase, no talk about politics here!) |
Russo Inner circle So.California / Centl.Florida / retired Florida 1165 Posts |
Die box- Alice in wonderland,hat-mad hatter -die, rabbet // Spot card -a picture of your pet -with all his family // Coin pail - wishing well, kids throw imaginary wishes // You can also use a large tumbler or glass to hold silks, instead of kids holding them, like in the 20th Century Silks, 3 pigs, 1 runs into house (vanish effect) and appears back with the 2 other pigs (that tied their tails together. and hid in glass or who/what ever holds them). HELPS ?? RR
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noland Veteran user 350 Posts |
You might think about learning a routine with a hand puppet. There are a lot of them out there. To name just two, Terry Herbert does one with a monkey and Tommy James with a rabbit-in-hat puppet. Both are very strong, very funny routines. Neither of these requires an assistant from the audience.
I've always closed my children's shows with a comedy puppet routine (I have a couple of different ones) followed by the quick, magical production of a 36 inch message foulard (for example, "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Holidays" or simply, "The End"). |
gotgot New user 79 Posts |
Thanks for your help!
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MichaelCGM Inner circle Oklahoma City 2286 Posts |
I don't know about others but I will NOT be changing my act. I have a highly-interactive act and plan to keep it that way.
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Mindpro Eternal Order 10587 Posts |
Good for you Michael.
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David French Veteran user 374 Posts |
I have to agree with Michael on this. I won't change a thing. This will pass. May take some time. But if you have the time to wait this out, great. If you need to get back out there sooner, then by all means I think you may need to change things up a bit. The world has changed things. So we will need to adapt in the short term.
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vincentmusician Loyal user Toronto 265 Posts |
I do not like to change my routines. However, if the client wants a socially distanced show, I have routines that do not need to be changed but happen to not need volunteers to come up and handle props. I just pick more of those.
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Ken Northridge Inner circle Atlantic City, NJ 2392 Posts |
When I first started doing shows again back in July I made a big deal out of changing my act and only doing routines that did not use audience participation, except one rope routine that I am very fond of. During that routine I put on a my mask.
Slowly I started integrating more of my audience participation routines making sure I put my mask back on during these routines. It became tiresome putting the mask on and taking it off. So, about a month ago I decided to give in and wear the mask the entire show and go back to me normal routine of using many audience volunteers. I know there are people that are very sensitive to covid issues, but I have come to learn that these people would never come anywhere near me or my show, or allow their kids to do so. So, bottom line, now I put on my mask, use hand sanitizer and just concentrate on entertaining to best of my ability.
"Love is the real magic." -Doug Henning
www.KenNorthridge.com |
danfreed Inner circle West Chester PA 1354 Posts |
Yeah Ken, I think it's a good idea to always wear a mask. I always wear a mask now, but I was only wearing one at some shows and not others because I've only been doing outdoor shows, and it sucks to perform with one, it's hard to breath, etc. We go around to a lot of people's houses and are around a lot of people, so we owe it to ourselves and our clients to wear a mask.
Since I'm only doing outdoor shows I'm done till Spring except for Zoom shows. I was doing a fair amount of Zoom shows before summer, then they mostly fell out of favor, but now they seem to be coming back due to winter. Zoom shows are harder for me to do, though I do 30 instead of 45 minutes, and don't have to travel. So far my clients have been really happy with the Zoom shows. Sometimes there are only 1 or 2 kids though, so that's extra tough to make it work, but it is what it is.
Dan Freed
AKA The Amazing Spaghetti https://www.magiciandanfreed.com/birthday-party-magician-for-kids http://thecaricatureartist.com http://danieljayfreed.com |
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