I've been studying street performers for years now, way before I ever got into magic, and I had done busking using a guitar and singing for a bit, it's the job I had during college. My post meant my first "Magic" street performance, so I should have prefect with, I am not a stranger to street performing at all. Oh and some quick personal background for Rick, I'm 30 years old and due to my job before this "I owned and ran my own accounting and payroll business for 6 years now, I am in a place were I am able to step away from that and pursue this.
I have been studying magic for a little over 4 months now and really love and have a knack for it. I have a group of five people I show all my tricks to, one being a magician that has worked the area I'm in for about 20 years. So before I ever took my first gig I had a full routine ready and polished. I know it doesn't sound like a lot of time, I"m just a quick learner, and as I said before I have a penchant for sleight of hand for some reason.
As for my gigs, in the past four months I've done 2 weekends at the local summer fairs in the area *two nights each*, I've done two birthday parties, I've done a coffee shop/vape lounge *most fun* and I've done two busking shows. I have booked 10 shows for the month of September already and I have a audition on America's Got Talent November 14 th as a magician. I spend about 4 and a half to 6 hours a day practicing, reading and watching magic. The beautiful thing about it is, it doesn't feel like work, spending an hour in front of a mirror making sure my angles for a sleight like the Venus Trap or a pass.
As for the show. Both shows went really well and on the advice of Steven Bridges youtube videos, I was able to start building a crowd before I even started by doing some odd things like putting out a long red rope to form a kind of a stage. I tried to keep my tricks on a bigger scale, so I stayed away from intimate tricks like some of the more set up oriented card tricks. This was the line up, an Acaan trick that involved three people, I did a card teleport *into a ladies purse, real easy setup, dropped it into the purse during the acaan trick*, bending a fork, the magic trick scorcher, making smoke appear out of my mouth from nowhere, A massive card switch involving six people and then ended with Chris Ramsey's Voodoo.
Reflecting on the routine, I was happy with the tricks but the order should probably be switched around, The fork bending and the smoke appearing in the mouth should have been the start and honestly I think I'm going to take the smoke appearing out, it got the reactions but sorta messed with the pacing. The trick that I didn't think would go over and I was prepared to ditch it for the second show until I saw the reactions was voodoo. It got a way bigger moment then I thought it would. Ended up being a wonderful closer. OH and for you wondering I made $223 over both shows, key to busking is doing it in the right spot.
I hope this has answered any questions from the theory 11 crew, sorry about such a vague first post. If you have anymore I'd love to answer them, just hit me up!
With love
Justin Quill
