Advice for Routines, character development and business ideas needed
okay, so BEFORE i start, im going to apologize in advance, for this is going to be a LONG read, i apologize for this, but i feel that i can get better answers if i ask better questions, so if your not the kind of person who doesn't mind taking a few minutes (okay, maybe quite a few minutes) to help a fellow out with some honest advice, well, thanks for stopping by anyways. also, i have a hard shell, and so i want the hard truth. i like it when i find out im wrong, it means i've learned something. also, i will try to start with an intro at the START, so that you can keep where im coming from in mind when looking at the routines, and i will try and categorize everything to make responses easy) okay, so here we go ***takes a deep breath***
okay. so, where to start?? well, lets start with a background, so you know where i'm coming from. my name is "Sia Ssnshyn Evydemenfranssaix Tessier Metta". I'm from ontario Canada. i left when i was 19 to live out of my back pack and hitchhike around british columbia (still in canada for those of you from abroad). i just turned 23, and i've been on and off the street ever since, very much by choice, i'm much happier when i'm leading a simple life. roaming around the country side, sleeping wherever i find myself sleepy. i've hitched down to san francisco from vancouver BC , and this past fall i hitched up to vancouver B.C. from nevada (from burning man) along the coast. i've been juggling and contact juggling for two years. and have done a little busking, and had the odd corporate gig. i love contact juggling for people because it seems magical, and they want to know how its possible because it doesn't look real…. and well, i LOVED it!! and thats how i decided, HEY, i've always LOVED watching magicians, and THIS is what they do for people, YEAH!!!! and so about a year ago i started learning magic, for the first 6 months i wasn't very serious, but this winter i decided to settle down and really take this seriously. so i got set up with some government funding, and hit the books. (expert at the card table and Roberto giobbi's card college series, as well as lots of forum reading about theory and psychology, and more recently hypnotism and NLP). and some downloads and dvds, such as jason englands double lift workshop, "lit", "smoke".
now, my purpose in life in general is to make people think more critically, think outside their comfort zone, and to push my way into their personal bubble, to make them question themselves, as well as do what i can to get them to question their belief systems, (not JUST religious.) i may agree with you that 2+2=4, but i will debate it, by saying that its all relative, and that while i know this to be true, some people may see it as 2+2=22, and if you step outside your ego for a second, you can see that from a certain perspective, it CAN make SOME sense. (i know thats a simplistic example, but it gets my point across). and i feel like magic is the PERFECT medium to help me make people think more critically, and make them question the world around them, as well as get adults imagination working again for at least a few minutes. and maybe even get them to play with me for a little bit. thats what i do with juggling, i have like 20 pounds of balls in my back pack, so that no matter i am, whether its in the park, or in the greyhound station, i can stand there and juggle, but more importantly, i can get grown men and women to peel off their armour and programming for a few minutes and learn how to juggle (in other words, PLAY!!! grown adults playing!!! who would thunk it) and thats why i know that the circus scene/ magic scene is for me, its just a butch of big kids with lots of toys!!
One of my BIG hurdles with Performance is i have really bad stage fright/ performance anxiety, but i'm working on that, slowly but surely. my biggest strengths are that im a GREAT mediator and teacher, i can VERY easily relate to other peoples experiences from THEIR point of view, and im a GREAT story teller, and will often captivate everyones attention, for a long, detailed story. (and thats not just my ego talking, always have people telling me how good a story teller i am once im done).
another big hurtle is that im a big black guy (6 feet tall, 200 pounds) with long dreadlocks, and LOT of piercings, and a big bone threw my nose!
i thought about cleaning up my look for the pursuit of magic, make myself a BIT more approachable, and i still might eventually, but for now, my thought on the matter is that i want to make people second guess their surroundings, and i LOVE the fact that most people are afraid of me until i open my mouth, and they realize my name is Ssnshyn (sunshine), and im all smiles and giggles, hugs and high fives, high energy, lots of play, and sure i have a lot of tattoos, the most of them are HEARTS!!! (at the moment i have like 23 hearts on my body, with more to come)
now, i've been thinking, later on in life i would like to use this, and my age (im talking like 10 years from now) to my advantage, and go to haiti for 6 months to learn about voodoo and get an accent (i don't have a first language, i speak french, and i speak english, and that works in my favour since their is a lot of french in haiti), and make a character around that, a witch doctor type thing, with no cards, lots of animal productions (doves, pigeons, rats, mice, maybe some snakes), and lots of magic happening that i don't really comment on, just, you know, making stuff vanish just to get rid of it, but not bringing any attention to it, as if its completely natural.
ANYWAYS, back on topic. as far as business goes, i want to be a juggling instructor, it really is what i do best. teaching at highschools and at fairs, sports teams, and maybe even small business's for team building. i want to do extra work for movie sets and stuff (already have some experience), do contact juggling for corporate events as well as on the street. --in the far future, with my voodoo character, i could gather a crowd with my crystal ball, maybe even figure out a way to actually make it float between my hands for a few second -- and i want to do magic for busking, and maybe more when that time comes (i have absolutely no "dream" of having a stage show, i have no interest)
so, my question is, im starting to set up my whole juggling instructor thing, and i cant figure out whether i should keep them separate or not. im thinking i would like to have ONE site, that way, when i give people my card, they go on my site, and there is two buttons to press, one says object manipulation, and one says conjuring (or whatever), and that could give me extra opportunities. they go on there for one thing, but then refer me to someone else for the other, and vice versa. my only concern is that seems kind of tacky. especially since im not a comedy juggler, and don't really want my magic to be comedy based (of course i'll crack some jokes and stuff, but i'm just not a comedian and i know that. ) and i don't really want to mix the two.
so basically, so for moment, and foreseeable future, i want to do all this to make a living while traveling (which isn't hard since the way i live i need less than 10 dollars a day to live comfortably, at least while im on the road. but if i can make REAL money, well, that means i can buy plane tickets and travel abroad, and that would be nice)
so thats the business part, any thoughts???
***takes a deep breath and exhales strongly**** whew, okay. NEXT. ***takes a deep breath****
alright, well, as far as my character NOW, well, i'm not quite sure, because i need to perform more. i volunteer at a local at risk youth drop in centre once a week teaching juggling, and thats most of the people i've performed magic for. (remember, i'm still a newb).
i'm not gunna lie. im not super confident with my magic yet, (i performed on and off for a few hours at a corner store the other night, and performed for some random strangers, and looking back, my hands weren't really shaking, i was just having SO much fun, which is CRAZY, and even pulled of kaos by DG) so i was thinking that it would be very useful and very fun to play myself, but a little more confident, but at the same time, a little more unsure, what im saying is, i want to react to the magic a bit with the spectators… while doing the biddle trick i could say, "and now, if i take these 5 cards, and just snap them in the middle **snap** i can make your card flip over, see…… uuuumm, k, wait, i did something wrong, their all still face down, but one is missing, uuum, crap, k, wait, are any of these your cards. damn, well, sometimes this happens, its no big deal, wanna just look threw that deck your holding, see if its in there somewhere"
or do a transpo in their hands, and when they freak out that they are holding a different card, i could look kinda confused, and say something like "well, huh, i WAS trying to make it turn up in your underwear, but HEY, that works too"
so yea, thats the performance im leaning towards for the moment, because i think it would be fun, lend to the magic, and, it puts me at ease, because if i ACTUALLY feel unsure at any point, i don't have to cover it up (which makes me more nervous) i can just let it out, and its totally in character, and flows with everything, and ALSO, if i DO actually screw up for any reason, well, they think its part of the trick, and it makes it that much easier to save my ass.
okay, so BEFORE i start, im going to apologize in advance, for this is going to be a LONG read, i apologize for this, but i feel that i can get better answers if i ask better questions, so if your not the kind of person who doesn't mind taking a few minutes (okay, maybe quite a few minutes) to help a fellow out with some honest advice, well, thanks for stopping by anyways. also, i have a hard shell, and so i want the hard truth. i like it when i find out im wrong, it means i've learned something. also, i will try to start with an intro at the START, so that you can keep where im coming from in mind when looking at the routines, and i will try and categorize everything to make responses easy) okay, so here we go ***takes a deep breath***
okay. so, where to start?? well, lets start with a background, so you know where i'm coming from. my name is "Sia Ssnshyn Evydemenfranssaix Tessier Metta". I'm from ontario Canada. i left when i was 19 to live out of my back pack and hitchhike around british columbia (still in canada for those of you from abroad). i just turned 23, and i've been on and off the street ever since, very much by choice, i'm much happier when i'm leading a simple life. roaming around the country side, sleeping wherever i find myself sleepy. i've hitched down to san francisco from vancouver BC , and this past fall i hitched up to vancouver B.C. from nevada (from burning man) along the coast. i've been juggling and contact juggling for two years. and have done a little busking, and had the odd corporate gig. i love contact juggling for people because it seems magical, and they want to know how its possible because it doesn't look real…. and well, i LOVED it!! and thats how i decided, HEY, i've always LOVED watching magicians, and THIS is what they do for people, YEAH!!!! and so about a year ago i started learning magic, for the first 6 months i wasn't very serious, but this winter i decided to settle down and really take this seriously. so i got set up with some government funding, and hit the books. (expert at the card table and Roberto giobbi's card college series, as well as lots of forum reading about theory and psychology, and more recently hypnotism and NLP). and some downloads and dvds, such as jason englands double lift workshop, "lit", "smoke".
now, my purpose in life in general is to make people think more critically, think outside their comfort zone, and to push my way into their personal bubble, to make them question themselves, as well as do what i can to get them to question their belief systems, (not JUST religious.) i may agree with you that 2+2=4, but i will debate it, by saying that its all relative, and that while i know this to be true, some people may see it as 2+2=22, and if you step outside your ego for a second, you can see that from a certain perspective, it CAN make SOME sense. (i know thats a simplistic example, but it gets my point across). and i feel like magic is the PERFECT medium to help me make people think more critically, and make them question the world around them, as well as get adults imagination working again for at least a few minutes. and maybe even get them to play with me for a little bit. thats what i do with juggling, i have like 20 pounds of balls in my back pack, so that no matter i am, whether its in the park, or in the greyhound station, i can stand there and juggle, but more importantly, i can get grown men and women to peel off their armour and programming for a few minutes and learn how to juggle (in other words, PLAY!!! grown adults playing!!! who would thunk it) and thats why i know that the circus scene/ magic scene is for me, its just a butch of big kids with lots of toys!!
One of my BIG hurdles with Performance is i have really bad stage fright/ performance anxiety, but i'm working on that, slowly but surely. my biggest strengths are that im a GREAT mediator and teacher, i can VERY easily relate to other peoples experiences from THEIR point of view, and im a GREAT story teller, and will often captivate everyones attention, for a long, detailed story. (and thats not just my ego talking, always have people telling me how good a story teller i am once im done).
another big hurtle is that im a big black guy (6 feet tall, 200 pounds) with long dreadlocks, and LOT of piercings, and a big bone threw my nose!
i thought about cleaning up my look for the pursuit of magic, make myself a BIT more approachable, and i still might eventually, but for now, my thought on the matter is that i want to make people second guess their surroundings, and i LOVE the fact that most people are afraid of me until i open my mouth, and they realize my name is Ssnshyn (sunshine), and im all smiles and giggles, hugs and high fives, high energy, lots of play, and sure i have a lot of tattoos, the most of them are HEARTS!!! (at the moment i have like 23 hearts on my body, with more to come)
now, i've been thinking, later on in life i would like to use this, and my age (im talking like 10 years from now) to my advantage, and go to haiti for 6 months to learn about voodoo and get an accent (i don't have a first language, i speak french, and i speak english, and that works in my favour since their is a lot of french in haiti), and make a character around that, a witch doctor type thing, with no cards, lots of animal productions (doves, pigeons, rats, mice, maybe some snakes), and lots of magic happening that i don't really comment on, just, you know, making stuff vanish just to get rid of it, but not bringing any attention to it, as if its completely natural.
ANYWAYS, back on topic. as far as business goes, i want to be a juggling instructor, it really is what i do best. teaching at highschools and at fairs, sports teams, and maybe even small business's for team building. i want to do extra work for movie sets and stuff (already have some experience), do contact juggling for corporate events as well as on the street. --in the far future, with my voodoo character, i could gather a crowd with my crystal ball, maybe even figure out a way to actually make it float between my hands for a few second -- and i want to do magic for busking, and maybe more when that time comes (i have absolutely no "dream" of having a stage show, i have no interest)
so, my question is, im starting to set up my whole juggling instructor thing, and i cant figure out whether i should keep them separate or not. im thinking i would like to have ONE site, that way, when i give people my card, they go on my site, and there is two buttons to press, one says object manipulation, and one says conjuring (or whatever), and that could give me extra opportunities. they go on there for one thing, but then refer me to someone else for the other, and vice versa. my only concern is that seems kind of tacky. especially since im not a comedy juggler, and don't really want my magic to be comedy based (of course i'll crack some jokes and stuff, but i'm just not a comedian and i know that. ) and i don't really want to mix the two.
so basically, so for moment, and foreseeable future, i want to do all this to make a living while traveling (which isn't hard since the way i live i need less than 10 dollars a day to live comfortably, at least while im on the road. but if i can make REAL money, well, that means i can buy plane tickets and travel abroad, and that would be nice)
so thats the business part, any thoughts???
***takes a deep breath and exhales strongly**** whew, okay. NEXT. ***takes a deep breath****
alright, well, as far as my character NOW, well, i'm not quite sure, because i need to perform more. i volunteer at a local at risk youth drop in centre once a week teaching juggling, and thats most of the people i've performed magic for. (remember, i'm still a newb).
i'm not gunna lie. im not super confident with my magic yet, (i performed on and off for a few hours at a corner store the other night, and performed for some random strangers, and looking back, my hands weren't really shaking, i was just having SO much fun, which is CRAZY, and even pulled of kaos by DG) so i was thinking that it would be very useful and very fun to play myself, but a little more confident, but at the same time, a little more unsure, what im saying is, i want to react to the magic a bit with the spectators… while doing the biddle trick i could say, "and now, if i take these 5 cards, and just snap them in the middle **snap** i can make your card flip over, see…… uuuumm, k, wait, i did something wrong, their all still face down, but one is missing, uuum, crap, k, wait, are any of these your cards. damn, well, sometimes this happens, its no big deal, wanna just look threw that deck your holding, see if its in there somewhere"
or do a transpo in their hands, and when they freak out that they are holding a different card, i could look kinda confused, and say something like "well, huh, i WAS trying to make it turn up in your underwear, but HEY, that works too"
so yea, thats the performance im leaning towards for the moment, because i think it would be fun, lend to the magic, and, it puts me at ease, because if i ACTUALLY feel unsure at any point, i don't have to cover it up (which makes me more nervous) i can just let it out, and its totally in character, and flows with everything, and ALSO, if i DO actually screw up for any reason, well, they think its part of the trick, and it makes it that much easier to save my ass.