Before You Think You Suck...(Stage Magic Thread)

[Luis Vega]

Check if you are performing for the right audience...

Hello Everyone...

So I´ve doing the transition from close up /stand up magic...to stage magic from some months now.. and it has been really difficult...and for sometimes I thought is was going nowhere...until some days ago..

As a preface, I´ve been working on a Rock And Roll Themed Bar here in my city, for some months now I have been doing table hoping and stage... usually stage is kept as a surprise between bands and since I am testing all my stage magic for a theatre show I am willing to perform on stage everytime I can....

Anyway it has been always a very difficult task to perform on this stage, people often seems very distracted, sometimes a little hostile and difficult to control... and sometimes I really don´t want to perform I still do it since it´s practice after all...

My stage routines were improving but I was seeing little advance on my audience control, and sometimes I was thinking into giving up...

Anyway I had a show some days ago, It was made along the magic club here in my city and I was one of the seniors to perform..it was a paid show which means we had to sell some tickets and all the money was aimed to fund some things we need in the club (like sound system, invite magicians for lectures, etc)

So I was going to do an excerpt from my theatre show "Mind Over Matter" since this place we were going to perform has a little theater and it´s big enough to be considered a theatre show...

I was the first to go... and to be honest I was little confident I was going to have a good performance from the past experience on the bar I worked...

I totally rock the place!!.. I had the audience eating from my hand, I talk and behave relaxed and had absolute control over the audience, I was amazing and people after the show told me that my part was definitely the best in matter of how I spoke to them, my routines and how well produced my part seemed...

I was really puzzled why this happened... and I came to some conclusions...

1.- People that drink are the worst audiences for obvious reasons...regardless you have great audience control or not...
2.- People NEVER appreciate something that is given instead of earned (in this case paid)
3.-People that actually goes to see a magic show, ACTUALLY try and enjoy the show... instead of just having a surprise magic show

I was now very much eager to do my theatre show... since I realized this things... obviously I am not going to stop performing on the bar, since now I realize that´s what gave me my stage presence on the paid show...

Anyway I wanted to share this and I hope it helps you... opinions or comments are welcome!!

 

[Bizzaro]

As someone who has been working bars and nightclubs since I was 16 allow me to chime in here: Working on stage in bars is way easier in some ways than doing close-up for people who are drinking. The problem might be your material and the lack of visual-ness. Obviously I don't know what you are doing but I can say that performing all silent gets a better reaction than talking.

If you talk to a room full of drunks you are in the way of their good time and the reason they came there. They can ignore watching you and kind of listen. If you perform silent material they HAVE to watch you to know what is going on. Forget about being a magician and make sure what you are doing is engaging and entertaining. Dangerous or weird stuff plays well. Razor blade illusion, anything with fire, balloon swallow etc.

Bar crowds are not always the best to applaud (if they are holding drinks they really can't) but if you are doing things right they will cheer and hoot and holler.

Don't blame the crowd right away until you know it's not you.

 

[Craig Browning]

I have to second what Bizzaro is saying here; I've worked clubs since I was in my teens as well and what matters is how well you make yourself fit the environment and vibes of the house, not the other way around. . . and when it comes to handling drunks, you must get creative. I literally had my pet tiger sit beside a lady one night and lick her calves just to get her to shut up . . . but I doubt you have a pet tiger so we need to look at other alternatives. . .

My point is, you can shut down hecklers if need be, there are many long standing ways of doing this or else, you just ignore them. Depending on if they are a fun drunk or not, I may just pull them up on stage and make them a part of a bit, which usually does the job. Don't embarrass them, stroke their ego and make them your friend. It shows that you have class and it makes for more fun to the rest of the audience.

"Theater" is theater it is NOT the same as working in a drinking environment unless you're talking a Casino showroom where a legit stage is set with theatrical stage utility. When you have curtains, the opportunity for set changes, proper lighting (including a follow spot) THEN you have "theater" and this is a completely different bird in that most theatrical shows give you an audience that wants to be there and who wants to participate with you and all the other acts. As Bizzaro has pointed out, such is not the case when working in a club. . . even a Dinner Theater type house (I've had food thrown on stage by people because they hated magic and wanted me off the stage).

Theatrical work has its pros & cons and it can be a HUGE niche to get into. . . lots of committment. BUT, from what I know about you and your aspirations, I think Parlor and Home Parties is where you need to concentrate your marketing and show design. Mentalism is very demanding as it stands, let alone being one person on a big stage and "out of your comfort zone" as a human being. . . we might see ourselves on that big stage in our dreams but until you've done it, you haven't the foggiest idea what that entails -- very, very few people can do it well.

Mentalists as a rule, do better with small groups of maybe 1,500 when it comes to theater but better yet, 50 in a smaller "Parlor" atmosphere. I had a place here in town that sat 75 people it was quite cozy . . . I'd suggest you look more at this sort of situation; it may mean doing a lot of self-promotion, but you'll find that most of the issues you list in your post will go away, fast!

IF however, you do these things and find your footing in one of these areas, and you are still finding that you fall flat or something is askew. . . that's when you need to get brutally honest with yourself. . . hopefully you'll have gotten help to refine your act well before that particular truth comes to the fore.

 

[Luis Vega]

Hello!!

First of all..Thanks for the advice Bizarro!!...actually last weekend I decided to go that way (geek magic) and it played huge!!... as Craig said "what matters is how well you make yourself fit the environment and vibes of the house, not the other way around. . . " I couldn´t agree more...

I normally do corporate and paid shows...where people actually goes to see magic, so they behave more cooperative and relaxed, also I do pretty well in those shows...which of course is totally different on a hard rock themed bar...where I am out of my confort zone...I guess that´s the whole reason I wanted to do stage magic there..

Anyway, I have prefered to keep working on my theatre show (the place is not that big actually...around 300 people) and keep this gig as experience and additional income... so I am taking all advice and learning to adjust to different kind of audiences...

 

[Craig Browning]

I'm a firm believer in stepping outside your comfort zone here and there just for the sake of LEARNING . . . we learn our limitations, we reaffirm our path & business plan when it comes to the markets we're best suited for, we can discover new ways of presentation as well as finding holes in current routines. . . variety is an awesome teacher, BUT, we can't just randomly jump about or we come off looking like a desperate fool willing to work any sort of gig just to pay the bills -- successful artists, regardless the medium, hold to their vision and work (at least 90% of the time) in that framework.

To create a Theatrical Program is a massive challenge, one that can take years to cultivate; especially when you have such a small window of opportunity outside of self-promotion, to get work. Most theatrical shows requiring sponsors & under-writers while working under a "Four Wall" type structure; the performer rents each performance facility, does the marketing, sells the tickets and is responsible for all the bills. . . for a touring stage show that means a huge up-front investment in each chosen site you plan on visiting as part of a tour season. You also have to give a lot to the public if you expect to make any real profit. It's not easy and if you have no business sense, it's ten times harder (I know that form personal experience).

My point here is that the performer wanting to do theater is more or less forced into the position of taking gigs in alternative venues so as to generate capitol needed for building that dream and of course, to survive on. . . like I said, it's a long road but not an impossible one. Allow the variety situations serve you; creating special acts that fit the theme of a venue or event may very well give you a clever piece for that bigger stage show. If you look at magic history, such as how Blackstone, Sr. built his empire, the early years are always filled with slugging it out in the trenches and learning what it means when we say, "The Show Must Go On!".