Ever perform in a different country before?

[nazz]

i want to ask anyone that have ever perform in another country that doesn't speak your language.
how do you start your performance especially street magic where people isn't anticipating anything.
how do you ask them if they want to see some magic?
or you just do something flashy to get their attention?

 

[Mr.MadMan]

Depends where you are from. What country you are in and what type of magic do you do.
If you want to do street magic then the best bet is to just fly in with English. Most developed countries teach people English and that is the best starting point, especially when you say who you are and where you are from. If by chance i have a gig in another country it depends on the crowd. Mostly English is used but when you have the skill to speak in the native language, of course that is preferred.

How do you ask them if they want to see some magic?
Have you ever done street magic in your country?
A little hint: Use the same words just add "i´m from [Insert country here]" into it.

or you just do something flashy to get their attention?
This type of action is commonly referred to as busking. You set up your stand mess around with something, when you get some interest get them into it and soon enough you will have 10-20 people standing or more.

M.

 

[formula]

I did magic in Austria over new years, they mostly spoke german and broken english. I basically just pointed at whatever I was using to get their attention then let the magic do it's work.

 

[chriswiehl]

i would learn how to say a few basic things in that language. like hello my name is .... i am a magician. would you like to see magic.
just find out how to say that. then go on.
explain that you are not from that country
just put some effort in.

 

[emagician]

I took a 10 day trip to Argentina last year and performed magic daily for the friends and relatives of the family that hosted us. I had been taking Spanish class for 1 and a half years at that point and barely knew enough to get me by, but they were just as amazed as people in the US. It is really cool to see and experience the fact that magic really is a universal language. You don't need to know that much of the language, but just enough to start the performance and say a few things here or there. Good luck and I am excited for you to have the same type of experience that I did.

 

[nazz]

thanks guys. i was just in tokyo for a few days and thought i'd do some street magic there. at first the japanese people are kinda shy especially after seeing that i'm not japanese. than i started to do some flourishing and there was a group of australian tourist there and ask me to show them something and i did my walk around routine for them. after seeing me perform for the australian guys then the locals asked me to show them something to by gesturing. even though they were kinda shy, they reacted well to the tricks i did.

there was even a homeless guy came and pointed to my deck and gestured a shuffling action, i did some simple colour changes and finally i found his chosen card in a shuffled deck and he just laughed like a kid even though there was no exchange of words between us. i guess magic is the universal language after all.

by the way, thanks again for the comments guys