A recent post got me thinking about a question I have been asked many times over the past few years. It can be phrased a few different ways, but essentially means the same thing.
How long can you go on performing?
How many tricks can you do?
Do you ever run out of tricks?
I would always answer these types of questions the same way.
"Oh I could go on forever"
or
"By the time I ran out you would be sick of me"
This is always in a joking way, not to brag, because I really don't know the answer. In all honesty you should never run out of tricks. This is not because you should know so many you can preform for hours on end, but when you keep preforming over and over and over, the amazement will slowly disappear.
I have been caught in situations where the audience just keeps wanting more. My most memorable experience with this was a lock down in my school a few years ago. There was a bomb threat and my entire class was locked down in the gym for about 2 hours. I was lucky enough to have some cards and coins on me, and started doing magic. I had a bigger crowd then ever before, and was very excited. I was getting great reactions, and my classmates kept asking for more. I didn't have any extra cards or gimmicks on me, so after about a half an hour my brain was fried. I started digging tricks up that I hadn't performed in a long time and old stuff from books I read when I first started out. As I kept going, the audience started to dwindle. Applause turned into just little oohs and awws and finally nothing at all.
Looking back now I am very embarrassed by my performance that day. The reasons why the audience became bored had nothing to do with mistakes with the actual tricks. The problem was each trick I dug up was less impressive then the last. I started out with my best tricks, and had no structured routine. After a certain number of tricks, sleights and controls start to be repeated over and over and the audience can predict whats going to happen. If you do the same control such as the spread pass again and again, people will start to catch on.
So I guess there is a moral to this story. Always structure your routines. Don't just perform random tricks one after another. Have set openers and closers. Your strongest tricks should NOT be first. You want to go out with a bang, that's what you will be remembered for. If you do what I did, no one is going to remember you.
KNOW WHEN TO QUIT. Leave the audience wanting more. Not only that, but if you ever perform for the same audience again you want to have more to give them. That day taught me a lot, and making those mistakes and realizing them has made me a much better performer. Hope this helps out some people. Thanks for reading
Chris
How long can you go on performing?
How many tricks can you do?
Do you ever run out of tricks?
I would always answer these types of questions the same way.
"Oh I could go on forever"
or
"By the time I ran out you would be sick of me"
This is always in a joking way, not to brag, because I really don't know the answer. In all honesty you should never run out of tricks. This is not because you should know so many you can preform for hours on end, but when you keep preforming over and over and over, the amazement will slowly disappear.
I have been caught in situations where the audience just keeps wanting more. My most memorable experience with this was a lock down in my school a few years ago. There was a bomb threat and my entire class was locked down in the gym for about 2 hours. I was lucky enough to have some cards and coins on me, and started doing magic. I had a bigger crowd then ever before, and was very excited. I was getting great reactions, and my classmates kept asking for more. I didn't have any extra cards or gimmicks on me, so after about a half an hour my brain was fried. I started digging tricks up that I hadn't performed in a long time and old stuff from books I read when I first started out. As I kept going, the audience started to dwindle. Applause turned into just little oohs and awws and finally nothing at all.
Looking back now I am very embarrassed by my performance that day. The reasons why the audience became bored had nothing to do with mistakes with the actual tricks. The problem was each trick I dug up was less impressive then the last. I started out with my best tricks, and had no structured routine. After a certain number of tricks, sleights and controls start to be repeated over and over and the audience can predict whats going to happen. If you do the same control such as the spread pass again and again, people will start to catch on.
So I guess there is a moral to this story. Always structure your routines. Don't just perform random tricks one after another. Have set openers and closers. Your strongest tricks should NOT be first. You want to go out with a bang, that's what you will be remembered for. If you do what I did, no one is going to remember you.
KNOW WHEN TO QUIT. Leave the audience wanting more. Not only that, but if you ever perform for the same audience again you want to have more to give them. That day taught me a lot, and making those mistakes and realizing them has made me a much better performer. Hope this helps out some people. Thanks for reading
Chris
