My First Real World Performance

[lux-ferre]

Okay. So awhile ago, I went down to the swimming pool area in our condominium. I walked around with my little sister enjoying the windy air. I then decided that I would sum up the courage to perform to a stranger. I didn’t want it to be a totally unknown person so I chose the security guard. We never met before.
Anyway, I walked up to him and asked if he wanted to see magic tricks. I was nervous so I think I slightly did some babbling when asking him. If seemed hesitant when he said yes but I continued anyway because it would be awkward to say “never mind”. I performed two card Monte but…….I probably didn’t patter right because he prematurely turned over the first ace. He smiled but that was all. I kind of got shocked by the turn over and without thinking; I inserted then other ace and flipped it over again without really saying anything. I was so nervous.
The life guard then came to see what was happening, the guard said “magic”. I asked the life guard if he too wanted to see. I used the two aces to perform waving the aces. My hands were shaking and I think I gave them a peek. No one reacted though so I guess no one so their card early. The life guard was pretty much enthusiastic but the security guard seemed uncaring. He wasn’t that impressed I think. He just took his walky-talky and spoke to someone. I said thank you before leaving but he didn’t seem to notice. Although I may have heard a vague “thank you sir”.
I looked for my sister who apparently ditched me when I walked up to the guard at the start. So much for “Go ahead, I’ll be with you!”. I met the life guard again towards the elevator. He smiled and said “Magaling ka talaga!” (Filipino for “That was impressive!”).
All in all it was a unique experience but I’m still feeling weird and nervous. Thanks for those who took time to read this. I would appreciate comments.

 

[MattTarrant]

Confidence is one of the best things mate, and you will gain more through time.

Keep practising, perfect your act, and perform as often as you can.

Good luck!

 

[lux-ferre]

Confidence is one of the best things mate, and you will gain more through time.

Keep practising, perfect your act, and perform as often as you can.

Good luck!

It's weird actually. I am confident that I can perform flawlesly but when I was performing, I felt uncomfortable. Is there such thing as a "wrong spectator"? I mean besides hecklers, are there people who are not that in to magic that you shouldn't perform for them?

 

[socter]

I think you chose the wrong type of spectators. Thats my opinion as i think street magic should be performed for people who are just lazing or having fun. You could to magic to people resting at the swimming pool if they dont mind. Performing to people who have duties to carry out is not the best idea. They might appreciate the break but you do not have the guarantee that they will be with you throughout your performance

 

[y2john]

No I don't believe there is a 'wrong' spectator... a wrong presentation maybe, but not a spectator.
It's up to us to make them interested, but as you were nervous maybe you were focusing more on that than the specs.
Nerves can be quite distracting and really effect our performance when first entertaining strangers, and I think at some time or other we've all been there.
Don't let it get to you and try to relax and be yourself, with time and courage you'll find yourself feeling less and less anxious and instead will be having a fun time.

 

[lux-ferre]

No I don't believe there is a 'wrong' spectator... a wrong presentation maybe, but not a spectator.
It's up to us to make them interested, but as you were nervous maybe you were focusing more on that than the specs.
Nerves can be quite distracting and really effect our performance when first entertaining strangers, and I think at some time or other we've all been there.
Don't let it get to you and try to relax and be yourself, with time and courage you'll find yourself feeling less and less anxious and instead will be having a fun time.

I think you chose the wrong type of spectators. Thats my opinion as i think street magic should be performed for people who are just lazing or having fun. You could to magic to people resting at the swimming pool if they dont mind. Performing to people who have duties to carry out is not the best idea. They might appreciate the break but you do not have the guarantee that they will be with you throughout your performance

I beleive both of you have some good points. I shouldn't have chosen someone on duty. Also, my performance may have been slightly sloppy in terms of how I spoke. I should probrably practice delivering interest in the specs. Thanks guys!

 

[Austin Fields]

Lux,

Slurred speech, flashing tricks you've practiced all the time, not changing your patter for the person etc.

all of those are signs of being nervous, the more you perform, the less they happen. Trust us.

~Beans

 

[AceOfGears]

i did the exact same thing except for abunch of my brothers college friends. i pretty much sucked big time...


but i kept practicing like craaazyyyy and like about 2 months or so later i performed for them again,and i did perfect. they were really impressed and it made up for my sucky performance earlier.


just keep practicing and youll get it perfectly




-Gears.

 

[AllanLuu]

Atleast you had the courage to try it. Soon eough it will be natural for you and it will feel like when your performing to a stranger, like your practiceing in your room.

I hope that made some sense.

 

[Ampersan5340]

first things first, the enviroment you perform in is very important. Personally i think you should've sat in a chair next to somone you wanted to perform for and done some flourishing, they catch notice then you start. If people don't appeal to what you are doing they obviously don't want to see magic. i myself try to do street magic but am very shy. anyway say you did it for the securaty guard. (I know I can't spell) and your shaking the best thing to do is misdirection. I can't emphasize enough how important misdirection is. Say you can't get a double lift. you immediatly stop say "hey did you see that guy over there?" or start scratching your foot, get a break, and said you had tons of mosquitos bites. Anyway If you practice a trick a thousand times enough you will still be nervous. Best thing is to go out there and perform. then you will get rid of the shakes.

hope this helped

 

[y2john]

Yeah as Ampersan5340 said, misdirection is a fantstic skill to build at and is one that is a required to further your magic.
But...

you immediatly stop say "hey did you see that guy over there?"

Don't do the above lol, you want to misdirect not take there attention away from your performance

Use subtle misdirection, things that wouldn't register in the specs mind that they have even looked away etc

 

[conjure_pitch]

You would be surprised at the number of times wind has blown a double lift or switch of some sort, and a 5 person crowd is clueless to it. Try not to worry so much and your nerves will go down.

But don't forget to worry a little bit to keep the adrenaline flowing.

 

[The Dark Angel]

I've had several instances where misdirection was needed, but they wouldn't look away, so I simply stuck the deck behind my back and did the neccesary sleight, and they had no clue.
Now, I'm not recomending this for several obvious reasons, but in a bind, it could work for you, if you do it casually.

 

[y2john]

I def wouldn't recommend putting the deck behind your back unless it's a part of the presentation... i mean why, looks suspicious

I know what you mean though and sometimes people will just continuously burn your hands, but misdirection isn't always trying to get them to look away...

 

[The Dark Angel]

I def wouldn't recommend putting the deck behind your back unless it's a part of the presentation... i mean why, looks suspicious

I know what you mean though and sometimes people will just continuously burn your hands, but misdirection isn't always trying to get them to look away...

Yeah, that's why I don't recomend doing it, unless you have no other choice.

 

[y2john]

What sleight were you trying to accomplish when this happened??

 

[The Dark Angel]

I was doing a custom move where I had to flip over the top card and then bury it in the deck, and the people I was performing it to wouldn't take their eyes off of my hands.

 

[y2john]

Oh ok... but wouldn't you want them to be looking at that point??
I mean so they can see a card get placed in the deck??

I may have misunderstood though and where it's a custom move I obviously wouldn't know what it's supposed to look like

 

[The Dark Angel]

Oh ok... but wouldn't you want them to be looking at that point??
I mean so they can see a card get placed in the deck??

I may have misunderstood though and where it's a custom move I obviously wouldn't know what it's supposed to look like

No, they aren't supposed to see that part of the trick.
And there's a transposition going on while all of this is happening, so that normally keeps them distracted, but this time it didn't.

 

[Austin Fields]

So as I was saying (I had to go to work earlier)

I really like this thread for a couple reasons

1) This is a real performance, and this is great, showing that not all performances go as well as planned and that you need to know thats it's ok to have a bad performance, not enough of these threads are around, it's either, the worst performance, or the best, but nobody says anything about the bad ones, or the kind of bad ones.. And thats important.

You don't have a good performance everytime, and people need to know it's part of learning, it's not bad that you had one, it's actually better that you had one, so you learn from it.

2) And you showed that your not going to "quit magic" (which I have seen) because of a bad performance, your going to learn from it even if you feel nervous or weird now, you'll get over it and hopefully read over what you did and pick out what you did wrong, or you want to change.

This is how people learn, all you hear is how great performances went, well 90% of the time, that doesn't happen it just seems like it does all the time.

~Beans