Performing on the streets, the insights.

Mr.MadMan

Mr.MadMan

Aug 31, 2007
976
1
30
Estonia,Pärnu
www.mikkparg.pri.ee
Hello!

Me again :), the past few days have been phenomenal. Thanks to Williamdraven, David(D ICER), praetoritevong, RDChopper, Luka and everyone else who has participated in the awesome discussions we have had.

This topic raised to my knowledge by cmdee who asked if he was ready for Street magic. You can find the topic here: http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=22058. Its still on top, but im not shure for how long, some great advice in there by Draven and Bizarro.

What i want to discuss here is the benefits and the threats in performing on the streets, as well as your experiences with it.

What my goal is, is to raise the beliefs that i should wait until i go out and perform on the streets. To start off ill put in my own story which i talked about in the topic mentioned above.


Two years ago:

Somewhere two years ago i started doing Street magic.

Nothing special at first glance but the phenomenal part is that i was 2 months into magic. I knew about 3 effects or 5 and my skill level was absolutely zero.

Why did i do it?

I was at a gathering where we went to perform on the streets. I wanted to prove myself, i was a bit rejected by the people there since i was a newbie.
So i went, with three guys who were like me, just started a few months more into it but still newbies.

My hands were shaking, my voice was shaking. My presentation was off and very insecure. It was rubbish, BUT. The feeling i got from that time was awesome. I will never forget that performance. It was crazy...
But so rewarding.

I started going to the street with a friend who has done magic six months more than me. We at first went there a couple of times a week, and gradually more and more. We talked magic and performed, it was awesome. In the next three months i was so far ahead of my planned skill level it was ridiculous.

The amount of work that went into those performances were awesome, i felt awesome. I was like the king of magic. The knowledge i have is from the streets and only from the streets. Noone really taught me, everything came with experimenting and trial and error. I failed many times but those failed times gave me knowledge i would never give away. I learned from my mistakes and made shure they never came again.

I took my half done performances there, i took effects there that i werent sure i had learned them properly. It was crazy how much stuff ive performed on the streets. Its an amazing place to test out new things since you get so much different people everytime.

The verdict:

Start with a friend or take a magic buddy with you just to hang. Performing alone is better than together since it makes you feel comfortable performing alone which you in most cases have to do when performing.

A friend can be a great resource, he sees the performance from another angle. He can tell you the flaws and make suggestions.

I had that and it helped me do the modifications to my performances.
Also it would be good to have someone who does the same things you do, meaning the same artform, Magic, Mentalism, Spiritualism etc. He can help you find things and tweak things. (Thank you David for being that guy. The amount of knowledge ive gotten and am getting is crazy. Im very greatful for everything!)


So what are your views on the subject?
When did you start and what are the benefits?
What to look out for?


Mikk
 
RDChopper

RDChopper

Aug 10, 2008
2,023
2
33
In a rock concert
I'll just say something before I go, I ll try to contribute with somethingg else later.


Once you try it, it becomes pretty addictive, performing is so much fun because you never are going to have the same people, circumstances or experiences, You usually grow a lot as a magician each time you perform because of all what can happen in a performance.

People are unpredictable watching a magic performance, you never know how they are going to respond. :)

(Ill try to write something more indepth later on, but for now I had to get that off my chest)
 
C

cmdee

Sep 12, 2009
5
0
How do you even aproach people without them rejecting you? I mean David Blaine had a pro camera crew and he still got rejected! lol
 
T

TeeDee

Sep 2, 2007
1,186
16
42
London
cmdee said:
How do you even aproach people without them rejecting you? I mean David Blaine had a pro camera crew and he still got rejected! lol
Click to expand...

This is quite a tough question to answer. As you get more confident and experienced performing, you'll find you get rejected less and less, even if you think you're approaching in exactly the same way you always were. In my opinion, the biggest secret to minimising rejection is relaxing your shoulders. It doesn't sound like anything, but try it. Before you make your approach, consciously relax your shoulders and take a couple of deep breaths. Your relaxed state will allow you to build rapport easier, signalling at the unconscious level that you're confident, likeable and you know what you're doing.

You'll never eradicate rejection completely, because every now and then you'll come across people having a really bad day, who are in a hurry, or who are just plain b*stards, but it can be brought down to a minimum.
 
C

cmdee

Sep 12, 2009
5
0
TeeDee said:
This is quite a tough question to answer. As you get more confident and experienced performing, you'll find you get rejected less and less, even if you think you're approaching in exactly the same way you always were. In my opinion, the biggest secret to minimising rejection is relaxing your shoulders. It doesn't sound like anything, but try it. Before you make your approach, consciously relax your shoulders and take a couple of deep breaths. Your relaxed state will allow you to build rapport easier, signalling at the unconscious level that you're confident, likeable and you know what you're doing.

You'll never eradicate rejection completely, because every now and then you'll come across people having a really bad day, who are in a hurry, or who are just plain b*stards, but it can be brought down to a minimum.
Click to expand...

Well I tried doing street magic today for the first time, and I got rejected a few times, and I did get to show one simple card effect though... Yeah, I guess I wasn't really confident though, felt kinda weird approaching strangers lol
Or maybe it was a bad day or something.

I'll try your tips next time :D
 
RDChopper

RDChopper

Aug 10, 2008
2,023
2
33
In a rock concert
cmdee said:
How do you even aproach people without them rejecting you? I mean David Blaine had a pro camera crew and he still got rejected! lol
Click to expand...

In my opinion thats where rapport comes in. David Blaine and his crew got rejected because such things intiimidate people.


There is a quick exercise to overcome this, and it also has a lot of advantages:

Leave your cards at home, go outside to a park or the mall or something and start talking to people, not in a stalking way, for example, sit in a bench (in a mall maybe) next to other person and your goal here, is to make that person to feel comfortable with your presence, things like, "excuse me, you don't mind if I sit here?"it doesnt looks like much but first impressions count a lot and if you do that smiling, people are going to give for a fact that you are a good fellow.

Im also not talking about going outside and pick up girls, NO, Im talking about getting yourself comfortable talking to strangers and with time you will feel it naturally, and you will no longer need to be thinking " I could use this line to start a conversation..." things will go natural.

It take some balls, and you will have some bad experiences, but try it, it will enhance your personality a lot and you will become less nervous when performing.

Also a good friend here(Morgician) told me to NEVER approach the people you want to perform for with a deck of cards, the aim here is to meet them, try to stablish some rapport with them and then kindly offer the gift that magic is.

So yeah, if you can try that litttle exercise :).

By the way, SMILE, it will work wonders for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results