when performing for strangers what do you look for in picking a suitable audience,as in ones that wont heckle you as much and will actually appreciate your performance and how do you bail out if it turns out to be a bad group of people?
Picking an Audience
- Thread starter Alan Grayhawk
- Start date
Typically,
I choose no more than a group of 4. From my experience, hecklers are usually ones surrounded by a bunch of their friends. So I would avoid very large groups.
Also use some common sense - if the person is in a rush, or on the phone or clearly engaged in a deep conversation, they are not the ones to approach.
I normally scout people who are sitting down waiting for someone or just hanging out with nothing to do. Bored people are those who sit there looking around not engaged in any form of activities.
Depending on the heckler, if they are really terrorizing your performance, I would stop, thank them for their time and walk away. It is not worth your time to deal with that kind of nonsense. Otherwise, do your best to end the trick and find another group.
The better your group selection, the less chance of producing a heckler.
Last but not least, you need lots of confidence. People are much less likely to question/heckle your performance if you approach them confidently.
Hope this helped.
I choose no more than a group of 4. From my experience, hecklers are usually ones surrounded by a bunch of their friends. So I would avoid very large groups.
Also use some common sense - if the person is in a rush, or on the phone or clearly engaged in a deep conversation, they are not the ones to approach.
I normally scout people who are sitting down waiting for someone or just hanging out with nothing to do. Bored people are those who sit there looking around not engaged in any form of activities.
Depending on the heckler, if they are really terrorizing your performance, I would stop, thank them for their time and walk away. It is not worth your time to deal with that kind of nonsense. Otherwise, do your best to end the trick and find another group.
The better your group selection, the less chance of producing a heckler.
Last but not least, you need lots of confidence. People are much less likely to question/heckle your performance if you approach them confidently.
Hope this helped.
in my experience, 1st I started out w/ picking good spectator to practice on and stuff. As I go on and have more experience, now I can just walk to random group of ppl and just busting the moves.
the key is master your presentation, and showmanship. Doesn't matter how bad you are, those 2 will make you look better.
the key is master your presentation, and showmanship. Doesn't matter how bad you are, those 2 will make you look better.
It's helpful to be able to read people to a certain degree. A lot of an actor's work involves observing people - try observing people who you sit next to on the bus, work around, people who happen to be where you are, etc... You'll find you can pick up lots of hints of people, where they work, the type of person they are, whether they're married, etc.
Of course it won't always be specific, nor accurate, but it definitely helps. I generally just go on instinct. There are some obvious no-no's: people sharing a private moment, etc., but generally, a group of people who are standing around having fun, who don't look like they need to go anywhere fast, or look like they're busy, etc...
I personally like to encourage people to think about hecklers as just another audience member. They may have their own designation as a type of spectator, like those spectators who flip out at a simple DL, or those who analyse everything, but all the same remember that they're still an audience member - a lot of magicians tend to think of hecklers as an entirely different species, as though they were trying to perform to Godzilla, but because Godzilla's unusually tall, they're not used to the angles. But seriously, that seems to happen - magician meets heckler and freaks out. "Oh my God, a heckler! I've heard so much about you! It's the apocalypse!" And everything they know about angles, spectator management, even sleights, go wrong. I'm of the opinion that if a heckler catches you, you need to practice more. It's more than likely in this situation that someone else has caught you but was too polite to say so also. If they catch you by seizing the deck, etc., you need to improve audience management. If they offer bogus excuses and seek attention - and get it - you need to improve performance skills. If they insist on shuffling the deck - and you can't recover, then perhaps you need to widen your knowledge base of effects so you can do something where the spectator can shuffle. As annoying as hecklers are, whatever they do, if they succeed, it's generally an indication that you need to improve something - it may not be a nice indication, but at least it helps you improve, you know?
Now all that said, if I approach a really bad group of people who aren't interested, I finish whatever effect I'm into, thank them, and move on. That's all. You'll never see them again in your lives, so honestly, who cares. It's not the heckler that points out where you did every double lift that annoys me - they're not a problem, all that tells me is, improve my double lift - it's the ones who just offer a negative attitude towards magic. And honestly, sometimes it happens, sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it's not, but just thank them and move on. There shouldn't be any problem with just leaving. If they actually catch you in your moves - well I'm afraid you may just have to cop it on the chin, excuse yourself, and think about what you did wrong - and then practice. Either way, excuse yourself, thank them, move on. Perform on your terms, leave on your terms.
Of course it won't always be specific, nor accurate, but it definitely helps. I generally just go on instinct. There are some obvious no-no's: people sharing a private moment, etc., but generally, a group of people who are standing around having fun, who don't look like they need to go anywhere fast, or look like they're busy, etc...
I personally like to encourage people to think about hecklers as just another audience member. They may have their own designation as a type of spectator, like those spectators who flip out at a simple DL, or those who analyse everything, but all the same remember that they're still an audience member - a lot of magicians tend to think of hecklers as an entirely different species, as though they were trying to perform to Godzilla, but because Godzilla's unusually tall, they're not used to the angles. But seriously, that seems to happen - magician meets heckler and freaks out. "Oh my God, a heckler! I've heard so much about you! It's the apocalypse!" And everything they know about angles, spectator management, even sleights, go wrong. I'm of the opinion that if a heckler catches you, you need to practice more. It's more than likely in this situation that someone else has caught you but was too polite to say so also. If they catch you by seizing the deck, etc., you need to improve audience management. If they offer bogus excuses and seek attention - and get it - you need to improve performance skills. If they insist on shuffling the deck - and you can't recover, then perhaps you need to widen your knowledge base of effects so you can do something where the spectator can shuffle. As annoying as hecklers are, whatever they do, if they succeed, it's generally an indication that you need to improve something - it may not be a nice indication, but at least it helps you improve, you know?
Now all that said, if I approach a really bad group of people who aren't interested, I finish whatever effect I'm into, thank them, and move on. That's all. You'll never see them again in your lives, so honestly, who cares. It's not the heckler that points out where you did every double lift that annoys me - they're not a problem, all that tells me is, improve my double lift - it's the ones who just offer a negative attitude towards magic. And honestly, sometimes it happens, sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it's not, but just thank them and move on. There shouldn't be any problem with just leaving. If they actually catch you in your moves - well I'm afraid you may just have to cop it on the chin, excuse yourself, and think about what you did wrong - and then practice. Either way, excuse yourself, thank them, move on. Perform on your terms, leave on your terms.
*Find People Who are enjoying their time!
*Go for a small group (Between2 - 4, maybe 5 if you're up for it)
*Don't go for just a single person (just trust me on this)
*If They look like they are preoccupied with something just let them be
*don't go to restaurants although people are gonna tell you different.
*"Go To A Hang out place" ex. Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Any coffee Shop etc.
*Here Is A Side Tip, Ask them how their day is going. (Again just trust me on it!)
*Go for a small group (Between2 - 4, maybe 5 if you're up for it)
*Don't go for just a single person (just trust me on this)
*If They look like they are preoccupied with something just let them be
*don't go to restaurants although people are gonna tell you different.
*"Go To A Hang out place" ex. Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Any coffee Shop etc.
*Here Is A Side Tip, Ask them how their day is going. (Again just trust me on it!)
I thought this was a great post by SleepingJag, Im sure you can learn alot from it 
