Hey Theory 11 crew!
Just got back from a gig that I booked for a company near me that had a special super sale/event party today. I knew going into it, when I took the gig, that it was going to be a lot of little kids *5-10 year old kids* and their parents. I had never performed for children before so a couple of days before today I went to my local magic shop, and asked the owner if he could hook me up with something I could do for kids. He gave me an item that only cost 5 bucks but it was worth sooo much more, a bag of four little red sponge balls. He told me to not be too fancy with the sponge balls, kids want to see them disappear and reappear in their hands, so that's what I did. I also, got a rope trick, and a svengali deck. So I walked into the gig with four sponge balls, a regular deck of cards, a svengali deck and a rope gimmick. The owner led me to the back, out the door and showed me where I would be performing, it was outside for this ENORMOUS line and it was 90 degrees outside. She thanked me for doing it and told me to have at it.
The line was about 300 people deep for this store's sale so I just started at the front and went to the back. I would walk up to the line from the side, introduce myself loudly and gather as much of the line around me as I could...like 10-15 people at a time. The kids all naturally ran up too me and made like a front line, I wasn't expecting it but I was there for them so it worked.
After doing the routine for four different groups I quickly realized two things. These younger kids loved the red sponge balls, loved the card tricks, could care less about the rope gimmick. It just went over their heads and they didn't react at all, so I just put them up and didn't use them again. Instead I improved some more with the sponge balls for the next group and by the time I was near the middle and back of the line my routine was about five minutes with the sponge balls and two to three minutes of card tricks for the adults and kids.
Couple of standout thoughts.
1.I need to make sure I know where I'm performing next time, I went in a black button up and a tie, with blue jeans and I sweated my ass off.
2. If you don't have it yet, you really need to get a good improv skill set. I was invaluable to me today
3. Red sponge balls are literally miracle balls for kids, if you have to perform for kids I highly recommend them.
All in all, it was a great performance, some awkward moments of course, street magic has them, but it was good, the owner booked me for two more gigs next month and I booked a birthday party.
I hope this is interesting to some of you, and if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear them. Later!
Just got back from a gig that I booked for a company near me that had a special super sale/event party today. I knew going into it, when I took the gig, that it was going to be a lot of little kids *5-10 year old kids* and their parents. I had never performed for children before so a couple of days before today I went to my local magic shop, and asked the owner if he could hook me up with something I could do for kids. He gave me an item that only cost 5 bucks but it was worth sooo much more, a bag of four little red sponge balls. He told me to not be too fancy with the sponge balls, kids want to see them disappear and reappear in their hands, so that's what I did. I also, got a rope trick, and a svengali deck. So I walked into the gig with four sponge balls, a regular deck of cards, a svengali deck and a rope gimmick. The owner led me to the back, out the door and showed me where I would be performing, it was outside for this ENORMOUS line and it was 90 degrees outside. She thanked me for doing it and told me to have at it.
The line was about 300 people deep for this store's sale so I just started at the front and went to the back. I would walk up to the line from the side, introduce myself loudly and gather as much of the line around me as I could...like 10-15 people at a time. The kids all naturally ran up too me and made like a front line, I wasn't expecting it but I was there for them so it worked.
After doing the routine for four different groups I quickly realized two things. These younger kids loved the red sponge balls, loved the card tricks, could care less about the rope gimmick. It just went over their heads and they didn't react at all, so I just put them up and didn't use them again. Instead I improved some more with the sponge balls for the next group and by the time I was near the middle and back of the line my routine was about five minutes with the sponge balls and two to three minutes of card tricks for the adults and kids.
Couple of standout thoughts.
1.I need to make sure I know where I'm performing next time, I went in a black button up and a tie, with blue jeans and I sweated my ass off.
2. If you don't have it yet, you really need to get a good improv skill set. I was invaluable to me today
3. Red sponge balls are literally miracle balls for kids, if you have to perform for kids I highly recommend them.
All in all, it was a great performance, some awkward moments of course, street magic has them, but it was good, the owner booked me for two more gigs next month and I booked a birthday party.
I hope this is interesting to some of you, and if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear them. Later!
