Hey everyone,
Last month, I posted on here asking for advice about some close-up I was due to perform - that event was last night. A big thank you to everyone who commented on that thread, your tips really helped
Just thought I'd do a quick write up of what happened and what could have gone better.
Summary:
Initially I thought it was going to be walk-around, which made me really nervous about introducing myself to people etc. Thankfully, that didn't end up being the case, and I had a table in the hall near the chocolate fountain and drinks table. Overall, things went better than I could have hoped. There were a couple of hiccups, but people seemed to love all the tricks, and some asked for a business card so that they could hire me at their own events.
Effects I performed:
I went in there armed with spongeballs+flashpaper in one pocket, stand up monte in my top pocket, and 3 decks in the other 3 pockets (invisible deck, normal deck setup with chicago opener at the bottom and french kiss on top, and a normal deck).
Sadly, I didn't get to use either the sponge balls or stand up monte. I managed to drop the 4th ball out of my pocket, which meant I couldn't finish the routine I had planned, so I didn't bother doing anything with them. Stand up monte didn't see the light of day because I wasn't 100% comfortable with performing it in that I wouldn't have been able to do it with my eyes closed.
I only performed french kiss and invisible deck once (even though I thought they would be my staple pieces) - I would have liked to do ID a bit more, but after the first performance, I forgot to reset as I was far too concerned with getting the deck out of sight as soon as possible - this meant I couldn't do it again without turning my back for a few seconds and sticking the card in the right place, which wasn't going to happen.
So in the end, all I ended up doing (multiple times for different groups) was chicago opener, acr, slop shuffle triumph and 2 card monte. What I found hugely surprising was the ridiculous reaction that all of it got. Before, I was very jaded about these kinds of effects, and I never imagined they could garner a respectable response, but as the guys on the previous thread said, audiences love them to bits.
Hiccups:
Obviously, losing the sponge ball, not having stand up monte ready and not resetting ID were things that could have been improved. Also, there came a point after doing chicago, acr and triumph that I was struggling to think of what to do next, even though I could have done any one of 10 other tricks, but in the moment I completely forgot which effects I knew and could have used.
Improvements for next time:
- keep spare sponge balls
- reset invisible deck on the spot
- have a list of tricks i know how to do visible, just in case i forget about them
- make some business cards
- look into incorporating some more non-card effects into my repertoire, preferably with borrowed items
- perhaps learn some basic tricks and gags with a sharpie: the making it vanish behind the ear worked remarkably well as a gag, so maybe something like making it vanish/reappear before getting the spec to sign their card would be nice
So yeah, overall I was hugely surprised by the reactions that one can get with a normal deck of cards. The experience made me realise that the practise I've been doing on friends and family, and myself, for the past 2 years has made my double lift undetectable, which is a huge confidence boost, considering practically everything I did was based on that principle. I'm definitely going to audition for more university balls and events and hopefully improve as time progresses.
Once again, thank you to everyone on these forums who have replied to my threads, and also to people like rick everhart and luis vega who post synopses of gigs they've done afterwards - those are hugely helpful and inspiring to read.
Last month, I posted on here asking for advice about some close-up I was due to perform - that event was last night. A big thank you to everyone who commented on that thread, your tips really helped
Just thought I'd do a quick write up of what happened and what could have gone better.Summary:
Initially I thought it was going to be walk-around, which made me really nervous about introducing myself to people etc. Thankfully, that didn't end up being the case, and I had a table in the hall near the chocolate fountain and drinks table. Overall, things went better than I could have hoped. There were a couple of hiccups, but people seemed to love all the tricks, and some asked for a business card so that they could hire me at their own events.
Effects I performed:
I went in there armed with spongeballs+flashpaper in one pocket, stand up monte in my top pocket, and 3 decks in the other 3 pockets (invisible deck, normal deck setup with chicago opener at the bottom and french kiss on top, and a normal deck).
Sadly, I didn't get to use either the sponge balls or stand up monte. I managed to drop the 4th ball out of my pocket, which meant I couldn't finish the routine I had planned, so I didn't bother doing anything with them. Stand up monte didn't see the light of day because I wasn't 100% comfortable with performing it in that I wouldn't have been able to do it with my eyes closed.
I only performed french kiss and invisible deck once (even though I thought they would be my staple pieces) - I would have liked to do ID a bit more, but after the first performance, I forgot to reset as I was far too concerned with getting the deck out of sight as soon as possible - this meant I couldn't do it again without turning my back for a few seconds and sticking the card in the right place, which wasn't going to happen.
So in the end, all I ended up doing (multiple times for different groups) was chicago opener, acr, slop shuffle triumph and 2 card monte. What I found hugely surprising was the ridiculous reaction that all of it got. Before, I was very jaded about these kinds of effects, and I never imagined they could garner a respectable response, but as the guys on the previous thread said, audiences love them to bits.
Hiccups:
Obviously, losing the sponge ball, not having stand up monte ready and not resetting ID were things that could have been improved. Also, there came a point after doing chicago, acr and triumph that I was struggling to think of what to do next, even though I could have done any one of 10 other tricks, but in the moment I completely forgot which effects I knew and could have used.
Improvements for next time:
- keep spare sponge balls
- reset invisible deck on the spot
- have a list of tricks i know how to do visible, just in case i forget about them
- make some business cards
- look into incorporating some more non-card effects into my repertoire, preferably with borrowed items
- perhaps learn some basic tricks and gags with a sharpie: the making it vanish behind the ear worked remarkably well as a gag, so maybe something like making it vanish/reappear before getting the spec to sign their card would be nice
So yeah, overall I was hugely surprised by the reactions that one can get with a normal deck of cards. The experience made me realise that the practise I've been doing on friends and family, and myself, for the past 2 years has made my double lift undetectable, which is a huge confidence boost, considering practically everything I did was based on that principle. I'm definitely going to audition for more university balls and events and hopefully improve as time progresses.
Once again, thank you to everyone on these forums who have replied to my threads, and also to people like rick everhart and luis vega who post synopses of gigs they've done afterwards - those are hugely helpful and inspiring to read.
