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So in a couple of hours i will be performing my first gig to a larger group of people than i've ever done before. I've done bits and bats at parties etc and this has led to tonight.

I will be performing a few card routines followed by some mentalism (10 effects in total) before breaking to return and do some hypnosis.

It's only a small venue and a fund raising night but expecting 40ish people.

Nerves are a jangling right now but i know it's something i need to do to advance my abilities.

Woo-hoo, another one off on the wonderful road of entertaining people - well done that chap and every good wish for the gig tonight! Naturally, we expect and full and detailed report asap !

So the morning after and nursing a sore head after getting through it mainly unscathed. Here's how it went. I had no idea how long the magic set would run as it was the first time I'd ran through it fully

I opened with Poker Test 2.0 (This is a great visual opener and i recommend it to anyone who wants a wow moment right at the start of the act)

I then play up on the nerves and have a brown paper sick bag which i use to find a forced signed card but hidden inside is a jumbo version of their card, The finale for this effect is pretending to be be sick and producing the actual signed card from my mouth. I then go into how i love magic and some people hate magic and do a version of the reversed card in deck as if the whole deck has been mixed up by someone who wants to make me look a fool.

So that's it for the card side of it and i move into more mentalism routines which really is my passion and i can only see myself going further into this side of things. The card work is hard as i suffer from a fatigue syndrome in my hands from working in IT which really does cause problems if i use cards a lot.

The mentalism went down a storm. A combination of Banachek, Bob cassidy and richard Osterlind effects. Anyone wanting to use mentalism in a act bob cassidy's effect Person and a place gets a unbelievable reaction. The finale of my magic was the only glitch in the perfomace, I have a Ryderback deck hanging from the ceiling for the whole act and then work to a single reversed card in the deck which a spectator names, I unfortunately did my maths wrong and revealed the wrong card. DOH. Everyone didn't seem to mind though and that for me was the hard part over.

We had a 20 minute break before i had 10 up for hypnosis. One guy who i had hypnotised before was there and i didn't want to use him in the act but brought him on stage to show the others how easy it was to get into a hypnotic state and put him straight back under within a few seconds. This was a great convincer to the others. From the 10 i had 3 who were perfect and did a great job. Everything from amnesia to full on dancing, They were really the stars of the show.

So my advice to anyone starting out is get out there and do it. The first steps are always the hardest and for me it took a lot to get up in front of 40 or so mainly strangers. I feel so glad i took the opportunity and got 2 future bookings on the night which is amazing.

mr_flash wrote: my advice to anyone starting out is get out there and do it

That's it, right there - read, mark, learn and inwardly digest folks!!

We'll done, congrats on the gig and getting two more bookings - we all dream of that!

Just over a month since my first gig and the night of the 2nd has arrived.

This is my first paid gig and i actually feel more nervous than the debut. Pretty much ditched the cards now and it's a full mentalism set followed by a hypnosis show.

Wish me luck. On in 50 minutes

Well.... How was it???

(Actually, we know you were great!!!!!)

Hey Mr flash interested to see how it went Also no doubt you are running it through in your head being critical (I know I do that a lot) but when it comes to mentalism don't worry too much about any misses you had one or two in a fifty minute show add to the whole effect making what you do seem difficult and even more believable.

Matt

Gig went really well. Fluffed a couple of times but that does seem to be more of a convincer to people. The hypnosis side was a bit disappointing but mainly due to a lack of volunteers. Had 6 in total and i reckon 3 of them had been cajoled into coming up by groups they were with. Managed full hypnosis with one lady which isn't ideal to perform a full set so i basically changed it to a small demo of the different things that can be done, no silly stuff and the crowd seemed happy with that.

The one thing i need to work on is my patter with the audience as i feel a little amateur.

Any know of any reading material that can help with that side of things. Although i feel it will only improve with time and gigs.

Glad to hear it went well. I have found the patter comes with your character that you are on stage. With some practice you figure out that character and how they would react to whatever happens and it feels really natural to play that character after some time. If you happen to own 13 steps to mentalism by Corinda (If you don't and if you want to perform mentalism I highly recommend it sometimes the old methods are the best) there is a fantastic interview with Claude Chandler at the back which you might find really helpful.

Matt

mr_flash wrote:Any know of any reading material that can help with that side of things. Although i feel it will only improve with time and gigs.

Stephen Ward's "Performing magic to the public" comes to mind, with its section on scripting..

There is also a section on showmanship on Tarbell. And of course you have Fitzkee's "Showmanship for magicians".

Also, although I confess I still have to read it (so many things to do), but I guess that Nelm's "Magic and showmanship" also can help.