talkmagic.co.uk

After taking all the advice on scripting, practice, performance, etc, I went to a camping meet, where I was booked to do a childrens show. I was also doing some walkaround, as required during the weekend.

It was a "Members only" Meet, so the numbers were restricted.

On Friday night, I made a balloon Popeye and Pink Panther, to donate as prizes for events they were putting on during the weekend.

By mid Saturday morning, the Pink Panther had shrunk to about 18" and parts of Popeye had burst, both due to the heat.

Instead of the 200 or so people, plus children, they had about 100 turn up, with the only children being 3 girls, who were 11 and 12 years old.
I had tried to make sure that I had put something for this age in the show, but most of it was aimed at younger children.

The adults were having an AGM, so there was a grand total of 5 people for the show. Including my son and myself. ( I had already made sure that both my tent and the marquee would be in view of adults during the whole weekend. If I hadn't, I would have been in a very awkward situation!)

I explained to them that they would find alot of it "young" for them, but they didn't mind at all. It ended up that we were all in fits of giggles for part of the show, as it was the best way to make it fun for their ages.

I did Pets Picnic part way through, which needs 4 people, so my son ended up joining in. I had been getting them to participate AND be the audience at the same time. My son also did part of the show, so he was there as a magician, my assistant, a volunteer and a member of the audience!!

Imagine the scene, all five of us were facing the non existing audience, sometimes I got them to call out, but if it wasn't loud enough, I got them to run back to where they were sitting, so they could be the audience, and call out to themselves!

They DID really enjoy it, which was the important thing. If I had kept to the script, it would have been like giving crayons to teenagers, they would have thought I was taking the p***.

I was able to find out which they liked best, including them thinking they were a couple of years younger.

I wasn't able to make any balloon models for them, as I had found out that while I was twisting them, it was so hot, thhe balloons were sticking together when they touched between the twists, because of the heat again.
If I tried to prise them apart, I only managed to wear the rubber out, so they went down or popped.

As for the walkaround, people just wanted to keep cool and didn't want to concentrate, so that was also limited to what I did.

I then bought out 4 pieces of rope and showed people the one handed knot.

Some people saw it, told other people, who then got other people come over, so during the weekend, I got about 2 hours out of just this, throughout the weekend, as I was teaching people how to do it. ( It is a trick, not a MAGIC trick, after all.)

I can honestly say, that everybody that tried it, were so pleased when they ended up being able to do it.

They had a live group for Saturday night, so I wasn't needed to perform.
So I spent most of the night finally able to make some balloon models, once they had cooled down. I managed a Donald Duck, Goofey, Pluto and a spider, before it got too dark. ( I was in a tent.)

Yes, I was dissapointed about not having more children there, but I already knew that I could have anywhere from 1 to about 20 children, depending on who camped at the weekend. The organisers were expecting more adults and children, so they were short on numbers too.

I AM pleased, in a way, as I had already said that this weekend should let me know how far I had come since the last show.

It ended up so light hearted and silly and we were in giggles so much of the time. I just hope that all my shows go over even half as well.

I also knew that it was the sort of weekend that most people would avoid completely, as I was going into the whole situation without any idea who might be there.

I knew that, but wanted to do it. I reckoned that if I could cope with that, I should be able to cope with most things.

I do need to work and change a few things, but that will always be the case.

By the way, good old Hippitty Hop Rabbits was the jaw dropping moment. They didn't think of it as a sucker effect, just a "how the F*** did you do that."