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I have taken on what is probably the best gig I have had to date. I am performing at a private Christmas dinner for a local up market Estate Agent. The evening will have 3 parts. I am starting with a walk around as the guests arrive in a local wine bar. This is followed by table hopping between courses in the restaurant.

I am OK with both of these parts, there will be 30 people attending, the dinner is in a private room and the guests will be seated at a horseshoe shaped table. I have enough close up to cover all of this, I just need to have a disciplined running order.

What I have also taken on however is a 20 minute stand up show after the last course is served. And for this I need some help. The environment will be more a “parlour magic” setting than stage magic but it will not be conducive to the close up work I am used to.

I have 6 weeks to prepare, I am willing to spend some money if needed, any suggestions as to what would be good effects to perform would be greatly appreciated. My stand up stuff has always been limited to chldren’s shows so far and that just isn’t going to cut it here!

What kind of show is it going to be Johnny? "Pure" magic, or something with a more mind-reader kind of feel? 20 minutes could easily be gobbled up with a bit of mind-reading Q&A type routine, utilising some kind of impression device.

Are you taking more of a magic approach or would mentalism suit? I can think of a few things you could do for estate agents specifically.

I think that the audience is going to be looking more for "pure" magic by the time I get up to do this. It will be quite late in the evening, a fair amount of alchohol will have been consumed and I am worried that anything a bit "clever" will be lost on them.

I wonder if a bank nite effect would be appropriate. They'll be quite sales/commission-driven people, I'd imagine. Maybe you could choose amusing loser prizes that would be 'appreciated' by estate agents... A (small plastic) BMW, for example. Just a thought.

I'd try to keep to something fun and visual. Perhaps start off with a giant ID and then some ropes and silks. I love performing Tabary's rope routine followed on with even, uneven ropes.

bill abbotts smart ass would work well on a big stage

A great baffler that works really well in a parlour type setting is the Indian Sands (or whatever the modern name for the trick is). You can get the audience involved a bit by asking someone to help mix the different coloured sands up in the fish tank, get them to put on a silly looking pinny and marigolds to stop them getting wet while doing it, then ask members of the audience to pick their preferred colour of sand. And you can give them a pile of their selected sand as a take home present, which I find always gets a laugh - "You can take this pile of sand home with you as a souvenir". Its a great routine, easy to do and you can make it yourself. And its not a magic trick they see everyday. And it takes at least 10minutes to perform the Indian Sands if you include the audience participation.


Quick Update:
I just looked it up and it seems to be called Hindu Sands or Sand Of The Desert these days.

To be honest I would concentrate as much time possible to a script as stage is far less conversational banter and more monologue.
With 6 weeks I would use either effects you already know or self workers and spend the time on the patter

I was at a summer ball last year and the magician they hired did table hopping for a couple of hours and finished the night on the small stage with a simple card trick and a straight jacket/chain escape. The escape probably took about 10-15mins including set up, patter and general banter with the (drunk) volunteer.[/img]

Pity you don't know how to read palms. I usually do an hour of close up magic at these type of gigs, take a break then do a 20 -30 minute stand up act during which I tell everyone that I will be over in a quiet corner reading the palm of anyone that wants it done. A big queue forms very quickly and if you are not careful you will be there for hours on end. If that happens of course you excuse yourself for 10 minutes, find the organiser and ask for more money if they want you to stay.

And I hate to tell all you hot shot magicians this but the palm reading will always be the hit of the evening.

mark lewis wrote:Pity you don't know how to make balloon models. I usually do an hour of close up magic at these type of gigs, take a break then do a 20 -30 minute stand up act during which I tell everyone that I will be over in a quiet corner making balloons for anyone that wants it done. A big queue forms very quickly and if you are not careful you will be there for hours on end. If that happens of course you excuse yourself for 10 minutes, find the organiser and ask for more money if they want you to stay.

And I hate to tell all you hot shot magicians this but the balloons will always be the hit of the evening.

Fixed it.

Choose the MD for the final trick eg. sawing in half, wrist chopper etc.

You can have lots of fun with any volunteers helping you & even more when it involves danger or innuendo.

When people want to be entertained they want to laugh most of all.

You can easily fill 20 minutes with just 2 routines involving people from the audience helping you.

How dare you try and suggest palm reading is akin to making balloon animals. It can take weeks, sometimes months, to master the craft of making balloon animals.

That's the trouble with these open-ended questions, Johnny. You've had around ten different responses, all offering good suggestions, and not a hint of any consistency!

Let's take it back a stage (no pun intended). First, do you really only do "grown up" (I didn't want to put "adult" for obvious reasons) material that is pure close-up, and which won't work with a small cabaret audience?

Second, give us a clue! What sort of performer are you? Do you want something mystical, a comedy routine, something that could be performed silently? Do you want classics of magic, like linking rings, that people might want to see live for the first time, or something different?

You're going to be limited as to what you can add in the time available. I don't think you'll be adding the zombie ball, or anything that requires a lot of practice to get right, in method or presentation. (I know we all understand that ideally one should spend ages mastering a trick, but an experienced chap like Mr Wizz can probably get certain effects to performance standard in the time available.)

I like the Bank Nite suggestion. It's Christmas, so presents make sense. The Just Chintz effect Max Maven does on Nothing is great fun. Have a look at No Chance (from Inner Mind Productions) for a slight improvement on the basic effect (although I think Max's presentation is the real winner). It can also be tailored to the audience, again as Ted suggested.

For some reason, it amuses me to think that one prize is a set of car keys. No car to go with them, just some car keys...