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Lady of Mystery wrote:I've recently fancied having a go at setting up in a town centre somewhere and seeing if Icould get a crowd. Never really been too sure how to get started though

Gazzo has a great book on the subject.

Ciao,
Rob

you mean getting started in doing it or the set itself?

start small and build up, keeping the chatter going, comments nice but funny to all and sundry. e.g. parents push a child in a pram near or through your staging area, "hey kid, don't let 'em push you around!". Ok, so a cheesy line but that is what gets laughs and attention. Some actually are quite rude but that's not for me.

Having a small fold up table helps both to have something to use to put things on like cards and props and also to establish "I am doing my thing here". It can also of course be used as a hold out or any other thing you need it for. It is not essential, however, and I do not use one in my set unless there is one that someone has there already and lends to me.

and yes, Gazzo is well worth researching if you are interested in street performing. Some of the biggest hats I see are using a lot of his material.

EDIT: don't be afraid to have a few people you know stand and watch you as you begin, helping you build a crowd.....not by them doing anything, just by beeing there. This isn't cheating, you aren't using them as stooges although this is a possibilty. Once a few people start to look and you seem interesting you may be surprised how quickly it can build up. It's adding even more mid show and keeping them there that is the real challenge.

You know, it strikes me that it's Derren Bloody Brown time again. Large portions of Absolute Magic is given over to the subject of approaching people.

the reason i simply walk around to differeing groups and perform is because setting up shop and performing is a bad idea. there are loads of T**ts around who are always out to make a fool of you plus there are quite alot of people who set up shop were i perform. my favourite at the moment are the robot men. they look like metal statues and then they move and people scream and everything. i always watch them every saturday and they always have a crowd. they're really good.

i don't normally target people walking down the city centre with lots of bags etc. that's just stupid. i normally go to the "hang out" spots were people just sit and chill.

the honey pot idea is pretty cool. however, I'm just not like that. i simply like walking up to people and performing. before the interest and crowd gets to big, i simply close the routine. i've never had a problem with it and always got good reactions (except the first few times )

but yeh. thats just the way i am

hey mikey thats cool if thats what your into it's not for me tho mainly because it doesn't pay the bills street performing can do. As far as their being T**ts around trying to ruin your show welcome to the world of performing magic. you wanna know how to deal with these people then do street performing for a living coz you need to work out quick snappy ways to get them on your side without alienating the rest of your audience or losing their attention.

hey lady if your serious about trying street performing don't read gazzo's book unless you want to be a carbon copy of gazzo go create a show that will build to a climax with lots of hits and work out a patter that will entertain. too many magicians are trying to copy other peoples work either with blaine or brown or with gazzo. the number of "street performers" who do gazzos routine without any changes or attempts to make it their own is incredible and they won't last long because it ism't their show and they don't understand why it works because they are not gazzo.

i have 2 street shows one standerd show with a rope routine and a cups and balls routine styling cellini and one extreme show with lots of intense tricks like the razor blade manipulation and a bullet catch each show is destinctivly mine, as a street show should be just like gazzos show is destinctivly his whoever is copying it.

you say a bullet catch? could you go into detail on this routine for me?
walking around wih a gun in the street could be bad news.

not gonna go into too much detail obviously. but i'll say that the show is a high risk show from the audience perspective so i use dangerous tricks such as balloon ingesting, swallowing razor blades a few quick geek tricks and the catch .22 bullet catch with a spec standing real close to make sure i don't cheat. i tried to do a proper bullet catch last year but neither the police nor the judge found it very entertaining and when i was released i changed it. any questions feel free to pm me

cheers