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Hey people. I have my first gig next friday. I performing at the prom for the Wirral Met students who have just completed their course in teaching aromatherapy. I am performing for free, as I didn't feel comfortable charging, as it is my first real event. It starts at 8 o clock and runs to the wee hours of 1 o clock in the morning.

I was just wondering if anybody had any last tips for me. Perhaps things you have picked up from previous experience. There will be a DJ and music, buffet etc. The audience range from 25-40 years old.

Any tips would be greatful, especially the "watch out for" or "don't do" kind

Cheers
Mike

Just enjoy yourself! Perform what you know and don't try anything new.

Best of luck, you'll do great.

A 5 hour gig? imagine how much some of us could charge for that!
just stick to the things you know, when doing large gigs like that you'll be suprised how few tricks you can get away with doing, just get ready to repeat yourself a lot!
Don't do things that involve ellaborate set-ups, if you need a setup try and restrict it to a handful of cards at most.

Oooh, I've got a party next week too.

Prepare, prepare and prepare. Relax. Check everything one last time. Then just do it.

Learn Crazy Man's Handcuffs and David Stone's spongeball routine. Repeat until you're sick. Worked for me last week, literally I felt awful and threw up on the way home. Got another gig from a recommendation though so something must've worked.

Cheers guys.

I'll probably been sticking mainly to cards however, if I get some cash soon I'll probably invest in shells and a pea or something

It wont be a full five hours of me performing. The DJ gets people up and does stuff with them, there will also be a buffet and somebody is singing for half an hour

Blather as much nonsense as you can as regularly as you can, works for me...

Thing to do is relax and just go with it, most of them will probably know very little about magic which puts you in a good position. Ask if they want to see a trick and if they don't wan't to, bow out gracefully and go on to someone who does want to see you perform. Don't be intimidated by hecklers, and don't take them personally. But above all else do your best to enjoy it, for one thing you're not getting paid so you may as well try and have a good time...

Don't try to compete with the DJ. If it gets too noisy in the main room, invite some folk into the bar area (or similar) for an intimate experience. Ooh-er.

Mickey.666 wrote:

was just wondering if anybody had any last tips for me

No doubt you will have practiced over and over so the only tip I can give is to go out and

ENJOY IT!

Thanks for the comments so far people Today I was planning out some routine ideas. These are what I have so far. If you could give me any suggestions on these it would be much appreciated.

Routine One:
Open up with the Two Card Monte. Red aces cahnge to black queens, which are put to the side. A card is selected and noted. I then explain that poker players must be able to read their opponents, which I'm going to demonstrate. I then ask them to say red then black, then depending on the colour the suits, then high or low. I then take out one card and slowly turn it over. It is their card. I then take the queens again and then I close up with Paul Harris' Cross Twist.

Routine Two:
I open with the Jumping Gemini, with some nice patter to go with it. I then go in to the Biddle Trick. Afterwards, I have the card selected in the Biddle Trick placed in the specs wallet/ purse. I then have another card selected, and lost in the deck. I ask the spec to check my pocket because I think something is in their. There is one card in there, but not their card. Afterwards I reveal that the entire deck is in my pocket and their card is the only card in my hand. I then give it a little shake and it changes to the Biddle Trick card. A nice little card transpo effect to close up.

Routine Three:
I perform a nice little coin routine, which produces a deck of cards at the end, a nice little kicker. I then go in to Red Hot Mama, with my own patter, which I quite enjoy. Then, I'm stuck after that, I don't know how to close up

Routine Four: (Still thinking about this one)
Four ace production. Then I have the spec call out a number or a face (Queens example) and I go into TranspOZition. And again, I'm stuck after this one

Well that's what I have down so far. I think four routines would be enough, and I'll just rinse and repeat. The first two are good to go, however, teh second two need some touching up. Any hekp would be great.

Cheers
Mike

Sounds OK to me and will probably suit the age group. Just a little too many card routines and not enough variety for my own liking ... but that's me.

It's probably too late to change now but just see how it goes and importantly, ASK FOR FEEDBACK afterwards.

Mark Wilsons book has an awesome spongeball routine. Really flows really smoothly.

I used really twice in a sentence.

Mark Wilson's sponge routine is very nice, I use a variation on it myself. But I wouldn't try anything new for this gig, juts stick with what you know and are comfortable with.

The Mark Wilson one is nearly has good as the Markdini one.

I do like the Markdini routine too