talkmagic.co.uk

and their stuff has been useful as well! I'm just saying that this article in particular was most useful for me personally

Thanks once again! You have encouraged me to write even more !

I enjoyed that Stephen. I like the development section. Very well written.

Cheers

Todd

Sorry what are you all referring to? I see no link or body of text...

Mahoney wrote:Sorry what are you all referring to? I see no link or body of text...

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic20337.php

Now a stickie

Ah ha! i feel silly now :p

Just reading it!

Mahoney wrote:Ah ha! I feel silly now

Not at all, being wiser after the event, I should have added a link to the first message - I'll go do that right now .......

That was a great article Stephen thank you for sharing it. It really is good to have you back in the Talk Magic Family.

There were a few bits that I didn’t quite agree with but it is undoubtedly a wonderful resource for anyone starting out in magic and wanting to take it further.

You mentioned about doing 10-15 minutes at each table. In my own personal experience that is far too long. I would say 6-7 minutes is the average but quite frequently it is even less than that due to the number of tables to get around and that fact that meals get served. Incidentally, I also would never recommend anyone to mix Mentalism and magic at a table, but that is just me. It actually horrified me a little that you suggested that.

Andy Nyman has some interesting thoughts on getting spectators to help. It is worth checking out his lecture notes if you can. The problem is that many people have a fear of helping a magician on stage and most would rather not get up and help but would rather sit back and watch. Possibly this is due to performers in the past not being quite as polite to their guests as they are these days. An inexperienced performer who gives everyone asked to help the opportunity to say they don’t want to help could lead to a situation where they can’t get anyone to help. As your article is aimed at the inexperienced magician this might be an area to expand on in future.

All in all though a great article, and a worthy addition to the Talk Magic Sticky club.

aah! should have mentioned why i suggested magic and mentalism. When i am at table doing magic 90% of the time someone will say "can you do mindreading" So i tended to give them their wishes. Also the 10-15 minutes was a reference to the smaller venues when there are less tables and you are spending more time at each table.

Thank you so much for the comments, it is nice to get feedback from my peers

Thanks so much for the valuable information!

I have been thinking about approaching a local independent American Diner to offer them a free night or two for a while now, just to get some additional performing experience - this post was so helpful - thanks again.

Stuart

Thank you. Remember for a dinner you will do a lot less per table. Take note of what Simon said above as i forgot to include it

Consider this material stolen...

That's really excellent work - thank you! I started doing magic for money when I was twelve (24 years ago!) and wish I'd had that sort of advice then.

There are several details that I disagree with, but they are minor and probably reflect nothing more than differences of style.

I'd add my voice to Bananafish though in encouraging you to re-think the '10-15 mins' at each table guideline. Although some smaller gigs are around, by far the majority of gigs are 10-15 tables in the 100ish minutes it takes to have dinner. That's about 6 mins tops!

One other point is working with other magicians. Few things p*** me off more when dividing a room up with another magician than finding out that he (it's nearly always a he!) has only done three tables by the end of the main course, and I have to cover for him! It's why I really like working with the same guys over and over again!

Best,

Lee

Craig Browning wrote:Consider this material stolen...

Typical Mr Bowning! i could and will do so much better next time, at the time of writing i was still feeling a bit low so my next piece should be a lot better and longer

Thank you for your comments Lee, as you know you could ask 100 magicians about performance and probably get 90 different versions!

Great article Stephen, very useful advice especially for professionally inexperienced people like myself.

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us