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I'm doing a show for a group of people that I know well and they know me, so for this show I've decided to do a show that involves no talking on my part. Does this sound like a good, or bad idea to anyone. Just wanted to run this through before I went into big details. Thanks. I poll the results over 5 days.

I'm curious, why are you cutting out speech from your act and what are you planning on doing?

I guess the question I really want answered before I can click yes or no is: why?


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I say go for it. If you feel like it's not working out, you can always start talking.

i said no but it depends on what tricks you are doing. if it is slightly spooky then silent could be good

I'm doing really visual effects that you "can" talk with but it could also look good without speech.

The tricks are spooky effects.

A silent show could be very good and could be very bad. It could even be mediochre.

The fact that it is silent will probably have little to do with it's success. It's success will depend on you the performer.

Yopu could equally be asking I am doing the show and want tp do the Zombie Ball. Please vote on if this is a good idea. I have seen some apauling Zombie ball acts, I have seen some that are pure magic.

If you have an idea for a silent act - then go for it. Script it. Rehearse it and perofrm it. Make your vision come true. Have faith in what you do.

If on the other hand you feel you are more suited for a non silent act - then you are probably right.

The bottom line is, only you know, or at the very leats only people that have seen you perform.

Bananafish has covered it for you there. Only you know if it's going to work and if you can pull it off.

On a slight aside, I wasn't sure which answer to put as the question isn't answerable by either yes or no... I figured it should read, "Is a silent show a good idea?"

It can be very entertaining and it can also go very wrong. Patter is usually a very big part of any effect, it sets the scene and it helps the spectator follow what's going on, also can add humour and mystery. Without it, a routine can easily become very confusing. But if it's thought out well, it can work vey nicely.

If you're going to do a silent routine, I still think that it'll probabaly need some music backing. Make sure that your magic fits in with the music.

From the few silent shows I've seen, my only tip if you go ahead would be - make damn sure everyone knows where the moments of magic are, and therefore where the moments of applause are supposed to be! I've seen very several very "impressive" silent shows that have nevertheless carried an awkard spatter of clapping all over the place - you should really work out how you're going to take a bow, do a flourish etc. that show the need for applause.

Whether good or bad, I agree fully with Bananafish.

One other thing - "Are silent shows good or bad? Yes or no?" makes no sense, it's like saying "would you like tea or coffee?" "Yes please!"

It also depends on how long the show is going to be. If you do an hour long silent show, I think people will get bored; however, if it's a ten to thirty minute set, I think that would be okay.

monker59 wrote:It also depends on how long the show is going to be. If you do an hour long silent show, I think people will get bored; however, if it's a ten to thirty minute set, I think that would be okay.

An hour? You had better be pretty darn good to pull off an hour alone just doing magic.

As for the question at hand. I have no idea how to answer this, but I'm going to give a clue. If you have to ask the question then you may want to give serious consideration to using patter.

It's gonna be probably ten to fifteen minutes. It will have music and I will take your advice.

Ian the Magic-Ian wrote:It's gonna be probably ten to fifteen minutes. It will have music and I will take your advice.

I think that's the perfect amount of time for a silent show. Good luck !

As stated above, only you can decide if this performance style suits you.

Some points to think about though.

Are you using music? If so, how confident are you in getting your timings spot on?

Instead of doing the whole show to music, why not do either the opening or closing effect to music? See how that routine feels in practise, then see how it goes on stage.

How will you have to adjust your existing routine, to allow for the fact that you may use some of your normal patter for misdirection?

I watched a silent stage show myself the other day and one thing that really struck me is that if you do use music you must make sure you have appropriate applause cues. I've never done any stage magic (so what do I know!) but as I was watching it was obvious that the audience didn't know when to respond and there ended up being random smatterings of applause - as a result the whole thing seemed to fall a bit flat (despite having some nice, competent effects).