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I've been offered the opportunity to do a little gig in a month's time. I'm hoping to get some advice. I've never done a paid gig before. I've been a keen amateur for many years and my sleights are as good as most walkaround people I've seen. However obviously my presentation probably isn't. More to the point, I also don't have "an act" as such. So I need to develop one sharpish.

My main worry is that my usual array of effects tend to be card based and are sleight heavy. I get nervous in front of strangers and groups so I'm thinking of adding some easier effects (technically) to fall back on in case my hands are not obeying commands. Also this should give me the chance to focus more on honing my presentation skills.

Can people suggest some really GOOD effects for walkaround that are technically simple?

I'm particularly interested in doing some mentalism effects as this has been suggested by the organiser.

Mental effects I'm thinking of adding are a couple of ESP card ones of Max Maven's and maybe his pay-envelope bank night effect (Goal Mine).

Thanks

you have a month. spend the time working on decent presentations on what you already know, rather than buying stuff that you dont.

even teh simple stuff needs to be presented properly, and as it's your first gig you need to show yourself at your best.

Hmm yeah you may well be right.

How many effects do think I should be thinking of working with?

A month isn't really long enough to learn anything new, so I'd just worry about getting good at what you already know.

I've done a couple of walk about gigs now and found that for these it's best to keep things simple and snappy, I don't really know why but the longer, more involved effects seem to work better at the table rather than when walking about.

For my gigs, I used the ID, a book test, some coin tricks, a torn and restored card and a noughts and crosses prediction. I was booked for 2 hours at a function of 100 people and found that to easily be enough. Three of those tricks are quickies and two (the book test and noughts and crosses) are a little longer winded and found that I had to be careful to pick my moment and spectators for those longer routines as some people loose interest or get distracted when their drink runs out or a short skirt walks past.

Nozza wrote:Hmm yeah you may well be right.

How many effects do think I should be thinking of working with?

well, if your stuff tends to be sleight based, and mostly cards, i would imagine that the bulk of your routines can be done more or less off the cuff, which is an advantage.

you need to have things that can be repeated, and at teh very least 2 effects per group that you aproach.

so work out your quantities from your repetoir based on these two rules.

To make a suggestion for an easy but very powerful effect, try Red Hot Mama. It's really good and really easy. And really good.

Nozza wrote:Hmm yeah you may well be right.

How many effects do think I should be thinking of working with?

Is it a walkaround to tables style show? Depends on table sized as well, but most tables are about 8-12 per table, and in this instance, my general/rough estimation is about about 5-8 minutes per table...that can be split into one, two, and even three seperate sets if need be, depending on the overall agenda of the event you are attending.

My suggestion would be more smaller sets for your first working gig...this doesn't drop as much pressure on your lap to hold their attention for the entire time...you can do a quick opener/introduction at every table followed by one other, then set two you can hit all the tables with a second set of 2-3 effects, and then a third set being a fun closer to round out the night...this is just a suggestion based on my experience and the limited amount you have told us about the venue, as that does make a difference as well.

I do really think that more sets are better when starting as it allows you to regroup between sets and you can really focus on the presentation of a few effects at each set...rather than focussing on too long a routine...you will be able to build a routine easily this way over time....because you only need to start by linking one or two tricks and then you start clumping those small sets together.

Let me know more about hte event/venue details and I can refine my advice accordingly.

Great thanks Moodini - will do some research on the venue etc and get back,. Cheers.