talkmagic.co.uk

"If you want to work there again you have to impress the restuarant staff as well as impressing the diners. Become part of the restaurant team."

I do not agree with "...impress the restaurant staff", I do agree with "...become one of the team".
Get this into perspective. People mainly go to restaurants (in the UK) to eat and socialise, not see magicians. Restaurant staff (mostly, and perhaps may be different in US?) mostly want to do their job and go home, not have magicians get in the way. Remember, (as the saying goes, and no disprespect to them), "You are one step up from a rose seller.
Do no go there expecting anyone to WANT to see you, that's just the same as the the waiters/waitresses getting pi55ed off just because someone does not want to order their favourite starter.
Lose your ego, remember why YOU are there, remember why the STAFF are there, and most importantly, remember why the PATRONS are there.
You are perhaps a pleasant extra, but at worse an irritant. Learn how to be the former.
Get the restaurant staff to respect what you are being paid to do, and if you can get them to help you increase the odds by working tables that will take a while to serve, then great. Once again, social skills - not magic skillls.
The original question suggests, to me, someone (once again) who is still in the "egotistical" phase of magic, and has yet to move to the "entertainer" phase, and understand the people rather than the sleights.
Bruce

The best thing to do is move to Canada. Everyone is so polite here that whether they want to watch you or not they will pretend to be delighted at your presence. I don't think I have ever come across a refusal here even though I know they want me to go away. I still remember the first time I did close up magic at an event here (not a restaurant). It was for Coca Cola and they forced all the table entertainers to dress up as cowboys which I thought was ridiculous but I went along with it because money is money. They also forced us to barge in when people were in the middle of their meal which is a no-no in itself. To my astonishment when I approached them they all put down their knives and forks and stopped eating. That would never have happened in the UK. One of the diners said, "Gee, first time I have ever seen an English cowboy!" whereupon I informed him that I was Scottish, not English. Everyone was terribly polite and friendly. I have never seen a close up magician turned away here yet I have come across it many times in the UK.

So get your plane ticket ready.

Canada or not, that is still "polite applause", so no "excitement".
Personally I would prefer people to tell me to go away, and learn how to deal with it than experience mere tolerance from an audience.
Bruce

You could do something that will get their attention and amusement. For example if you do coin magic; I bet eric jones and michael vicnent can catch people's attention while standing doing their stuff out there.

Cards just might not be the best thing. Its reputation is somewhat ruined to people by other hobbyist magicians who do the regular key card trick. Others love magic, and wanna see it.

I dunno were I have read this, probably on a magic forum, but basically this guy was turned down by some lady, and so he performed for the other table next to her and her friends. I think he did some palm reading ??? and the lady asked him back to perform to her. ( John Riggs was it ? )

If you grab their attention with some levitating object, will do you good. There's this trick (didn't catch the name) that you have a cup on the table, and you're standing away, and it just flies to your hand. Or, come ahead eating an red apple... introduce yourself and talk a bit, and then the apple's colour is changed into yellow.

Visual stuff performed without being near them, will get their attention.

Also, some direct approach like " tear this playing card for me please ", and then you go ahead and restore it is good. In restaurants, spoon bending and stuff with sugar and salt shakers are lovely.

I quite love how eric leclerc ( a guy on youtube, 365 days ) presents his magic. He's one heck of a hyper person, and people seem to like him. So maybe the old " if they like you, they will like your magic " put to work will get people's attention to you ?

Forgive me, I havnt read all three pages.

Most people have never seen live, close up magic. Due to this fact they may think you are just a drunken wacko who is about to count out 21 cards.

I would get their interest in such a way that you are showing what you can do before you even ask them about magic. For example.....

If you have a note/bill production such as handout 500, approach the table and ask if they would like the chance to win some money. Perform your note production and start thumbing through the notes. I can guarantee that using that method or something similer will get you more of an audience than just asking.

Steve Dela points out that most people arnt able to make their own judgment on if they like magic or not due to the fact that they may never have witnessed any up close. I'm inclined to agree.

The above is just an idea. You could of course perform a candle production or many other similar effects to gain interest.

Good luck with it all.

Alec

mark lewis wrote:The best thing to do is move to Canada. Everyone is so polite here that whether they want to watch you or not they will pretend to be delighted at your presence

On the count of three, everyone Shhhhhhhh!

hds02115 << What he said.
Also, why are you so concerned with wanting 100% of people to want to see magic. You only wasted like 10 seconds of time if they say no, it's not like it's something bad.
Most of tips have been said already, maybe just a little detail:
They have no idea what you are going to show, so their decision is based on what impression you give. Introducing yourself and asking about their day or making a funny remark or two, perhaps a compliment before asking them may get you better results. Also try to be a little more energetic than they are but not much (if they are a calm couple on a romantic dinner you don't want to be jumping around and vica versa if they are students laughing and joking you don't want to be on too low energy).

Just another thing popped into my head. If you look excited about a trick, saying " Pick a card " with excited facial expressions, people will want to see what will happen when they pick a card, and what the fuss is all about. " Do you have some coins on you, I need 5 of them ". In text, its the same patter, but the tone of voice, attitude and smile is what's different.