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As the airplane started approaching the airport, I notice a young chinese man to my left starting to panic. I pulled one of my decks (Elmsley order) out and managed to get his attention away from the landing for a few minutes.

There were, however, a few problems:

* we didn't have a table, so I could only resort to our hands
* judging by his reaction to my first trick I'd say if he had to shuffle the deck I'd probably still be picking cards from all over the place at this time, so I was the only one who would handle the deck
* we had no verbal communication aside from some grunts and some very, very rudimentary english on his side: "yes", "no", "how?", "okay", etc. (I did get him to pick a number between 1 and 5 at some point; I guess some gestures are almost universal)

I found this to be an interesting and rewarding experience, but I did struggle a bit as I was looking for effects that could be applied in that situation, and most of those I could think of couldn't.

Has anyone ever had to perform in similar conditions? Any tips?

Not quite the same but I once worked in a hotel in Austria performing close up and card magic, only when I started there, my german was basic at that, so for a good while, when ever I came across some germans or austrians, I'd have to think fast. It was a great experiance though and one that I know helped me to what I'm doing today.

Just do trick which require alot of skill, preferably not a card trick. I would do some sort of coin magic, or maybe bust out a brainwave deck!

Sounds like you had the ultimate opportunity for misdirection - point at the window with a look of terror.

Sponge balls!

ACR?

hds02115 wrote:Not quite the same but I once worked in a hotel in Austria performing close up and card magic, only when I started there, my german was basic at that, so for a good while, when ever I came across some germans or austrians, I'd have to think fast. It was a great experiance though and one that I know helped me to what I'm doing today.

I remember you mentioning this to me before hds and i never did ask how you got the job at that hotel....... was it something you saw online or you were travelling round and happen to fall on it??

I was performing on the street about two months ago and two vietnamese boys approx. 5-10 years old ran up to see me. They spoke zero english and weren't really sure what I was doing. I performed a silent sponge balls routine, then a colour change routine and then finally I vanished a coin and had it reappear on one of their shoulders. I did it all silently, using only hand gestures and the kids went mental, it was a very rewarding experience