Working Conditions
This last week I was part of a Vaudeville show in which I did a series of small bits, as opposed to doing a single, longer, act. A lot of magicians worry about doing little short bits as they fear they don’t have anything that can stand up to being compressed into two or three [...]
Moving to a new base of operations can mean that all your regular haunts – the places where you perform – are not accessible to you. No one in his right mind (wait, we’re talking about RenFaire people and magicians here) wants to travel a couple of days to go somewhere to perform for not [...]
Magicians are, by their nature, rather reclusive. We tend to practice by ourselves or with small groups of fellow magicians. We usually go out to gigs on our own or, in the case of larger acts, with our partners and crew. Regardless of how many or how few people you have as part of your [...]
In gigging (that strange semi improv thing Ren Fair performers do on the street), there are very few rules. The biggest rule is this: Any challenge or situation you are put into, your response should always be “Yes, and -” You should always build on what’s put in front of you. When building, do your [...]
This past weekend I auditioned for a theme park and one of the major Renaissance Faires in my new home state of Texas. The environment for these two auditions was vastly different, but both brought home some of the things I’ve babbled about here before: Be Very Flexible Make Your Show Modular Making an Auditor [...]
At the end of the show comes the moment you as a performer have been waiting for – your opportunity to get immediate feedback and a solid, quantifiable response to your show. You get the chance to pass your hat. It is arguably the oldest way to make your money as a performer, and the [...]
Sorry to have been away for so long! I’m working on getting things back up to speed with this humble blog. In January, I was fortunate enough to spend a weekend in Seattle with Jeff McBride in a seminar. He reminded me of something which we festival entertainers might keep in mind when it comes [...]
(Editorial note: This was posted originally from my Droid Phone and apparently said phone did not agree with my post. I’m discussing that issue with the phone now.) A while back I was talking to another performer regarding … another performer (yes we do that, anyone in any indistry does that) and he said, of [...]
Continue reading about The most imporant thing in a festival show
