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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Over the past few years, I’ve been moving different bits in and out of my show – sometimes for logistical reasons (the TSA has an issue with someone bringing six feet of chain on two wooden handles as a carry on), sometimes because I just get restless and want to change things up. With the [...]
We’re coming up on the Portland Rose Festival (actually, as of this posting it’s started up) and I’m looking over my act for this gig. What will be interesting is that this is a performance for which I shall not be passing the hat. A show where you’re trying to get the most money from [...]
Every army constantly trains to fight the last war – unattributed Army Maxim After every show, I review what worked and what didn’t. I do the same thing after every event. The trick is to not assume that This Next Show will be like The Last Show, and This Next Event will be like the [...]
I’ve talked about the necessity of having a sign if you’re a stage act – it identifies you as, yes, an actual show, and gives your show an air of “legitimacy” (oh look he’s someone who’s performing and not some random weirdo who walked out onto the stage). I’d like to talk about another form [...]
