Stage Magic is HARD!

[Josh Burch]

I'm not new to magic, I've been I did my first birthday party gig about 20 years ago and my first walk around gig almost 10 years ago. For the most part I have felt like a performing veteran, I thought that I had seen everything and knew about it all.

About a year ago I started to put together a legitimate stand up act that fills a complete stage. Over the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to perform my show in a parlor environment and tonight I had my first legitimate stage show. It was really hard.

Sure the performing conditions were less than optimal, I performed at the fairgrounds in the rodeo arena, but the thing that threw me off was how difficult it was to keep an audience interested for an hour on stage. If a joke falls flat it falls REALLY flat on stage, if the audience is confused they are REALLY confused on stage, and if you mess up you REALLY mess up.

I have a handful of other topics to discuss another time but my main point here is that often times we close up and birthday party guys give the stage guys a hard time. I just want to say, it is REALLY hard.

 

[RealityOne]

I'd love to hear the stories.

I"m curious about what made it different than a parlor show. I"ve done parlor shows anywhere from 50 to 100 people (think banquet room performing on a 10 x 10 space surrounded by tables or a hall with 10 rows of 10 people) and wonder what is different for stage.

 

[Luis Vega]

It is indeed... the worst thing I encountered was my breakthrough in stage magic...since you don´t have the same freedom to practice the act as in close up, basically each performance that was practice for me...was supposed to be an actual stage act... tough days... but the good thing is that you get better extremely quick due to this harsh rehearseals...

I can give suggestions and help you as much as I can.. here is a quick video of my stage act last year in theater...and this year´s theater show... you can see the difference between both... the duration of both shows was 1:30 hours

Last years Mind Over Matter

This year Between worlds

 

[Justin.Morris]

I love the intimacy of close up magic. I love being able to really see each person and make sure each one is equally engaged.

 

[Josh Burch]

I'd love to hear the stories.

I"m curious about what made it different than a parlor show. I"ve done parlor shows anywhere from 50 to 100 people (think banquet room performing on a 10 x 10 space surrounded by tables or a hall with 10 rows of 10 people) and wonder what is different for stage.

The set up is what really made it a stage show. The platform was about 4 feet above the ground, the front row was about 25 feet away. It was held inside a rodeo arena so the audience was very spread out, both across the dirt floor and up onto the side of the stadium. There may have been 400 people there altogether but with how spread out they were it felt like an audience of 10. They were so far away it was difficult to hear if they were applauding ha ha. To add to it the stage platform had a tall railing on top of the stage in between me and the crowd where advertisers had put up banners. I had to move my tables to fairly awkward spots on stage just so they could hope to be seen between the rails and banners. Because of the rails and platform when I called people up they had to walk to the end of the arena (about 50 feet) just top get to the stairs, needless to say, it really messed up the pace of my show.

The show wasn't awful, I was well rehearsed and didn't completely butcher any of my effects but the pacing got me mixed up and my script fell apart in places. I have a couple places where I play with the crowd, I ask them to hollar and cheer. I had a really hard time getting feedback. I have a couple effects that are new in my eyes, I'm still trying new things with them, and I really got very little information as to whether my changes worked or not.

 

[RealityOne]

It's funny, I'm currently reading Maximum Entertainment and my first thought after reading your post was that you need someone in the audience who knows what they are doing taking notes. Too bad you are on the opposite side of the country... I would have loved to sit and watch your show with a notebook and pen. If you have video, I'd love to watch it and provide constructive suggestions (this goes for anyone's performance).

I understand about the stage set up being difficult. The physical barrier has got be difficult to deal with when you are used to parlor shows where you can turn to a spectator sitting right next to where you are standing and ask them a question (an aside -- in one show I told the audience what I was going to do and a woman right next to me said "that's impossible, there is no way you can do that." I had her repeat it into a microphone and commented, "that is what I thought, but if everyone works with me and uses a little imagination, I think we have a chance." Of course by that point all the dirty work was done and I just had to play up the reveal.)

I think that is one thing we tend not to think about until it is too late -- the venue. From parlor shows to kids birthday shows to state shows, nothing is quite the way you expect it. Like Luis said, the only way you practice perfoming under different conditions is by dealing with different conditions while performing. A professional is someone who has made all the mistakes earlier in their career.

Congrats on doing the show and I expect that the audience probably didn't notice ninety percent of what you did.

 

[Luis Vega]

The set up is what really made it a stage show. The platform was about 4 feet above the ground, the front row was about 25 feet away. It was held inside a rodeo arena so the audience was very spread out, both across the dirt floor and up onto the side of the stadium. There may have been 400 people there altogether but with how spread out they were it felt like an audience of 10. They were so far away it was difficult to hear if they were applauding ha ha. To add to it the stage platform had a tall railing on top of the stage in between me and the crowd where advertisers had put up banners. I had to move my tables to fairly awkward spots on stage just so they could hope to be seen between the rails and banners. Because of the rails and platform when I called people up they had to walk to the end of the arena (about 50 feet) just top get to the stairs, needless to say, it really messed up the pace of my show.

The show wasn't awful, I was well rehearsed and didn't completely butcher any of my effects but the pacing got me mixed up and my script fell apart in places. I have a couple places where I play with the crowd, I ask them to hollar and cheer. I had a really hard time getting feedback. I have a couple effects that are new in my eyes, I'm still trying new things with them, and I really got very little information as to whether my changes worked or not.

I think you are really brave.... these kind of events are very hard to manage where the audience are so spread out... many of us dream with a perfectly aligned audience, great sound system and big stage... unfortunately is rarely the case...

I think you learned a lot from this, if possible always ask for a picture of the venue way before the gig (visit it if you can!!) and some sound check... I usually do some music performances to increase the pace of the show after I do some tricks that have patter and so!...

Anything else you would like to add?.... this is a really interesting thread!!

 

[Josh Burch]

It's funny, I'm currently reading Maximum Entertainment and my first thought after reading your post was that you need someone in the audience who knows what they are doing taking notes. Too bad you are on the opposite side of the country... I would have loved to sit and watch your show with a notebook and pen. If you have video, I'd love to watch it and provide constructive suggestions (this goes for anyone's performance).

Yeah, unfortunately the only people who were watching me were lay people and I didn't get a chance to film it. When I spoke to my audience afterwards they seemed fairly positive on a one on one basis it just wasn't my best performance. I would have loved to receive some feedback from someone experienced.

 

[Josh Burch]

I think you are really brave.... these kind of events are very hard to manage where the audience are so spread out... many of us dream with a perfectly aligned audience, great sound system and big stage... unfortunately is rarely the case...

I think you learned a lot from this, if possible always ask for a picture of the venue way before the gig (visit it if you can!!) and some sound check... I usually do some music performances to increase the pace of the show after I do some tricks that have patter and so!

I did learn a ton, if I was to do it again I would ask to modify the stage a little instead of powering through it the way they had it set up. They did send me a photo of where they thought I'd be performing but when the day rolled around weather played a part in getting it moved to where I ended up performing.

I have been trying to figure out a musical piece to perform. Until recently I have avoided any sound cues at all. I have never been able to control the tech side of things to the point that I can now. I need to look into more magic that can be performed silently or to music. In High School I manipulated cards but now I don't know how well it would fit into my show. I need to research it further.