This is what I do. I dont go out on the streets where theres more of a chance of getting robbed. Im only 13. so alls I do is go to the mall and bring evrything Im planning on performing. I usually walk alroudn the teens shops where there are more "croud gatheres" you will see what that is in just a moment

to start off, Learn floursishes. I usually walk around doing the better flourishes like the ones in the system and trilagy. This catches peoples eyes. People will start looking at you and this is a perfect moment to smile and say"hey, Hows is going. Mind if I show you something incredible" At this point, You will get a slap in the face, a yes, or a no.

Now that You have a spectator, determine if they are a boy or a girl.(obvious) Boys are usually the heckling type. The reason I hang around Teens shops is because you will usually catch the eyes of GIRLS. This is good for 2 reasons. one is obvious. The other is because if you try hard enough, They WILL give you the break you need. You probablly know that girls tend to lauhg and participate and scream much more. Check out liquid metal preview.

Now you have the specttaor. This next part might seem a bit silly, but please use it. It can save your chances. I have noticed that girls wearing the expensive clothes like aeropostale, american eagle, aberocrombie and finch. They are the ones you want.

OK, now using all of what you have noticed in your spectator, try to get a trick ready. You want ROUTINES for your crowd gathering. I stronglly suggest liquid metal, ambitious card,oil and water, card to pocket/wallet/window/wall. if you would like, try self typing shoelaces. I will highlly recomend WOW by masuda. This gets what you want.

Now that you have the trick ready, keep in mind all of the above, and the below,
*never perform the same trick over
* know how to deal with a heckler and how to properlly point out a heckler(listen to performers podcast)
*Keep your audience contained and entertained
*mix up your style.

Now time to perform. You want to have at least 3-5 AMAZING OUTSTANDING effects. These efefcts will get the screams. Most of the time, when you hear some body screaming and laughing, what do you do, LOOK. so when the specttaors scream and participate, it gathers other spectators to come over and check out your card skills.

Keep in mind that you ALWAYS must have a backup plan. If the show starts to bomb, people start walking away, catch there attention. Borrow peoples objects, have humor, Keep the audience entertained. and PLease dont do only card tricks. Jay sankey makes this a clear thauhgt in most of his dvds. Use keys,starws,cell phones,bottle,dice,rope hats ect.

After a while of performing and getting used to the idea that people like seeing tricks, Think of one of the most important things. WhAT do they like to see. do they want to see a card trick,mentalism,coin,rope, ect.

You must learn about audience containment. It is mendetory in many tricks to have knowbody behind you or on the side of you. This can sometimes get out of your control. but start stepping up when its time. or else it might be too late and can ruin you. To start stepping up( I mean this lliterally) just start stepping back away from your audience when the crowd starts getting larger and lareger. Or you can just state nicelly that you need some room and to please take a step back. If you are doing well and the audience is enjoying you, they will gladlly do this.

The next thing is business cards. If you are a great magician, usually after the show, people will ask you if you do parties. for example"hey can you come to my house friday night Im having a party can you bring some stuff" thats just an example and ive gotten that many times. The best thing to do when you start getting this, Is print business cards or have them printed for you. The performers podcast here on penguin goes over all this very clearlly. You can do some tricks using business cards.

This has come up in interviews many times, How do you get the crowd to leave when you start to get tired or the show has gone on for way too long. One thing that is a bold risk is to start swaying away from the real great tricks. Or to go the table hopping approach. Give out a few items then say you all have been a great audience I perform here weeklly ect.

I hope I didnt forget anything. So on that note, I stronglly start purchasing some tricks, going out and performing, getting your business cards, and doing twhat you love.(hopefully)its usually best to perform with a crisp deck of cards. I really hope you take this advice and use it. but please dont copy and opaste it into another forumn or sell it without my permission. start listening to the performers podcast. Youll eb up and runnign with your big break soon if you take this advice. So on a final note. Dont be afraid to start performing. If your only a teenager like me, The crowd might not take you seriouslly but thats ok. you live and learn. I start feeling sick before each crowd but thats ok because you adjust to them and get them on your side. And oene thing magicians tend to forget. You go and its a once in a lifetime feeling. OK if the show bombs. You get heckled a bit but its ok. What are the odds of you ever meeting that heckler or that spectator ever again. and if you do. thats good. if you had a good show then cool the spectator might take out a card from there wallet and show you. thats what makes a magician feel good.


-Mark
♥♣TironeMagic♠♥

Good post, but there's no reason for two new topics.

Do you have permission from the mall to do so? Many malls do not like magicians doing magic in their facilities, as it takes money away from them. You really should check it out to make sure.
Actually, I think most buskers would disagree with this. It may work for you, in a mall, for one person, after you walk up to them. But for the professional, it won't work. It won't gather a crowd.
First off, the effect doesn't mean anything. It's not the effect, it's the performer. I've seen Gazzo do a simple silk vanish, that was more entertaining then 90% of the kids on Youtube will ever be. To get people to laugh, you don't need "amazing outstanding effects." You need to be a good performer.

I don't think you have to worry about people stealing your post and pasting it on other forums, or using it in a book or anything. First, the spelling and grammar were incredibly terrible. Second, the advice wasn't even that good. Much of it simply is wrong. I pointed out a couple of examples, but that surely wasn't it. Before you start handing out advice, do some research. By which I mean pick up some books on the subject.

Honestly, I hope no one takes your advice, because it wasn't good. I strong recommend that if people want to get into Busking, look up Gazzo, Celini, and Don Driver. Those are the three that come to my head right away, but there are other sources, much better then this post.

What should i do

1. A must read becasue it has insights
2. If you have time read it
3. Read it becasue he has no idea what hes talking about and laugh
4.Bash on him for wasting your time with stupidity

Ok. I have been mature through the hard times here on penguin, im not going to turn this into a bhindthecurtin incident, or a jay sankey incident. but please dont bash me. I have to put up with edited here at home. Im ready to table hop, im very experienced, I have performed all my life, and all I get is a nice long lecture of CRAP on how ******* my advice is. I have some advice to all of you bashers out ther which unfortunatlly Im not allowed to post. Everything I have posted here is true and works for me. You should RESPECT the fact that I put my hard *** work into this and all I get in return is a **** lecture on this. I have stayed strong and mature about this, but it is too much now. when your restraunt gig is failing, when you get hecklered at a show, dont come to me. all Ill say is "you shouldnt have dont a show then", or"why do you perform for that audience then" and im not speaking to just one person here. this is all the bashers on penguin. so PLEASE stop bashing me on everything I post. I asked for a simple trick effect or idea and I got bashed for it.

Bashing? I see no bashing. Fallingblood merely stated his opinion on your post. And I agree with him, as I am sure many others do.

Which we have every right to. IF you dont like to hear other peoples opinions, then you should leave.

Grow a thicker skin kid. You think every one is bashing you and your posts. Which they arent. You are just too sensitive and cant handle it.

girspiggy- I never bashed you. Actually, I wrote a little thread about people thinking others bashed them, when they really didn't.

I gave my opinion, based on my experience, as well as the research that I've done. I've done a lot of research, and I've listened to the pros here, who have many more years of experience than I do. Keeping that all in mind, I responded why I think you're advice was wrong.

As for the mall thing, I've checked with many different malls (as I was putting together a TV shows for a public access channel), and the majority of them do not allow people doing magic there, as it takes away from the other businesses.

Dude, trust me, they are not bashing you. They just have a different opinion than you, and they are voicing their opinion.

The only thing that fallingblood said that really I don't agree with is when he said that flourishes will not work for "real professionals". I don't agree because I am sure that some pros do just this. Each professional has a different style of attracting a crowd, and I am sure that there are some pros, that do exactly that (It sounds like something Jeff Mcbride would have done in his teens).

Anyways, other than that, I totally agree with him .



OK this made me laugh. You've been through the hard times? You haven't even been here for longer than a year dude! You've only posted 52 times! I have been here longer than you and I don't think that I've "seen it all".
You are 13 dude, you say you're "mature" but it seems to me that you still really need to grow up...

I used to perform at my local mall (before I got my table-hopping job). And I seriously doubt that you have ever gotten "huge crowds" in a mall...

If you have ever gotten a crowd bigger than 15 people than I think the mall managers would ave asked you to leave. Maybe you could post a vid. of you doing some magic in front of these "huge crowds" seeing as you get them so frequently...

Until then I don't think anybody should take you seriously. You seem to be one of those guys that sit at home and practice in the mirror all day, rather than someone that goes out every "Friday night" and does magic to perfect strangers...

Not many people on this forum seem to take me seriously (I believe it is because of my age), I am only 15 and most people think I don't have enough experience yet (and that's fine, they might even be right). It's easier getting respect if you have a few thousand posts already, or if you are a mod, or emperor penguin. NOTE This is NOT an insult, but if anybody goes on a new site they naturally have more respect for the people that are respected...I know you guys have to put up with a lot of crap too.So I am definitely not dissing you guys!

All in all I think you need to seriously consider revising your essay...(please note that these are my OPINIONS, and are not necessarily ,fact)

Hope this helps,

-Trix

Peewee I choose #4.haha, I as well agree with fallingblood.

First of all you said you were 13 yrs old. Some of us have been performing longer than you have been alive. Don't even think you know more than us. I don't respect that you have put in hard work because you haven't. Why do I say this? Because your "advice" proves it to all of us that busk for a living.

Just a couple of examples in your post here. You say "when you get hecklered (SIC) at a show, dont (SIC) come to me. " We won't because getting heckled happens every day when you work the street. Some smart a$$ kid or some drunk wants to be the center of attention and tries it with the busker. We handle it just like everything else, with grace, ability and a sense of humour. Obviously you have never done a sidewalk or a circle show.

You then state "I asked for a simple trick effect or idea and I got bashed for it" If you had the experience you claim you would know what we have been saying. The trick doesnt mean a dam thing. The performance is everything! Just one example is the cut and restored rope. I have 2 DVDs on that one effect. When I do it in my sidewalk shows it takes me 7 to 9 minutes to perform. Rarely does someone leave in the middle of it and I always gather larger crowds while performing just that one effect. Why? Because in those 7 to 9 minutes I have performed the cut and restored 3 times and people never realized I was repeating the trick. It's all in the patter and the movements. It took me the better part of 40 hours until I had those few minutes choreographed and the lines written so it sounds totally ad lib. That's the difference between making a living doing this and being a know it all kid.

I couldn't agree more with you Paddy. You as well as DaveV, Fallingblood,and a few others have shown me that and made me come to relize that. Listen to these guys kid they know what they're talking about. Thanks again guys for all your help.


Devyn

Girspiggy I hope this incident has not hurt you to much. looking at this post I see that you are taking great strides in your magic and if you do toughen up, work on your spelling, and place topics like this in the essay forum, I see you becoming a great addition to the penguin comunity. you should listen a little to the others on this forum even though you may need to read between the harshness to see the true good advice in the posts. No one wants to sabotoge you. As for the rest of you he is new to penguin and seems inthusiastic so cut him a little slack. I know you mean good.

Girspiggy you have somthing that works for you, who knows you could be the next Gazzo but remember people here have little tollerince(sp) for bad spelling, misplaced posts and new kids in town. Take it easy start off in the posts instead of creating them to get your post count up to at least 100 and learn about the forum, and adding a bunch of these ****** in your post after your post after you told us how old you are does not inpress.

Peace out andP.S. I like Invader Zim too.