The first idea is great if you are having a Christmas themed wedding.  Since gift giving will likely be a big part of your wedding you can try playing Secret Santa games.  The process is simple you can have each guest bring a gift to the wedding and when the reception starts have the Secret Santa game start.  There are several versions of the game that goes by different names however each follows the same basic rules. Everyone takes turn picking presents and opening them. Then other guests can steal gifts or pick another one. It will be great fun to see what they end up getting.

Another Fun Idea is holiday karaoke.  This seems to be a really popular idea for most receptions. You can randomly pick members of the audience and have them sing their favorite carols or holiday songs. You can also have a karaoke machine to give people a wider selection of songs to choose from.  You can also do a small version of Showtime at the Apollo and have the audience vote by applause who did the best.

Something interesting you can do with the dancing is to have dance battles or soul train lines. Have everyone on the dance floor do their best moves and give all they got. Something interesting that you can do off to the side is set up a game of Dance Dance Revolutions and have attendees give it their best shot.

Another interesting idea I’ve come across is Naughty or Nice.  This will be great for when you give out your holiday wedding favors. The idea is pretty much like the game of Hot Potato.  Everyone picks from the pile of wrapped gifts and party favors. However one of them is a lump of gold and one of them is a very nice gift.  The person who gets the coal is the “Naughty” person while the person that gets the really great item is the “Nice” person.  This is a great game that is quick and simple and won’t take up dance time.

You can also trying involving the DJ by having a game of Musical Freeze.  This is great for smaller more intimate weddings and can have interesting repercussion if the guest list is large.  In either case, try to find people who can act as monitors for the game. Essentially, the DJ plays music and everyone dances.  When the DJ stops the music everyone has to stay frozen in whatever position they are.  Add to the fun by having the game monitors take pictures of particular interesting poses.

If I’m driving during the day my mind will start to think about my gig in relation to my car:  ”It’s raining, I better leave early” or “First thing I’m doing when I get home is get those directions to the gig.”  You could be watching television or listening to music and something some performer does will remind you of something you do or even something you’d like to try to incorporate at your show that evening.

Part of it is conscious and part of it is unconscious.  I’ve been doing this so long that I don’t even notice how my thoughts about my gig are so interwoven with my non-gigs thoughts during a Saturday when I have a gig.

If you’re a client, this is the performer you want.  You want the DJ who is spending the day checking his equipment and testing new beats. You want a comedian who’s spending the day going over their material in their head to make sure it’s perfect for that night’s gig.  You want a live wedding band who are all ready to go hours before they actually have to be ready to go.

Any great performer has this in them.  They can’t even help themselves.  It’s innate and the longer they are doing their act, the more ingrained it becomes, a second nature if you will.

Strangely enough (for me anyway) as the time gets closer to the actual gig, I start to calm down.   This may not be the same for all performers but almost all of them have some sort of ritual habit before taking the stage.  I knew one performer who would always listen to a Beatles song right up to the moment they would take the stage.  Others have been known to get real quiet and keep to themselves as if they were having a private moment to focus.

The point is of course Saturday is my favorite day.  It’s the day I go out and shine.

And I love every single one of those Saturdays.

Make sure you find a performer like that for your next event or party.

Big Hugs,
Mama

First we have to accept that a magician (regardless of your line) is “an actor playing the part of a magician”. Buying a few tricks and “how to” videos is not enough, but it is a start. Taking acting classes, theater, scrip writing, public speaking and stage management are more important than learning the “pass” or a “bottom deal”.

Some performers I know spend hours in dance classes, voice lessons, etiquette, public speaking courses, etc.. Those by the way are the ones getting the contracts and the “gigs”. If you are the type that likes to perform the latest move learned at the Finger Flicking meeting and believe you are “god’s gift to magic” ..well WAKE UP! Not only there is always someone better, but the average paying public don’t care. They want to be entertained.

What you find entertaining doesn’t mean the public does. And that is what you see (what we think are simple/silly tricks) performed on TV.  Those finger flicking moves are only amazing to us and we learn them as a personal challenge, with very little use in the real stage.

Like in any industry when one of us do a performance, the more the public is entertained they will think to hire another one of us (or maybe you) for their next event, plus by then “you name your price”. Giving the art a better name.

In my vacation last year as I tour thru Europe (on a cruise) one of the nights there was a magician (not me, as I mentioned it was my vacation). And before I describe him let’s explain the cruise. There you get a personal “white glove butler”  24hrs per person, they even flew Pat Monahan (TRAIN) to perform for us in Monaco.

The magician in this case, dared to come out with a suit that seems to be in the dirty laundry basket for weeks and shoes that he got from the homeless.

You are performing for this crowd? My jaw dropped. His skills were flawless, great hardcore moves and technique. Presentation was none. He was a magician’s magician. After the show some people asked me what I thought..I reserved the comment at the moment. (Only a few people knew my tv character because they saw me signing autographs in Barcelona where we board.)

Later in the trip I asked the cruise director (an experience retired Broadway performer) about the magician and his words were “It was a lousy experience, there was no reactions. We are not hiring magicians anymore”

Now you see, he damaged a $2k per hr gig plus travel expenses for many of us.

Someone told me once “A true magician is not here to fool you, is here to entertain and make your mind question the possibilities.”

Practice 24/7, perform 24/7, study, learn, listen, write and re-write. Some acts take years to polish. A 10 minute routine you see from the pros has been practiced and polished for at least a year before being put on tv.

If your playing cards never leave your hands and they go from “false cut” to “pass” to “triple lift” the magic conventions and local meetings are your gig.

After a brainstorming session in Las Vegas, Eugene Burger told me this

 “H (me) true magic is done sleight-less”

Magic should happen in the minds, hands and hearts of your public. Once you understand and put this in practice your paychecks will be better.

Innovate not imitate.

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(make sure you visit Hermes at http://www.gigmama.com/magicians-hypnotists/hermes-the-mentalist)

But there are comedy shows in other places that, while not as glamorous, are certainly just as funny.  Maybe you’ve seen a great comedian at a wedding or a office holiday party.  You’d be surprised at the places comedians perform.  From Pizza places to bowling alleys to go-go bars (do they still call them that?), comedians perform where ever there’s a mic available.

Below are five places that you wouldn’t normally think of as the kind of place to see (much less produce your own) comedy show.
There aren’t that many ‘rules’ to having a comedy show.  I would offer these few that apply to all five venues below.

1) Make sure there’s enough room (they don’t need much but they do need some)
2) Make sure the audience is not eating during the show
3) Make sure you go over language limitations with the comedian(s)

1) FIREHOUSE

Comedians love firehouse shows.   These shows are fund raisers for a fire company so you start off with a great subtext to the whole evening: raising money for the fire company.  These are shows that are usually held at the actual Station because most Fire Companies have a separate area that serves for events and meetings.  These shows are usually set up by a comedian who books comedy shows.  There are bookers who produce comedy shows who aren’t comedians as well but to me, common sense tells me that a comedian who produces  might have more insight about the whole thing that someone who isn’t a comedian.   These shows can be 90 minutes to two hours (or a little more).  The can consist of anywhere from 3 – 5 comics in that time frame.  These shows are usually more reflective of a comedy club show so the material and language may be adult in nature.  Always good to go over that with the promoter.  A lot of these events have a meal attached to them and it’s always wise to have the food eaten and done before the show starts.  If you have audience eating while the show is going on that’s going to hurt the show for everyone.  The performer needs the full attention of the audience and the audience can’t give that if they’re more concerned with eating their meal.

VFW Hall

These places were made specifically for meetings and events so they have the space ready.  Like the firehouse, it’s a local group of people.  Most of whom know each other which gives the evening an extra kick as when/if the comics interact with an audience member, the rest of the audience knows that individual and are even more amused by the interaction than if happened at a comedy club where they wouldn’t know anyone else in the audience.

These show are usually for Elks and any other local group that would rent out the hall.  Even birthday parties, anniversary parties, bachelor parties and other festivities happen there as well.

YOUR HOME

Yes that’s right.  Your home.  Some comedians will never do a show in someone’s home and some will.  So it’s important if you want to have a comedian at your home to make sure they understand the event is at your home.  Some ideas are to empty the furniture of one room and ‘transform’ it into a show room.  Bring in folding chairs and set up a few rows so the there’s an obvious ‘audience’ area.  You could also have the show in your backyard but this of course relies on weather permitting and don’t forget it gets dark outside so you will need an area that has some illumination for the performer(s).  The comedian will also need sound so either make sure the comedian you hire brings their own sound system or you have a DJ at the event who will have a microphone the comedian can use.    This is very important as the microphone is a key tool of the comedian.

Also make sure the comedian follows your language restrictions.  Nine out of ten home based events usually have small children or senior citizens in attendance so it’s wise to go over, very carefully, with the comedian what they can say and what they can’t.

BAR/RESTAURANT

Now while this is a natural place for a stand up comedy show, the main issue is space.  The bar or restaurant must have enough space for a show to take place.  The term ‘enough space’ can seem kind of vague so let’s use the same standard that the supreme court uses about pornographer: “I’ll know it when I see it”.  The reason these can be great places to have a show is that you may already have an audience built in from the regulars of the establishment.  Restaurants are always better than bars since they quite often have the space needed and the clientele will be mostly eaters and not so much drinkers.  Sometimes a bar owner thinks a comedy show is a great idea and then the night of the show, his regular customers disagree and it can get ugly.

Bar/Restaurant owners; make sure you go over any policy you have with the comics regarding drink or food so there is no misunderstanding at the end of the night.

CLUB HOUSE
Many many gated communities has a club house.  A special structure where they have meetings, meal, shows, dances and anything they can think of for hundreds of people to do.  A lot of these are communities for retirees and the majority of the audience will be skewing older.  This requires a special comedy show where the comics have to know the appropriate material for this audience.

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I have been a comedian for 23 years.  I have performed & produced thousands of comedy shows since 1990 and I can do it for you.
Check me out on  http://www.gigmama.com/comedians/buddy-flip-stand-up-roasts-comedy-shows and let’s get you a great stand up comedy show.

When performing your magic in front of people or an audience it is possible to misdirect well enough to create the proper illusion, the trick might not work the way you want but the people watching will not know. You can control the audience with a wide range of techniques.

If you change your routine for each performance you may find that you loose the angles you need to perform the illusion, so you have to be very careful about viewing angles.  You can mystify the audience by doing magic and leave them mesmerized.  The result to the audience is having the belief that some amazing thing just happened.  Make sure when you complete the trick that the audience cannot examine anything after the trick has been shown, so there’s the problem and worry of having to hide your tricks as soon as you finish each one.

When performing street magic it is usually street magic where you do it for a small group of people, in a bar or in your home or office.  Buying close-up tricks or magic tricks for the street for your own personal use is one thing, but if you are buying them to perform on the street and become a profession street magician you will need to practice your craft.  Some of the great magicians like David Blaine , stunned audiences with his exceptional skill of street magic.  Doing street magic is sometimes known as naked magic, doing street magic doesn’t have props or stage hands it the basics of magic with maximum effect.  The magician will use everyday objects to mystify the people on the street and keep them guessing on how he did it.

If you are doing tricks with cards practice in front of a mirror as fast or as slow as you can, trying to get a feel of how you move the cards in order to perfect the illusion.  Many card magicians will perform some typical card tricks, and you can use the same cards to create the illusion that you have mental powers and use the cards to predict certain situations.

A variety of coin vanishing tricks are prevalent the world over.  Some of the most popular coin tricks are the vanishing coin, eggcup and the broken pencil trick.

Everyone is familiar with the famous words of a magician, when children hear “Hocus Pocus”, “Abracadabra” or “Alakazam”, they become amazed and mystified with the man or women in the black tuxedo.