Sunday, November 7, 2010

Gig Rant #1

We all have our ups and downs when performing in public. Sometimes things go just as planned. Other time, Murphy's Law kicks in. And also, sometimes there's an in-between. Everything goes fine, but one little incident grinds your gears. Such a thing happened this past friday.

I was hired to work a Christmas Open House for a store in a small town in Ontario (No, I don't understand why there was a Christmas Open House on November 5th. Then again I apparently don't understand much of anything).

I'm mingling in a store packed tighter than a sardine can, doing my thing with the pasteboards for all the simple small-town folk wandering about and sampling wine and cheese. Suddenly I approach a group of three ladies and start up my set.

I'm about to begin Ernest Earick's "A Flippant Triumph", one of my favourite Triumph routines, and I'm standing around shuffling and springing my cards. Suddenly, one of the women says to the other two "Christian (her son) is doing all this kind of stuff now!". So I began the effect, and at the climax, two women are in awe, but Mrs. Christian's Mom pipes up and says "Christian can do that too!". I politely reply with "That's really great! How long has he been interested in magic?"... she said "A few weeks... but he's already doing all of the stuff you're doing!"

In my mind I was thinking "@%&$$&*&^&" but I merely smiled politely and nodded. At the end of my set the women walk away, and as they walk, Mrs. Christian's Mom pipes up again... "Yeah, Christian can do all that stuff! He just goes straight on YouTube and learns all kinds of magic tricks!"

Had I possessed a weapon, a murder-suicide would have followed... instead I kept my cool and continued mingling. This woman insulted my intelligence, my craft, and myself. She implied that all magic can be found for free on YouTube and learned easier than making rice. And on top of that, she implied that I must have found these effects on YouTube then, while also implying that everything I was doing required little practice. I hope to God she doesn't take this and push her son to be doing gigs.

Had the woman remained in the store for a little while, I would have given her my email address to give to her son, offering to point him toward some excellent resources for someone starting out in magic. However, she was gone.

My question is, how would YOU have handled the situation?

2 comments:

  1. Okay first off I'm enjoying some of your blogs. Got the link from Magic cafe. Most of your thoughts are right on... but this time you gotta not think like a magician for a minute, step back and look at the big picture.

    Of course her kid can do what you did..... somebody picked a card, and you found it.... thats what you did, and her kid can do it too.

    They don't know if you did 487 zarrow shuffles, a center steal, forced the card or used a force deck. Bottom line is..they picked a card, you found it.

    I'm sure you found it with a better presentation, better storyline and more shuffles....but from a layman standpoint... all you did was find a card.

    Magicians spend their entire lives perfecting moves that no one is supposed to see or know about .... and then get pissy that the audience doesn't respect how much work is involved with what we do.

    Believe me, your not the first to get butt hurt about this.

    Perhaps add some ECM into the routine to spice it up..(sorry couldn't resist)

    You handled the situation fine.

    Keep up the good blog work...

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  2. You do nothing. Let her be proud of her kid and think he is a magic ninja. Have enough confidence in your own work to not require her understanding.

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