Working Conditions
A stage show at Faire has to contend with a lot of distractions during the show – especially if your stage is right in the middle of everything. The biggest interruptions tend to be from parades. Ah, parades. When some group or other moves en masse from one part of Faire to another – sometimes [...]
…. moving away from Cheap Magic, let’s look at cheapness uh, frugality in Faire… Bring most of your food and beverages with you – Yes, it meas you’re hauling more stuff onto site, but even bread, cheese and summer sausage bought “off site” will cost maybe 30% of what you’re going to pay for it [...]
I’ve been thinking about how much stuff I tote around when I work Faires – I’ve mentioned before that I’m a great believer in infrastructure – but when it comes down to it, there is an ABM – an Absolute Bare Minimum – that I’d want to pack in and out. If you’re starting to [...]
… coming up on my 2009 Faire season, I thought I’d ramble off a short list (short – HA!) of my favorite things at Faire Watching the Site Go Up – yes, it’s a madhouse. Yes, I’m a stage act and as such, don’t always have to put together my own performance space, but it’s [...]
For a Renaissance Faire performer, “Season” starts locally when the weather is warm and dry enough to get hundreds of people out into a field for the day. The Arizona RenFaire has already come and gone, Palm Springs has had theirs, and the Southern California Faire is getting ready to start it’s long season. Up [...]
“Secrets are the very root of cool”. Hubertus Bigend, Spook Country by William Gibson Magicians deal with secrets all the time – it’s what we do – having one little piece of information which makes the physically impossible occur. So, how do you treat them? Do you cherish your secrets? Disregard them? Ignore them? Do [...]
Organic magic should be the opposite of a magic show trick. Rather than “behold the wonders I can achieve!” it should be about how the magician interacts with his environment. As I mentioned yesterday, a magician has to eat and drink and may not have the funds to purchase said food and drink (the way [...]
Continue reading about Organic Magic – Eat Drink and Be (Queen) Mary
My RenFaire finale involves eight feet of chain, a brass padlock and no sense of self-restraint. This is a great finale for a loud, fast, silly stage show. Working this in a “Street” environment, though, it’s not quite right. With a brief setup and a briefer “action” moment, it could be over before people even [...]
Continue reading about Street Magic Strategy – A Different Kind of Finale
Plying my trade in a “Street” environment means doing more shows, shorter shows, and working a different level of “energy” than the Faire environment. After building the edge with what is effectively a prolonged sight gag, I felt I needed to follow it with an actual demonstration of skill – something to draw the crowd [...]
Continue reading about Street Magic Strategy – Going into Low Gear
“Street Magic” occurs in a public space not designed for “formal” theatre. Therefore, the show I’m performing has to be short, punchy, and hold the audience’s attention. The show I’ve put together is about 10 minutes total from the initial crowd-drawing (see yesterday’s post ) and consits of three “bits”: The Sword Swallowing Bit (to [...]
Continue reading about Street Magic Strategy – A Brief Act of Magic
