Big thank-you to all the performers who turned up for the event. Event's been pretty smooth until the unfortunate downpour ruined some of our performers' chance of showing their stuff on the street but the rain sure failed to damped our SMC spirit!! :D

Really impressed by some of the effort and commitment put in by our performers. And it was heartening to see so many people staying back after the event to session and share.

Hope you guys have learnt something from this event, whether it's through the experience or just showing off some new stuff to the public. :)

After talking to the organisers earlier, them seemed pleased with our performances and we might get another event in May!! Have to discuss with them further on this...will keep everyone informed!!

Thank you guys again for volunteering and showing up!! :P

This might be considered a long post, so take this as your warning/disclaimer. If you want to skip certain babble, then you can either go straight to My Account or Lessons Learnt.

My Account

When I volunteered for this I thought it would be a standard strolling magic event. There would be a main carnival, and the 2 assigned magi would walk around in the carnival area for the public and entertain.

Because of that I planned 2 sets of 3 effects each. My impression was that I would start an effect for a particular group, others in the carnival area would start crowding, then I'd segue into the rest of my set. Once one set was done, I'd thank them for their time, and say if they enjoyed the show, we'd appreciate it if they could make a small donation to help out with the charity. Then I'd move away to another group and start Set 2. Alternate as above.

The reality was quite different. People on Orchard Road walk FAST. I probably walked backwards as much as I did forwards yesterday while I was introducing myself to random people.

Most people, if interested in seeing anything, will just stay for one effect. After that they'll move on, not because of skill, but because they were initially walking somewhere to begin with.

So the strolling magic became more like "Street Magic" that most of you are familiar with. After introducing myself, I had a number of people ask me "Oh, like that David Blaine feller", to which I had to retort "Only if you don't like what I show you :P "

My "3 effect set" was reduced to a "1 effect slam and bam". There were maybe 4 groups of people (out of the maybe 20 groups I performed for) who I felt were really into seeing the rest of the set.

The rain put a damper on things for about half an hour, but we continued after that as well. The problem was, as the day got on, the actual people collecting donations disappeared! People were willing to give us money, and when I tried to direct some of them to a specific individual, NONE were around. I had to wave in the general vicinity of the tent and hope that they found someone.

The entire thing wrapped early, around 1845. Spent about an hour with the guys, learnt some cool stuff from them and got some tips before I left with Kevin and Tom (revelc).


Lessons Learnt

Wow, I definitely picked up a lot last night. I have never done "Street magic" before, walkaround/strolling for parties yes, but as I said above, yesterday was more like street/pseudo-busking than actual strolling because of the randomness of the spectators.

1) Slam-Bam Effects
Most people, if interested in seeing anything, will just stay for one effect. After that they'll move on, not because of skill, but because they were initially walking somewhere to begin with. Because of this, you'll want your one effect to be strong and memorable.

I performed Hot Rod the most yesterday. The looks of shock and awe were infinitely greater than when I did something like CMH or Coins Across. The 3 most powerful effects I did yesterday that really blew them away were Hot Rod, Bizarre Twist and Card Warp. I restructured my opening effects to the above 3 because of the killer reactions. And while Hot Rod is available in most beginner kits, it still kills. Don't dismiss it because you think other "magi" might scoff.

2) Absence of Yes doesn't always mean No.

I approached a group of 4 girls who were walking with Orchard Road Speed. They slowed down to listen to my introduction, but they said they were late for work (those street sales promotors). The thing was, they didn't start speeding up again! I took this opportunity to push a bit, and they giggled and said Ok. They were amazed by the Hot Rod, wanted to donate, and I directed them to a flag seller nearby.

Lesson here is, feel the situation. People don't like to seem to eager. but if their actions betray their words, gently push a bit. DON'T BE AGGRESSIVE. Be polite and charming, and you'll get in. If they had said NO outright, or said "I'm late for work" VRRROOOM and disappeared, then that's different.

3) Observe before the Approach.

Jason was right in telling me you have to observe their movements before you go up. Are they the jalan jalan type, or rushing to catch a movie? Occasionally you will get those who jalan jalan to catch a movie, but a general guideline would be not to try stop a speeding train.

4) ALWAYS BE POLITE

Even if they say No, say Thank you for your time, enjoy your evening. I had a guy say "NO go away" right after I said "Good Afternoon". ???? Wah lau eh. Some chick said "Magic? Who wants to see Magic?"

Despite how rude some people might get, keep cool and be polite. Don't thrash them with your wand or light flash paper in their pants. You never want to perform for an unappreciative audience anyway.

5) No means No

You never want to perform for people who don't want to see you perform. In Lesson 2, the girls never said No, plus their body language indicated they were curious. Thats why I pushed and got it. In other cases, an outright no means no. Swallow your ego and deal with it. It's nothing to do with you, the people you went up to just have other things to attend to. Don't take it personally.


Whew....long post. I had fun yesterday, but it was definitely tiring. Definitely looking forward to the next event.

Hope the rest of you enjoyed it as much as I did.

- Raoul

Hey Raoul!

That was a great piece of writing. I'm very impressed that you managed to perform for 20 groups of people. I performed only for one couple.

I realised something yesterday. It was a huge learning point for me, and I am truly humbled by it.

The fact of the matter is, I just can't approach people on the street and perform for them. Perhaps my approach was wrong or skewed, but I found out that street magic is definitely not for me.

This is definitely something that I thought hard about after I was finished yesterday.

Hi Farid,

Thanks for the reply. Nice to have met you in person yesterday.

Haha, 20 sounds like a lot, but you must realise since I was mostly performing only 1 effect per group, my turnover was very high. For example, my hot rod routine is 40 seconds, start to finish, max. With intro and goodbyes, total is maybe just over a minute. FYI, one set was timed at around 5 - 6 mins, but I rarely went into an entire set.

The other issue was that I got rejected about 50 times. After the first 5 rejections or so you get used to it. :D Don't care already, just whack and approach. :D

I can relate to you on your feelings towards random approaching. Because we're suddenly going up to people who are not there to be entertained in the first place, it takes them that extra bit of time to adjust into the Mood. If we were doing this in Disneyland it'd be super easy, since everyone is already prepped to enjoy themselves.

I'm not too keen on street magic because it's too short to effectively build a bond with your audience. Part of the fun of closeup is that you're able to really feel them on a subconscious level and ride the updraft of their enthusiasm. This builds up over the course of our set, which usually takes a minimum of 5 - 7 minutes.

Street Magic is usually over in a minute or so, then they leave. Then you have to restart your turbo and go up to the next group. Not ideal, but still an interesting experience.

- Raoul

hi Raoul, nice to meet u yesterday :)

after yesterday event, i kinda regret applying to try out the upcoming June street festival busking thingie.. :(

Got rejected like alot of times as well. Been thinking how and what will be a better way of introduction or open.
But i manage to perform the whole full bags of tricks i planned for yesterday for this family of 6! Other than that, i only get to perform for a girl and 3 teenagers. Pathetic count..

well, all i can say is it was a great experience and hope to have more exposure to such stuff. Not just to help others, but to improve ourselves as well..

It's sure fun and benefical yesterday.

And i think I left too early man! Missed quite alot of stuff.

Anyway, I did spoon bending most, because it's fast, shocking, and needs no patter. (mind the noise there.) Other than that, I did some ACRs and a 2 Card Monte. I think I managed to perform for like 4 couples, a bunch of American kids, and some I couldn't remember.

The mindset for me is to Heck Care and Crash. :P

I feel that I've not done my best yet... Will do again if there's another event like this. This is just an appeitizer. :P Hiazz, I should have used IT!!!! Nevermind, next time.

Till then, adios!

Hey Tom!

Why so disheartened? Street performancers naturally encounter a lot of "nos" from the public. Firstly of course they think we are trying to sell something. Secondly they think we might be surveyors. Look at ourselves, we don't like to be stopped on the streets as well because of the same sentiments.

instead of being disheartened and feeling rejected, why not take this as a learning experience? Why not use street performances to hone our skills in apporaching people? It will definately help when you perform in more enclosed environments like restaurants where people are less hurried.

I think we must approach this in an open mind instead of avoiding the whole chance of performing due to a few rejections from the audience. Street performances or in fact any kind of public performances involving audiences who do not pay to watch you will definately include people who doesn't want to watch magic. We can't force them, so just move on. Only then can we improve.

Agree with Jason...

Well...i got the same experience...people just walk off...I did busking last year also at Orchard road and got the same things that happen...people there are kinda like busy <_<

Anyway...Tom...you dun have this bad experience that happen to you on that day which unfortunately happen to me... :(

There were this 3 girls that i approach...when i said i am performing magic...one of them said "Hey,don't act magician la"...Ouch...
Then the other ask why I am performing and i answer that I am helping DSA...and she said "You got so kind meh"...

Its really my first time having to meet people like them..

Hi Guys,
It might be unapproriate for me to say all these, but will really like to voice out my views about open charity events.
First of all, I also involve in open charity events, not magic, just a normal one. And my job is to approach people to come forward and make a donation. Well, like all of u said, alot of needles and pain. Just because those people don't believe that you are so good to be helping for such a event. There are alot of rushing people, even though Orchard is a crowded area, those people wont have time to stop and listen to you. Maybe when u talk to like 50 people, only like a handful of 10 will respond to you and make donations. Quite saddening to know the fact about singapore working style.
Second is that, well, everything might seem so bad and like you are thrash by those people, but well there will still be people that will do their parts. And i noticed that those people are often family going out together and they will do the donation even if u asked them without even doing magic.
I think it will be even better if when we perform, we have a small donation bag with us, or someone with a can with us, that we can target those that are sitting around at orchard or even those passer bys that they wont really need to enter the tent to make their donations. But well its all up to the organiser.
Lastly, even though i am not inside this event, i still want to say:" Good job guys!! You guys have done a good deed even though you been through a hard time.."

Thanks for reading this post
Hope it wont offend anyone here cause its just what i feel about these events.

David Kim

wow Raoul, 20 is a big number to me. i've only managed to perform to 2 groups. i guess i'll have to learn how to approach pple more boldly and watch body languages.
the encouraging part was the group of 17 yr old guys i performed too really enjoyed wat i did. it happened that it was one of them's birthday. did some card stuff and then a ACR with the bday boy signed card. n gave it to him as a bday gift, and closed up with a simple rope trick.

wat Raoul shared really benefits me. going to get myself exposed to more of these events whenever possible.

and Jason, thanks for organizing everything. did enjoyed myself, just a pity need to rush to church and cant spend more time hanging around. :D

Nice post Raoul :) And good job with the performances too :)

And kudos to Jason, he did a DAMN GOOD job with coordinating and organising the whole thing. And he was there the whole time to see that everything is ok. :)

Clement really know how to pick his audience from what i see, everytime i look in his direction he's doing something for some girls. ;)

Sherman was really smooth with the audiences too.
And special mention to Gordie. That's a really good and brave effort mate. I think there's some difference between busking and strolling magic, but at least now you know some of the things to expect for the busking festival :)

I didn't get to to see the rest of you at work, but I heard from Jason it was great efforts all around. Well done guys! Bravo B)

Seriously guys, I find that this is a BAD job.

Its not your magic sucks but its just that stolling kind of magic for donations ain't practical.

And... its not only this charity event that I'm talking about. Look at all the previous charity event. Who cares about magic?

I find that its better to do in Busking form rather than strolling kind.

Just like how it was mentioned, will you stop suddenly when someone approach you on street?

Compare it with this situation when you see a group of people gathering to see something. Will you be curious and want to watch it too?

Are you more willing to donate to busker who've entertained you for the past 30mins or to someone who've entertained you for 1min?

Actually, the point of the strolling magicians was not to raise any funds at all. It was to attract people to the DSA event, which purpose was to raise awareness.

You can attract people to the DSA event from busking for too. After your performance, do an announcement about it.

Furthermore, you get people who will appreciate your performace.

And do you think the strolling magic that was done raise the awareness of the DSA event?

Yup. The same can be achieved. So for this event, we left it up to the performers if they wanna do strolling or busking as they feel comfortable, which Gordie took a busking style for. The organisers' original requests for strolling magicians to mingle in the crowd to add an air of festive to the event.

There are surely things we are learning everytime we do something like this, but i DEFINITELY wouldn't say that this was a bad job done ;)
Quite a few enjoyed some of the things they did a lot. :)

Oh... I didn't mean the performer were bad. I meant the way things are being done is bad and can be further improve.

The organiser wants strolling magic but you can recommand them a better way of performing.

And busking is best to be done in a team.

Yup, there are some things to learn but if everyone says good. Then chances are there won't have much improvement in he next event. ;)

Ok :)
Join us for the next one Pseudo! :)

Yeah!!! Haven't been seeing you guys for quiet sometime. I hope you guys don't forget me. B)

Hi Tom,

Yup, good to have met you in person as well. I'm really becoming a 21st century guy, meeting all these people off of the internet, :P

Don't worry about the rejections, it's all part and parcel of it. With this kind of situation it's all about the law of averages. The more we approach, the more people say yes. A standard figure would be 3 "yes" for every 10 approaches. But busking is a different aspect altogether, since you don't get direct rejections. People in the crowd just slink away if they want to leave.

JamKid, my partner-in-crime Alex (AlRaven) did many many performances as well. I remember at least 7 different occasions where I glanced over and he was performing. I can bet he managed a lot more performances (and rejections) than I did.

Pseudo,

My impression is that if you stop to watch a busker, then you have some free time. Similarly, if you have free time and are approached, then you're willing to listen and watch.

If you're in a hurry, you won't stop for a busker and neither will you want to be approached by a magician or tout.

So in that case, as long as the pedestrians have some free time, you can do strolling, but it's all dependant on the approach you make to them.

I do not feel busking would have been more effective, or that what we did was ineffective for the occasion. If all performers had the correct idea of what to do, then we could be selling light sticks and we'd still be able to promote the event.

What I do feel is that we weren't given adequate direction on HOW to promote. Since we were left to improvise, all our methods differed. Whose were good or bad is entirely subjective. :P

Cheers,

- Raoul

Thanks morphine for your compliments...haha ^_^

Well...after the busking last year...I had learned something already...who to approach for at Orchard road...so I kinda apply it during this event...

I feel that the body language is 1 factor to look out for...Example,would you approach someone who is walking very fast...most likely the person is rushing to do some stuffs...

The age group somehow also plays a factor...teenagers there most likely go there to catch a movie etc...so they would not be really interested...

Don't fear of rejection...its rather common that you will be rejected a lot of times...Actually morphine...I also had been rejected a lot of times...you had not seen me being rejected by the public only... ^_^

Wow... nice posts! I enjoyed reading your about your experiences and thoughts about the event :)

It was great meeting you guys that evening after work - the bunch of you should give yourselves a good clap on the shoulder for a job well done :) It isn't easy doing outdoor performances and you did it well.

I really had fun jamming with you guys at Macs later, we really nailed the staff :P

Good job everyone. Keep the magic spirit burning :lol:

Hahaha. Yea, rejections are sure part and parcel of strolling magic. I walked up to this 3 guys that day, and introduced myself and all, but they were all so rude as to not stop walking, so i had to walk backwards. They didnt even reply to what i said, then suddenly i felt this push from the back. Ouch. Its this guy pushing his baby. I suppose this is the worse rejection i got that day

I mean, if you go up to them and like what Raoul said, you gotta push abit, and furthermore, how many people had actually seen close up magic? So if they really aint in a hurry or anything they'd stop. Just gotta be a little thick skinned. :D

It was a great pleasure working with you guys. I've learnt alot too. Oh Raoul, i really really enjoyed your rubberband routine, eps the last part.
Jamkid, i think you were great! I mean, i'm sure those guys throughly enjoyed themselves.
Farid, hahahaha, its kinda amazing how you manage to communicate to that couple who did not understand english, even thought they are 'ang mo'

Just some reflection:
If the audiences look like they want to see some more, just give it to them!
Most people havent seen close up magic before apart from TV, so, just be alittle thick skinned and push your luck.
Oh i feel that there wasnt enough advertisment to show that we are supporting the DSA, i think other performers felt that way too.

well, i think this was quite a fun event, one of the few times i actually have to try and engage and keep an audience. so got some good tips from morph and some others. thanks guys!

somehow, i just dun like approaching ppl on the streets cos i will look like some sales promoter, and get rejected. haha.

anyway, its quite scary to start, fortunately i had help from u guys help to form a primary audience.

thanks to all there, and jason for organising!

haha..talking about rejections, well, at least it was a great experience for everyone i guess :)

its not being rejected that was disheartening. its the inability to help the DSA. TAT is disheartening.

i agree with AlRaven about this point. I mean since we're helping them, shouldn't they give us like a lanyard or something so that the public, upon seeing us, knows that we're helping out the event?

i think there should be a tin nearby to collect donations from the public for DSA too.

Well there were people carrying tins nearby but they all disappeared when the rain came. This should be left to the charity organisations. We cannot command them to provide these things, they have to think for themselves. We can however, suggest to them, but if they do not enforce it we can't help it either. We must always remember to stay professional and perform our magic, not take over the show (this can be pretty insulting to the organisers). We shouldn't let others ask us to help carrying tables or stuff like that too, but glad this did not happen.

I agree with Tom on the identity issue. From the next performance on I will ask for a lanyard or a tag to identify us as a volunteer and not just someone off the streets. Our dressing also plays a part. We cannot dress like we're going to watch a movie with friends and expect the public to look at us differently just because we are holding cards. A good example will be those models wearing the Levi's jeans prancing on the streets. They certainly attracted a lot of attention because they distinctly dressed differently.

Keep a look out for more performing opportunities!! Good job guys. :D

B) i had try number of way being the joy to people by doing magic but i miss this most wonderful way,

you all had the best of it, well done and stay cool.... B)

Although I wasn't helping out with the event, I did go down there to see how it was like.. I think the guys who did the work were very brave as well! It certainly isnt easy to just approach and ask someone to listen to what you have to say, and watch what you'll be doing after that. Kudos to those who participated in the event!

I cant say much about the strolling magic part, as I didn't try to do any of that, but it sure was nice seeing magicians perform in public like that.. And the little session later at mac, was just great. I sure did have fun. :)

-Falcon-

well, i suppose all of u will get a chance to do such stuff... :)

hopefully jason will upload the pics soon (or at least send some to me?)

http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0531.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0533.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0534.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0554.jpg

http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0563.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0567.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0568.jpg
http://sg.geocities.com/illusionistedwin/SMC/IMG_0569.jpg

If you can't view any of the pictures, means not enough bandwidth. Maybe you can contact JasonL for the picture itself, didn't want to waste SMC Bandwidth and space, since JasonL didn't host it. I will host it on my spare account.

Enjoy.

Guys, you all have done a wonderfull work,
Boy, I wish I was there, unfortunately I had to go to Indonesia for a short tiring trip of 3 days,
Off topics ( sorry if I did not reply some PMs, and actually I will be a bit busy for the next 2-3 months )
next week will be India..., after that Indonesia again, Finland...etc
my job will kill me one day :-)

Anyway back to the topic,
your adventure was great, your work was wonderfull ...
Thanks to Winder photos
just one room for improvement :
- we may consider to buy one SMC t-shirt so people could recognize that we are magician.... ( t-shirt with some design that would tell everybody that we are magician )
otherwise people would think that we are just anybody walk arround in the street, we are street magician ... so just one t-shirt will do the job
( for a budget of less than 30$ )
Gordon, you have a wonderfull tie .... :-) one suggestion is to put that in your dinner party and corporate dinner or dinner walk around magic not for street magician ....

- I have seen 8 photos, and this is the statistic :
1 trick with rubber-band
1 trick I can't figure what what Gordon was doing (probably some mental prediction )
6 tricks with cards
( I repeat SIX tricks with cards out of 8 )
I suppose that Winder's pictures were quite representative ....
otherwise please excuse me if I got wrong message

but please guys, you can do better than that
there is nothing wrong with cards, but if you do only card card card card .... this is the best way to bore people ...
where are the ropes, coins, silk , bills, books, ...etc.....
you need variety in your routine ...

I hope that I was not too "hard" with my feedbakcs
please dont misunderstand me ...
it was only a feedback to improve our next performance
but all in all, 2 thumbs up
and on a scale of 10 ,I would give you a 9.5 :-)
Congratulation !


Magical Pam
PS Does anyone recognize a sandwich technique in my post ?

Thanks winder for hosting my photos. Really didn't know how to post it up well (IT failure here ^_^ ) so I was using photobucket. Thanks for hosting, far easier to view them.

Sandwich techniques? Looks like poetry...care to elaborate?
Anyway there were a few guys going for other things like ropes, string and ring, ninja rings...but those that I captured were the card moments. Sorry! My bad...

and that i agree totally, not sayin i dont agree with the other points tho,

refer to this thread
http://singaporemagiccircle.com/index.php?showtopic=1868
^_^

yes, i got the tie during the IF convention (very cheap!) lol :)
i wore it cos i wanted ppl to know that im doing magic, its to stand out.

btw, i rmb seeing u in a magic themed tie b4, and i was secretly desiring one...

and in the pic, i was attempting a simple book test prediction, and tried to refrain from cards (cos of visibility problems esp when attracting a crowd).

For those of you who have given me your school names and want your CIP hours, your CIP teacher has been informed about your participation in the DSA event. Please go and check with him/her to confirm they got the message! Thank you.

Hooray! Thanks for that, Jason. :)