Alrighty....
We have completed the Legerdemain auditions, from which 10 went thru to the finals, which we all know who now.
But i'm sure all the people who took part in the audition had fun too yah? :)

So those of you who went for the auditions, maybe you would like to share your experiences? What are some of the problems you have encountered when coming up with a routine and some and how you've solved them? How you all came up with your routine. What inspired you to come up with your story. etc etc...
And share some of the horror stories i've no doubt some of you have of the audition day itself? I heard a lot of people panicked when they saw the inside of the audition room. :D

Feel free to share some of your experiences and stories. I'm sure everyone who took part in the auditions learnt a lot from the experience.
I'd love to hear some of the stories of what happened outside the audition room. B)
I will not name the competitors because some of you might want to keep the fact private. But if you were at the auditions and you are comfortable to share, please share. :)

i'll share my audition experience.....

i had 3 routines thought out way before the auditions and on the week of the auditions i solidified what i was gonna do.

The routine i picked was something i've been doing for quite a while so since i could perform it on autopilot it left me a bit more to concentrate on talking and presentation.

Horror stories : the night before the auditions i went out to clarke quay with heaps of supplies and rehearsed in front of a street audience at pubs , clubs and whatnot. I went thru like all my supplies and everything went well except the fact that my fingers got cut badly from overperforming !

so the next day i was very nervous as the wound was quite deep and hurt when i was rehearsing in the morning.thank god during the audition my mind was concentrating so much on performing ( and being nervous ) that i didn't even care about the pain.

To be honest , when i saw the audition room i was quite happy as there was a mirror !!! so it was like practising in front of the mirror at home. If anything it really helped a beginner like me as i felt like i was at home.Plus i was able to watch my angles as such !

The most important thing i learnt from the auditions was that it's important to not rush ur presentation and to slow things down ! i usually take more than 3 mins to perform my routine but cos i was so nervous i finished in 2mins !


Regards

Roland

When I first heard of this competition, I was not sure if I want to participate. It's been a while since I do any sort of closeup magic. I've been doing alot of stage magic for the past two years, so I find it quite awkward for me to compete in a closeup magic competition, especially when I do not have any materials.

Fortunately for me, I was playing around with a dice routine at that time. And so I thought, I can try to work out something from there. I focused alot on routining and got inspired by Johnny Ace Palmer. I wanted to have a routine that "Bang! Bang! Bang!". So, i just worked towards a routine which has multiple climaxes. I sat down and thought thru' the necessary switches and loading and whatever not and set a dateline for myself.

Two weeks before the auditions, I got my routine and patter finalised and showed the effect to some trusted friends to get feedbacks. Thankfully, my friends gave me alot of constructive feedbacks and I tried my best to listen to their opinions.

Then comes the tough part, my routine took about 4mins. But since I am only allowed 3mins for the auditions, I have to either speed up some portions or throw out some portions. I chose to gamble and throw out the last few portions of the routine.

Lucky for me, the judges were happy with what I had for them, and now I can only hope that they will like it even more when I show them the full act on the finals.

Actually, I have alot more to share, but I think I'll keep the rest after the finals.


With regards,
Shufi

2nd part of my "essay":

To me, taking part in competition is unlike performing a show for your clients. They are in fact world's apart. One thing for sure, I won't perform my competition act to a paying client unless they pay me specifically to see that. Some people might not agree with me, but that's just what I think.

When deciding what to do for a competition, it's good to think from a judge's point of view. Sitting down long hours watching so many performances in a day is not an easy feat. So, one thing for sure doing something different improve your chances of winning. So, for me, I personally did not want to do cards right from the start. In fact, there's alot of problems with card effects. A pick a card effect is a no no for me, unless it's really different, something unlike the ordinary.

Second thing that matter was to choose something that will be entertaining. Noone wants to see boring magic. So, abit of humour certainly helps, though I'm not the funniest person alive. Having said that, different individual might want to take a different approach. You may want to potray yourself as being serious if it helps enhance whatever you are doing.

Third, is timing. The final act has got to be under 8mins while the audition act is 3mins. The rule also states that the audition act has to be part of the full act for the finals. What I want to emphasize about timing is to cut down all unnecessary dead time in your act. Fill every second with as many magical moments as possible. I am still working on my act for the finals. Honestly, I don't have much time to prepare. I'm bothered by too much school work now.

Ok. I guess that's all I have to share for now.

With regards,
Shufi

Hmm.. Anyone else care to share anything?

Thanks for sharing guys. I'm sure there's more guys out there with experiences... :D

Hey, don't be shy - share your experience. You don't have to share any secrets about your act, but at least tell us what you felt/thought/experienced throughout this entire ordeal! :)

Incarneto? Sheeke? SUFi? J-Low? Gallen? Justin? Matthew lee? Jannson? Zian? Come on guys - spill it! :g:

Shade
PS: Shufi - thanks for sharing such details with the forum. It's good to have you with us man!

3rd part of my essay:

In a competition of any kind, it's always good to have the support of your families, friends, peers, colleagues and whatever not. Yupyup. Lucky for me, I have my wonderful girlfriend who followed me through alot of my rehearsals. She also went to accompany me on audition day. For that, I would like to say "Thank you very much honey!"

It was a great learning experience. No.1 thing I learnt was to come up with a checklist next time for any performances that require some sort of set-up, etc. In all my anxiety and nervousness, I forgot to bring in tools that I needed like a marker. I also forgot to fold my sleeves up.

It's terrible how nervousness and adrenaline still kicked into me very strongly despite calming myself mentally. It's as if my mind and body was separated and operating completely out of sync.

I did a Cards to Pockets routine and it was probably something that was a bit too technically demanding especially with my hands shaking really badly. In fact, I had quite a lot of mess-ups. :( Of which some are quite funny. :P

All in all, it was an experience of a lifetime. Had alot of fun. Thanks for organising it!

Totally , i have quite a couple of magic buddies to thank for helping me thru my routining, ideas etc etc for both my audition act and final act !

Opps, sorry about that Shade. Haven't been to the forums for quite sometime already. But looking around it doesn't seem like i missed much. SMC is pretty quiet these days.

Anyway, about the competitions, there are quite a few things that i learnt.

1) Dress like a magician, look like a pro. Don't dress like a homosexual, and more importantly, don't BE a homosexual.
2) Don't try to crack a joke if you don't have a sense of humor.
3) Try to smile while performing. Look friendly.
4) Have pauses in your routine at the proper time and give proper cues for spec to applaud,
5) Practice all you want, but just not right before the show. Try to trust yourself and believe that if you had put in all that effort into preparing and practicing your routine, everything should just flow out right during the auditions.
6) Do not engage in any activities that require your hands to be in a shaking motion the night before. Sometimes the shaking carries on through to the next day. Not very nice if your hands start shaking during your act, the judges will know what you were up to the night before.
7) Put on some make up to look more stunning under the bright lighting.
8) Drink honey water everyday for the week before the show. Makes your voice come out smoother and nicer. Alternatively, you can drink 'pi ba kao' (the thick thick black thing)
9) If all fails, bribe the judges.

ZiAn

ROFL.

Hey Zian... looks like you really learnt quite a number of things from this experience!

I would like to add a few things though:

It's perfectly fine to engage in shaking your hands - most of us do have a mild case of shaking anyway (particularly so if you're a guy). Anyway, I also have a shaking problem that is particularly pronounced when I take caffeine - I usually avoid ANY caffeine if I know I would be performing formally. Alcohol actually helps to reduce it, but it also numbs the senses some, and any substance that takes away your edge should be avoided.

Presentationally, every performer went through a certain amount of effort - I know I saw lots of great effects, but very very poor structuring. Many guys think that a routine can be a mish-mash of various STRONG effects and they'd get away with murder. Actually, it is possible for TWO EQUALLY STRONG EFFECTS to CANCEL each other out because they are of opposing genres. Each effect's strength weakens the other - the result is a dud. Better to do one and omit the other. I won't quote examples out of respect for all the contestants who had the gonads to walk the talk.

Hence, I believe the old saying that "LESS IS MORE.". To quote the great Enrico Varella (just recently overhead saying to his friend at Delifrance after performing a coins across routine to the manageress of Delifrance), "Quit while you're ahead - leave them begging for more!"

Shade

PS: Oh yeah - and don't frown at your specs all the time when they don't applause. And do bring a pen knife if you plan to open a sealed deck - spending over a minute trying to open that deck doesn't prove it's well sealed - only that you boo-booed. :P Sorry J-Low!


PS2: All the videos we took of you guys in the audition - including some painfully excruciatingly side-splitting funny interviews - will be edited into a video montage for the FINALS! MUAHAHAHAHA

Hi people,

I wanted to write something here for the longest time, but I've been busy like anything recently. I work in advertising, so there's the 15-16 hour days to contend with before I can devote the time to properly practice, much less write an essay on these forums.

Anyway, the process I went through to come up with a routine during the auditions was quite interesting - I wanted to do spoon bending (Axl's fault. he told me not to do cards.) I had a killer routine and patter inspired by Whit Haydn's linking rings routine. Fantastic stuff. I practiced several times, trying different variations each time.

That's when I ran into some problems.

I could not deliver the lines, and somehow, what began as a light, cheerful, funny routine began to seem very dull and... just didn't work. Jokes fell flat. Dead time everywhere. Undeterred, I worked at it some more. Thinking that all I needed was a good 'killer finish', I went back to the basics and re read my books. No use.

No matter how much I practiced, the routine still seemed dead. how could that be, I wondered - Whit Haydn's routine works, so why can't I get it?

The day before the competition, I realized why:

1) I'm not Whit Haydn.
2) I don't even like spoon bending.

Realising how insufferably stupid I was, I put together another routine that involved what I usually do (cards) with my own personality and presentation.

I found that:

1) Because the routine uses material from my everyday practice, I was much more confident.
2) Because I was myself, the patter came more naturally. (Although I was still a nervous wreck at the auditions.)

Being myself and not imitating another magician actually helped me.

Rene Lavand once said "A trick may be very good [but] the magician must be better than the trick."

Now I understand.

Hey Matt, I love your post! haha. It's not easy to understand your ownself actually. Sometimes, we get to obsessed trying to be like other people. For me personally, I am still exploring alot. Trying new things every time. Yarh. Till today, there's nothing that I am really good at. I can only do abit of this and that. Quite sick come to think of it.

Even my competition act is something brand new to me. Unlike you, you are very familiar with what you are doing. That's a plus point on your side. As for me, I don't know. Just taking a risk. Haha. Intention is nothing, but to entertain. Hope my intention can be met. See you all in the finals!

Oh ya, one more thing i learnt: Shade is a bloody genious, full of brilliant ideas. Haha.

ZiAn