William
Reminisces
It was
somebody like Goldin who was greatly shaken
during a sally forth into the audience to have
an amateur magician attract his attention. He
had, up his coat, the amateur said, a large
duck. He thought it would be nice for Goldin
to abstract the duck and the audience would
be very impressed. Goldin thought he was a nut
and by-passed him. But the man was insistent.
This served to remind me of how really it is
not to anybody's advantage to attempt to "help"
a magician. Particularly a pro, who has got
everything mapped out and jigsawed so that it
flows.
NOT
WORRIED! Terry
Seabrooke has a Note Routine which relies greatly
on the by-play with the owner of the note and
the frequently voiced opinion that he might
never see it again. On one occasion, he borrowed
the note and asked the man if he was worried
about its non-appearance. After were to follow
the usual hilarities. But this night, it didn't
go that way. When Terry said, "Are you worried
about your note?" the man replied, "Not really.
It's part of your fee!" And the audience were
thereby deprived of the funnies which usually
followed. Now he takes care not to get a committee
man from the throng.
SWITCH
IS SWITCH! I
had a magician once give me a folding half-crown
for the "Coin in the Bottle". You would think
that would be a tremendous help. Frankly, it
threw me more than slightly. All the patter
bits that fitted into the various movements
which had been the same, night after night,
along with my timing, could have been shot to
hell. Strangely, and much to his surprise, I
used his folding coin just as I would the ordinary
borrowed coin and switched in my own folding
half-crown. For a start, his method of banding
mightn't be the same as mine, I thought, and
might not take the punishment mine takes in
the routine. So really, he didn't help in any
degree. Also, as a magician, many of the people
present may have known him and though I had
parked the coin as a special one with him for
use in the trick.
RINGING
THE CHANGES On
another night, a magician in one of the nightclubs
presented me with his Himber Ring when I was
starting out my Himber Ring routine. I'm used
to my own ring and I know where it opens and
also how easily and how much snap is required
to close it. So, again, I just used his ring
as an ordinary ring and switched it for my Himber
Ring. He probably didn't even know I had switched
it and thought he had provided me with a ready-made
miracle. For a few moments at the start of the
routine, he actually had me thinking like mad
and when you do things till they are second
nature, it can be a bit throwing.
"I'VE
HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE" It's
all rather like doing several shows a night.
Sometimes you get the frightening feeling that
you have said the same thing a second time.
I've seen comics actually in this predicament,
though, as a magician, you have the flow of
the trick to help. After all, you can't be holding
a rice bowl filled with water and not know that
you have already produced the rice. A poor comic
doesn't have this guide. If you are performing
in the same place where there are two "houses",
it's quite often a fair thing if you have a
good, solid change in the act, if only to help
you out of having this very feeling.
HAZARDS!
And HOSTESSES Over
the years that I have worked nightclubs, I have
about 10 acts wherein each trick has been done
at least a hundred times. One appearance in
a nightclub, I changed every night because business
was poor and I wanted to keep on the right side
of the hostesses so that I had the attention
of what few customers there were. If a hostess
keeps seeing the same stuff, night after night,
it is only common sense that, sooner or later,
she will start talking to the customer she is
with out of pure boredom...and you lose his
attention.
Another
hazard is when the hostesses clip how the tricks
are worked. They have their eye on the main
chance. They are there to see the customer drinks
a storm and has a happy evening. Conversation
must be bright and often, these girls act as
semi-psychiatrists. Many of the customers come
in after a hard day negotiating big deals and
they want somebody who will say, "How clever
you were" and "Did you really say that to the
boss". Lots have wives who couldn't care less
so long as they can holiday with the kids in
Majorca every year...so you have a mild psycho
case on your hands. This is no kidding, I've
seen it happen. Or maybe a deal falls through
and the boss has to be faced tomorrow, so the
lad goes out on the town to forget till the
fateful meeting next day. Often you can occupy
their minds with a few close up tricks if the
girl finds it's heavy going, and I've had customers
come in again and ask me to join them, just
to say, "Thanks...I was a bit in the dumps last
time I came in".
WILLIAM
THE PALMIST! I
remember one guy with two women who asked me
to come to his table and do a bit of pseudo-palmistry
for one of his companions whose boyfriend had
been carted off to jail that morning. She was
downright fed up and he thought a bit of the
old "I see a bright future in front of you"
stuff would gee her up. She finished up being
the life and soul of the party and everything
ended pretty happily. One isn't too happy with
this sort of procedure but, If more people bent
over a bit to make others happy, the world could
indeed be a pleasanter place. I like people
and, as such, you can get terribly involved.
APPEARING
DOVES-and VANISHING LOOPS!
But, back to the girls
catching the magi's tricks. One magician did
the Channing Pollock-type dove act. The girl
noticed that, as the wire-loops vanished in
the front of his coat, the doves appeared. Being
no dozer, all was revealed. So, she had great
fun pointing this fact out to her customers
who would watch this phenomenon nightly, greatly
intrigued...the more so since the lad was a
good magician and you just couldn't see the
birds being loaded into the hanks...just the
wires vanished!!! That's a trouble in many show
where you just have to accept the set lighting
they have for their cabaret presentations.
With
any luck, you will never ever work a nightclub...try
and keep it that way. You'll be the saner for
it.
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