Why I Like Performing for Small Groups
When an Hour Walkaround Gig for 30, Changed to a Show for 10 People
Recently I had a gig that was booked for 1 hour of walkaround magic with a guest list of 30 people, but when I arrived at the party, there were only 10 people, and I was still booked for the hour!
If I was in my early years of magic, I’d be panicking and would have done a horrible job attempting to entertain 10 people for an hour. But now more experienced and surer of who I am as a performer, I relished the opportunity to perform an hours’ worth of entertainment for a small group. So, what was supposed to be walkaround ended up more like a close up/parlour show where my years of close up and stage shows got to come together.
The material that I did isn’t so important, although I will touch on that, but here’s three things I enjoyed about this type of gig.
It’s More Intimate
What I love about close up magic is that you are sharing magic with a small group of people, and you have interactions that you can’t quite capture in the same way on stage (although Jon Armstrong has thoughts on how to capture that in his new book1, which I highly recommend).
Being a smaller audience, everyone could see what was happening, could feel free to make comments and jokes and maintain that back and forth interaction with me that I enjoy when doing walkaround magic. The interactions also help me get to know others better and they to know me too. When I was almost done with my first set, 20 minutes had already passed! The freedom of time allowed me to slow down and take what was normally a 10-minute set and let moments breathe, jokes fly and conversations to be had.
All those interactions let to the gig being quite intimate, which then leads onto my next point.
You Become Part of the Group
When you’re booked for a large group of people where you have to entertain 100 people within an hour, you’re working quick, doing short sets for each group before moving on.
Those gigs, while good for getting reps in are my least favourite because you end up feeling so stretched and very much a stranger to everyone who experiences you for less than 5 minutes. With a smaller group, I’m able to spend time getting to know the dynamics of the group, who is the alpha, who reacts the best, who is skeptical and who I can poke fun at for example. I unconsciously communicate to them that they can make fun of me too, otherwise it’d just seem mean to belittle others without first knocking on myself.
I was made to feel part of the group and hang out a bit afterwards, which isn’t the first time it’s happened, and if time avails I’ll do so as you never know where future opportunities can arise from.
You Can Mix Material
The nature of the gig allowed me to start with my planned close up material before mixing in my stand up material throughout the hour.
I knew there was always a chance it’d be a smaller group so always bring more material than you think you need. In this case, I brought my usual close up material, but also my stand up material as well, which I was hoping to get to do because I have so few opportunities to perform these routines I enjoy. After I did my first two close up sets2, I moved onto finishing the hour with some stand up material, in the form of Silent Treatment and a Needle Swallowing routine, which always hits different (in a good way) when done close up compared to on stage.
One thing I did learn with mixing sets and material for next time is to be aware of what effects utilise your wallet or the same prop. An amusing comment made was “how did you get so many cards into your wallet!?”, after the second time a card impossibly appeared in my wallet from two different routines, usually from different sets.
I had much more material ready to go but people can only watch so much magic before they never want to see another trick again, so always leave them wanting more.
Enjoy the Challenge
This isn’t the first time I’ve done an hour for a small group, the first few times were okay but I found I’ve really gotten more comfortable in whatever situation a gig throws at me.
Whether it’s at an Asian wedding where most of the non-English speaking guests ignore you and chat to each other so you have to perform over their noise or the groom himself doesn’t understand English well so you have to workaround that in real time during your routine, magic is full of challenges that help make me a better performer and I look forward to seeing how I handle each one as they come.
What’s the smallest audience you’ve ever performed for, and how did it go?
How to Win (book) by Jon Armstrong
Totally with you on this! As an audience member, I love small shows that are in the 10-20 person range. Intimate enough that you really get to experience the magic up close, but not so small that you feel self-conscious about the performer's attention always being on you. I'm sure it's similar for the performer. You get to actually engage and connect with everyone, but without it being too intensely one-on-one.