When the worst happens

This past weekend at Sherwood Forest Renascence Festival was absolutely great, except for one small thing.

For those of you who don't know, I'm performing out at Sherwood, three show a day. Everything always goes very smoothly, until yesterday.

For my second show of the day I'm on after the Bedlam Bards, a wonderful set of troubadours who do some incredible performances. Well yesterday, they had a huge crowd, the biggest crowd that they've had all year. People are singing along and having an grand ol' time, so I decide to sit and talk with some friends while I wait.

Well as soon as the Bards are done, their crowd scatters, and as I walk up to the stage there is no one in sight. Not a problem, I think. I've built up crowds from nothing. Well I start hawking and calling to people but there's just one problem: there aren't any people. Anywhere. At all.

So after about ten minutes of hawking I have one person waiting for the show. So I start and do my routine (luckily some of the kids from one of the shops happened by for the participation part) and halfway through my cups routine, she leaves. Let me say that again: she leaves.

As she leaves, another person sits down. So now I have done half a routine for one person and am about to do half a routine for another. So what do you do?

The simple solution is to finish out the set, smile, and walk away, which I did. I didn't hat him, I didn't perform the bill to lemon I normally do, I simply finished the cups routine, thanked him for watching, and left.

Why not hat him? Well, first he wasn't there for the first part of the show. Normally this isn't a big deal, but because there was no audience, he was the only one there for a minute of magic. Secondly, and this is the most important: my show is based on audience participation, so without it, there isn't much of a show. So I feel it's tacky to ask someone for a tip based on a show I know was crap.

The best thing to do when something like this happens is to just bounce back. Make the next show bigger and better, put all of your energy into it and see what happens. For me, my next show was fantastic.

www.kingstoyou.com

The Great Busking Adventure

Let's start by saying that soon I will be traveling out to Los Angeles to busk. What's busking? What's soon? What's Los Angeles? All these questions will be answered.

First off, Google Maps tells me that the trip, from Ft. Worth, will take 22 hours and 29 minutes or 1 day and 2 hours if there is traffic anywhere, so let's pray we don't meet the four and a half hours of traffic waiting for us somewhere. It seems I will be traveling through El Paso, Tuscon, Phoenix, and a tiny town called Blythe.

So that's 1407 miles on a motorcycle.

Secondly, busking is street performing. That's right folks, headed out to perform on the streets of the City of Angels.

But the really fun thing is not the drive or the small cities I'll blithely pass through on my there. No, the really fun thing is my packing list.

So far I have some clothes, toiletries, my laptop, and my busking rig (read as table-top and stand). That's it. That's all. I'll be getting rid of everything else that I can and sending the rest off to a small storage closet in a relatives home.

So in two or three weeks I'll start this incredible journey, and y'all'll be kept up to date right here, at Kings To You.

~Cheers

A tip of the hat: Kids Performers

I'd just like to take a minute and give a tip of the ol' hat to everyone out there who specializes in children's performances. I spent all of today substitute teaching for the 1st grade, and I have to say, that I've never hated 1st grade as much as I do right this moment. It was like a living hell for me. There are two words that will haunt me forever: Inside Recess. That's right. It's like recess, but in the classroom...because of the rain. And how many times do you have to tell another kid to stop hitting other people?

So to all of you who have to put up with sugared up, hyperactive, spoiled little kids every day of your lives: Well done. Thanks for doing it, because some of us couldn't.

So in thanks, here's a bit of cheer from us at Kings To You Magic. Cheers.

Web Design tool

For those of you out there who aren't website savvy (myself included) and are looking to make a professional looking website but don't want to pay out the rear for it, take a look at Wix. Wix is a free site that will put together a Flash based website for you that not only looks and feels professional, but is easy to use, edit, and publish.

Everything in Wix is click and drag and is very straight forward. Don't like something? Just delete it. Need to change out a photo. Just a few clicks and it's done.

What about the Wix.com ads on your website? Well some of you won't mind them, but for myself I found that the small "premium rate" fee was more than worth it, giving me my own domain name (www.kingstoyou.com) as well as removing the Wix logos and ads.

So check it out. There's nothing to lose.

Magic: The Science of Wonder

The Houston Museum of Natural History has a new exhibit out called Magic: The Science of Wonder.

The exhibit was very well done and packed full of history and trivia that magicians everywhere could learn from. The museum had wonderful displays of props and items used by various magicians as well as a copy of Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft.

The exhibit was beautifully set up and even had museum volunteers there to help with the experience. Also from Wednesday through Sunday there are magicians on hand to offer performances.

All in all it was quite well done. My biggest problem with it was that the gift shops were filled up with magic kits and how-to books, but that is something for another time.

So anyone who is able to go should. It is worth every penny.