When I first started way back, before the cell phone and the internet...
I went to the library and looked for magic books, clown books, children's performing books. I was looking for books on how to structure a show. I didn't find any, I went through trial and error. I work on this blog, as a gift to someone starting out now.
If you're putting together a show, I'll address some basics in this post. Hopefully this will bring up questions for you. Feel free to ask me any and all questions.
First off, go see shows. In the back of your mind, while your watching, observe, enjoy the show your watching, but observe.
Go see a play, go see a magic show at the library, go see the circus.
All shows, grab an audience to start. Come in with a bang. If you're a tramp clown and move slowly, a bang might be 6 minutes of finding a chair to sit down. A bang is attention getter. All shows also end with a bang.
Again, a bang might be sad or shocking as in death of a salesman but there is a real ending. A magician produces a tiger, then says thank you for coming and takes a bow. Those are your bookends to the show.
Do some sort of audience warm up. In stand up comedy, this is "how's everyone doing tonight?" In the theatre the lights go dark, the curtain opens. In children's shows, you might have the children clap as loud as they can.
The warm up is just establishing who your character is and establishing expectations. When the comedian says, "how's everyone doing tonight?" it says, hello to the audience. it says, I'm a different comedian than the guy that was out here a second ago, it also says, this is who I am.
If you're a bumbling clown, bumble. If you're a slow moving clown, slowly sit in a chair. If you are a slap and fall clown, try and sit on a chair and miss. Get your story written. We humans can write a whole story about someone in the blink of an eye. We see Santa and have a long narrative about elves and presents, fireplaces, Santa in Hawaii December 26th etc etc. A clown can have that same story just by coming in and falling off a chair.
If you do birthday party clowning, you probably want to do magic. Spend some time just staring at the magic trick you like. Let it wash over you. If it's the coloring book, just be a child with a new coloring book. How would that make you feel? Excited? Let that emotion guide the magic approach.
What words come to you? "I got a new coloring book today" or "wanna see what I got for my birthday?" My opinion, say what's there. A coloring book is a very familiar item to a child, acknowledge what it is.
You should probably have about 5 tricks in your show. Realize that even a pick a card card trick has some build to it and takes a couple of minutes. When you do magic for children, there will be wrong directions, asking about colors, getting colors wrong, dropping things. Magic with children is a funny journey. 5 magic tricks might be a 20 minute show.
When you approach children to be volunteers, make sure you do it from a distance and ask the group as a whole. It's easy to freak a child out if you bee line to them and say come here! Let the children guide you.
If you do facepainting or balloons. It's best to do these things after the show. If you make balloon animals before your party, kids will play with the balloons, make noise and ask for more balloons while you're trying to pull the rabbit out of your hat.
If you start with balloons, you become the give away person, it's tough to overcome.
As you begin the process of designing your show, try to discover the tricks along with the children. Children don't look at the magic coloring book as a magic trick, they see it as a coloring book. Acknowledge that you have a coloring book. If you are doing hipity hop rabbits, have the children hop like rabbits, name the colors of the rabbits, ask what rabbits eat. Pretend, discover with them.
Leave the "magic" with magicians. It's likely, as a clown, you are silly, be silly, be outrageous approach the show in these ways.
As always ask questions below!
I went to the library and looked for magic books, clown books, children's performing books. I was looking for books on how to structure a show. I didn't find any, I went through trial and error. I work on this blog, as a gift to someone starting out now.
If you're putting together a show, I'll address some basics in this post. Hopefully this will bring up questions for you. Feel free to ask me any and all questions.
First off, go see shows. In the back of your mind, while your watching, observe, enjoy the show your watching, but observe.
Go see a play, go see a magic show at the library, go see the circus.
All shows, grab an audience to start. Come in with a bang. If you're a tramp clown and move slowly, a bang might be 6 minutes of finding a chair to sit down. A bang is attention getter. All shows also end with a bang.
Again, a bang might be sad or shocking as in death of a salesman but there is a real ending. A magician produces a tiger, then says thank you for coming and takes a bow. Those are your bookends to the show.
Do some sort of audience warm up. In stand up comedy, this is "how's everyone doing tonight?" In the theatre the lights go dark, the curtain opens. In children's shows, you might have the children clap as loud as they can.
The warm up is just establishing who your character is and establishing expectations. When the comedian says, "how's everyone doing tonight?" it says, hello to the audience. it says, I'm a different comedian than the guy that was out here a second ago, it also says, this is who I am.
If you're a bumbling clown, bumble. If you're a slow moving clown, slowly sit in a chair. If you are a slap and fall clown, try and sit on a chair and miss. Get your story written. We humans can write a whole story about someone in the blink of an eye. We see Santa and have a long narrative about elves and presents, fireplaces, Santa in Hawaii December 26th etc etc. A clown can have that same story just by coming in and falling off a chair.
If you do birthday party clowning, you probably want to do magic. Spend some time just staring at the magic trick you like. Let it wash over you. If it's the coloring book, just be a child with a new coloring book. How would that make you feel? Excited? Let that emotion guide the magic approach.
What words come to you? "I got a new coloring book today" or "wanna see what I got for my birthday?" My opinion, say what's there. A coloring book is a very familiar item to a child, acknowledge what it is.
You should probably have about 5 tricks in your show. Realize that even a pick a card card trick has some build to it and takes a couple of minutes. When you do magic for children, there will be wrong directions, asking about colors, getting colors wrong, dropping things. Magic with children is a funny journey. 5 magic tricks might be a 20 minute show.
When you approach children to be volunteers, make sure you do it from a distance and ask the group as a whole. It's easy to freak a child out if you bee line to them and say come here! Let the children guide you.
If you do facepainting or balloons. It's best to do these things after the show. If you make balloon animals before your party, kids will play with the balloons, make noise and ask for more balloons while you're trying to pull the rabbit out of your hat.
If you start with balloons, you become the give away person, it's tough to overcome.
As you begin the process of designing your show, try to discover the tricks along with the children. Children don't look at the magic coloring book as a magic trick, they see it as a coloring book. Acknowledge that you have a coloring book. If you are doing hipity hop rabbits, have the children hop like rabbits, name the colors of the rabbits, ask what rabbits eat. Pretend, discover with them.
Leave the "magic" with magicians. It's likely, as a clown, you are silly, be silly, be outrageous approach the show in these ways.
As always ask questions below!
Hi Boswick, I'm so glad I found this blog. It's very helpful. I also enjoyed your videos very much.
ReplyDeleteI dream to have a clown show someday but I have no idea what I'm doing, since there is not much info about this anywhere. Especially the part about actually finding a place to do the show.
I will read through your blog and I'm probably ask you some questions later.
Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found this. Don't be afraid to ask. ANYTHING!
I think it's easiest if you ask one question at a time, I'll answer. Are you in a clown club? Have you taken classes? Please give me a little background and I'll answer the question "where do I find a place to perform?"