Cheyenne Botanical Gardens

Just spent a whole day yesterday entertaining at the Cheyenne Botanical Gardens. It was a grand opening for a super cool children's garden. It was an outdoor walk around event with lots of families to entertain. With people coming and going and lots of other things to see, I have found at these types of events with this unstructured free flow of attendees that it is best to just set up my small close up street table and perform from there. A little like street performing a crowd will always stop and watch. Then I can perform a set close and move to a different (and perhaps better shaded) area if needed. One of the big pitfalls to avoid in this type of set up is to be sure that you are not obstructing the flow of other attendees. The gig was not without some other challenges. I was sick.

How do you give it your best when you are sick?
The event had a great turn out and Cheyenne is about 2 hours drive north of where I live in Denver Colorado. The big downer for me for the event was that I was still recovering from a really bad cold that I picked up a few days prior. Sniffling, coughing, spewing and no voice. I was not at 100% and would probably say only performing at half my normal energy level. I didn't have a very loud voice and didn't feel very up and outgoing or creative. A strange thing did occur though and that is that I was able to just close off all my misery and personal suffering as best I could and I just slipped into "entertainer mode" This is almost zen-like state allowed me to go through the motions and still provide a very good quality performance. This is only a something that you can develop I think with years of experience. I didn't really offer anything off the cuff or improvised like I usually find myself doing. I just didn't have it in me. The 5 hours did fly by fairly quickly with only one moment that I noticed a drag in my energy. I had hit a wall and made the mistake of checking my watch. Never check your watch. I had about 3 hours to go. I may have hit the wall there but somehow I got over it.

What effects to use...
Most of the effects I performed for this kind of event are fairly portable. Cards, coins, rubber bands, etc. I would occasionally break out into a bigger show once a crowd had been built. At that time I would do a little bigger playing effect like my comedy linking rings routine, my professor's nightmare routine or a bottle through body routine. Pacing myself through this day was key.

Do I work too hard sometimes?
This weekends experience has openned my mind up a little to contemplate if I need to just chill out a little inmy presentations..When I'm healthy and full of energy I wonder if I don't rush things a bit or try to be to big for my own good. Maybe I should keep my reserve tank of energy in place for just the right moment. Perhaps there is something to be said for also slowing down my pace when I am doing my act in any other situation. The event turned out to be a really good event and although I was pretty darned wiped out by the time I got home. The client was very happy with the work I did and even added a little more "cha-ching" to the check in the form a sizable gratuity.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be posting more later. This is, I suppose, the initial part of starting a blog is getting a flow for your content.

A grand introduction

Welcome to "The Magic blog". My name is Dennis Michael and I am a professional magician working in the Denver metro area. I specialized in performing comedy magic for families and promotional events. I hope that you will find this blog to be a fun place to check in regularly and see what is happening with me in my continuing magic career as well as learn about my latest magic creations, ideas, motivations and philosopies in magic and the buisness of being a magician. I also hope to eventually have some guest writers submit their ideas and commentary. If you would like to contribute an article here or share an idea for discussion, please e-mail me and I will contact you and we can discuss your ideas. For more information on my performances you can visit my website at www.dennismichaelmagic.com