But I feel these three are important and that they stand as something that all people who work in entertainment should keep in mind as they develop their acts.
1-Know what you are selling.
What do you sell? I mean we all sell entertainment; so let me be more specific what is the premise that your selling and what is actually entertaining the audience. If you are selling sensuality and teasing those who find you gorgeous then you might be practicing burlesque...........
.....or you are a female magician (don't knock it; it probably gets her work).
When you create acts you are selling something; that something should make sense to the audience in regards to what your selling. Some of Criss Angel's work is beautiful; sometimes watching him act like a demon possessed to get a card through a window is hysterical.
One of my favorite acts was watching two eyeliner wearing goth boys performing pressure at a practice session.. I found it hard not to laugh watching two very serious men in very gothic attire give the same expression that they would give for swallowing a sword or needle to squeezing a balloon shut.
And while we are on the topic.......
What you know your selling and what you think your selling should always be the same thing. If your selling "art" and your audience is watching "sexy boylesque" then the moment your art has nothing to do with your body your show is done.
This also means know the worth of what you are selling. Or you could always be the next free contestant on the television who isn't getting paid jack. If you sell under price, then that sends a message to the person booking you that they should be able to get everyone under that price. But I already covered that in a previous article..
2-Do not over step your reach.
When you overstep your reach in sports you whiff on a fast ball or fall on your face. When you whiff in fire breathing......
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Caught-on-Cam-Fire-Breather-Catches-Fire-During-Tattoo-Convention--292032161.html
.....you get a bottle rocket. There has been plenty of conversation on what went wrong in this video so I don't feel it necessary to comment. Needless to say that there was a serious lack of safety and training.
When a juggler drops, he loses the crowd. When a magician drops......
......that effect is ruined for the audience (as well as other effects that have similar methods) and other magicians have to start taking the effect out of circulation. When a fire performer fails and hurts themselves or others; fire performers everywhere get nailed by the cost of what one person did.
There is a young man I know and performed against in a competition who decided to do glass walking as a part of the act. He learned it from Brian Brushwood's video series on YouTube a week prior to this show.
He didn't size his tarp down correctly and also used about 2 trash bags of confetti. In his haste to clean it up he managed to spray the entire front row with pieces of glass from his act. Thankfully the entire front row was a group of burlesquers who knew the act and so weren't hurt.
You need to spend a lot of time training, and practicing your routines. If you don't practice these routines and methods you end up creating accidents and mistakes that will not only end up costing you but also end up costing other performers. The secret to these effects and stunts isn't in knowing how they are done(the gimmick) but in the time to develop the safety and skill necessary to pull them off without making such mistakes that can be corrected with proper training and safety.
3-Don't Base Your Act On The Culture
Every discipline in the world has a culture; and with the culture comes expectations....for instance magic is what is generally referred to as an old man's club. The first time I attended a IBM meeting 75% of the room was old, male, and white. The only woman in the room where catering the food or sitting with their husbands like good ol' wives. Cause you know it isn't like magicians are sexist or anything right.
Every culture carries with a set of expectations and also a set of criteria for what makes a good show. But here is a sad truth; the culture doesn't pay you. The normal audience who want their kids to have a good birthday, the men in the front row staring at you like a piece of eye candy, the corporate client who wants their audience to have a feel good vibe. These are the people who pay you; the jugglers, the magicians, the entertainers....
These are the people you learn from and network with.
I know maybe 50 entertainers of different calibers and skill level. Only two of those individuals have ever thrown me a financial bone (meaning a paid gig). Half of them have asked me gigs and half of them have asked for favors. I pass what I can.
A running joke is as follows-
Two magicians are sitting down at a club one night and talking shop. One of them is a world famous entertainer who has been booked repeatedly for cruise liners, amusement parks and corporate events. The other one looks at him and mentions that he does birthday parties. To which the world famous entertainer says "who is booking those".?
Not to scream the point:
EVERY PERSON WHO ENTERTAINS HAS TO LOOK OUT FOR THEMSELVES FIRST
The only way to make money from other performers is as a teacher or as a manufacturer/booking agent.
You can perform for them; but they will never pay and for as much as they will judge you on showmanship. They will also judge you on technicality and originality of movements....in fact juggling for jugglers or doing magic for magicians can be compared to the new scoring system for figure skating....
http://www.howcast.com/videos/317576-how-to-understand-the-olympic-figure-skating-scoring-system/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0213/p11s01-alsp.html
If you limit yourself to only what you think the culture of juggling will accept or the magicians or burlesquers will accept and give you...then you are only hampering your capacity as an entertainer.
At the end of the day the greatest determination of skill is how successful you are which means playing all sides.
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