Blocking - a Valuable Lesson
by Quentin Reynolds

As a children's entertainer I've found that the worst behaved children generally attend the most expensive private schools. By worst behaved I'm talking about rude, obnoxious children who deliberately set out to cause trouble or draw attention onto themselves.

The first time I met such a bunch was in my second year of doing shows. It was also one of the very few shows I've had where I felt like giving up and leaving. I battled through to the end. But it taught me a valuable lesson and one I'd like to share with you today.

The party was for a group of seven year old boys who all went to a local and expensive private school. The mother was very pleasant and friendly. I didn't foresee any problems. I set up at one end of the room and let the mother know I was ready. Unbeknownst to me the birthday boy had contrived a plan with three of his friends to ransack the magician's props.

These first four boys ran into the room and straight for the props. Fortunately the mother came straight in and helped gain control. With hindsight I suspect these boys had planned their campaign from notes made from seeing other magicians. Two of them sat front left and two then sat front right. During the show one pair would make a run up the side to attract my attention whereupon the other pair would dash up to the back of my table and grab the props.

This happened throughout the show. The mother came in again. We put them all together at the back. Now if you have any experience at all entertaining at birthday parties you'll know that children can move invisibly through the audience. Someone at the back is suddenly at the front and you never saw them move! These boys were expert at that. Born military strategists and the magician is the enemy. Strict words from the mother and strong words from me had only temporary effect.

The hour's show was a complete nightmare.

Now all of us will have the occasional difficult or even disastrous show - for whatever reason. That's life! But if we take the trouble to analyze it and ask ourselves what can we learn from it, we become better performers.

While I learned a number of lessons the main one was BLOCKING. Setting up my show to ensure controlled visibility and access to the performing area. Performing at private parties, especially in homes  means that every layout is different. There may be doors, windows or furniture in convenient or inconvenient places. Ideally you need to set up so's that the audience can see and hear you.

Depending on the room's layout you might suspect that crawling children might sneak up the side. Moving an armchair would prevent this. The seating might mean that some adults would choose to sit at the side of you. Putting your coat there would be a psychological barrier to them sitting there. If the viewing angles were bad I frequently put up my puppet booth to block them.

Besides my magic roll-on type table I carried a puppet booth and brightly painted puppet case. Again these could be strategically placed to block potential unwanted access from adults or children. Some adults think it's perfectly OK to sit behind the magician and take photographs, or just talk to each other.

You don't want people behind you - not so much because they may see how the tricks are done but they are a distraction from what the audience should be concentrating on which is you.

With effective blocking you control access to the stage area, you make sure the audience only see what you want them to see and you prevent unnecessary distractions in the performing area.

© 2009 Quentin Reynolds. Quentin Reynolds works as both magician and speaker.
http://www.PsychicGameShow.com

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