Handling Repeat Shows

“That’s him!”

“It’s the magic guy”

“I remember him!”

The whispers of the kids as they walked past me surprised me.

I was sitting in the lobby of the school, checking emails on my phone.

Due to a miscommunication between my client and me, I had arrived extra early for my show.

As I was waiting to be let into the assembly area to set up, a class of students were led past me by their teacher.

Surprisingly, the kids all recognized me, even though it had been months since I last visited the school.

But maybe I should not have been so surprised. It was my fourth visit to this school in 12 months.

The first time I performed at this school, about a year ago, I performed my anti-bullying show. The other times I visited the school I performed my reading show and math show.

Today I was performing my anti-bullying show again.

Since all the kids recognized me, I was worried they’d remember all of my effects.

The bane of all kid show performers was hearing “I’ve seen that one before!” from the audience.

I set up my show, trying not to let it worry me.

When the first few classes came into the assembly area for the show, they yelled and cheered when they saw me.

It felt good, but again I was worried about the cries of “I’ve seen that one before” that were sure to hit me once the show started.

But I was wrong. As the show progressed, the kids yelled in surprise, clapped, and behaved as any first-time audience would.

Apparently one of my biggest fears was for nothing.

Years ago when I was performing a lot of birthdays, I’d occasionally hear the cry of “I’ve seen that one before” during a show.

Maybe it was when I took out a piece of rope. Or a deck of cards.

Despite me telling kids that there are hundreds of effects with rope and thousands of effects with cards, they were sure they’d ‘seen it before.’

This began an almost paralyzing fear in me. I’d go to almost any length to avoid repeating material in my shows.

This fear is one of the reasons I wound up creating so many different themed shows for schools.

If the school client invited me back, I wanted to have different material for the kids.

Eventually, some schools insisted on bringing me back for the same show. The kids liked the show, it had lessons the schools liked, so why not repeat it?

At first, I’d try to cobble together different effects for the same shows. Or I’d ‘borrow’ effects and routines from existing shows.

But these repeat engagements were not as successful as my first visit to these schools.

It’s easy to see why – by throwing together new routines (or at least new to that particular show), I wasn’t as smooth or polished as normal.

So the kids got an experience that was slightly ‘less than.’

For years, I’d heard other kids' show performers say that if kids liked a show, they wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

They compared the experience to children watching the same TV shows or movies over and over.

Me? I had my doubts.

But it wasn’t until about two years ago that I finally said, ‘screw it,’ if they want the same show, that’s what I’m going to give them.

And you know what? The other so-called kid show ‘experts’…

…were exactly right.

Kids really do like seeing a show again. Even if it’s the exact same show.

Sure, you may get the occasional kid who says, “Hey, I remember that from before.”

But in my experience, so far, doing the same show for the same kids is no problem.

Of course, the adults may feel differently.

I remember performing my Christmas show at a library. It was the second year in a row this client had booked my Christmas show.

She had loved it the first time. But she was worried about the kids seeing the same routines.

So I managed to put together a (mostly) new Christmas show. At the library, after I was introduced, I asked the audience to raise their hands if they had seen me before.

Only a few hands went up. Either these kids weren’t at the last show, or they didn’t remember seeing me.

Doing a repeat show at a public venue (in this case a library) is even easier to do the same show.

Public shows are a weird beast. Sometimes people will flood the area for free entertainment. Other times, it seems like even bribing them with cold hard cash wouldn’t bring them out for a free show.

“What about adult shows?” some of you may ask.

I’ve done plenty of repeat shows for adults, too. Admittedly I still try to do new material, but only stuff I’m comfortable with.

For adults, most of the time these days I’m not doing a themed show. So as long as I fill the show with polished material, I’m good.

But even if you repeat material, I still think it’s okay.

One piece of advice? If you use force items (cards, numbers, words, whatever), at least use different force items.

That way, people who may remember specifics from last year’s show will at least feel like what you performed must be fair because there were different outcomes to the same routines.

Repeat shows are fun. You know where you’re going, and you’re familiar with the set-up, making for a much lower-stress show.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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