Back to Back Shows

“No, I’m afraid we can’t start the show any earlier,” the email from my client read.

I groaned. This was going to be tough.

On the day in question, I had two schools and one library show in one day. The distance from school one to school two was an hour. The distance from school two to the library was about 2.5 hours.

Including setup and breakdown, it was going to be a very tight day.

I had asked the contact for school two if we could bump their performance start time up by 30 minutes. That would give me the breathing room I needed to get to my library show early to set up.

But with the schedule as it was, I’d have only 35 minutes to get my equipment through the door and set up at the library.

That was cutting it close. It left no room for me to get food or account for traffic delays.

So I looked at my setup time to see what I could cut.

Most of my school shows set up in 35 minutes and break down in the same amount of time. Add 10 to 15 minutes of transporting my equipment to the car, and I had a post-show time frame of roughly 45 minutes.

Fortunately, this client had done me a favor.

School One chose my “Christmas Magic” show for their performance. School Two had chosen my “Magical Mayhem” show for their performance.

“Magical Mayhem” is my all-purpose ‘just for fun’ show. Unlike my other school shows, I could play around with the lineup.

My library show was also “Christmas Magic.”

That was my solution to my scheduling problem.

The rest of this newsletter will outline the approach I took to make my tight schedule work. Hopefully, you’ll get a few tips out of this if you ever run into the same problem.

First, I looked at my ‘typical’ “Magical Mayhem” lineup. I wasn’t worried about setup…but the breakdown had to be fast.

So I created a lineup that could break down fast…as in practically zero minutes.

A quick note about my show setup. Every standup/stage show I do uses a side ‘dump container.’ It’s a briefcase on a stick or another container on a stand. I use it to transport stuff to the show.

But during the show, its only job is to serve as a ditch container. It’s always stationed to my left, behind a rollup banner.

Having this in place allows me super-fast transitions between routines. As I deliver my closing lines, I’m putting the trick into the dump case.

So I created a lineup of effects I could toss into the dump case…and leave there. I wouldn’t have to reorganize anything in that case for the following show. I was only performing “Magical Mayhem” once that day.

But to make this work, I had to choose effects that would both fit into the dump case and be durable enough to not get crushed or ruined flopping around in that case.

In the end, I only had two effects that would not fit in the dump case: my opener and my closer.

Both were bigger effects that started and ended the show with energy and a ‘wow’ factor.

Fortunately, both effects broke down after the show in just a couple of minutes.

That shaved around fifteen minutes off of my breakdown time.

The other key to making this work? I needed two ditch or dump cases.

For “Magical Mayhem,” I chose the larger and more robust of the two I used. It was a cube-shaped case with a lid from Showtime Magic. It came with a flange on the bottom so I could add a stand during the show as I was working.

For the two “Christmas Magic” shows, I used a briefcase-size case on a stand. It’s more of a road case but briefcase-sized. I bought it a million years ago on Hocus Pocus.

The case came with its own stand and has served me well. It’s starting to wear out so I’m considering contacting Chris Weed at Showtime Magic and having him build me a similar-sized case.

In case you’re wondering, Showtime Magic does indeed offer custom work. And their stuff is sturdy as hell.

The other piece of the puzzle was my “Christmas Magic” show. I have a lot of choices for that show, too.

I often end that show with Snowstorm. It’s a beautiful effect and the perfect finale for any show. And it fits a Christmas show like a glove for obvious reasons.

But I chose not to use it for the first school that day. That would have added to my breakdown/cleanup time, causing a chain reaction of awfulness.

Because I had a tight time frame getting from the first school to the second, I had to choose effects that would indeed reset quickly. This would make my setup time at the library if I walked in with all of my effects preset.

Finally, I prepped for this by having a full tank of gas and a couple of sandwiches and water bottles in my car. No time to stop between gigs.

In the end, everything worked out great. All three shows were wonderful.

So, what can YOU do to reduce your breakdown/setup time in the event of a tight schedule?

Have a great week!

--Cris

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