Pack Flat, Play Big Tips

To pack flat…or not?

That is the question.

With apologies to the Bard, I’ve been wrestling with how to address this question.

Recently one of my subscribers responded to my request for topic ideas by asking for pack flat, play big tips.

Here’s the thing…I don’t know much about it.

Well, on one level I certainly do. Years ago, as the pandemic was easing, I found myself doing several birthday parties.

Birthdays are wonderful to make a lot of money and make a lot of kids very happy.

But leading up to the actual show can be challenging. You might wind up setting up in the living room where the kids are already playing. Or you might be asked to perform outdoors.

Back nearly 15 years ago when birthdays were still a major source of my income, my standard birthday show took 30 minutes to set up. That’s way too long.

My post-pandemic birthday show took ten minutes to set up. Much better.

So I’ve learned a lot about scaling back a show when I need to. I’ll share some brief thoughts on what I do when I want to scale back on the show. Then I’ll dive into my philosophy on packing flat.

Let’s start with kid shows, specifically birthday parties. One easy way to pack…uh…flatter is to use silks.

Learn a good multi-phase silk routine with a change bag. And I know a lot of family performers dislike the standard change bag with a handle. But there are a ton of change bag options out there that don’t look like the standard model.

But don’t stop there with the silks.

You can put together a great opener with silks.

My standard opener for my nighttime family show in schools is a silk routine.

Pulling silks out of Tommy James’ Silk Tube Production makes for a big, vibrant, colorful opener that does over well, giving my show that big ‘wow’ factor right in the beginning.

So that’s my first suggestion to play big – use lots of silks.

My second suggestion – card tricks.

Mac King’s wonderful Penguin Live lecture featured some simple but great techniques for making small tricks play bigger.

According to Mac, changing how you display the props goes a long way to making them play bigger.

As to card effects themselves, a standard deck of cards is okay for older kids or a mixed family show.

But for younger kids, why not try some animal cards, alphabet cards, or practically anything that young kids can relate to better?

Then there are rope tricks. Rope certainly packs flat. But I think the key to a good rope routine is to do something unique or at least create a new presentation.

Whenever I pull out a piece of rope, some of the kids will say, “I know what’s going to happen.”

That’s frustrating but it reminds me that to captivate an audience, you gotta do your best to keep them guessing.

The great thing about rope routines is that there are hundreds of different effects.

Most magicians I see tend to default back to a standard cut and restored rope routine. Or the Professor’s Nightmare. Or Pop Haydn’s Mongolian Pop Knot.

Those are all great routines. But they’ve been done to death.

Remember Joshua Jay’s article in the last issue of MAGIC. His study revealed that what audiences want most from magic is surprise.

So learn some new rope routines.

Finally, the easiest, best way to pack flat and play big is to involve your audience.

Volunteers make any show play bigger.

You can make a small prop play huge with a volunteer.

I have several Rubik’s Cube tricks in my repertoire. My current favorite is my mash-up of Axel Hecklau’s Easy Cube with The Solution.

In it, the volunteer is the one who miraculously solves the cube.

It’s so strong I could likely close certain shows with it.

It’s a small cube in front of 200 people. Yet it comes off as so much bigger because the volunteer is with me onstage. Their reaction carries to the back of the room.

Best thing about volunteers? You don’t have to set them up or pack them up when you leave.

But I’ve seen a lot of magic shows with minimal volunteers, and it always confuses me.

More volunteers equal more opportunities for situational comedy. And if you can cause the volunteer to ‘make the magic happen,’ you get a lot of credit for working well with audiences.

Plus you will please your bookers.

I get a ridiculous amount of praise for how well I work with kids. And even in my adult shows where no one sober wants to volunteer, my clients tell me how much they loved seeing the guests/coworkers involved.

So those are some very basic thoughts on packing flat and playing big.

For me, for most of my career, I haven’t deliberately tried to put together a pack flat show, unless I was performing outside.

Generally, I perform theme shows. Educational shows with messages or tricks with a theme in mind.

Requiring a trick to serve as an illustration of a lesson or message automatically narrows the field quite a bit.

I dislike overly expository tricks to link to a message. Things like “This deck of cards represents the population of your school” just don’t work for me, most of the time.

So I just get the tricks and props that I feel will best do the job.

Sometimes the best trick does pack flat. Other times...not so much.

As I’m getting older, I am now looking for ways to scale back my shows. Who knows, maybe in a few years I’ll show up to my gigs with nothing more than a suitcase.

But for now, I just look for the best tricks for the job.

Either way, I hope you found some value in my thoughts on how to pack flatter and play bigger.

On a personal note, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for allowing me into your life.

I have a lot of great things planned for 2024 and can’t wait to share them with you.

Have a great new year!

--Cris

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