Your Clients Will Love This

“You did that perfectly! I was so pleased to see how you handled that,” Jim said.

I beamed with pride.

I was sitting in my director’s office. We were breaking down my math show performance from earlier in the day.

Having a director is wonderful. It helps you see what you normally don’t. With a good director, your performances improve drastically.

But in this case, I want to highlight what my director, Jim Vagias, was talking about when he praised me.

Don’t worry, this newsletter is not about Look What I Did. I’m So AWESOME.

Not at all.

It’s about inclusiveness. And looking for ways to include members in your audience who normally don’t get the opportunity to be included.

Let me set the stage.

I was performing my Goofy Kooky Math Show at an elementary school. It was my second show, for grades 3-5.

I was setting up my big finale, which is an older Jeff Hobson release. I can’t remember off the top of my head what he called it, but here’s what the effect looks like:

You bring out a 20-foot-long length of chain. Two volunteers stand on either side of you, each holding an end of the chain.

The chain is behind you, at waist level. When you tell the volunteers to pull, the chain appears to go right through your middle.

Nice effect, very dramatic.

At the show in question, I called for two volunteers for the Great Chain Escape (the name just popped back into my head).

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it.

A teacher standing next to a student in a wheelchair. She was frantically pointing down at him.

The message was clear: “Pick him!”

In my mind, I calculated whether this student, who appeared to have very little motor control of his body, could handle this trick.

It took me a millisecond to realize he could, with his teacher’s help.

While I build up the idea of the students yanking hard and pulling the chain through my body, in reality, it doesn’t often go that way.

Some kids are too reluctant to pull the chain very hard.

So, I wind up pulling the chain myself with my two hands.

In reality, all this child in a wheelchair needed to do was hold the end of the chain in his hand.

And he’d look great in front of his classmates.

Yup, all of that ran through my head in a split second.

When you’ve been doing an effect for so long, you can make those kinds of calculations and on-the-fly show adjustments rapidly.

So, I called the kid onstage.

During all the cheering and applause, I quickly turned my mic off and greeted the kid and teacher.

I whispered to the teacher, “You might need to help him a little. He’ll do great!”

I turned my mic back on and did the routine.

It went great, and that led to my director’s praise.

My point of this story? I want to encourage you to do the same thing,

Look for opportunities to include people who may have challenges. I know most of my subscribers are family or kid show performers, so I hope this resonates with you.

I guarantee if you take the extra step of trying to include some of these folks, your clients will really appreciate it.

And you’ll make that kid’s day, too.

Magic is supposed to be fun for all. What better way to spread the joy of magic than by including someone who probably never gets picked to help at a show?

Some of you might be wondering one thing: How?

How can you include someone who may not have the same physical abilities as the rest of the audience?

It’s actually pretty simple.

Look at your setlist. Look at the routines where you use volunteers.

Look carefully at what physical actions the volunteer needs to do.

If it’s something simple like just standing (or sitting in a wheelchair) and they’re there as part of a story, then it’s easy to include them.

Yes, there may be little comedy bits you may have to leave out.

Here’s another example from my shows: Mouthcoil.

In my routine, the volunteer and I start off doing a “do as I do” routine, tearing the tissue paper, and so forth.

Eventually, I stuff all the tissue paper in my mouth and as I pull out the mouthcoil, hand the end to the volunteer. They start pulling as I walk backward until we are about 30 feet apart from each other.

Yes, it looks gross, but kids love it and so do the adults.

But if I wanted to get a child in a wheelchair involved, I’d do most of the routine myself onstage, then walk to the front row where the child in the wheelchair was.

I’d encourage him to pull it out.

I may have lost some of the comedy bits, but I make up for it by including someone who probably didn’t expect to be chosen.

And by crossing that imaginary 4th wall, I’ve brought the magic into the audience.

You may not like these ideas. But by looking at your set list, you’ll come up with your own easy ways to include a kid who really wants to help but normally doesn’t get picked.

Try it, and you’ll feel great.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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