What If a Prop Breaks at a Show?

What do you do when disaster strikes at a show?

The picture above is of my beloved Losander Floating Table. Losander may not have invented the floating table concept, but his are truly awesome.

I bought mine 15 years ago.

I have warm feelings toward it because it’s the first truly magical prop I bought specifically for school shows.

My first dozen or so audiences loved my school shows’ messages and lessons. But the teachers were not impressed with the quality of the magic I was presenting.

I discovered this by passing out evaluation forms. They suggested I up my game in the magic department.

So, I ordered a floating table. After thousands of performances, it finally ‘died’ on me at a show.

Now I was stuck without a closing piece. The issue wasn’t time – my routine with the table is intentionally short, only a couple of minutes.

But when I design a show, I like to end with a truly amazing effect. Something very ‘fooling,’ or beautiful, or just plain BIG.

With my floating table broken, I had to close my show with my #2 ‘fooler,’ the Axtell Board.

I’ve closed many smaller shows with it, and it serves as a good finale.

I kept my cool and my client LOVED my show. She was a retiring principal and said my show was the best assembly she’d ever seen.

Like most of my newsletters, this experience gave me the idea for this newsletter.

I ask again…when disaster strikes and a prop breaks, what do you do?

I’ve got a few suggestions for what to do if this happens.

Here we go…

1. When planning your set list, have a second routine planned you can end the show with.

There are times when I’m suddenly asked by the organizers to cut the show short. Usually, it’s because they took too long getting the kids to the assembly area.

Their late arrival cuts into my performing time. So, I need to cut the show short.

Other times, I get to the venue and for some reason, my closer may not work. Maybe the angles are bad. Or the kids are too close. Whatever.

I move to my second closer.

2. If your prop breaks, don’t panic.

I get it. This is a big deal. You love performing and were looking forward to showing that routine.

But the worst thing you can do is lose your mind.

If all else fails, remember this…and it’s a doozy:

Your client and your audience have no idea what you are going to do.

Yes, I know you may have used ‘float a kid’ or ‘live rabbit’ or something like that to sell your show. (More on this later.)

But in literally 100% of the times when I had a prop break before a show, not a single person noticed.

I hadn’t told anyone what kind of magic I was doing. So as far as they knew, the show they saw was the show I was planning at the start.

I can’t begin to tell you what a mental shift this was for me.

I’ll use my promo videos as an example.

On my site, I have separate promo videos for every show I offer. And of course, I feature clips of the tricks.

But I haven’t updated my videos in years. There are a few clips for various shows with tricks I no longer use.

No one noticed.

Bookers are only concerned about one thing: Did you engage the audience?

If the answer is ‘yes,’ that’s all they care about.

3. Don’t tell your client.

Yup, if you can avoid it, don’t tell your client.

Your job is to show up and put on a show. They don’t need (and don’t want) to hear about things that have gone wrong.

Case in point…we are having an addition added to our house. Today, as I’m writing this, one of the plumbers was complaining to my wife about how hard our weird house was making the job.

This added difficulty didn’t affect the cost. And my wife and I are not plumbers.

It’s not our job to fix this.

All this plumber did was annoy us.

There is an exception.

If you sold your show on live animals or floating the birthday child or some other specific segment, you’ll have to tell your client your prop broke.

Just explain it as cheerfully as you can. Assure the client there will still be an awesome show. Discount the show and move on.

4. Think of other instant effects you can plug in

If you need to fill a certain time, consider what other impromptu effects you can use in a pinch.

Once I was at a middle school performing my bully show. During the show, I realized one of my props had broken.

The audience didn’t know, and I didn’t tell them.

As I was performing a routine, I realized I was going to come up short in my show by about ten minutes.

That’s way too long.

If I tell my school assembly clients that my show is 45 minutes and I come in at 42 minutes, it’s no big deal.

But ten minutes is noticeable.

As I delivered my scripting, I rummaged around in my brain for impromptu effects. I immediately came up with Banachek’s PK Touches.

Happily, that effect is perfect for middle school kids.

But how was I going to tie the trick into the educational component my show demanded?

I then crafted a quick outline of a script in my head for PK Touches…while I was still performing the previous routine.

It all worked quite well to the point where PK Touches is now a permanent part of that middle school assembly.

The bottom line?

Keep calm. If a prop breaks, you’ll get through it if you keep calm.

I just realized something as I was saving this issue to my computer. 

This is issue #100 of The Professional Magician’s Life newsletter.

I remember wondering if I’d make it a year!

As always, thank you for being a loyal subscriber.

I really appreciate it.

--Cris

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