I just finished working the "Early May Bank Holiday". The weather wasn't particularly cooperative. I didn't work Covent Garden because the line was super long. Instead, I went looking for other venues. I had plenty of notes from the CG magicians and wanted to try some things out in peace, and (even more important) be able to do them several times. This meant I needed my own pitch with nobody sharing it.

After a couple of false starts, I found what I was looking for in Kensington, on the very spacious sidewalk in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Honestly, I expected a security guard from the museum to come tell me I couldn't work there, but that never happened. I worked that pitch off and on whenever I pleased for two afternoons.

The big problem I was having at Covent Garden was that even when I gathered a crowd, they wanted to see one really good trick and then leave. My routines all assume you are sitting in chairs and you came to see the show. So after you've seen something really great, you're ready to see the next thing. On the street, I'm seeing the magicians hold the audience with frankly rather mediocre magic, then knocking them dead with one really great routine, and passing the hat. I'm trying to do three routines at that higher level and it isn't working.

So I tried selling the show as a MIND READING SHOW, as my closing routine involves reading the minds of five audience members, revealing the card each one is thinking of. That makes everything we do before that just stuff to pass the time, because we want more people before we start the show. And I'm keeping my volunteers for the whole show instead of sending them back and getting fresh ones. This helps create the impression it's all one thing. Present routine is some sponge tricks to make friends, rope tricks to gather a larger crowd, a comedy "teaching mindreading" routine, and then we "start the show" which uses the deck of cards I previously handed to an audience member to hold. Talking about the hat donations happens after we've dealt out the cards to five people but before I've read their minds.

Eh, that's the theory anyway. Still trying to get the energy and pacing right. And it's still hard to get the crowd in the first place.