When I was in the United States for exchange programme offered by National University of Singapore and Arizona State University, I witnessed wonderful magic in renaissance fairs and town fairs.
The magician would set up his table or case and would be able to gather a huge crowd for his act, and they typically look like this:
One of my favourite magician: Jim Cellini
This is pretty remarkable, and it is a full show with a definitive beginning and an end. Wonderful, simply wonderful.
And since I was in the States, I managed to meet real Street Performers and interacted with them. I learnt how to gather a huge crowd, I learnt how to maintain a crowd and end with a bang. Also, I took the six months I had in the States to design, craft and test my very own Street show, which I now call, Street Theatre. It was very well received by the Americans =)
While it is true that in Singapore, we do not have a lot of magicians who do shows like this, most of them do “hit and run” magic in which they show one or two ‘tricks’ and then leave. I have a certain distaste for this type of performance because it tend to leave your audience feeling incomplete.
Also, I should add that most Singapore magicians do not believe that Singaporeans would stay and watch magic. One of the reasons for such (false) beliefs is the lackluster busking scene in Singapore in which passer-bys would simply, pass by, these performers.
About more than a year ago, I had a conviction that what I had to offer was different and the things I learnt while I was in America would be valuable to the events industry in Singapore. I decided to do Street Theatre in the streets of Singapore. And the result? It turned out better than expected. I had tons of people stopping to watch my show.
Screenshot of Half the Crowd
On a separate engagement:
Towards the big finish!
Street Theatre is a show, not a hit and run type of performance but a structured and well designed show to maximize buzz and add colour to your event. It caters very well to events like festival, trade shows, road shows and product launches in which buzz and exposure is important.
Check out our promo video for Street Theatre (in HD):
For more information on Street Theatre or a consultation on the best form of magic for you event, check out our website at http://www.metaillusions.com
See ya!
Alexander 😉
The Event Magician 