Help newbie performers

[Steven Ragatz]

Sikkolo,

Create your show based on what you like to watch. Why not perform with the gloss and polish the same way that you design your websites? Pay attention to design, form, color, and above all, content. Details matter. Just because your stage is a sidewalk doesn't mean that you can't transform it into a theater.

Steven Ragatz

PS. You've got some nice digital designs on your site. Do you freelance?

[sikkolo]

Hey Steven, thanks for you help.
It's not so easy for me create a show, I am writing down a storyboard of what i can do and tell but i think that it will be better if I start using some others routine for starting up, and then when i will get confidence with the "art" i can start making my own show. The problem is that i don't know any interesting routine, I also haven't never saw juggling/clown shows in the street.

I am glad you appreciate my website, it's just a personal one and it's a bit out of date. I work as art director in a webagency in Italy, but i also do a lot of freelancer work at home, in the spare time. As you can see, i also swap my work for food, juggling materials and anything i can get that is nice enough for me
So if you are interested just write me down

I will take care of all your suggestion guys, thanks to everyone!

[martin ewen]

Heres the breakdown I was taught.

Before you go onto the street.

Develop a character,

1/ Get one article of clothing that ‘is’ you, some playful/interesting piece of clothing, hat, jacket,pants doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are comfortable and playful about pushing a stage to just outside your body..

2/ grab a prop, juggling ball, babies rattle, small/big doesn’t matter, any object that gives you some deep playful impulse (resist yourself you double entendre fuckers)
Something that, in any given moment where you feel you’re losing it, you can grab that thing and focus on it and remember that the idea is to enjoy yourself. Choose wisely and personally.

3/ THEN on the pitch

create a stage
Put your props out with focus and intention (builds possible anticipation, its a tension device)

and/or mark out an area with string/rope whatever

and or pace the intended stage

and or (others can put suggestions under numbers ie this is 3) (then we could put it in the library under ‘collective’)

4/
Create an audience

beckon interested people to the edge of what you have defined as your stage.

Use the ‘curious ape’ technique.
(Deeply rooted in the human psyche is a curiousity borne from self preservation. From the time we came down from the trees onward unusual things had the ability to kill. If a person see’s an action or a series of actions that make no sense it is a universal human principal that they will halt and focus until they have percieved meaning. If you for example take 5 actions and unusually stop each to continue another nothing will make sense for round two thirds of the process when the objectives become more apparent. In this time a good proportion of people passing will stop to try and make out what you are doing.
I was lucky enough to have the silly people comedians do a piece I wrote that demonstated this principle, I was able to stretch ‘making no sense at all but obviously doing something focused’ to a grand total of round 15minutes--before they realised that the dead fish were there to attract flys that each performer was compeditively catching)

Promise them a show

create eyecontact

instigate relationships, be happy, if you try too hard go back to (2) then resume.


I’ve got other stuff to do I’ll get back to you with.

Show
beginning middle end income

[Steven Ragatz]

I may contact you about digital stuff... I'm always looking for good resources.

As for putting together a show, it sounds like you're suffering a bit from "over-analysis-paralysis". Don't think about it so much. Step away from the computer. Get your stuff in a bag. Just do it.

Remember this: There is no failure, just differing degrees of success!

Steve

[Butterfly Man]

It'd be nice if it were a story but ...

Crowd gathering and hat passing aside ... it's still just a show.

I think the first thing any solo performer needs to find out is HOW OTHERS PERCEIVE YOU ...

The only way I know to do that is to take whatever skills you have and present them to an audience ... don't write material (for gawds sake don't steal) just put the things you do in a kind of order on the ground in front of you ... then pick them up (even if they are alive) and see what happens ... THEY (the audience) will tell you what they want from you ... and THEY will write your show for you.

Once you know who you ARE ...you will know your CHARACTER ... your clown.

It might be a little frightening at first ... but you will get it pretty quick ... especially if you are hungry.

Once you know what they want to see ... then it's pretty easy ... just write down everything that you see or hear that is funny ... if you wanna get real good, record your shows on tape ... that's about it.

Oh yeah ... smile a lot

[scot]

there is no failure, just success and not trying. Set your goal and do it. There are tons of business people that are very successful because they're stupid. They don't think about stuff, they just start and figure it will all work out. Hard work is better than hard thinking. This is what I tell myself once a week.

You're photos are nice. like
ScotYaY Hooray for design discussion.

Get out and do bad shows. It's awesome.

[Butterfly Man]

Whistler was always awesome for me.

"Get out and do bad shows. It's awesome."

Scot, thank you for that ... it encapsulates my entire career.

[scot]

Butterfly's being sarcastic, but some people do bad shows for their whole career and love it.

[sikkolo]

Ok man thanks! As soon as possible i go out in the street and make my show!