Outdoor Shows - David Ginn

Outdoor Shows
by David Ginn and Friends
David Ginn doing outdoor magic on
the Indian Ocean beach in South Africa,
May 2007. Try doing a sleeve bouquet
production outdoors with the wind
blowing! You can see me performing this
at www.GinnMagic.com (David on
YouTube). Photo by John Doyle.
Long before Sammy Smith became editor of The Linking
Ring and Steve Taylor started traveling around the country
for the Upwards Basketball Leagues, the three of us
presented 147 all-day Komedy Kidshow Klinics across
North America. We had a great time together, with lots
of adventures on planes, trains, and automobiles. And the
two of them never let me, David, sleep in the rollaway bed,
even though I repeatedly offered to do so!
During our travels we discussed lots of ways of
working with children, published dozens of M-U-M
Magazine columns, and even produced a book called
Creative KidTalk, based on our conversations.
For the next five pages, let me share with you our threeway
conversation about working shows outdoors, with
Mother Nature as our backdrop. Maybe these comments based on experience will help you
do a better outdoor performance wherever you live.
I’ll start off the conversation.
DAVID: Outdoor shows can be both fun and profitable. Lots of clowns and magicians
do these shows at picnics, birthday parties, and fairs. In fact, I have a picture of me doing
an outdoor birthday party that dates back 37 years! So let’s talk about the pros and cons,
including some do’s and don’ts, of working outdoors.
At the top of my list of things you don’t do are dove productions outdoors. I know a guy
who borrowed a couple of doves to do an outdoor show. The first dove he produced flew up
into a tree. The second one flew down between him and the audience. A dog present at the
show leaped onto the bird and chomped the poor thing to bits—with the audience watching!
STEVE: Finally, a performer who had his audience literally eating out of his hand!
DAVID: But there’s more. Undaunted, the guy ended his act with the dove cage vanish.
Empty, of course, but he vanished it! Remember, the show must go on!
SAMMY: There are different kinds of outdoor shows, and some I like better than others.
If necessary, I don’t mind doing a birthday party show out in the yard. What I don’t care for

are outdoor festivals where you are standing in 130-degree
heat all day long. With kids in a yard, you are only there
maybe forty-five minutes.
STEVE: Personally, I usually avoid outdoor birthday parties.
The kids don’t enjoy the show as much, plus it could be
deadly to your rabbit. And having a live rabbit in my show
is its biggest selling point.
DAVID: Outdoor rabbit productions are fine as long as
the bunny remains in a cool safe place until just before the
production; then you load him into the box.
STEVE: So doing an outdoor show creates some very
unique performing circumstances.
One of the most obvious is the heat. Therefore, you don’t
particularly want to wear your evening formal tuxedo at an
outdoor show. Carefully select a wardrobe that is both cool
and makes you look like the paid performer, not just another
picnic participant.
Backyard birthday party @ 1973.
Two years out of the army,
I had my long Prince Valiant hair,
but I was dressed in coat and tie!
SAMMY: One thing I’ve found—it helps to find a good shady area for setting up.
STEVE: Definitely. Shade is a big plus for the audience, too. People don’t want to be uncomfortable
trying to watch your show. If they get hot or have to look directly into the sun,
they won’t enjoy your performance. That means they won’t stick around, and you probably
won’t stick around, and you probably won’t get hired back. Plus, those who do stick around
will barely react to anything you do.
At one county fair I attended, a magician set up his show so the audience had to face the
bright summer sun behind him. We couldn’t see him comfortably; and therefore, we didn’t
enjoy his show.
If my only two choices are having the sun in my eyes as the performer or having the sun
in the audience’s eyes, I get the sun in my eyes. I’d rather be a little uncomfortable and have
my audience enjoy the show than the other way around.
SAMMY: At an outdoor festival once, I was on the back of a flatbed truck about six
feet above the audience. Everyone was sweltering in the hot sunlight. John Young, who
introduced the show, relieved some tension with a little humor: “Welcome to our outdoor
tanning salon!”
STEVE: One thing I see some performers do when it’s bright outside is wear sunglasses
throughout the show. I personally feel there is nothing worse for an audience than to have
to watch a performer when they can’t see his eyes.
DAVID: Some performers don’t realize it, but that puts a huge barrier between you and
the audience.

SAMMY: Personally, I dislike doing outdoor shows because of all the variables, although
sometimes you have to work them. I’ve also noticed with outdoor shows it is much harder
to develop a rapport with your audience.
Since the people are sitting outside, without chairs, in hot weather, what are some things
we can do to make our outdoor shows better for the audience?
DAVID: Short, simple tricks and routines help.
SAMMY: Because people are free to come and go, a long routine might keep people
from stopping or make you lose the audience you already have.
STEVE: I personally feel it’s also a good idea to shorten your show. Thirty minutes is
about the optimum length of attention span for an effective outdoor show. That same audience,
if indoors, could easily sit through a 45-60 minute show. Of course, if there’s a lot of
variety in your show, like the inclusion of a section of juggling, puppetry, games and so on,
you can go longer.
DAVID: Humor definitely helps. Projecting to the back row. Every once in a while, I try
to make a comment especially for those people standing or seated at the farthest perimeter
of the audience. If someone is leaning against a tree, I will yell “Hey! Hold that tree up!”
Anything to connect with the people who are far away, to pull them into the show.
STEVE: And don’t be afraid to tell the people sitting far away to move closer to the stage
area. Another thing: I also use a little more audience participation than I do at an indoor
show. I have found more adults will stick around to see the show if they think you might
use their kids as helpers. Plus, this helps keep the audience focused on your show and not
on the distractions.
DAVID: What are some of these shorter, quicker tricks we each have used in our outdoor
shows? I like the Pom Pom Pole.
STEVE: Fraidy Cat Rabbit. You can hold it in your hand, and it gets the people responding.
DAVID: The Vanishing Coke Bottle.
SAMMY: Cut and Restored Rope.
DAVID: Linking Rings. Sword Thru Neck. Disecto.
STEVE: Besides being shorter and to the point, outdoor shows require tricks that you
can do surrounded. People will walk up and stand behind you during your show, so you
must plan effects that can be performed successfully with the audience behind you.
SAMMY: Burling Hull published a book called Entirely Surrounded by the Audience
around 1949, and he listed every trick in existence at the time that you could perform
surrounded.
STEVE: How about a stage? The few times I have encountered a stage at a company
picnic, the band is on it, and they won’t move their stuff for nothing.
DAVID: But if you can get on that stage during a band break and use their sound

Here’s that “creek as backdrop” outdoor show from
August 1967. Outdoors and no sound system.
But there was a dog in the audience. …
system, your show will go more smoothly. Just
work in front of the band stuff.
STEVE: Sure, but your company picnics of
fifty or a hundred people will rarely have such a
nice set up. Rarely do you have a stage or even a
backdrop.
DAVID: Sometimes I create my own backdrop
when I do an outdoor show. A creek or a tree can
become your backdrop. I have done things like set
up jet set backdrops and actually tied them down
with ropes to trees or poles. One of the best outdoor
backdrops you can use in the world is your own car or van. Drive it up immediately
behind your performing area, lay your curtains over the van, and work out of the other side
or the back of the van as a backstage.
SAMMY: A friend of mine was once doing an outdoor stage show at a fair. During his
performance, a walk-around clown came up with a dog and tied the dog to the corner of
the stage, then left. All during the show the dog barked, and the kids kept asking, “Can I
pet your dog?” My friend kept saying, “It’s not my dog!”
STEVE: I thought you were going to say the clown started doing balloon animals during
your friend’s show. Speaking of unwanted distractions, have you noticed that every bird, car,
dog, tractor, and tornado knows the exact moment you are going to start your show? Some
outdoor shows can present real challenges.
DAVID: Of course, but there is good money in outdoor shows. What we need to do as
performers, if we take on that outdoor show, is to work out ahead of time with the client as
many things to your advantage as possible. In other words, if they offer an platform, take it.
If you can work during the band break and use their sound system, that’s to your advantage.
Prepare to erase as many distractions beforehand as possible.
STEVE: Another distraction can be the picnic itself! At many company picnics they
schedule so many other events opposite you, like the three-legged-potato-race-for-lefthanded-kids-with-blue-eyes,
that you might end up with only four people watching your
show. So, when booking an outdoor show with the client, I try to arrange beforehand that
all other competing activities STOP during my performance. No bands, no face painting,
no games, no balloon animals, no dogs tied to the stage, no dove buffets. If possible, suggest
to the client that during your show it would be a good time for all the other performers and
workers to take a break. You will have more people at your show, making you look good, and
you’ll solve many of your distraction problems at the same time.
SAMMY: What are some ways to make sure you have enough people in the audience of
your outdoor show?

STEVE: Good question. I have found it helps my show if I become a Pied Piper and
round up my own audience a few moments before show time. I do this by walking around,
maybe doing some close-up magic, the vent puppet or a spring animal, and start plugging
the start time and location of the show. Plus, this helps get people to follow me back to the
show area.
Then over my sound system I start announcing, “Ten minutes until the magic show. Fun
for the whole family!” “Five minutes to the FUN MAGIC SHOW. Kids from four to a
hundred-and-four will love it!” and “Magic show in one minute! Helpers will be picked
from the kids sitting up front,” and so on.
I believe in creating your own audience, because the bigger audience you draw means the
client who hired you will be more pleased with the job you did.
DAVID: Portability for outdoor shows is also an important consideration. If you can,
go in with a show basket or suitcase table that packs up quickly. In other words, don’t take
a lot of equipment and side tables with silk covers that might blow away. In fact, any trick
involving silks you might want to eliminate, your
productions, your blendos, due to wind problems.
STEVE: Otherwise, your expensive silks
could be “Gone With The Wind!” How’s that for
Southern, David?
SAMMY: Which reminds me—we haven’t
even mentioned the most notorious outdoor variable—the
weather!
David Ginn making a LIVE DOG appear on
the beach in short sleeves (David, not the dog).
The dog was as amazed as was David!
Photo by John Doyle.
DAVID: Once a client hired me to perform
an outdoor show for 300 people at a family picnic.
Fortunately, the audience was under a shelter.
So we moved the van into place as a backdrop
and worked under the shelter. That was lucky for
everybody. Just as the show started, it began raining, and it rained during the entire show.
At one point during the show, I walked over to the client and asked if he wanted me to
keep the show going because it kept raining. He said “yes” and we kept the show going for
75 minutes. I had a very happy customer.
STEVE: You stretched a 45-minute show to 75 minutes? Exactly how many times can a
performer do the Wilting Flower?
DAVID: Hey, I had two pretty female assistants!
SAMMY: A similar situation happened to me in a park, under a shelter with open sides.
I set up my sound system, and I thought I had it in far enough. But during the show a rain
storm started, and it rained on my amplifier. I had to discontinue using the sound system
and talk loud.

DAVID: You have to think ahead and bring some waterproof wraps folded and ready for
an emergency. Properly thrown over your equipment in case of a sudden storm, they could
save you thousands in ruined equipment.
SAMMY: In case of rain, I say, “Be prepared.” Have enough ponchos on hand to sell to
the audience!
STEVE: Before we wrap this up, let me put in a little plug, pun intended, about outdoor
sound systems. If you are planning to have a couple of hundred people sit and watch your
show, make sure your client supplied you with, or you bring your own, a large, powerful
sound system. Since there are no acoustics outdoors, it will take a big, loud sound system
for two hundred people to hear you. Believe me, if they can’t hear you, they ain’t gonna like
your show! Plus, if you bring your own, don’t forget plenty of extension cords—because
outdoors, it is usually a long way to the nearest plug!
DAVID: In conclusion, let me make a suggestion. When performing outdoor shows, you
have to be willing to roll with the punches, be flexible according to the situation, pre-plan
for the possible distractions, and remain adaptable to the circumstances.
I remember reading in an old Genii Magazine about a guy up on platform doing a magic
show for a picnic. He was about to do his next trick, when he noticed a big dog running
directly at him from behind, out of view of the audience. The dog was running so fast, he
knew that dog would be up on that stage with him in about four seconds. He realized
instantly that the audience couldn’t see the impending arrival of the dog, so he thought
quickly and improvised.
He picked up a big cloth and let it drop down to the stage like a bullfighter holds his red
cape. At the same moment the dog jumped up onto the stage, directly at the cloth, intent
on ripping it to shreds, the performer instantly removed the cloth to reveal the apparent
appearance of the unexpected canine. The audience was astounded with the wonderful,
magical appearance, out of nowhere, of a real, live dog!
STEVE: With a dead dove hanging out of its mouth!
DAVID: That performer knew how to be flexible and adaptable, the two keys to
successfully performing outdoors.
Excerpted from Creative KidTalk. © 2000 by David Ginn, Samuel Patrick Smith and
Steve Taylor. Used by permission.