You Take The Rough With The Smooth

It has been a weekend of two halves. Firstly with the weather. On Saturday it was a scorcher, as it had been for most of the week, and driving with one arm constantly exposed, and then giving energetic performances in the heat really took it out of me. However, after my family magic and Ventriloquism show at Auchenlarie Holiday Park on Saturday night, I left the building, and walked to my car in the pouring rain! I was soaked!

I also had wildly different experiences with the gigs themselves.

On Saturday morning, I went along to a party venue, as in, a public building which is used solely for parties, and the instant I set up my stuff, a huge bouncy castle was inflated right next to me 🙄

The kids were between 2 and 5 years old and there was no way they weren't going to not have a go on the inflatable. So, no show 🤷🏻‍♂️

I made sure I did a special piece of magic for the birthday girl, but after that, I just made balloon models for them all. Thankfully, the mum who had booked me was delighted with this, and even gave me a hug! The kids loved it too

After that, and before the holiday park, I rushed to a tiny village and performed my full show for about 30 kids. They all loved it and the parents laughed all through the show too. And then, the holiday park gig was a really great one. Everything just hit perfectly.

And then it was Sunday. Father's Day, and Chester's birthday. I had one gig, and it wasn't until 2pm, so I had a lie in. My stepson made me a fry-up for breakfast, and my wife made me a coffee. Lovely start to the day.

After I opened my gifts and walked the dog, I headed off. Traffic was pretty bad. Everyone seemed to be going out for a spot of lunch, or for a day out. It was fine though, I was scheduled to arrive at the venue 15-20 minutes early. Until I hit the roadworks. Just before Glasgow Airport, there is work going on, and the speed limit is down to 40mph, but in reality, with so much traffic trying to get through, it's actually more like 5-10mph. It was not fun.

However, I got to the venue, just at 2pm, when I was due to start, but it was a surprise party for someone, and that person hadn't turned up yet. Phew.

When they did though, so did the kids. And these kids were hard work.

As soon as I brought out the first piece of magic, the oldest boy started shouting and swearing(!) at me. The parents were doing nothing but chuckling, so I told him to stop.

He didn't, and the younger kids were playing up to it and joining in. So I put the magic away and brought out my first puppet. Nope. ‘Why is your hand in his ass?’ and so it continued. I put away the puppet and told everyone in the hall that I was just going to make balloons. And that's what I did. For two hours. For five kids 🙄

In between the 'I want's, the threats of ‘I'm going to steal your magic case’ the attempted break-in's of said case, and the actual kicks, which I stopped quickly, it was a long two hours.

It was no longer a good day.

To top it off, I was looking at buying something from a magicians group on Facebook, but because Saturday had been so busy, I hadn't had a chance to respond to his message, thinking I would after my show on Sunday. I opened up the messenger app, to find a message saying ‘Thanks for not having the respect to reply to my messages!’ and I found I was blocked 😂 It had been about 20 hours. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♂️

Before too long, I was back home with Houdini, my furry best friend, and all was good with the world again.