Hello everyone. This is my first time posting in this gospel category.

I have a 3-minute audition coming up and I need to put together a routine with "Life" as the theme. My idea at the moment is to show the magic coloring book without color to represent a "dull or empty life". Then make 3 silks appear (red, yellow and blue) and vanish them towards the book. Finally I will open the book again in full color to represent "abundant life". That's all I have at the moment but it's not long enough to fill up 3 minutes. I can probably add in a sleeve bouquet production at the end to represent "growth".

This talent show is organized by a church but the routine doesn't necessarily need to have a gospel message. Maybe you can suggest other tricks, ideas that I can put in to fill up the 3 minutes. I'm also looking for a good gospel song (with a "life" theme) that I can use as the background music.

Thanks and looking forward to hear your suggestions.

I suggest that you do what you are comfortable with and that you do well. Pray and ask for guidance and help.

I agree with Rev Bill. A talent show audition will need "wow factor" to get noticed among the "cute kids" and "flashy costumes". Go with something that you do well and that has some flash and "wow" to it. You can adapt almost any routine to a trick. I have even used the Zombie (just don't call it that) to speak about the Resurrection.

Again, you can write any story line and routine to fit the necessary theme. Music can help as well.

I can't believe you can't come up with a 3 minute routine using the coloring book. Sorry but if you can't put a three minute routine together, maybe what you are auditioning for is not for you.

I know that sounds harsh, but I mean it in a good way. What if you win the audition? How long of a show will you be required to perform? If 3 minutes is hard enough for you that you need others to create a 3 minute routine for your audition, how can you put a 30-60 minute performance?

The coloring book in my opinion is one of the most diversified props that can easily be adapted to any message.

If this is something you like doing, you'll like it even more when you use your own creative idea's.

Then there is this - just because you have a time limit of 3 min, doesn't mean you HAVE to do 3 min. Do your thing & get off, hopefully leaving them wanting more.

You can do the reverse. Show the book filled with colors. Squeeze the colors out and produce the silks that can go the way of the blendo. Show the black and white drawings and proceed the "un-draw" the lines by pulling out the black lines by palming a rolled black ribbon and have it unravel like a hatcoil,
Gather the black ribbons and produce something live like a dove or even something like a feather bouquet.
Book is now empty.
Life should be manifest itself and not just remain in a 2D format.
Just some thoughts running through the grey matter between my ears.

Got an email address, I'll send some of my teaching notes for Sunday school.

Thanks for all your comments, ideas and criticisms. I appreciate them all.

Rickfcm, thanks for offering to send me your teaching notes. However, I want to do the whole 3 minute routine without talking at all. Just doing tricks to background music, which can be a song with lyrics.

I feel that my difficulty is not really in putting together tricks but coming up with metaphors for the theme of "Life" that hopefully the audience can understand without me saying a word. For example, maybe I want to do something to convey "Joy" or "Sorrow", all the things that are part of "Life".

Anyway, I think I can come up with something for the audition. Thanks again.

Hi Alex, Some worship songs that I like are Lifesong by Casting Crowns, Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) and Indescribable by Chris Tomlin and Oceans (Feet may Fail) by Hillsong. I think any one of those would provide some inspirational and strong background music. I think with the right acting you'd be able to convey the concept of abundant life using the Dream Bag effect ie the one where you produce flow boxes from a paper bag...it really impresses audiences of all ages.

I dunno Danny, not to veer off topic, but I find that a rigid 3 minutes is much harder to routine than a 30 minute show. Probably because all of my routines take 5+ minutes apiece lol.

If anyone could tell me I'd appreciate it(by PM??) - I"ve posted about 12 Gospel Routines with eazy effects - - I don't know how others could retreave them ?? - but if they can - all are welcome to use them - if you can ,and if it helps -please let me know(by PM??) Ralph (russo) Rousseau

Just for what it's worth, Rick shared his notes with me a while back and frankly, he is one of the most generous men I have NEVER met! His work over YEARS was and remains a blessing for me. What he calls his "notes" I would call a professional series on teaching Sunday school lessons that are doctrinally sound by using magic to capture attention and instill truths.

Thank you again Rick, and also you have taught me to share everything I know openly when it can be used to entertain as part of spreading the gospel. You represent the true spirit of FCM.

Just as an aside...if you are using music, be sure that you have the proper licensure to do so...unless you are using royalty-free music!

Agreed. Auditions are ALWAYS harder no matter if it's magic, music, acting, etc. You have a certain very limited time to impress the director or the judges.When you send of audition DVDs to agents, etc., you don't send 30 minute shows. These people want to get a sense of you as an entertainer and virtually all directors, etc., know within 30 seconds.

So to the OP: be tight, hit hard with your audition, and the cardinal rule: never EVER go OVER time. It's always better to come in under the allotted time.

My advice comes from 20+ years professional show business experience on both sides of the audition process.

Break a leg!!

Vlad

Okay, seriously, how hard is it to come up with a 3 minute routine for the coloring book? I am not trying to be rude, but sometimes people don't try to think for themselves. We do more damage by thinking for others than teaching them to think for themselves. Plus, it will all be to music, no talking. That means no script to write, no lines to memorize, and no need to create smooth transitions from one routine to the other. Sorry, but when you think of everything that goes into a 30 minute show, and what goes into a 3 minute show, there is a huge difference of preparation that is not required for a 3 minute silent bit.

Magic is a skilled art that takes imagination and creative thought. You have to be entertaining and original. Maybe this is why so many gospel magicians look like they were all cut from the same mold.

I do apologize if my words are being interpreted as being rude, but I am trying to be honest and helpful. The best advice I ever got was to think for myself. Use your own creative skills and gifts. If you can't create a silent routine for the coloring book you might be in the wrong line of work. I understand looking for advice and idea's, but when it comes to creating a show for someone who should be capable of creating their own show does not help the person out in the long run.

Also, this is an audition to show how talented they are. If they need to ask others to help create a 3 minute routine, maybe they shouldn't be auditioning.

And no, coming up with a 3 minute routine in my opinion is not harder to create than a 30 minute show. My 30 minute shows involve four routines. One of them is 10 minutes long, it involves timing to music, comedy, and choreographed movements. Maybe 3 minutes is hqard for most gospel magicians because they don't make any Gospel magic routines that are only 3 minutes long.

Another point is, being a magician isn't just about performing and entertaining, it's about having a creative mind and coming up with your own routines, patter, shows. That is one of the skills I believe is required to be a magician. You must be creative and have an imagination. If you don't have that you'll just become another performer who has to rely on others for creativeness.

Putting a 3 minute routine together on his own would of been a great test of his talents. Sometimes are creativeness doesn't come out until we force it to.

I feel like a jerk because I am not trying to be mean but helpful, and I don't think I am explaining myself as appropriately as I can.

I've not been performing for 20+ years but I recently signed a contract with several school boards to perform my anti-bullying school assembly program. In the short time I have been performing mainstream magic for children (2 years)I have sold out shows performed at Conexus Art Center, Royal Sask Museum, and have performed at festival and carnivals throughout my province. In my first live gig ever I was performing for over 300 people in an auditorium. So, I don't think my advice should be quickly disgarded.

Danny,

No one is disregarding your advice, and congratulations on your performance contract. A couple of us have been merely trying to state that the audition process does not allow the leeway one has with a full act. Any good professional booking agency, any serious band, and good director will kmow in less than a minute if the auditionee is right for the part, job, whatever. The audition must accomplish selling yourself and your act such that your audition convinces the auditioner that you right for the part. I mentioned my years of performing experience not to try to show you or anybody up and certainly not to "dismiss" you. I mentioned it Danny because I've been involved in the industry on both sides of the equation in a professional paid capacity for two decades.

Look at audition requirements for cruise lines for instance. At most some will allow a five to seven minute audition. Directors will have actors read a short part of a scene; they are not going to conduct auditions in which actors read the first scene of the first act of any play if it exceeds five minutes.

You do make a point about the audition process in that it does force you to be very creative. That said, that same creativity must be condensed into a very brief time period. Putting together a three minute routine in a show is quite a bit different. In a show where you are asked to perform, there is an obvious presupposition that you have passed an audition or someone has seen you perform and has booked you. Doing that is hard enough, but, in virtually all cold auditions, the auditioner has never seen nor heard of the auditionee and a job is on the line, and not just that of the person who is auditioning.

You're not a jerk Danny.

Best,
Vlad

Thanks Vlad. I see where you are coming from. When I think about the auditions I have been to for casting I usually get a couple of minutes. I would get more time on call backs, but I see what you are getting at. I wasn't able to see it that way until you expained it the way you did.

Time for me to chip in again. Thanks again everyone for your input.

In case anyone has misunderstood, I was only asking for ideas because I was brainstorming. I wasn't looking for someone to help create my 3-minute routine. I always ask for other's ideas first because sometimes I get stuck in a certain way of thinking and I wanted to open up my mind to see other possibilities. Usually someone's ideas will trigger something for me and make a lightbulb to go off in my mind.

Anyway, all this has helped me to clarify my thoughts and finalize my routine. Previously I was trying to do too much with the 3 minutes - thinking of all the things to put in. Now I have decided to just do a Torn & Restored Newspaper while focusing on the message of Life having joy, sorrow, ups and downs. We can be torn apart into pieces but if we have faith, hope and love, we can restore our lives again. I think that sums up the theme of Life pretty well.

Pretty good but that message contradicts biblical teaching. Hope and love does not restore our lives, God does through His grace and mercy. If this is an audition for a church, you might have some calling you on that. Maybe not though.

I wish you all the best. Let us know how it went.

Hi Alex,

Going to agree with Danny on his assessment about your message. But I think that it just needs a little clarification. Without God in our lives and in our hearts, our lives become torn. From God comes faith, hope and love, and as you know, the greatest of these is love.

A priest told me that when we do not have God in our lives we are furthest from being human (destroyed), when He is in our lives, or more accurately, the focus of our lives, we are the most human (whole).

Break a leg with the audition! I am sure you will do well!!

Yours in Christ,
Vlad