I have a show booked for the morning of October 6th. I'm officially on their calendar from 10:30 - 11:00. I'm very excited but also a little nervous.

I did a run-through of my act and it clocked in at 19 minutes. I'm hoping with actual participation it's a bit longer, but I can also see myself getting nervous and rushing through the magic.

EDIT: And by "booked" I mean I'm donating my time of course. Trying to take the advice on here and perform a lot of free shows.

Sounds like you're "booking" a show before you are ready. Do they realize they are booking am amateur? This is so important as it sets the expectations of the client and venue. You should have at least a 30-40 minute performance before booking a senior venue. Remember they're seniors so if anything talk slower, annunciate and control your sound system accordingly (most important of all).

You do not seem to be from the U.S., correct?

Just realize you will have problems and most will be things you haven't thought about.

I should probably explain that I've worked as a professional magician in the past. I also used to work at the Magic Castle.

I've actually already donated my time at retirement homes, it was just about 10 years ago.

Thanks for the tips though. I will speak more slowly and enunciate, it's important that I'm reminded of that. I should probably tell you that this is just a simple close-up show and as such, there is no sound system other than my voice. Basically, it's just another activity on their calendar and they can come to see the show if they want in the common room.

I'm sure there will be unexpected challenges but overall I'm optimistic about it.

To be honest, I have a wedding walkaround gig next month and I want to get the stage rust off.

Show went pretty well, with a decent turnout of about 10 - 20 people in their activity room.

I made a few notes on what I can improve on and had to call an audible and cut one of my planned card routines. Overall I'm glad I was able to get the experience and they seemed grateful.

Another thing I noticed was it was hard doing my shell work on my new close-up mat, specifically the re-nesting of the shell, it's not "soft" enough, and had to fidget a bit during the performance.

Glad to hear it went well!

Congratulations on your success! If you don't mind my asking, how did you go about getting the gig?

I don't want to make it seem like this was a paying gig, because it was not.

With that said, I called my local assisted living facility (literally 5 mins away from my house) and asked to speak to the activities coordinator.

Once she gets on the phone you have about a minute or less to sell yourself, but basically, you ask if their residence would enjoy a magic show. She asked me what my fee was, I explained I would donate my time, not sure how it would of went otherwise.

This is actually the 3rd time I've performed such a show and I first got the idea on these forums.