By Steve Rawlings
There is no right or wrong way to write a new routine and put all the tricks together but I thought it would be good to share my process and get your thoughts and comments. I’ve recently put a new routine into my show and am working it into the act as I write this.
First of all comes the idea and the props you want to work with which for me was the wooden drum hoop and glass juggling trick where a glass of water is placed on the inside rim of the hoop which is then spun and thrown in many different ways hopefully without spilling all the water. (See article) I like the prop and the moves and it suits my style of performing , there was also a good amount of information and help on learning the tricks from videos and other performers. (David Cain, Olivier Caignart, and Paul Martin were extremely helpful in this).
No routine comes fully formed and I tend to let the idea run in my head for a few months before I act on actually putting something together. Nothing ever survives first contact with the audience and you’ll never just start with a perfect routine, I think the best you can hope for is something that’s strong enough to place somewhere in the middle of your show so that they are already on your side by the time you try it and if it tanks you still have time to rescue your show.
It’s also not a bad idea to ask the audience if they mind if you try something new, I’ve never heard them say no and it brings them on side and let’s them feel special to see you performing something for the first time .
So I’ve picked a prop I want to work with and now I work out which tricks I like and a rough order in which I think they work. I then start to run them in order to see if it sparks any ideas and if it runs smoothly from one trick to another. Once I’m happy with that, I sit down and write as many gags as I can around the ideas for presentation and the props themselves which was probably around thirty out of which I think two or three were good and a couple were possibles. I also took a couple of strong gags from my fire routine as I’m not performing it on this contract and gags based around danger seemed a good fit when you’re swinging a glass of water in a hoop around your head close to the audience. I added them to give the piece extra strength while I learned where the strengths and the funny in this routine are. (Short one liners normally based around what I’m doing seem to work best for me ) Not all lines need to be strong laughs though, a line like “it’s just a hoop and a glass of water , what could possibly go wrong?” isn’t in itself very funny but it sets up the trick nicely and reminds people of the risks.
I gave a lot of thought to how I’d introduce the routine and what angle I’d take with it and settled on, “let’s play a little game now (placing water glass on hoop) it’s called nerves, I’ll just do this ( swing the hoop near the audience) and you just tell me when you get nervous.”
All this gets me to a point where I can try the routine out in front of an audience to see what works and what doesn’t. As long as it isn’t a total flop it’s now a matter of performing it as often as possible making small changes each time, keeping the bits that work and losing what doesn’t, building layer upon layer through trial and error until you have a piece that can hold its own in your show. I’ve often found that a lot of my best lines come from something that just comes out during the show and make sure to remember them and add them to the next show. There’s just something about being in the moment that can sometimes bring out the best in you.
Steve Rawlings has been a successful professional entertainer for 42 years . With a career beginning with street performing and across many other venues, he is now mainly working on some of the biggest cruise ships in the world. He’s broken eight Guinness world records and has been lucky enough to meet and exchange ideas with amazing performers from all around the world.
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