Posted by Ian on 2009-05-02
in Tips
Every magic show you attend has a compere. His or her job is to introduce the acts and to fill in time between backstage changes.
It seems to be a concept pretty unique to magic shows and also a fairly recent phenomenon. In the days of music halls and variety shows, comperes never existed. When one act finished, the next one would come on. Their order was indicated by a number which would correspond with the number in the programme.
Alternatively there would be a chairman sitting besides the stage who would bang a gravel and introduce the acts that way. Some of the older readers will recall this from the television programme ‘The Good Old Days’ which was filmed at The City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.
The only other time you see comperes, apart from magic shows, is on television. This probably began with the show ‘London Night at the London Palladium’, which was hosted by Bruce Forsyth. On television you do need a compere – or host – to let the audience at home know what’s happening. That’s unnecessary at a live theatre show as the programme can do that for you.
The job of a compere is in theory quite simple. It’s to keep the show moving as fast as you can, making sure you don’t do any material which clashes with any of the performers. If he or she has to do a ‘spot’ then it should be done at a time when a lot of backstage preparation has to be carried out.
Just recently I performed at a magic dinner where there were three acts on: myself, an American magician who was doing some card tricks and a juggling act. The compere rang me up on the day of the event to check what I was doing. One of the tricks he was going to do seemed like it would clash with mine, so very professionally he said he would drop it.
I was therefore rather surprised when the show started that he said that before he was going to bring on the first act – the American specialising in cards – he was going to do a card trick by way of introduction. And then, before the juggling act, he said he would do some comedy juggling. Both pieces, apart from conflicting with what was to follow and inevitably reducing their impact, were rather drawn out.
By the time I was due to go on, the show was running late and the energy had disappeared from the room. I was hoping that the compere wouldn’t do anything before me. But sadly, no. He proceeded to do a bullet catching routine. Admittedly this didn’t conflict with my material but it did last another fifteen minutes and was hardly a ‘laugh a minute’ routine. Eventually he introduced me to a slightly comatosed audience.
Afterwards I was told a story about the compere (call him J) in question by another magician. Both were performing on a show which was running overtime – this time J was one of the acts, not the compere. The magician, who preceded J in the running order, decided to drop out as the show was running so late. J went on and was expected to do fifteen minutes – and proceeded to do half an hour.
Afterwards the magician confronted J. “Why on earth did you do twice your allotted time – you knew how late the show was running.” J was completely unfazed: “Well, as you dropped out, I thought I’d make up your time!”
It seems to be a concept pretty unique to magic shows and also a fairly recent phenomenon. In the days of music halls and variety shows, comperes never existed. When one act finished, the next one would come on. Their order was indicated by a number which would correspond with the number in the programme.
Alternatively there would be a chairman sitting besides the stage who would bang a gravel and introduce the acts that way. Some of the older readers will recall this from the television programme ‘The Good Old Days’ which was filmed at The City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.
The only other time you see comperes, apart from magic shows, is on television. This probably began with the show ‘London Night at the London Palladium’, which was hosted by Bruce Forsyth. On television you do need a compere – or host – to let the audience at home know what’s happening. That’s unnecessary at a live theatre show as the programme can do that for you.
The job of a compere is in theory quite simple. It’s to keep the show moving as fast as you can, making sure you don’t do any material which clashes with any of the performers. If he or she has to do a ‘spot’ then it should be done at a time when a lot of backstage preparation has to be carried out.
Just recently I performed at a magic dinner where there were three acts on: myself, an American magician who was doing some card tricks and a juggling act. The compere rang me up on the day of the event to check what I was doing. One of the tricks he was going to do seemed like it would clash with mine, so very professionally he said he would drop it.
I was therefore rather surprised when the show started that he said that before he was going to bring on the first act – the American specialising in cards – he was going to do a card trick by way of introduction. And then, before the juggling act, he said he would do some comedy juggling. Both pieces, apart from conflicting with what was to follow and inevitably reducing their impact, were rather drawn out.
By the time I was due to go on, the show was running late and the energy had disappeared from the room. I was hoping that the compere wouldn’t do anything before me. But sadly, no. He proceeded to do a bullet catching routine. Admittedly this didn’t conflict with my material but it did last another fifteen minutes and was hardly a ‘laugh a minute’ routine. Eventually he introduced me to a slightly comatosed audience.
Afterwards I was told a story about the compere (call him J) in question by another magician. Both were performing on a show which was running overtime – this time J was one of the acts, not the compere. The magician, who preceded J in the running order, decided to drop out as the show was running so late. J went on and was expected to do fifteen minutes – and proceeded to do half an hour.
Afterwards the magician confronted J. “Why on earth did you do twice your allotted time – you knew how late the show was running.” J was completely unfazed: “Well, as you dropped out, I thought I’d make up your time!”
