A few days ago I was in a pub, and I started performing some pen spinning to different people in the pub (only people who asked me to lol, i wasn't like a show off)afterwards someone had cards so I started doing XCM and I may or may not have did the coin roll, and finger fitness,, I just don't remember lol(people I was performing for kept buying me drinks).. Anyway all that happened under the influence so I wasn't nervous at all but the manager of the pub got in contact with me and we set up a meeting for tomorrow night. He asked me to bring my pencil, cards and whatever I need..

Nervousness is obviously my biggest fear, I'm afraid to drop because of it, and to get sweaty hands and have a hard time performing..

Anyone has any tips on keeping the nerves down and the palms dry?

what i usually do is wash my hand with ice cold water 30 minutes before i perform

that's a nice story :D

I don't think you can actually do anything to help you with the nervousness. You get over it with experience only.. so I guess you might try to perform to some of your friends or relatives or what have you, and kind of get used to the fact that there are people around you and they are watching you while you perform.

Some take a drink or two before performing but you should only use it if you are 100% sure it will work. It might have negative effect instead.

You could think that you don't know anybody in the audience and don't care what they think and that you will probably never see them again in the future. This might lower the pressure a bit :P

The best luck to you!

EDIT: Why is this thread in advanced tricks section? :P

put lotion on your hands so they wont get sweaty! :metal:

good luck

Thanks for the replies guys! good advices :)
could some one move this to "general discussion"? I posted here by mistake

im guessing the meeting is to arrange you doing more shows?
pretend that everyone is wearing underwear :lol: but dont get too excited

Could some of you guys maybe propose some patter lines also?

moving... also congrats on the gig! :P

No, alkeehol would just worsen your movements. Get high!

But maybe a drink or two will loosen you up. Once your up there, just go for it, dont think about it. If your too nervous your gonna fuck up, just do it and forget about everyone else.

Well keep in mind that pen spinning and XCM are really more along the lines of close up magic performance, not a stage thing. If he wants you to do something on stage tell him to shove it.

Just remember, most people have no idea what you are doing and will probably be drunk. Unless if you totally bail and stab someone in the eye they won't even know anything went wrong. They aren't going to be like OMG, he missed the last back of that backaround fall!

major congrats to you man, that's awesome. As far as the nervousness goes, the worst thing that could happen is you drop your pen/cards. That is no big deal. Just laugh and pick it up. I think there is something about how to make jokes out of drops on xtreme beginners if you have that (I forget if it was that or something else). Oh, and just in case you didn't know, don't bathe your hands in icewater, that was a joke (I hope).

What I would do is to bring an MP3 player of some sort and just listen to it as I do it. Music keeps many people calm, depending on the music XD. Anyways just have fun with it. It's not like a competition or anything. Good luck ^_^

While performing it's kinda important to relate to the crowd, listening to an mp3 player while performing would kinda interrupt that.. Thanks for everyone replying though!!

Well go and see the guy, feel him out. Show him some of your best stuff. I'm sure you can preform just fine for one dude. See what the deal is and come back to us again. The proper way to approach this depends on what the guy actually wants.
Also, just manipulate man. If others want to watch good for them. It's about you and entertaining your self first. Don't aim to entertain others just see it as an inevitable consequence of picking such a cool hobby.

Hmm I don't quite see it like that.. I view pen spinning more of a performance art then something I would just do for myself.. of course I enjoy spinning just for myself but performing it to others is equally important to me .. and as any other performer knows, you can't just do the moves.
Anyway keep the comments coming guys they're VERY helpful, and tomorrow night I'll fill you in on what happened in the meeting :)

No worries. I think people are just forgetting that you came from the SuperHandz forum, where more emphasis is placed on performance. This is something posters either forgot, didn't know or didn't consider.

As the magic forums usually say, "the simple tricks hit hardest". Dont go out of your way to learn extremely difficult routines because to most people even simple pen combo's and XCM will razzle and dazzle them. Stick with what you're comfortable with and performing won't be as stressful.

my 2 cents.

i kind of prefer spinning with my palms sweaty.
whenever my hands are too dry the pen slips :/

I live in hostel and when i spin many people look at me, so i didn't nervios =)

i dont know about nervousness as im pretty nervous myself but the best way to keep your palms/hands from sweating is just putting some magnesium carbonate (chalk) powder on them, rock climbers and athletes use this to stop their hands sweating too. you should be able to buy it in a rock climbing or camping shop. It really works and it keeps your hands dry for ages its also really good when your on the computer for a long time and your mouse hand starts sweating. good luck with the performance 8-]]

I'll probably use fanning powder on my hands, because any other powder would probably be not so good for the cards heh

the magnesium sinks into your hands just after a few minutes and then its almost like its not there. but yeah if fanning powder works then use that i guess.

so this is how it went..

I got to the bar, the manager was there, drinking with his buddies, everyone are at least 23 years old, and apparently they all knew me (as I mentioned, I was really drunk when I first met them so I couldn't remember) and were really friendly. I probably was very friendly myself when I first met them, alcohol does that to you.
Anyway I performed for them, nothing formal just showing off my skill, got free drinks and all but the manager said nothing about hiring me and went to tend the bar while I was drinking with his buddies. After a while I said to him "hey man, what did you really bring me here for are you gonna hire me?" he replied "anything is possible" and I said "I'm not gonna come back here to perform for free, you have my number" and he just got a call on his cellphone so he replied "yea I got your number I'll call you" and took the call, so I went.. EDIT: I made it sound worse then it really was, the conversation was in a friendly tone

Lol I actually enjoyed the performance and they liked it too, but if I ever want to get paid for performing I can't tell him that I also enjoy performing for free :P.

Anyway next time I'll talk to this guy if the word "money" won't come up it'll be our last conversation..

Oh and about the performance, PS wise was okay, not great but okay I was just freestyling, when I performed XCM I was standing up and about 12 guys/gals could see me so my hands were a bit shaky, I amazed them but eventually dropped, but when I dropped they were all clapping their hands and made me feel good haha :D

Don't be too demanding about getting paid a lot of money right away. I mean even if you do it just for free drink and tips it's a pretty sweet deal.

I mean consider what you are doing, he probably won't book you for nightly acts but I mean I could understand him giving you free drinks and a little money to come back and just hang out and do cool shit.

This probably won't turn into any kind of a steady job but it's just a way to make a little money in your free time doing what you like. Approach it from that point of view and I think you will get a better result in the end.

The dude runs a business and saw that you entertain drunk people, he wants to try to use that to his advantage to get people to enjoy themselves more and maybe come back. Just don't think that he needs you, he is probably still trying to figure out how the whole thing would work out if he did want to 'hire' you.

I didn't say the money would have to come from his pockets, tips would be great :)
And getting free drinks is good and all whats the point in going to a bar and getting drunk without any of my friends? free or not it's stupid

Going back to nervousness, you should try and pysch yourself up for the performance. When I play tennis (high school) during like tournaments and states there are alot of people watching (especially if your one of the top seeds). I play 1 doubles (not to brag). But pysching yourself up gets your adrenaline going and it should help alot, it does for me.

Thanks i'll try that..
I do believe that a long term solution is to simply deal with it over and over