In my last column, I gave you the first half of my list of the most frequent “games” a performer can play while engaging in crowd work, and made fun of Rob Lake, who recently costarred on Broadway with the Muppets and managed, through his lack of audience connection, to become the first magician in history to be upstaged by felt. (One wonders, though: Would he have been more exciting to watch on stage if he had a hand up his ass?)
Let’s finish up this list of crowd work games!
5/. Connections
One of my favorite games is to figure out a way to connect audience members together through the information they’ve given me. For example, if the first person I talk to is a personal injury lawyer from Madison, Wisconsin, and then I find out the next person I’m talking to is doing something dangerous or has a dangerous job, I might try to pull those things together—“Good news: If you need a good lawyer, I know a guy in Wisconsin!” These connections can also stack: If I’ve been doing crowd work with more than one group, I might even try to figure out a way to connect everything, all in one story.