When lockdown was announced back in March my entire years work was immediately cancelled. I'm used to performing at events with hundreds of guests, travelling all over the world, mixing and mingling with endless people. I could see no way that I'd be working for the rest of the year. Within days though past clients were contacting me to ask if I could perform for them virtually over Zoom. Fortunately I had a virtual show which I'd performed for a corporate event a few years previously so with a few tweaks and a crash course in using Zoom, microsoft teams, google hangouts etc, I was ready to go. Since then I've performed hundreds of virtual shows for family groups, corporate team meetings and parties. This got me thinking what else is out there. I wanted to find genuinely interactive entertainment that the viewer could actually take part in, otherwise you may as well just be watching TV. Here's my top 5.
1. Virtual Magic Show
Ok, so I'm starting off with some blatant and quite shameless self publicity but for full audience interactivity nothing beats a magic show. My virtual show can be performed for any number of people, the minimum I've done is 2, the maximum is about 200. A show can last between 20 minutes to an hour depending upon requirements. Throughout the show the entire audience will take part in bizarre experiments of the mind and will witness mind reading, psychological illusion and unbelievable feats for mental trickery. More details can be found HERE.
2. Virtual Pub Quiz
Here's another one that's fully interactive, unless you know none of the answers. There's thousands of these online so I'm not going to link to any one in particular. Some are worldwide, others for local communities. Pour yourself a pint and after months in lockdown check that your little grey cells are still working.
3. Virtual exercise class
Ughh, My least favourite out of these 5 but probably the most important. It's a cliché to say it but I have put on weight during lockdown (or else all my suits have shrunk, that's probably it right??). My original plan had been to take up jogging, within weeks I had managed to trip over, break my wrist and found myself with even more time on my hands/hand. This is when I discovered online classes. Most of these are free and with hundreds of other people taking part it gives you a little more motivation to get moving. The best thing about these classes is that afterwards you don't feel so guilty spending the rest of the day in bed eating chocolate.
4. Virtual Book Club
Without a doubt my favourite. Many small local bookshops have a virtual book club and these are the ones we need to support. Each month a book is chosen and once or twice a month everyone gets together and discusses the book. Not only are you reading a book you may have ignored but it gives you the chance to support a local and almost certainly struggling bookshop.
5, Virtual Karaoke
Ok, I'll be honest here. The other four on this list I've tried and loved. This one is not for me. I can't sing and will never force my off key caterwauling on anyone, the world is a hard enough place as it is right now. Many friends have recommended this to me; everyone chooses a song and when it's your turn you take centre stage to the cheers and jeers of the audience. I would imagine it helps to be really drunk when doing this.
Hope these five give you a few ideas for virtual entertainment over the next few months. It won't be long now until we will all be back to normal being entertained in the real world. Until then take care of yourselves.
Edward Crawford is an award winning professional magician and mind reader. Each year he performs at over 200 events for corporate and private events. Head over to the MAIN WEBSITE for more details. In all honesty he's a bit of a hermit so the lockdown really hasn't affected his life but he has been performing a VIRTUAL SHOW for anyone who cares about that sort of thing.
