Cutting a long show short.

A while ago I swapped some things around in my show to add in a new ring routine. Even though it felt like the show remained the right length, I’d accidentally extended it by a number if minutes.

For example a few cruises ago the cruise director called me after the first show to say “You went long, cut it down a bit for the second show.” I checked the video of show (I was recording my shows to get a good version of my ring routine on video) and it had run 67 minutes. My contract only called for a 45 minute show, and I’d been aiming for 50 minutes. 67 minutes is exactly half the length of the show too long. My second show that night, while really rushing it, came in at something like 64 minutes.

Tonight I did two really fun shows, both exactly 58 minutes long. Under an hour each! Result! Unfortunately this means I still have ten minutes I could cut from my show. The thing is, I’m really proud of my current show as it is, and I don’t want to cut any of it!

So the question remains… should I:

A – Cut the ring section?
B – Cut the tennis ball and can/ping pong ball and bat section?
C – Swap the above two with a club and video routine?
D – Leave the show as it is, knowing that it is good enough to keep people in their seats for the extra time, and hope that the cruise director doesn’t mind because the show is entertaining?

I’m leaning towards D. It’s less effort on my part. The only thing I’m worried about is doing a long BAD show. If that happens, I’m screwed.

I finally got a good video of a clean performance of my ring routine. I planned to share this on youtube. But I think I’m going to work on the routine a bit more before releasing a video version. There a few places that need slight changes, and when reviewing the video I saw I don’t look relaxed on stage while doing the juggling.

However, the video quality of the footage from my second show looks really good. I’m going to keep the hour long video file, and if anyone asks “I’d like to see a video of your full show” I can just send them that on a DVD.

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