Weight training for injury prevention by Steven Ragatz

Warming Up by Steven Ragatz

Visualization and Juggling by Steven Ragatz

Numbers Training by Steven Ragatz

"How long?" you go isn't really the question you should ask yourself. A more important question might be: "Why would someone want to watch *me*?" Figure that out, and stop the show just before the audience wants you to. Wait till the applause peaks, then move on.

If you are just starting out, and don't have much material, then just do what you have. If you only have a couple of minutes of stuff, then do only a couple of minutes! If you have an hour's worth, then the question changes from "How long?" to "Which routines?"

If you want to make the most money for the work, then do the show for as long as the crowd grows. Once the size stops increasing, and you've reached capacity, it is time to collect your wage. If the crowd starts to decrease (heaven forbid!), you've gone too long.

Different venues require different times. For example, one place I worked for several months had high traffic, but a restricted performing area. This meant that I could gather my maximum crowd during my first routine. So, while all of the other acts were doing monster sets of 30-45 minutes, I cut my show back to just under 10. They would get maybe double the hat that I would, but I would get four or five times as many hats. I would do my mini-set, stop, and simply wait for the crowd to turn over before starting again. Over, and over, and over... No wonder I quit! I pulled several times more money than the other performers, however I don't recommend the monotony! It got old REALLY fast! It was an interesting experiment though.

So, the lesson learned is: Try it - if it works keep it, if it doesn't try something else.

If anyone tells you something different, it probably mean that they don't know.