How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

How Many Magicians Can Perform at a Wedding Fayre?

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How many magicians at a wedding fayre?

By Dominic Reyes

Should magicians make sure they are the only performer at a wedding fayre?
 

A funny thing happened to me at a wedding fayre I attended recently. I was booked as the only magician to attend, but when I arrived, I found that I had been placed right next to another company that also had a magician on the stand. I wasn't very impressed..

Now, I've no problem performing at a large wedding fayre that has more than one magician as I'm confident in selling my unique features and my price range tends to be a lot higher, so it's very much a different product.. But, I would normally know that in advance and would have made sure that the venue and footfall was large enough to cope with several magicians. Here's how I handled the situation:

I recommend that magicians performing at wedding fayres only choose events that have one magician attending. Magic is a small catagory and it's easy to 'over kill' that catagory within a show. However, large wedding fayres that have several rooms or floors can usually cope with more than one magician, providing they have a different style and service proposition.

If you find yourself working with another magician in a wedding exhibition it's important that you are polite and friendly. Chat with the magician and arrange to perform different tricks. Check fee's to make sure you are both on the same page. Try to position your stand away fromthe other performer, ideally in a spot there the flow of traffic goes in another direction. That way, you get half the new traffic and the other performer has their own half.

If you find that a stand has added a magician without the organisers permission, it's fine to talk to the organiser and ask that the other organiser is asked not to feature the magician. If you have agreed to be the only magician attending, then that's what should take place. Remember to be polite and friendly when you sort the issue out.

 

The Best Wedding Fayres for Magicians

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Best wedding fayres for magicians

By Dominic Reyes

Mark writes: 'I plan to advertise my magic using wedding fayres. Can you give me some tips about choosing the right type of fayre?'

There have been a few email this week from magicians wanting advice about hinding the best wedding fayres to attend. So, I recorded this short video answeringsome questionsabout picking the best wedding fayres for magicians:

How many wedding fayres should a magician do?

It really depends on your diary and how much you want to work. Personally I attend around 6-8 wedding fayres over the course of a year. That will usually fill up my dairy for the following year. I don't want to only do weddings, as a great deal of my work comes from corporate entertainment, so that amount of wedding fayres works perfectly for me. I may only get 3 or 4 bookings from each wedding fayre, but each of those gigs will generate more work from referalls. The end result is usually 1 or 2 weddings each week thoughout the year. That consistant work pays my bills and puts bread on the table. The rest of the years diary can be filled with parties and higher paying corporate work. 

How much work do you need for the lifestyle you want? How busy you are happy to be often depends on how much you charge, just as much as the quantity of magic gigs you take on. Check out this post about how much to charge and the amount of gigs you need to make a living performing magic.

The Location

There are large hotel wedding fayres and small independed hotels putting on their own shows. Big isn't always better. It's more important to know the expected footfall at the fayre, and the demographic of the visitors.

Large country houses near wealthy areas are a great bet if you charge a larger fee for your magic. Equally, if you are targeting a lower income audience, you may want to attend less prestigious venues. Who are the clients that most often book you? Where would THEY most probably visit to look for suppliers within their budget? 

Advertising the Wedding Fayre

It's worth talking to other suppliers that attend the wedding fayre that you are considering. Ask them about footfall, and about how the show is promoted. The organisers can also tell you if the show will be advertised on the local radio and in local papers leading up to the day. Go for wedding fayres that invest in good advertising as that directly correlates to footfall on the day.

Get a copy of the wedding fayre mailing list

Many organisers will have a sign-up mailing list for brides to opt into when they enter the event. Good wedding fayres will allow suppliers to get a copy of this list, and it's worth it's weight in gold. If you can get a copy of the list, make sure you use it to send out a follow up email about your services and an invitation to find out more.

 

Magicians being Double Booked – Being Professional

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Organised Magicians

By Dominic Reyes

Tony writes: 'Today I arrived at a gig with all my gear, went inside and it felt pretty quiet considering I was there to perform at a party. It turned out I had arrived a week early!

I laughed it off and told I'd be back next week and they didn't make a big fuss of my mistake. But the problem I have now is that I'm double booked for next week because I already have a gig next week in the same time slot. So what do I do now? Ask them to change time so I can fit in both gigs? Cancel the other gig? Arrive late for one of them? I don't know how to deal with this without looking thoroughly unprofessional.'
 

Getting double booked

You wouldn't be the first or last entertainer to make this mistake. However, It's vital that you keep an active system going to track your bookings. Getting the date of a gig wrong can not only make you look unprofessional, but it can reflect badly on your client too, especially if they had advertised you being at their event.


Mistakes with gigs can happen, so don't give yourself too hard a time about it, but you need to make sure both clients are happy, even if that is at your expense. It's your fault that you got double booked, so find a replacement magician to cover for one of the events. You may have to subsidize their fee, but it's worth it to keep your commitments and your good name.

The phone call before the magic gig

Around a week before a gig, I recommend that you phone the client to double check the details and confirm any last minute changes or issues. This is a perfect safety net, for mistakes like the one you encountered. 

Use an online calander or booking system

Set up a dedicated calendar for bookings using an online service which will allow you to access it both from your office and when you are on the road. Apple or Google have excellent calendar services that you can use for free. Make sure you take a photo of your contract for each booking, and clip it into the calendar for that date, so you always have all the details of the gig at hand. There are also commercially available booking and contact systems for magicians that you can use. Although they can be expensive, as you get busy, they may be a great option to keep track of everything. Booking systems also help with recontact reminders, which can bring you much more work.