agents Archives

Where do you spend most of your time and budget advertising for work as a magician?

Ask any professional magician where they tend to get work and the usual answer is ‘previous clients and recommendations’.

It’s true, that good quality established magicians can build up a large enough client base. These repeat clients ensure that their diaries are full of enough work to support them.But what about if you are just starting out? As a new magician you face a difficult ‘chicken and egg’ problem. You need to find enough work to allow you to replace your existing income and focus on magic full time, but until you have built a large client base, you won’t have enough repeat customers coming back to fill your diary.

The answer to this problem is marketing. Getting out and finding new clients to book you. I recently asked a group of magicians, where they received most of their new clients:

Most magicians reported that their website as the biggest lead generation tool they use.

Here are some of the most popular ways you can advertise and my opinion on them:

1) Advertising in magazines
Generally, this is a waste of time. There’s no shortage of traditional print media companies falling over themselves to sell magicians adverting in their magazines. Especially wedding exhibition magazines. The return on investment is very low and your adverting budget is better spent elsewhere. Some magicians do get regular leads from print adverts, but many magicians that take out ads, fail to renew once the first contract has run its course. It can be very tempting when a space if ‘offered’ to you. Many times the space was filled previously by another magician, so it seems like a great chance to jump in. Ask yourself why the previous magician stopped their advert? It’s worth contacting that magician to see what they thought of the experience.

2) Magic entertainment agencies.
These should be a core focus of your marketing energy. Building relationships with agents is one of the best moves you can make to bring in good quality regular work. Read this information on how to find a good agent.

3) Directly contacting companies.
Another smart move, but very time consuming. I would recommend spending an hour each day making phone calls and sending info packs to venues and companies in your area. You can can get more info in how to contact companies to book you as a magician here

4) Paid Adverts for magicians on search engines – PPC
Many magicians advertise on Google using Adwords. These are the adverts on the right hand side of each search results page and sometimes at the top of the page. This can be quite expensive, but will bring in new leads for you to convert.

Here are two important points to remember:
1) You need to have a good website page for the advert to send visitors. You will be paying for each visitor, so unless your website is professional and designed to capture their contact details, you will waste a lot of money.

2) Avoid the most popular search terms. There is little point bidding on keywords such as ‘magic’, ‘magic show’ and ‘magician’. General ‘short tail’ keywords are far too competitive, which means you will burn a lot of cash for each visitor the keyword sends you. A great deal of the paid traffic will not be in the market for a magician. The best keyword terms are very specific to the visitors who are most likely to hire a magician. A good example of ideal keywords would be: “magicians in Sussex”, “magicians in London”, and “hire a magician in Bradford”. The secret is to be specific, so you only get paid visitors that are actually searching for a magician to hire.

5) Wedding Exhibitions
Wedding exhibitions can be a perfect place to market your services. It’s hard to beat a room full of people arranging huge events, and that are specifically there looking for suppliers. Read our guide on how magicians can get the most out of wedding exhibitions.

6) Restaurants and bars.
Many working magicians take on regular weekly or monthly gigs with local restaurants and bars. Although these are very low paid, they can fill blank dates in a magician’s diary and can lead to more profitable gigs as the magician gains his or her reputation. Read some advice about getting work in restaurants and bars here.

7) Promotional Website.
This is one of the most important marketing devices a magician can use. It’s vital that you set up a professional website which showcases your services, shows testimonials, and allows clients to contact you. This is especially important when using PPC advertising as your website will be the landing page for the paid advert. I highly recommend that you commission a professional design company to produce your website.

Even if you don’t want to go to the expense of a designed website just yet, there is no excuse for not creating a single page, website or blog to act as your landing page for clients looking to book you. You can create a blog to act as your magic website for free and with no skills in programing required. The blog you are reading right now is set up on the free service: Google Blogger.

DO THIS: Create a website to showcase your services. You can do that right now, by visiting a free online website maker or use a blog platform. If you prefer to have a website made professionally, contact a few designers and chat with them about your ideas. Commit to spending a few hours this week to contacting some venues and clients to offer your services.

Why Magicians Need Public Liability Insurance.

by Merchant of Magic 7 Comments

Public liability insurance is vital if you intend to perform magic for the public. Here’s a quick lowdown of what it is, what it covers and why every magician should have it.

What is public liability insurance?
This type of performers insurance covers a magician if a spectator or a member of the public was to suffer a loss or injury as a result of you performing magic. If a spectator made a claim for compensation, then the insurance could cover the compensation payment plus any legal expenses.

Why is public liability cover a good thing for your spectators?
Even when a magician does everything fine, there could always the chance that an accident could happen. When you have public liability insurance, you can perform your magic knowing that should the worst happen, your spectators property could be repaired, lost or damaged possessions replaced and their medical costs looked after.

What is covered in a public liability claim?
The insurance policies can differ between insurance companies and are usually tailored to the individual performers requirements. However, as a guide, the insurance covers a entertainers legal responsibility to pay damages to members of the public for death and injury or damage to property or possessions, which has resulted from the magicians activities.

For example, if you accidentally knocked over a candle, while performing fire magic tricks at a table and caused a bad burn on a spectators designer dress, you could make a claim against them for compensation to pay for repairing the damage. Public Liability Insurance means that you will be able to cover cost of the claim, along with any legal expenses.

Many venues will require magicians to have insurance.
Venues need public liability insurance. They also expect of from the entertainers they book. A client should ask to see your insurance schedule and documentation before allowing you to perform. You should also have insurance if you intend to perform street magic. Many magicians agents will require you to have sufficient insurance before you can go on their books.

Where to get Public Liability Insurance for magicians.
There are many companies that can provide public liability insurance. A bit of google-fu will easily bring up a list. You need to check that they cover entertainers as some insurers don’t provide insurance for that activity. Also check what is excluded as many policies will not give you cover for use of fire in your act. If you become a member of Equity, which we highly recommend, you will get public liability cover automatically as part of your membership.

Question: Do you use an insurer that offers a good public liability Insurance policy for magicians? Let us know in the comments section below:

How to Find and Use a Magic Agency

by Merchant of Magic 5 Comments

‘No man is an island, Entire of itself.’ – John Donne

There are many benefits to working with one or more entertainment agents. However, attracting the attention of a good agent can be a challenge for magicians starting to perform magic to the public. If you intend to turn your magic hobby into a part-time or full-time job, it’s important to know how to find and work with a magic agent or agency.

The Benefits

An agent will probably have a great deal more experience than you in the entertainment industry. After all, that part of the process is their specific field. A good agent can also advise you on how to promote yourself more effectively and can point out the pitfalls of the business, so you don’t make mistakes, when you are starting out.

Agents grow a large list of clients over time that they build a relationship with. They understand the market in your local area and already have many regular events that they need magicians to work at. By using an agent, you benefit from their reputation as well as your own.

A good agent makes an investment in you. After all, you represent them when you work for them. They will help you develop as a performer, give you valuable experience of clients that you may not be able to attract on your own, and will guide you to be as successful as possible.

The costs.

Their service is being provided at a cost. The agent will either take a commission from each booking they give you (Usually around 10% – 15%). Some agents prefer to look for the best and most reliable entertainers, they can find, who will work for a fee that allows them to add their own fee on top without pricing themselves out of the booking. They will ask you and several other magicians to quote for a booking, and then they will go back to their client and quote with their fee on top.

Usually, an agent will not allow you to market your services at the event. They often insist that you hand out their business cards rather than your own. This is fair, as it is their client, but it can limit your ability to create your own contact list from referrals.

Some agents will contract you, and include an exclusivity clause, which prevents you from working with another agent, whilst your contract with them is in place.

How to choose an agent.

Most agents are awesome and will work really hard for you. Often a long term relationship will form, as they use you over the years with their clients. There are, however, some that have bad reputations and need to be avoided. Never work for an agent that charges you an up front fee to go on their books (This is illegal) The Agents Association has a code of conduct for its members and includes a very useful directory on its website. The union Equity also has a code of conduct for agents and produces a list to warn members about agents that performers have had problems with.

How to contact an agent.

A quick search on Google will bring up the details of several agents in your area. The usual process involves you sending an agent some information to introduce yourself. This should include:

A recent photograph of yourself, dressed as you do when you perform magic.
A short biography, with details of your act and previous experience.
Your membership of any magic societies.
Details of your availability.
A show-reel video of you performing.

Some agents will add you to their books right away. Others will want to meet you first and ideally watch you perform. They may try you out on a ‘safe gig’, perhaps with other magicians attending. It’s usual for the agent to attend themselves at those events, and a great time to meet you and see you in action.

An important note about magicians show-reels : The show-reel you send an agent needs to be your very best material, at your best gigs, getting the best reactions. Remember that an agent is not a magician. They don’t care how technically perfect your pass is. They care that the client enjoyed the magic you performed, and that the guests loved you being there too. Your personality, appearance, and professionalism are your products.

The show-reel video needs to be professionally edited to show the reactions your magic really receives. Don’t include footage of magic tricks filmed in your bedroom, living room or hallway, the footage needs to be at real events. If you do feature some tricks that are not live, make sure the background is plain and professional. An agent WILL make up his or her mind about you within a few seconds of the footage. No show-reel is much better than a poorly made one, as you only get one chance to impress an agent. If they don’t like what they see, it will be a challenge to get work from that agent, and possibly the agents they network with. Your show-reel needs to be professionally produced, and present you at the ‘top of your game’. It doesn’t matter how impressive your bio or list of clients appears to be, if your show-reel is not impressive, all that effort will be for nothing.

Sometimes agents will contact you instead.

Agents talk to the magicians that work for them, and sometimes, if an agent can’t find any magicians available for a gig, they will ask for a recommendation. If you have a good reputation in your area amongst the working pros, you may find you get a call from an agent, needing to fill a gig.

Six quick tips:

1) Send your details to an agent and follow up with them a week later. Don’t contact the agent repeatedly, chasing them to deal with you. That could turn them off you, when they were in fact, just very busy and were waiting for the right event to try you out.

2) Make sure the details you send them are professional and brief. If you send them a huge essay on your life story and why you like magic, this may work against you. It simply may not even be read.

3) If your agent asks that you don’t market to their clients, make sure you NEVER do. Don’t be tempted to hand out a few of your business cards. If that got back to the client, and the agent found out, you will not be used again, and a bad reputation spreads quickly through their professional network.

4) Create a copy of your own promotional website, without any contact details or links, that the agent can send clients to. An agent may use a few of your promotional images and a short description about you, on their own site, but will welcome an ‘agent friendly’ site about you, that will help sell your magic to a client.

5) If you host a show-reel, you need to create a second copy which does not have your contact details featured in it.

6) When doing a gig for an agent, remind the client that you are working for the agent, and ask that they let the agent know how well you did.