magic advice Archives

Increase Your Fees for Performing Magic Tricks

How to increase your fees for performing magic.

As your reputation and client base builds up over time, you will become more established as a magician, and you should already have an understanding of how much you can charge for doing magic trick s for the public. It’s very easy to fall into a pattern of only charging the same fee year after year. That’s not a smart thing to do, as it’s a price cut, because inflation eats into the value of your fee each year.

Increasing your fee is quite hard to do psychologically, as you have to face the fear of turning down work, but it pays off in the long run. Many performers start off setting a fee and remain at that level year after year. They never reach this full potential in the market, as become cheaper and cheaper over time as inflation takes its toll. As they get cheaper, their desirability for ‘premium clients’ decreases, and they end up in a cycle of low status gigs, working hard simply to treat water and pay their bills. Don’t let this happen to you!

As soon as you start filling your work diary on a regular basis, you need to think about raising the bar. Start quoting a slightly higher fee. Don’t worry if you lose some bookings, you don’t need to do every one, just the right ones with a good fee. It’s better performing fewer bookings for more money.

Find your current price ceiling

You need to find out that maximum you can currently charge to bring in the most income for the least amount of gigs. To do this, keep increasing your fee. You may find you only get half the number of bookings in a month, but make more money from them than you did when you worked twice as many gigs.

You will get to a point where work coming in will start to drop below the income you got when you were priced low and worked like crazy. Congratulations, you have hit your price ceiling. Now, quote for shows just below your price ceiling point and you should get enough bookings to bring in more income that before, but with fewer bookings. Over time, you will find that your client base changes as you move into a higher price bracket market. Each magic gig you do at a higher fee exposes you to future clients in that fee range. The result of this is that your diary will start to fill up again, and you get too busy. That’s the signal to push for a new higher price ceiling, and so it goes on and on.

What Next: Now let’s look at ways to decide how much you should initially charge for your magic services.

How Much Should You Charge for Magic

by Merchant of Magic 2 Comments

Understand your costs.

Depending on the type of magic act you are marketing, your overheads may include several costs that need to be estimated. You need to determine how many bookings you will need to cover them and bring you an acceptable income. Your costs may include:

Equipment
Travelling expenses to and from bookings
Costumes
Make-up
Consumables, such as decks of playing cards
Backing music
Insurance – Public liability insurance is essential.
Club or society membership

If you are already working in a full-time job, you need to calculate your costs, then work out how many bookings over a year, it will take to replace the income you currently receive.

Looking at that figure, do you think it is feasible for you to attract that number of magic bookings at the fee you charge, to replace your current income and allow growth over time?

What is your target customer?

What type of act do you provide? If you’re a children’s entertainer, your market is very different to that of a close up magician or a stage show illusionist. Each type of customer and venue has different needs, and a different budget for your services. When setting your fee, you need to look at the factors in your specific target market and set your fee within that market’s pricing level.

Starting small.

Your reputation and customer base will take time to grow, so you may find that you will need to accept some bookings for less that the going rate when you start out. As your reputation as a great magician spreads and your marketing efforts bear fruit, you will be able to increase your fees over time. We recommend that you do not work for free to begin with. It is very easy to get stuck in a regular booking that is not producing an income, because you started for free, and can’t justify to the client why they should now pay you. A reduced fee for a limited time as a ‘trial’ is fine, but be aware that your fee will often reflect your value to a client. There is much better way than competing on price when you start out.

Aim low on the customer, not the price.

Rather than targeting prestigious venues or premium clients with a low price, pick clients that have a lower budget, but would love to have magic at their venue. Premium venues will be wary of an entertainer who is cheaper than other entertainers locally, but a small business may be delighted to be able to afford your services.

Restaurants.

Unlike a party or celebration event, the goal of a restaurant is to make a profit from their customers. They need to sell their food as well as to entertain them. It doesn’t matter how good a magician you are, the restaurant will know how many customers (or covers) it will turn in an evening, and that sets its budget for that night. Live entertainment is always sort after. In fact, during times of economic pressure, venues will seek out live entertainment to give them an edge in the market. A magician is a low cost option for a pub or restaurant, compared to live music or sporting events. Restaurant work is low paid, but a few regular evenings each week and support you during the early years, and be a good source of leads for work going forward.

As a general rule of thumb:

For a restaurant, it is acceptable to charge 4 x the price of a meal for one.

Weddings.

Weddings have a larger budget than a restaurant, after all, the goal of a wedding is to entertain the guests, without making a profit from them. Because of this, you can charge a more realistic fee. The price you can charge for your services will depend very much on the area and wealth of the clients who book you. A simple and easy way to set your rate is to find out what comparable forms of entertainment charge in your area. Get some quotes for casino tables, live wedding singers and photo booths locally. A wedding magician can normally charge a small premium above these other options but will be price capped close to them.

Children’s Shows

If you provide a children’s magic show, it is quite easy to find out what other magicians in your area are charging. Don’t undercut the other magicians locally, as that simply creates a rush to the bottom of the market. If you would like to increase your fees in this market, look to advertise your services in wealthy areas. Try not to limit yourself just to parties near where you live. If you are prepared to travel, you can market yourself in a number of affluent towns and cities, increasing the fee for your services, rather than trying to increase the number of shows you perform.

Understanding your costs, income needs and the market for the product you are offering, is vital to your success as a professional magician. Once you have identified these factors, you can work on establishing your reputation and client base over time, and then increase your fees for performing magic tricks.

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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.