How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

Do You Practice Magic Tricks Like a Hobby or a Business?

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Practice magic tricks like a businessDo you practice magic like a hobby or like a business?

By Paul Knight

Magic is a wonderfully fulfilling hobby. Learning magic is exciting, fascinating, educational, and develops confidence, social and motor skills. The process of learning practicing and performing all contribute to the sense of reward magic brings. Magic as a hobby can soon become an obsession, but a healthy one that brings pleasure to you and others. But what distinguishes the difference between magic as a hobby and magic as a business? Asking this question, I do not mean the paperwork, overheads, tax returns side of things. I refer to the actual point in time you are ready to take the step from ‘hobbyist’ to professional performing magician. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of running your own business in this post. What I will try to do though is approach the hobbyist in us that wishes to take the next step, or shall we say the ‘first’ step. That first step is your mindset.

 

Frustration.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you are reading this then you are more than likely already into magic, and have been for some time. At a guess, I’d say you try your best to get at least some ‘practice’ time in each day. By practice, what I actually mean is time spent watching magic DVDs, playing with your props, learning new moves and perfecting what you already know.

Personally, I get at least two hours of magic time into my day. The amount of time you spend of course is dictated by the lifestyle you live. Although I am fortunate that I have this free time, I still get frustrated. Frustrated that I have spent my time practicing, with the foresight that my act is getting better with every new trick or move I have mastered, yet the reality is that no progress has actually been made with regards to the progress of my ‘career’. Why is this?

 

‘How often do YOU practice? Do you manage it a few times per week? Maybe every day? That’s great, but how often each week do you sit down to write to new venues or business’s? How much time do you spend EACH DAY on getting gigs? It bet it’s no way near as much time as you spend learning more and more new magic tricks. Isn’t this work just as important as the mechanics of your act? The reason why we all do this is simple. Learning magic is a kind of play. Marketing and promoting yourself is business, and that’s a little bit too much like hard work to be fun.’ – Dominic Reyes

 

Practice and play.

As lovers of our craft, we often blur the lines between practice and play. What we call practice time should realistically be called playtime, as that is what we are doing. We are playing with our enjoyment for the art, and this is absolutely fine. It was the play aspect of magic that initially hooked us. The magic played with our minds, we played with figuring it out, then we played with learning it. Its fun, fun, fun, all the way, but we shouldn’t think, just because we are learning and trying things that this is practice. To practice you need to know what it is you need to achieve, a goal. And if you wish to practice magic as a business, the first goal is to know what it is you are selling. One way or another what you will be selling is yourself, which in turn is your act.

This is where the real practice begins. First thing you need is an act. 6 or 7 magic tricks is a good example of a solid act. I won’t go into detail as to how to create a strong act, as this is such a personal aspect (plus also visit this blog ).

Once you have this you will need to change the way you think of practice. Sure, play with your magic tricks as playing this is the seed that got into magic originally.

You also need to practice selling yourself. Making people know what you can offer. 

So, if I spend two hours a day playing (that’s fifty six hours a month on average), what have I achieved? A lot of play.

DO THIS: Spend one hour a day on promotion, and immediately reward myself with one hours playtime. That’s twenty eight hours of promotion a month, and twenty eight hours of play a month.

Just a few things to do in that hour of promotion:

  • Write to some companies to introduce yourself.
  • Follow up leads
  • Work on a promotional website
  • Go through footage for a show reel
  • Scout out new venues
  • Work on promotional materials

Don’t think of it as work either. This can easily be done around your daily commitments. One extra hour in the morning and one extra hour in the evening. Remember you entered the world of magic to enjoy it, seems a shame to deprive others from the fun you can share. Shout it out and let them know your there.

What do you think are important ways magicians should market themselves? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below:

How to Get Work Doing Magic Tricks in Restaurants and Bars?

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‘I’m getting ready to go out and visit bars and restaurants to try and get some work as a magician.  I have never just “showed up” and offered my services anywhere.  What should I say to offer my services?’ 

If you want to move forward performing as a magician commercially, it’s worth examining how to get work doing magic  tricks in restaurants and bars. Restaurants and bars can form a staple regular source of work for close up magic, but getting new gigs in those venues can be hard work. There really are no two ways about it, you have to put in the time and energy to get out and offer your services. Once you become established, plenty of work will flow in from recommendations, and previous clients, but to begin with, you need to get out and find some venues to perform in.

With customers socializing, drinking and eating, restaurants and bars can be a perfect location for you to perform your magic. However, how do you approach a new restaurant or bar and introduce yourself? These are a huge number of ways to approach restaurants and bars for work and each magician tends to find their own way of doing it. Here’s how I did it, when I started out.

THE GOLDEN RULE: Spend at least an hour EVERY DAY contacting companies and venues to introduce yourself. 

There really isn’t an excuse for not doing this. If you perform magic full time, you have several days each week, during the day, which could be spent ‘marketing’. If you perform part time, you need to spend at least an hour on a Saturday, calling, writing and visiting at least one company or venue. Time spent doing this, is much more productive than watching more magic DVDs, or browsing magic shop websites. It’s the real business part of being an entertainer, and should be your main focus, once you have mastered enough magic, and understand how to build them into a routine.

Step 1 – Collect data.

Do some google-fu to create a list of all the venues in your local area.  These can be hotels, restaurants, bars, country clubs, golf clubs, basically anywhere that serves food or hosts social functions. Keep in mind, that your working area, does not need to be based where you live. Look for affluent cities or towns and create your ‘turf’ in one or more of those areas. There is no need to limit yourself to the venues local to you.

Step 2 – Sort your list.

Consider the type and style of magic you perform and divide the list into categories based on the following:

  • Family: Do you also offer a kid’s show? If so, then family restaurants should feature high on your list.
  • Bars: Low paid. Are you happy to entertain ‘high energy’ adults in a crowded bar?
  • Restaurants: Low paid, but regular work and great for marketing
  • Hotels and event venues: Harder to acquire, but the ideal venues for magicians as they have a restaurant, bar and host a wide range of events, weddings and parties.

Step 3 – Test visit

Once you have a list, you should commit to at least one night per week to canvass for work.
Visit each of the venues on your list and enjoy an hour or two being a guest. Go for a meal at the restaurant, have a drink in the bar. Check out the environment and feel of the venue, and decide if  it is the sort of place that would welcome live entertainment for its guests. Find out the following:

  1. Does the restaurant or bar currently offer live entertainment?
  2. Which night is the quietest each week at the venue?
  3. What is the name of the restaurant or event manager?
  4. What is the price of an average meal at the restaurant?

Once you have this information, you can easily shortlist the venues with would be more open to trying out a magician.

Step 4 – The pitch visit

You now have a shortlist of venues that you can approach. Visit at least one per week. Choose their slowest night, so the staff can pay attention to you, and you are not going to get in their way.

In a bar, order a drink at the bar and chat to the regulars. Don’t sell your services to them,  just be friendly and after a little chat, show them a magic trick. If the regulars that ‘prop up the bar’ like you, the bar manager  may judge that you are a good ‘fit’ for their venue. Show some tricks to the bar staff, but remember not to hog their attention, you don’t want to be a distraction.  The goal is to get the regulars on your side and tweak the interest of the manager/owner.

Explain to the manager that you are a close-up magician and describe what you do. Say something like:

‘I’m looking to work with one restaurant in name of town, and thought name of restaurant would be perfect for live magic’.

Focus on how useful close up magic can be for a restaurant. Keep this pitch brief and not pushy. Give the manager your card and ask if they would like you to visit for a couple of hours one night in the following week, to perform some magic for their customers. Reassure them that it will be free of charge and there is no commitment, and that their customers will really enjoy it. If they have an event coming up, ask if they would like for you to attend free of charge to entertain their customers.  If you impressed the manager, and if you are lucky, he or she will agree. Set a time and date and leave.

Dealing with NO.

If they don’t seem interested, don’t push the matter, as that will turn them off even more. Just thank them for their time and leave. You can follow them up in a few days time with a letter, asking them if they have reconsidered and would like to ‘try you out’.  Most restaurants and venues will decline the offer, but that’s fine. You have a huge list to work through, so don’t be disheartened, simply move on to the next one. The goal is  not to close each and every venue. You only need a couple of regular venues to act as your ‘residency base’. It’s a simple numbers game, that eventually, as you approach more and more venues, one or more will ‘bite’. Once you have a couple, you should start getting more and more work from customers of those venues over time.

Things not to do when you visit:
Don’t turn up dressed as a magician. – Just be smart casual, well groomed and presented. You probably wear a suit when you perform close-up, so that would be fine, but resist any temptation to add a ‘playing cards tie’ or bright magical waistcoat etc. If you do get work, whilst wearing things like that, it’s probably in spite of them, rather than because of them.

Don’t perform too many tricks – Keep them wanting more, and avoid them worrying that they will be inviting a show off or bore, to annoy their guests. Show a few very powerful and quick tricks. The restaurant owner may love magic, but he or she understands that it’s the restaurant and food that is the most important part of the evening, not some guy wanting to be the centre of attention all evening.

Don’t argue for a chance – Charm the staff, show a few magic tricks and make a quick offer to return for free. If you get objections, don’t argue. You will appear pushy and a pest. Simply leave your card and recontact them later.

Avoid talking about money – The goal is for them to agree to try you out for a few hours for free. You can deflect questions about fee’s or how much you charge for magic, by simply suggesting it’s similar to hiring a live pub singer for the evening. The best time to discuss a fee for a regular night, is after the free trial, when they understand how much their guests loved seeing close-up magic.

Things you should do when you visit

Win over the regulars that are propping up the bar. – They will talk about you for a long time afterwards.

Make sure the manager or owner sees a great trick – The bar staff are great, but they don’t make the decisions.

Suggest that you can pop back next week and perform for a couple of hours for the guests, ideally on a night the restaurant is running an event.

Swap business cards with the owner of manager – you will need this for a follow up later.

It’s pretty easy really, and you can visit several venues over the course of a single evening. Yet, most magicians have not done it. They prefer to stay at home and practice their magic techniques or invent more magic moves. That’s essential to build an act, but it’s not the whole story. Getting out and canvassing for work, is just as important as learning more magic tricks.

DO THIS: What should you be doing right this minute? Whatever it is, it’s not as important to you as reading about performing magic right at this moment. This post is about to end, so don’t keep reading the next post, or click off to search for something else. Open up Google right now and type in:  

Restaurants in your local city name 

Start making a list of them right now and if you can, visit a few tonight.  Let us know how you get on and share your experiences in the comments section below:

Magicians at Wedding Exhibitions – Essential Advice for Magicians

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marketing-magicians-weddingsWedding exhibitions are a great source of magic gigs for magicians. It’s the perfect environment for close up magic. Mixing with the guests during the drinks reception, performing at their tables during the wedding breakfast or doing walk-around magic tricks as the evening reception warms up. But where are you going to get those gigs? It’s easy… Wedding exhibitions!

The Merchant of Magic has created a free 41 page guide to promoting yourself at wedding fayres and for magicians at wedding exhibitions. The following are a few quick tips from the guide.

Why are magicians at wedding exhibitions having such success?

Although wedding exhibitions take place all year round, the vast majority tend to take place in January/February  and then September/October.  That’s pretty handy for a close-up magician, as it falls nicely just after and just before the Christmas peak season. Most exhibitions take place on a Sunday, another quiet day for gig’s, so it’s an ideal marketing opportunity to build up work for the following year. Generally, the bookings will be for the following year, so unlike parties and trade show work, it’s possible to fill your work diary a year or more ahead, simply by attending a few exhibitions.  Much of a magicians work tends to come from referrals. Each event bringing in future work from guests who are planning their own event.

Getting a space

Checking your local what’s on guide or a little google-fu will bring up a good list of wedding exhibitions in your local area. Most major hotels will probably host a couple each year, or will be able to point you towards the events company that runs their exhibitions for them. Make a list and contact a few to see which have spaces. Because magicians are a specialty for a wedding exhibition, many events will only give spaces for one or two magicians per event. You may need to look around for new exhibitions, or wait for a space.

Tables

When you arrive at the exhibition, you will be shown to your table. There are a few things you should do right away, to make the most of the space you have.

1) Push your table back. You want to give yourself the most space in front of it as you can. You don’t want to be behind the table, as that acts as a barrier between you and the spectators. Most stands have products on display, placed out on a table for examination. In your case, YOU are the product and should be out on display.

2) Lose the chairs. You don’t need them. Never sit behind your table. It makes you look bored, defeated and unapproachable. Stand in front of your table and interact with as many people as possible.

3) Lose the table altogether.  Ideally, don’t have a large table at all. A small, close up magic table and a pop up banner give you loads of room, somewhere to put your cards, and a few props and sets you appear from all the other tables lined up around the exhibition.

Who to approach.

Everyone. Don’t just perform for the clients. If another stand shows interest (and they will) take a moment, when it’s quiet, to show them a trick. You may well get referrals from them, or even a recommendation on their website.

Standing still or moving around.

Magicians at wedding exhibitions have a cheeky advantage. We are not tied to our table. You should NEVER perform in front of another persons table or stand. But you can move around the venue. Use the busy common areas, near the stage, if the show has a bridal show. In the cafe, in the entrance hall. You can stroll around, just like on a gig, performing suitable magic tricks for a wedding and handing out cards. While you do this, your table is there with your cards on it too. A little card on your table saying where you currently can be seen performing, will allow clients who are searching for you, to meet you when you are away from your table area.

Did you find these excerpts interesting? Download the full 41 page guide for free: