magic business Archives

Your First Magic Gig – Are You Ready?

We love practicing new magic tricks. In fact, we bet if you could eat practice, it would taste scrummy! But magic isn’t just about practicing, then moving on to the next magic trick. It’s about getting out and performing. A lot of people that learn how to do magic tricks wonder when they will know they are ready to go out and perform. Let’s look at how to spot when you are ready.

The truth is, you may never feel ready for your first gig.

It isn’t just magicians, anyone who creates something has the same feeling. The musician practicing a new piece, an author working on the drafts of his next novel, the painter reaching the end of his latest work of art. Knowing when to stop is an age old problem faced by creative types, probably since the first cave man started to dab paint on his cave wall. You will probably never get to a point when you feel a routine is perfect. That’s just a fact of life. The secret is to know when it’s good enough for the next stage of learning to start. The end of private practice and time to move on to perform it for the public, and continue to develop though each performance.

K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid).

One way to overcome the feeling that you will never be ready, it to look at the magic tricks you plan to perform and pick only the easiest, and most self working ones you know. Bear in mind that your spectators are not magicians. They will be impressed by tricks that you probably think are pretty basic. An invisible deck, a silk vanish and a basic sponge ball routine may not excite your fellow magicians, but those guys aren’t your market. To a non magician, this stuff is cutting edge and very entertaining! Your first few gigs are going to be about building your confidence and discovering how a gig is structured. Keep the tricks simple, so you don’t have to worry about them. You can add more advanced material later on.

Don’t take every trick you own to the gig.

You don’t need many tricks. Five or six tricks are fine for walk-around magic. You will be repeating the tricks for each small group or table you visit. If you load up your pockets with magic tricks, it will just lead to pocket management problems and confusion as to which trick to do next. We get a LOT phone calls from magicians in a panic because they have agreed to do their first public gig, and want to buy a whole range of new magic tricks to perform. We always warn them not to do this. We suggest that they stick with what they already perform and limit their tricks to just those few. A few days later, we usually get a call from them, telling us how good that advice was.

Agree to something a long time ahead.

If I called you today and said that I need your help, as one of my team of magicians can’t do a gig tomorrow, would you jump at the chance? Maybe you might panic and decline with an excuse. That would be a real shame, but it’s completely understandable and does happen. Suddenly, a big, scary event, that you have been working towards as a hobby, pops up, and it all becomes too serious and real. That’s a big problem, as your first gig will one day pop up like this and you need to be ready for it. A better way to make the big day less scary is by setting it a long time in the future. It’s much easier to agree to do a show or perhaps some magic at a friends party or wedding, when it’s a long way off. As the date gets closer, it’s much harder to back out, and you will be more likely to follow through and do the gig.

Play the role of a magician.

How often do you examine the waiter when he visits your table, and wonder if he REALLY is a waiter? I bet you never have. When you visit a group of spectators, you are playing the role of a magician, and in their eyes, that’s what you are. You will be treated as an expert, even if you are totally new, because the audience has no idea that this is your first gig. Resist the feeling, that at any moment, you are going to be found out’ and everyone will point at you and say, hang on, he’s not really a magician!’ It won’t happen. There really is no need for this nervousness. When you perform professionally (In contrast to when you perform for family and friends), you ARE what you are doing: A professional magician. The spectators are not magicians. They don’t care at all about the quality of your controls or palms. They want to be entertained and will assume you are a seasoned professional.

The afterglow.

I’m going to let you into a little secret. The team at The Merchant of Magic talk to a LOT of magic beginners who call us in a panic about their first show. Pretty much every time, when they follow the advice above, they come back and tell us how they wished they had done it sooner. When you are leaving the magic gig, you will wonder what all the worry was about, and be looking forward to doing it all again.

A magic shop can teach you the tricks and give you advice, but it can’t make you do your first gig. Only you can do that. If you have been feeling that you want to perform for a while, now is the time to make a commitment in the future to perform. Agree to perform at a future event, and follow it through. You will be so glad you did.

Best wishes

Dominic Reyes

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Increase Your Fees for Performing Magic Tricks

by Merchant of Magic 3 Comments

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 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.