Want to know how much do magicians make performing magic? The the true profits may shock you..

It’s an exciting step to take when you start performing magic for a fee. It could just be a side income for you, or the start of a jump into making magic your living. However, there’s something you should always remember:
Performing magic as a paid performer means you are starting a BUSINESS.

The money you receive isn’t all income. It’s revenue, rather than profit. Only a part of the fee is clear profit for you to spend. The rest needs to be treated with care…

Feeling rich as a magician.

When I first started performing, I was a student. I’d go out in the evening, perform at an event, and come back to my rooms, with a few hundred pounds. It seemed too good to be true. Especially when I watched my friends working five days a week to make the same as I banked in a few hours. I didn’t see the full picture. I thought all the fee was just profit, and mine to spend.

Over time, I realised that the fee you get as a magician needs to be treated as your BUSINESS income. Only a proportion of that should be viewed as your own ’salary’. The rest needs to be spent on maintaining and growing your business.

The business has many overheads.
Rent
Computer, Printer, Paper, Ink
Business cards, flyers
Tax
Advertising
Insurance
Society membership
Exhibition fees
Travel costs
Props
Consumables ( playing cards, Sharpies, etc.)
Business Phone
Costumes and Clothing
Dry cleaning
Backdrops
Website hosting and design
Sustenance
Business growth fund
etc etc

Basically, there is a tonne of costs involved in delivering a ‘magician’ as a product. Those costs need to be accounted for out of the money you receive from performing. All those costs; your clothing, consumables, props, travel… need to be added up, and their projected total divided by the number of bookings you get through an average year. Once you know the REAL cost of being a working magician, you will see how much of your fee is used to provide your service, and how much is actual profit.

Only a small portion of your fee is profit

The magic secret is to put your income from magic in an account, away from your personal account. All your expenses relating to your magic business come out of THAT account. What’s left, is your salary… Unless you keep that money separate from your personal income, it’s very hard to know how much you are TRULY making from your magic, and how much is left for you to grow your business.

Once you start doing this, how you view how much to charge for a magic show will change dramatically.

After costs, your fee only generates a fraction of its value as profit to you.

The hours you forget about

Now, calculate the average number of hours you spend practising, replying to emails, working on marketing, attending exhibitions or networking, travelling… You may charge several hundred pounds per hour when performing, but after expenses and the ‘admin hours’ you put in to run the business, your hourly rate is probably quite modest.

You’re not always busy

You may not get a consistent amount of bookings each month through the year, so you need to account for some months that will be quiet, but the costs of running your business and your need for a ’salary’ will still be there.

I don’t mean to be negative here. Performing magic can be highly profitable, and immensely fun. However, in order to understand how much do magicians make in relation to their earning, you NEED to see exactly how much it costs for a magician to run their business. You need to make sure your activity is as profitable as you think, and you have the budget to make it grow.

How to Return Magic Tricks That You Don’t Like

by Merchant of Magic 2 Comments

Until you start learning a new magic trick, it’s very hard to know if it is going to be right for you.

The magic shop already has a 365 day magic trick return policy, where you have up to one full year to return an unused item to them for an online credit to choose something else.

The old way:

The standard 365 day return policy has some seriously big limitations:

The item has to be unused and returned in A1 condition.
It excluded magic DVD’s and digital media.
You get an online credit to choose something else instead.

Now, that’s still better than any other magic shops we know about, but sometimes you order a magic trick, play with it, test it out and then decide it’s not for you. It may not be right for your style, it might be above your current level of technical skill, or you might simply think that it sucks..

So, we had a team meeting, and Dominic suggested that they pick a few items, and let customers just play with them at home to make sure that the magic tricks really are right for them. Everyone on the team thought that would be awesome, but when we discussed this a magician visiting the shop, he raised this point:

Magician: ‘That’s all well and good, but isn’t the purpose of a magic shop to sell magic secrets? Once a secret has been shared it can’t be ‘unshared’ and therefore, can’t’ be returned.’

Dominic: ‘That’s a very good point, BUT our magic shop doesn’t just sell magic tricks. The purpose of The Merchant of Magic is to teach, train and support magicians to become better.’

The new way:

When you browse through the magic shop website, you will see some magic tricks that show this logo:

That’s our invitation for you to order the trick and give it a good try out. Practice it, perform it, even take it home to meet your parents! If you don’t like it for any reason, just post it back to us within 30 days and we will refund the item price back to you.

More details about our 30 Day Money Back Guarantee here

Problems Buying Magic Tricks – Price Vs Equipment

by Merchant of Magic 2 Comments

Imagine that we released a new magic trick. It’s an electronic, state of the art device that can tell what colour a spectator is thinking about from across a room. It’s an astounding electronic box that does all the hard work for you. The downside: It requires 6 AAA batteries and you need to wear an arm strap. It sells for £100

A year later, we invent a new version of the device. This one does exactly the same thing, but it only needs a paper clip, a straw and 2 magnets to make it work.

Should the simpler, easier method sell for more than the first version? Perhaps a retail price of £150? After all, it works better and doesn’t require batteries. There’s no arguing that these extra features are of immense value to the user.

Maybe instead, we should sell the new simple version for the same price as the original? Perhaps discounting the older electronic version for half price, as a cheaper alternative?

Which one should be more expensive: The one with more equipment, or the one with the best method?

The gimmick is often a disappointment.

How you answer the questions above, has more to do with your attitude to magic, than the economics of selling magic. Do you view commercial magic as something that has a value proportionate to the props and manufacturing process involved, or as an exchange of a method and ideas needed to perform a magical act?

As new magic tricks (and old tricks that have been re-imagined) are released every day, it’s exceptionally easy to forget that their worth is in the magical ‘effect’ that they allow you to perform, rather than the props required to achieve the magic trick.

Rage.

Many beginners face this problem when they start buying magic tricks. It has a name in the magic community: Jiffy Bag Rage. The name stems from the fact that many magic tricks come with just a few props and a sheet of instructions sealed in a clear plastic jiffy bag. The magician has been excitedly waiting for the trick to arrive and thinking about what the method will be. When it finally arrives, there is a moment of anti-climax when they open the jiffy bag and discover the secret. At that moment, the ‘mystery’ of how doing the magic trick is removed, and all that is left is a few very basic props and the prospect of starting the process of practice.

When you first examine a new trick, it’s vital that you remember the feeling you had BEFORE you received the trick, when you watched it being performed and experienced the amazement and wonder of the magic.

The birthday magic catch 22.

There is time of the year when this becomes a crucial issue: Children’s Birthdays. Magic shops help parents choose gifts for their children. The magic they buy is a gift and one of many items that the child will be receiving. It has to compete with all the toys that will also be given to that child. In this situation, the product is often judged on its physical appearance rather than the magic it produces. It’s totally understandable to want impressive packaging in these situations because of the products function is as a gift.

Kids birthday gifts can put a magic dealer in a tremendously difficult position. There are many incredible tricks that would be perfect for a child wanting to learn magic, but they usually come in everyday packaging or just a jiffy bag. It’s the tuition that has the real value to the child, but the packaging creates value for the parent. This is a reason why so many magic sets sold in toy shops are so poor. The manufacturers know that the person buying the set is a gift giver and is attracted by the huge box, graphics and images on the outside, rather than the content.

A good magic shop, is concerned with the quality of tuition, so may well recommend a collection of tricks, or a pack that has excellent tricks, but is not dressed up in a gift box. The magic shop knows these tricks will be the best for teaching a child magic, but not the best at competing with the boxed toys that children are used to receiving from the toy industry.

A magic secret

These challenges faced by the best magic shops, is not your problem as a magician, but there is something useful you can take from this:

Don’t be fooled by the packaging and props of any magic trick you consider ordering. Those things are designed by manufacturers and by marketers to sell you magic as a product or toy, rather than teach you to perform a magical ‘effect’.

Read the trick descriptions and watch the magic video demonstrated. Decide if the magic trick, is right for you, regardless of props included. If it amazes you, entertains you, and fits in with your style and your other tricks, that should be the reason to order and learn it.

Keep in mind when you get the trick, the TRUE value is in how practical, effective or useful the trick will be to you. It’s in the creative genius of the method and the thought process, real world testing and refining that a magic creator has put into its development.

How many batteries that are required or if the instructions come with a DVD rather a booklet, is a distraction from its true value to you.

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, or a magic trick by its props. The value of a magic trick is in the experience it creates for the spectators, not the equipment or method used to achieve it.

DO THIS: Make a quick list of your favorite tricks. The ones you perform all the time. Notice how many of them just came from a book or a DVD or require only a few basic props. What does that tell you about the relationship between excessive, complex equipment/props and value for money?

What do you think? Share your thoughts about this in the comments section below:

How Much do Magicians Make?