My own close up show

Sep 22, 2007
42
0
hey. over the past 9 months or so, i have been working on creating some tricks to form a 30 minute or so act for a close up show. but i hit a major road block. how do i markert my act and get myself out there. i made a business photo. i really would love to have an act. so far im working with holioday shows. at holiday celebrations at my house, i do my act but thats all i can get out of it. please help. this is also on the my post about creating tricks
 
Sep 2, 2007
1,693
1
Here is some valuable advice about how to market yourself and get your name out there. Steve Simmons says it better than I:

You also have to be a sales person. Someone that can close a sale, and make people believe that they need to hire a magician for their next event. This is where sales and marketing comes into play. It makes a huge difference, and definitely helps. You have to know how to find a target audience, and market towards them. Your whole style should be towards your target audience.

Example. Say you want to start working the corporate market. That means your going to be marketing your shows towards the corporate guys. You need everything to reflect that. Your business card is not going to be filled with balloons and bunnies if you’re trying to get the corporate shows. Your website isn’t going to have pictures of you performing at your cousin’s b-day party while you’re dressed in jeans. No, you need to reflect what you it is you do. You need testimonials from big companies. Pictures of you performing for big companies, such as Coca-Cola, NASCAR, Budweiser. Those are just some examples of picking a target audience and marketing towards them.

Another aspect of being a professional magician and getting more gigs is being pro-active. You can’t just sit on your ass all day and wait for the phone to ring. If you do that, your phone is going to be pretty quiet. Instead, you have to get out there and find them! That is the only way to get more gigs.

So…how exactly do you get more events planned, and start booking more gigs? Well, you start finding them.

Well...how do you do that?

1. Sub-contracting. Call up some local places that could use a magician, or where people go to for parties. Maybe a party store, arts and crafts store, etc. Talk with the owner and try to get permission to put some business cards/flyers around their store. A party store would be perfect IMO. People going there to get some stuff for their son's b-day party, and bam! An advertisement for a magician right there. Perfect! It might be more last-minute gigs (as people pick that sort of stuff up only a couple days before), but still a gig none the less.

2. Schools. See if you can buy some advertisement in some local elementary school. I know some have flyers/papers that go home to the students monthly, with events and such coming up. I think at my elementary school they sold the space on there to help cover the cost of various events throughout the year. Ask around.

3. Grocery stores/Food chains (McDonalds, Burger king, etc) often have bulletin boards for you to post stuff on. Throw some flyers on there, and have some slips with your contact info on it. My local Baskin Robins also has something like this. Check with places like Coldstone, Toys R Us, KB Toys, etc.

Of course, this all comes back to picking a market, and selling yourself as the top magician for that market. The ideas above are for people looking to pick up more b-day gigs, but could work for other areas of magic. You just have to be creative, and give it some thought.

------------------------------------

There is also this saying I think, that goes…”If you work your numbers, your numbers will work for you.” What does this mean, and what numbers am I talking about? Well, it goes with sales. There are 3 numbers involved. The first one is the number of people you call. Those are your contacts. Say you call 20 contacts. The second one is the number of people that agree to listen to your presentation. You pitch 10 presentations. The last one is the number of people that say yes, and hire you. Say 2 people hire you. So your numbers are 20:10:2.

You called 20 people, made 10 presentations, and booked 2 gigs. In theory, if you increase your contacts to 40 people, you make 20 presentations, and book 4 gigs. That’s what I’m talking about when I mention numbers. Eventually, they start to even out and will start being more consistent. Then you can use your numbers to help determine how many shows you plan to do. But of course, it’s all in theory. Many things can cause them to change, such as location, time of year, other important things happening, etc.

But, you get the point. And you're probably asking yourself, what's the point of this thread? To give you an idea of what it takes to be a professional magician. It's not just performing magic and passing out business cards. If that's all you do, it's not going to get you very far. You have to take the initiative and go out there and find the gigs. There's moe to magic than magic...that's a fact.

Feel free to check out the entire post and thread -- http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=943 -- it's full of helpful information.

Cheers,
JTM
 
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You MUST be relentless. Don't take no for an answer. I'm not saying constantly bug them to book you a gig, but be persistant. If you ask someone to book you a gig, and they say they aren't interested, say something like "Well, let me try to change your mind." And perform your best effect for them. Either they'll love it and book you, or get more annoyed and say no again. If so, who cares? Move on to the next place. Prove to the previous people that they made a mistake in turning you down. Who knows, maybe they'll come to your act, and regret not booking you and book you another time. Call everywhere. Your town library, your community center, ANYWHERE, and try to arrange something. Another way I like to do things like that is to do street magic, and hand out fliers or business cards. This could do two things. The people you perform for could want you to do a party for them, or the person you perform for could own/work at a place with a stage, and might try to hook you up. It's all about selling yourself. If you can, go to a place instead of calling them. This gives you the opportunity to perform for them right then and there. Also, for some reason, people are more impressed when you show up in person than when you call them. I just booked a gig at my library simply by calling and telling them i'm a magician. Apparently the manager there loves magic, and immediately booked me for a January show. Sell yourself bro. Hope I helped!
 
Sep 1, 2007
648
0
31
Canada
You MUST be relentless. Don't take no for an answer. I'm not saying constantly bug them to book you a gig, but be persistant. If you ask someone to book you a gig, and they say they aren't interested, say something like "Well, let me try to change your mind." And perform your best effect for them. Either they'll love it and book you, or get more annoyed and say no again. If so, who cares?

Me on the phone to a restaurant after somebody gave me the wrong number...

Manager - "No, sorry. We don't have a large enough venue for you to perform magic in. Like I said, we're just a take-out restaurant."

Me - "Well would you be willing to give it a try?"

Manager - "No!"

Hangs up.
 
Me on the phone to a restaurant after somebody gave me the wrong number...

Manager - "No, sorry. We don't have a large enough venue for you to perform magic in. Like I said, we're just a take-out restaurant."

Me - "Well would you be willing to give it a try?"

Manager - "No!"

Hangs up.

That's another thing.

If you're making a phone call, make sure you have the right number. ;)
 
You MUST be relentless. Don't take no for an answer. I'm not saying constantly bug them to book you a gig, but be persistant. If you ask someone to book you a gig, and they say they aren't interested, say something like "Well, let me try to change your mind." And perform your best effect for them. Either they'll love it and book you, or get more annoyed and say no again. If so, who cares? Move on to the next place. Prove to the previous people that they made a mistake in turning you down. Who knows, maybe they'll come to your act, and regret not booking you and book you another time. Call everywhere. Your town library, your community center, ANYWHERE, and try to arrange something. Another way I like to do things like that is to do street magic, and hand out fliers or business cards. This could do two things. The people you perform for could want you to do a party for them, or the person you perform for could own/work at a place with a stage, and might try to hook you up. It's all about selling yourself. If you can, go to a place instead of calling them. This gives you the opportunity to perform for them right then and there. Also, for some reason, people are more impressed when you show up in person than when you call them. I just booked a gig at my library simply by calling and telling them i'm a magician. Apparently the manager there loves magic, and immediately booked me for a January show. Sell yourself bro. Hope I helped!

Anthony,

There's a big difference in being persistent and being a nuisance. One thing you said here...

If you ask someone to book you a gig, and they say they aren't interested, say something like "Well, let me try to change your mind." And perform your best effect for them. Either they'll love it and book you, or get more annoyed and say no again. If so, who cares?

If you ask someone to book you a gig?? I've never ASKED someone to book me...I think you're getting the wrong idea bro. Marketing yourself, and sending out promo kits, etc, you're not ASKING someone to book you. You're letting them know about the services you provide.

When I send out my promo kit, I'm not asking them to book me...at least not that bluntly. I'm simply letting them know I'm out there and available, and planting the idea in their mind that hey, "this guy might be a great idea for that meeting we have next month!"

I would also have to disagree with "trying to change their mind by showing them a trick." By doing that, all it simply does is lower you to the standard of a used car salesman...not the image that *I*, a working pro, wants to portray to a client that might possibly hire me further down the road for a 20 minute close-up show for $150. It makes you look tacky IMO.

What's the harm in simply thanking them for their time and respecting their decision AT THE MOMENT. By acting like a pro AT ALL TIMES, it definitely plants a seed in their mind that hey, "this guy isn't an ass that's making me feel awkward and wasting my time...he's a pro and acting like it...now, we do have that cocktail party next month."

You also said...

Either they'll love it and book you, or get more annoyed and say no again. If so, who cares?

Big no no there man...definitely not a good thing. And to be honest, and IMO, it's a no-win situation. So, you show them a trick and they love it...chances are they still won't book you. If they're not interested, they're not interested. Showing them a trick won't make much of a difference IMO.

If they get more annoyed...well, you can bet they'll tell all their friends about the magician NOT TO HIRE! And that is SOOOOO not the word of mouth that *I* want out about me...at. all.

Sorry to pick apart your post bro, and don't take this as an attack. I'm just giving my opinion on what you said...and by no means is my word final...I too am still learning. So is EVERYONE to be honest....if someone says they know it all, that's not the person that I'd take advice from LOL!

Best.
Steve

P.S. Jack, thanks for the kind words bro. Much appreciated! ;)
 
Anthony,

There's a big difference in being persistent and being a nuisance. One thing you said here...



If you ask someone to book you a gig?? I've never ASKED someone to book me...I think you're getting the wrong idea bro. Marketing yourself, and sending out promo kits, etc, you're not ASKING someone to book you. You're letting them know about the services you provide.

When I send out my promo kit, I'm not asking them to book me...at least not that bluntly. I'm simply letting them know I'm out there and available, and planting the idea in their mind that hey, "this guy might be a great idea for that meeting we have next month!"

I would also have to disagree with "trying to change their mind by showing them a trick." By doing that, all it simply does is lower you to the standard of a used car salesman...not the image that *I*, a working pro, wants to portray to a client that might possibly hire me further down the road for a 20 minute close-up show for $150. It makes you look tacky IMO.

What's the harm in simply thanking them for their time and respecting their decision AT THE MOMENT. By acting like a pro AT ALL TIMES, it definitely plants a seed in their mind that hey, "this guy isn't an ass that's making me feel awkward and wasting my time...he's a pro and acting like it...now, we do have that cocktail party next month."

You also said...



Big no no there man...definitely not a good thing. And to be honest, and IMO, it's a no-win situation. So, you show them a trick and they love it...chances are they still won't book you. If they're not interested, they're not interested. Showing them a trick won't make much of a difference IMO.

If they get more annoyed...well, you can bet they'll tell all their friends about the magician NOT TO HIRE! And that is SOOOOO not the word of mouth that *I* want out about me...at. all.

Sorry to pick apart your post bro, and don't take this as an attack. I'm just giving my opinion on what you said...and by no means is my word final...I too am still learning. So is EVERYONE to be honest....if someone says they know it all, that's not the person that I'd take advice from LOL!

Best.
Steve

P.S. Jack, thanks for the kind words bro. Much appreciated! ;)

Steve,

No worries bro.

Let me reword myself. I didn't mean "ask" meaning "Hey, i'm a magician, will you book me to do a show?" That's definately not what I meant by it. In fact, I have no idea what I meant by "ask". I just worded it wrong. I had a brain-fart. Sorry bout that guys. Nobody's perfect.....except Andre Kole. :D
 
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