How much should I charge for a kid's magic show?

[Pete Pridanonda]

So today my English teacher asked me if I wanted to do a one hour show at his house for his New Year's Eve party on December 31st. I gladly accepted the gig because I have performed for kids before (not at a paid gig) but only at say like a camp for disabled children or small gatherings or parties for only about 20-30 minutes. I felt like I have enough experience to try out this first paid gig I am being offered because I performed at the magic castle, strolling at various venues, and a couple of small stage shows here and there as part of a bigger event. My client said that there will be around 25 kids ages 6-7 years old as well as around 15 adults but mostly I'm being asked to perform for the kids. He told me to set a price for him and since this is my first paid gig asides from the Magic Castle and a few tips performing strolling, I don't want to charge too much as well as too little, I wanted to be at a reasonable price. I know Rick Everhart will be able to help me immensely but I'm also looking forward to other magician's opinions. Thank you very much.

 

[bentley]

What do you plan on doing? Magic specifically for kids? When I started 8 years ago with kids I charged 25 for 30 minutes. In my state it's hard to charge a lot but I'm doing great now that I have the knowledge. What do you think you are worth?

 

[RickEverhart]

Pete...I'm swamped with school work right now, but I will tell you one thing right away and then I'll get back to you tomorrow with all of my advice.

You cannot do more than 30 minutes for 6-7 year olds. Their attention span doesn't last that long. You'll be asking for trouble trying to entertain children that young for an hour solid of magic. The most I've even done solid for children under the age of 8 is 45 minutes and that was REALLY pushing the envelope.

For my half hour show I charge $100 but I've also done probably over 20 kids shows in the past 2-3 years. If this is going to be truly your first paid gig, I'd probably charge $50 for a half hour show.

Reality One and I have tons of experience with these types of shows and I will have to get back to you tomorrow. I literally have a huge stack of papers to grade and a test to make up for tomorrow morning.

 

[Phenomena]

ask for 500
when you get laughed at, gradually bring it down by 50$ at a time lol

 

[Jewish_Illusion]

ask for 500
when you get laughed at, gradually bring it down by 50$ at a time lol

that one actually made me laugh !
in any case, i would a gree that charging 50 for a halfhour show for kids is your best bet.
that is what i usually charge.

 

[RealityOne]

As Rick said, an hour is long. You can fill some of that time with a craft project at the beginning (I have the kids make their own wands - PM me if you want details) and balloon animals at the end. Keep the show to a half hour.

The 6 to 7 age group is my favorite age to perform for.

As for price, I think the $50 for a half hour or $75 if you also do balloons and/or crafts would be a fair price.

Now the big issue is how to make a show out of the effects you have. If you post or PM your ideas, I'd be willing to help out.

 

[Pete Pridanonda]

Thank you very much everyone for the advice, yes, I also believe that $50 for a half hour is very reasonable especially with this sort of age group. I don't think my client will want to change the show from an hour long to just half an hour because if it's only half an hour, there would be a time where he didn't plan on having anything going on at the party. I'll talk to him tomorrow and I will post here to let you know what he thinks. Your idea is very good Reality One, thank you very much for that, I'm not very good with arts and crafts type of thing but I'm going to talk to my client to see if maybe I will able to perform half an hour of magic for the kids and then do another half an hour strolling magic for the adults. Thank you Rick and Reality, you are very professional with your advice, i know i can always count on you to save the day I will get back to what routines I'm going to perform Reality One, and I will post them here, I have an idea of what routine I'm going to do but have to see if they will fit a half hour on an hour time frame.

 

[RickEverhart]

Pete, did you PM David with your effects yet? You can post them here as well if you want or if you don't want to...feel free to PM me as well. Between the two of us we should be able to get you pretty well set.

 

[RealityOne]

I'm not very good with arts and crafts type of thing...

If you can cut in a straight line or use a paper cutter and can hand out rolls of tape and some stickers, you can do this with the kids. It allows each kid to have their own wand to use during your performance.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Like Rick said, feel free to post here or send us PMs.

 

[Pete Pridanonda]

Thank you very much Rick and David for your kind information and advice, really do means a lot to me. Unfortunately, I'm very busy with school work at this point and didn't get a chance to organize my effects together. So instead, I will pm both of you on friday and again, thank you very much, really do means a lot to me.
Now, regarding advice about an hour show is too long for kids at that age, I've talked to my English teacher today and he told me that he will make sure that the kids don't get distracted and that they are a very nice group of kids. I told him that I will discuss this with some magicians and will give an answer to him tomorrow. He really wanted me to do an hour show so what I was thinking is that since this is my first paid gig asides from the Magic Castle and I don't want to charge too much or too little, I'm thinking of charging $70 or $75 for one hour kids show. What do you think? Is this a good idea?

 

[RealityOne]

I'm very busy with school work at this point and didn't get a chance to organize my effects together. So instead, I will pm both of you on friday

School is more important. I suspect that Rick and I are both busy with work related stuff and won't get to look at it until the weekend even if you did post it sooner.

Now, regarding advice about an hour show is too long for kids at that age, I've talked to my English teacher today and he told me that he will make sure that the kids don't get distracted and that they are a very nice group of kids.

An hour is a long show for kids that age even if they are the best behaved kids. I've done shows with that long for Cub Scouts but I've done the craft and I've taught them some very basic card tricks (what I call my "uncle" tricks... tricks that your crazy uncle would teach you). Balloon animals also work well at the end of a show.

I'm thinking of charging $70 or $75 for one hour kids show. What do you think? Is this a good idea?

I think $75 is a fair price.

 

[Pete Pridanonda]

thank you very much David, yes I agree with everything that you've said. The thing is, my english teacher only wanted an hour of magic and not teaching kids how to do arts and crafts or showing them balloon animals. I mean, i could do that as an extra he wouldn't mind and would also pay more but at least he wanted me to do an hour of kids show. I guess I'll charge $75 for an hour and perform the show then I'll post my experience on here after the show to tell all of you how the show went.