hey,
there is a very important thing in life and some people call it money, as a magician one of your first decsion is that you dont want money, you will be happy to become a move monkey practicing moves and flourshing for wining an online contest that you will loose to some card ninja from asia( no offence thise guys are crazy!!).
anyway as a working magician my first trick was to get money, that mean to get gigs.. well i got some gigs but not enough to make a living so i got another job ( while learning CS in college..) not that great, and i thought to myself why is has to be so hard? i am good, pepole enjoy my act, i am funny, i can steal a watch cut and restore i got good jokes and everything i learned from books and DVD just didnt seem to work as good as i hope..
and yes i know all of that crowd expeirence, and yes i create my own routines, and yes i give something to take home that is personal an unique.. the thing that make us so bad in making money as a new artist is that we dont learn about marketing and we love to work alone because we think that we are special.
what do i mean by that?
well lets start with some basic questions...
1. do you hire writers to write you punch lines or a cript for your act? how many people involes in your act? if you are doing everything by yourself, is it enough, what do you know about sound, video editing, lighting or clients status?
2.do you do pre runs for your show for a live non family related auidence? do write down their comments and thoughts after the show, are you willing to work for free for this review? do you got your all act on video so you could watch it after?
3.are you getting to your market? how much do you charge? tips or pre pay? what kind of publicity are you using? does it work or dont work? and how can you check it, did you ever met a marketing consult? created any buzz around your act, did something crazy for this? are you living in an enviorment that will love your act and style, maybe there is another market you can tap? remeber the 100 rule, you can say it doesnt work only after you tried a 100 times - apply for getting gigs, jokes, new tricks and everything that is diffcult.
4. do you know all of the basics of your act? did you put up a mentalisim , close up, comedy magic, illusion acts? if no why? why not to try those things on stage just to get the feeling and take the benfits of each style? most of us start in close up , move a bit to mentalisim and some cheap stage magic..
5.who is in the center of your act you or your magic? who do want to be in the center? and if its your magic, are you the only one that can do this ? if it is you what make you special that pepole need to sit for an hour and see this?
6. how many ways you tried to make money out of your magic? gigs, private lessons,magic products and... fill it by yourself or pay me to get ideas ( including admins
)
7.kids or grown ups? receptions or trade shows? hotels or bars? why you picked this? was it the only thing with money or this is what you wanted to do from the start? you can make money if are to flexibale and without a clear path.
8. how many other magicians saw your full act? do you even got an act or a combination of great effects? one of our main problem is that we love to work alone, it is stupied and hard thae critict as much as you can, share your thoughts and write down your ideas, for an act you need a full 6 A4 with everything you about to say or do, not to follow this word by word but forcing you to seat down and think about your act. go to acting teachers and ask their opinion..
9.do you buy new tricks without making money from your old tricks? well if you say yes.. i guess its ok for the first years, but it like an infection , dont let it spread.. cards collecteres only make money on ebay, watch it.
if you make 200 $ you can buy a nugget, not before!! keep a balnce when you start to work and remeber, you get gigs for who you are as a person and a preformer not for your tricks.
well that was a bit off, tried to put some genral ground rules that i think magician are not aware off becuse there a great deal for technique and showmanship, i think those two are important but as any artist there are some basic rules that aplly also on magicians.
i think that if you are lucky and you can get a regular weekly book performance , even for free you should do it you cant really be good before you preform at least 30 shows, ( close up doesnt count... but it can help).
so put your effort into those points and i think you will create a change.
there is a very important thing in life and some people call it money, as a magician one of your first decsion is that you dont want money, you will be happy to become a move monkey practicing moves and flourshing for wining an online contest that you will loose to some card ninja from asia( no offence thise guys are crazy!!).
anyway as a working magician my first trick was to get money, that mean to get gigs.. well i got some gigs but not enough to make a living so i got another job ( while learning CS in college..) not that great, and i thought to myself why is has to be so hard? i am good, pepole enjoy my act, i am funny, i can steal a watch cut and restore i got good jokes and everything i learned from books and DVD just didnt seem to work as good as i hope..
and yes i know all of that crowd expeirence, and yes i create my own routines, and yes i give something to take home that is personal an unique.. the thing that make us so bad in making money as a new artist is that we dont learn about marketing and we love to work alone because we think that we are special.
what do i mean by that?
well lets start with some basic questions...
1. do you hire writers to write you punch lines or a cript for your act? how many people involes in your act? if you are doing everything by yourself, is it enough, what do you know about sound, video editing, lighting or clients status?
2.do you do pre runs for your show for a live non family related auidence? do write down their comments and thoughts after the show, are you willing to work for free for this review? do you got your all act on video so you could watch it after?
3.are you getting to your market? how much do you charge? tips or pre pay? what kind of publicity are you using? does it work or dont work? and how can you check it, did you ever met a marketing consult? created any buzz around your act, did something crazy for this? are you living in an enviorment that will love your act and style, maybe there is another market you can tap? remeber the 100 rule, you can say it doesnt work only after you tried a 100 times - apply for getting gigs, jokes, new tricks and everything that is diffcult.
4. do you know all of the basics of your act? did you put up a mentalisim , close up, comedy magic, illusion acts? if no why? why not to try those things on stage just to get the feeling and take the benfits of each style? most of us start in close up , move a bit to mentalisim and some cheap stage magic..
5.who is in the center of your act you or your magic? who do want to be in the center? and if its your magic, are you the only one that can do this ? if it is you what make you special that pepole need to sit for an hour and see this?
6. how many ways you tried to make money out of your magic? gigs, private lessons,magic products and... fill it by yourself or pay me to get ideas ( including admins
)7.kids or grown ups? receptions or trade shows? hotels or bars? why you picked this? was it the only thing with money or this is what you wanted to do from the start? you can make money if are to flexibale and without a clear path.
8. how many other magicians saw your full act? do you even got an act or a combination of great effects? one of our main problem is that we love to work alone, it is stupied and hard thae critict as much as you can, share your thoughts and write down your ideas, for an act you need a full 6 A4 with everything you about to say or do, not to follow this word by word but forcing you to seat down and think about your act. go to acting teachers and ask their opinion..
9.do you buy new tricks without making money from your old tricks? well if you say yes.. i guess its ok for the first years, but it like an infection , dont let it spread.. cards collecteres only make money on ebay, watch it.
if you make 200 $ you can buy a nugget, not before!! keep a balnce when you start to work and remeber, you get gigs for who you are as a person and a preformer not for your tricks.
well that was a bit off, tried to put some genral ground rules that i think magician are not aware off becuse there a great deal for technique and showmanship, i think those two are important but as any artist there are some basic rules that aplly also on magicians.
i think that if you are lucky and you can get a regular weekly book performance , even for free you should do it you cant really be good before you preform at least 30 shows, ( close up doesnt count... but it can help).
so put your effort into those points and i think you will create a change.
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