How To Get Booked For Magic Shows All Over The World
An excerpt from The Magician’s Foreign Field Manual by Mahdi The Magician
HOW TO GET BOOKINGS
Work does not fall into your lap in the business of performing magic. Every single successful magician you have ever heard of or seen works very hard offstage in getting work.
Before searching for work you must have a product to offer. That product is yourself and your shows. It is said that the first thing you need to be successful in this business is a solid act and I can confirm that. Once you develop yourself into a real magician and are able to put on a real show the word will spread. A great reputation will take you farther than any sales or marketing gimmick so be sure to do an excellent job wherever you present your magic and maintain the high standards of a professional.
Only once you reach this level must you seriously seek employment as a magician. If you move too fast and too early you will come up short and disappoint your clients and audiences and there is nothing worse for your reputation than not being up to the task.
Finding work involves a lot of unrewarded labor. You must constantly be ready to demonstrate your prowess in the art of magic. In these impromptu performances you are performing magic for strangers and acquaintances while out and about in your daily life. You are not so much trying to sell your services but rather establish yourself as a unique creator of powerful magical experiences. Instead of concentrating on handing out an unmemorable business card you should focus on creating once in a lifetime experiences for people. Leave them with a souvenir from your performance (maybe a signed card and you sign the other side as a souvenir for them). Impress them and they will remember you.
You must do a lot of research on where you want to work. You must meet people and pitch projects and engagements. In business it is always a good idea to focus on how you can benefit your clients rather than how much money they will pay you. For example, let’s say you want to have a magic night at an upscale restaurant in town. Imagine you call them up out of the blue and introduce yourself as a magician and say you’d like to perform there once a week and that you think it would be good for business. The manager would listen for about 30 seconds, say thank you, and move on with his day. If you email the same thoughtless offer you probably will not even receive a response.
Let’s imagine now that you decide to take a more professional approach. First you go out to dinner or drinks at that restaurant. Perhaps you build a little house of cards as you wait for your meal and the cards get knocked down as the server approaches. As the server helps you pick up your cards you reach over and produce some cards from her hair and then go into a quick card routine. Pretty soon she is being stunned by your magic and you put the cards away and order some food. The server goes back to the kitchen and tells her coworkers about you and comes back asking if you can show something to her coworkers, the chef, or the manager. Soon enough you have a new little group of friends and a foot in the door to the venue you want to work at. Or... You create a professional pitch for the upscale restaurant. You write a letter of introduction, you provide testimonials and credentials, you explain the type of magic you’d like to perform and how you believe it could increase sales of food and drinks by getting the restaurant new clients as well as create a following of return customers who will come back wanting their friends to experience the food and the magic. You personalize everything and address the package to the management. It is much more likely that you will receive a response and a positive response at that. This mindset will take considerable time and a little bit of money but those are the costs of getting business.
Festivals and other opportunities are very similar. They all require research and a thoughtful approach. Personalize everything and always have your client’s benefit in mind. In business, most people focus on how they will benefit and you must focus on their wants and needs if you are going to be successful.
Working overseas works more or less the same. You must always be on the lookout for opportunities and create opportunities for yourself. Use your network and expand your network. Much can be accomplished by having the right connection. When I was starting out and travelling to foreign countries I sometimes only knew one person in that country, the person who was inviting me. Of course very quickly you are introduced to many people and from those people come more opportunities. The most important thing is to present yourself well and perform great magic. Become friends with and stay in touch with people and opportunities will present themselves to you.
A great way to meet foreigners while you are in your home country is to attend local conventions and festivals as they will often book foreign talent. Be polite and respectful and genuinely want to share your magic with them and they will respond favorably. You can make friends from all over the world this way and these people can be powerful allies when you are wanting to work abroad.
It goes without saying that all your marketing material should be top-notch. Aim to make it higher quality than everyone else in your field. Pay for results. Hire the best and work with the best that you can afford. Dress well and have your photographs and videos reflect your product. Unique giveaways are always a great memento to leave your spectators. I have my own line of playing cards and I know others I know have their own souvenir coins for this purpose. Learn how to or pay to have a professional website made. Depending on what it is you offer in terms of services and products it might be better to learn how to design a website than have to pay someone every single time you want something changed or updated. You should also invest time and energy in using social media. Always do everything from a professional point of view. You are representing your brand and your products in front of clients, never lose sight of that.
Depending on your volume of work, your work ethic, and your market it might be valuable to you to get an agent. Remember though, an agent doesn’t usually get you much work, they are there to help represent and sell you once you are already getting work. There are professional advantages to having an agent in certain markets. Many event planners and talent buyers will only work with established agencies as a policy. We will discuss this further on in more detail.
Everything above is important to getting yourself in front of the right people and making the right impression. Unfortunately, it is not enough. People may love you and they may love your magic and do nothing with those feelings. Most of the time you get work it is because you ask for business.
ASKING FOR THE SALE
Once you have done everything right; You have a show, you have amazing marketing material to sell your product, and you have made the right connections there is only one last thing to do. You have to look at your clients as a puzzle with a missing piece. How can you transform your product to that missing piece that is going to complete their puzzle? What does the client need? How do you fit in? How do you fulfill those needs?
Every client is different and every client is the same. Think deeply on this.
Talk to the client after they have seen you and have a great fresh impression of your magic. Paint the picture for them and fill in as much detail as possible. Whatever event they have you paint yourself into that picture and you bring that image to life in their minds through your words. Believing in your product is the number one way to get others to believe in what you are doing. This is why it is so important to actually be good. Never take the advice of fake it till you make it. You have to be good or you have no business working. If you do not have a professional show or product put this book down. I do not want you to work. Confidence is one of the most important traits in life and it can only come with hard work and experience. Do not pretend to be anything or anyone you are not. Painting a vivid image in your clients mind is not enough. They can be imagining something without seriously considering it and when you leave things at that you will lose opportunities. You must ask for the business.
This sounds intimidating at first but you will soon learn to love it because you will learn the power of asking. The Bible says, you have not because you ask not, and life has taught me that this is true. Asking leads to receiving. It’s very simple and powerful.
Do you like the idea? Does it sound good to you? Does it make sense for you? These are the questions I ask after I’ve brought my vision to life for people. When you have brought your vision to life for people the only response can be positive. They almost are psychologically forced to agree with all your statements.
From there I directly transition to asking them, “How can we make this happen for real?” which puts some pressure on them but also gives them much needed escape routes. Usually they will respond positively but noncommittal and tell you they need to talk to someone or look at something before they can commit. That’s fine. Let them escape if they want to. They need to be comfortable and also need to know you are serious.
Follow-up when it’s appropriate and do your best to move things forward. I could sit here and write a whole book on selling and all the little details and it might help you get a little bit more work but I want you to get a lot more work so I am leaving this as simple as possible so that you can succeed and see massive results immediately.
Ask for the business.
MAHDI GILBERT
Before Magic Edition
PDF | 64 Pages
In The Magician’s Foreign Field Manual, Mahdi Gilbert tells you everything you need to know to work overseas as a professional magician.
Mahdi Gilbert has performed magic in over 27 countries to an audience of over 700 million people.
Most guides and manuals are filled with untested ideas and unproven theories. Mahdi gives you real and practical advice in a condensed format so that you learn what you need to know quickly and can apply the information to your own life and career.
Every young magician has the same experience, we see an incredible magician visit our town or city on tour and it changes our life forever.
We dream to ourselves,
“That Will Be Me One Day!”
Then the years go by and the daily grind of life forces us to ignore OUR DREAMS!
What a shame! What a tragedy!
What if things could be different?
What If…
We Could Travel Around The Entire World Performing Magic?
What If…
We Could Live The Dream!
I know the thoughts that are racing through your mind because I have been there myself.
Once, as a young man, one of my mentors was visiting town and I remember commenting, with a hint of scorn,
“Must Be Nice To Be Able To Travel The World Doing Magic…”
In that very moment, he knew what was in my heart, because he himself had been there too in his youth. He replied,
“You Will Too… One Day Soon…”
Of course, I didn’t believe him. He was just trying to make me feel better, or so I thought…
Then it happened. The emails and phone calls began coming in… I was being asked to travel to foreign countries to perform magic.
I was being asked to…
Live The Dream!
IT HAPPENED TO ME
&
IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!
In The Magician’s Foreign Field Manual book I cover everything from getting work and shows in magic as well as everything you need to know when you are living on the road. It is my pleasure and honor to be your guide and I hope to see you, working alongside me, on one of my world tours.
