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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The September 2003 entrée: Whit Haydn » » The Bidness » » TOPIC IS LOCKED ScottSullivan New user 100 Posts Posted: Sep 2, 2003 6:38pm       Whit, As a working stand-up comedy magician what advice do you have about the business end of it? I know comedy clubs are paying less and less these days. Are colleges the way to go now? Cruise ships? And what is the appropriate content and length of a video tape that a stand-up comedy performer should be sending out? Thanks for your help! Whit Haydn V.I.P. 5442 Posts Posted: Sep 2, 2003 7:20pm       Every venue has its cycles. I like to keep my options as open as possible, and not put everything in one type of performance venue. I used to do comedy clubs, but the market changed dramatically, and it took me a while to find other work. Once you are on cruise ships full time, you will lose all your land work, and it takes time to develop that work again, leaving some performers stuck at sea. A healthy diversity can be very valuable to a performer. Now I do a little cruise work, corporate banquets, some niteclub work, and occasional trade shows. I try not to put all of my eggs in one basket. I also do close-up magic for hospitality suites and corporate events and private parties. I think it is best to have at least two videos. One a short (12-15 min) introductory tape that features a montage of clips from different routines that gives a taste of the performer's work and look. This is what is usually sent to a corporation or as an introduction to an agency. For cruise ships and after getting a return interest from an agency, you will often need a full video of a complete show. Especially for cruise ships, they want to make sure that there is no offensive material and that you have sufficient material to meet their requirements. A cruise ship perfomer needs at least two hours of material that is solid. You don't necessarily have to have all of that on tape, but a half hour to one hour tape of a complete show is important to demonstrate that you can really do the job. The production values of the tape are more important in the short tape that is sent out to get attention. The show tape doesn't need to be all that fancy, and in fact a lot of cutting and editing can make it look like you are trying to cover something. I have seen an agent watch another performer's 10 minutes of fast-paced cuts and edits of the best parts of a show, and then toss the tape into the trash. "I can't tell if he's any good from this or not. All I see is the big climax of each trick, and it may be ten minutes of boring to get to that..." --Pop Haydn Pop Haydn's 21at Century Website Pop's Soapbox Pop's YouTube Channel Sphere of Destiny Los Angeles magician bunkyhenry Special user NYC Metro 634 Posts Posted: Sep 2, 2003 7:55pm       Hello Whit, The first trick I ever learned from a video was from you. I think it was on a 3 tape KJ set on TT's. You showed the use of a pull to disappear a cig and fool those wise to the TT. Whit, Why does one need 2 hrs. of solid material for a cruise ship? Are you actually doing a full 2 hrs alone on stage? That doesn't sound that easy. Whit Haydn V.I.P. 5442 Posts Posted: Sep 2, 2003 8:44pm       No, you don't always need to do two hours on stage. But you need to be able to do that. You often need to do a forty-five minute to one hour show on stage, and then a couple of twenty minutes to a half hour shows in cabaret or as part of a review show. The needs vary from ship to ship and line to line. But if you are on a ship doing short cruises, you will need less material than on the longer cruises. If the ship turns over it's passengers every four days, the chances are that you will only do one show for the passengers, and can repeat that show for the next group. If you are on a longer cruise you will more likely need to do more than one show for the same group of passengers. Some ships (especially the larger ones) have a great deal of entertainment, with a ship's company of dancers and singers doing several shows a week, along with several different variety acts including singers, musical performers, jugglers and comics. On these ships you will probably work less than on other smaller ships (the Seabourn line for example) where you are the main entertainment and will have to do two full (1 hr) shows, or one full show and two shorter shows with another perfomer. It will be difficult to find work on the ships if you cannot offer this amount of material. Things can often go wrong at sea: seas too rough for the dance shows, someone sick, etc., and the company wants to know that you have the flexibility and material to fill in as needed. And yes. It's not that easy. --Pop Haydn Pop Haydn's 21at Century Website Pop's Soapbox Pop's YouTube Channel Sphere of Destiny Los Angeles magician The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The September 2003 entrée: Whit Haydn » » The Bidness » » TOPIC IS LOCKED <<< Previous Topic   Next Topic >>>

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