Ladies & Gentlemen,
The 1st meeting held at "Startime Entertainment" was a Great Sucess!! We had 8 very active participents. The attendees were: Anthony Thomas, Fred Kirkland, Merritt Ambrose, Aragorn, Joe Mazzola, Rick Jarvis, Dave Smith & Tom Sikorski.
The meeting was broken down as follows:
1) Aragorn gave each attendee a copy of Dennis Michael's "Creating & Running a Successful Kidabra Chapter" to take home and read. Remember at the last meeting we voted to follow Dennis's next year outline.
2) We did a round robin intro of ourselves saying what we had done, what we were doing & what we wanted to do. Also listed skill sets and special training (ie - Clown or Comedy College). The knowledge there was/is astounding.
3) Fred Kirkland gave a presentation on "Targeting Your Show"
You need to look at your Market (who & how many are in it and what are they doing).
Decide what the different customers are (ie - Daycares, Companies, Country Clubs).
Keep it simple & Focused!!!
Look different then the others.
Farm (Real Estate term) your market (ie - they hear or get something from you at least 4 times a year)
Fair Price (this IS market driven, ie - lots of people doing daycares = Low $$'s per show, only Ventriliquist in town = High $$'s per show).
Make the Props Yours (ie - All of Aragorn's main props regarding his animals have the color scheme of his Sun Conure Parrot).
Make the Routine Yours (ie - PB & J, Fred calls the PB Jelly and the Jelly PB).
Do ENTERTAINMENT, NOT just Magic!!!
Target the Decision Maker, what are their likes and dislikes and find out their NEED.
4) We then had a short discussion on the "Importance of the WEB" regarding getting gigs and how print advertising is dying and the web is taking over. This included the importance of Web Site design and the use of "Key Words". Merritt will be giving a lecture in January '08 on "Key Words" & "Pay Per Click" offerings.
4) We then had a short discussion on using "Agents". Several of the participents had used Agents both in other locations and here in Atlanta. The general consensus was that there are fewer agents, fewer venues and a change in audience interests. Also that if you are effective in your Active Marketing, what did you need an agent for??
5) Your Favorite Card Trick - Ta Da!!!
Merritt showed some works in progress. Now Merritt has designed and built Major Illusions for some of the top names in magic. He showed some examples of his small stuff....WOW! One was an example of a "Rubix Cube Pick a Card Effect" where he showed a beautiful box that had many seperate cubes in it with each having a
different part of many different playing cards showing. He closes the box. The spectator choses a card from a deck. He reopens the box and all the different pieces now show the whole selected card. Very, very cool.
Dave did a wild "Pick a Card" routine where the cards were coming from his knee, elbow, mouth, etc. Lots of fun.
Joe did a "Card Prediction" where he wrote down the "Name" of the Card that would be chosen. Oh yeah, the name of the card was "Barney"...lol. And all the cards had different names on the back of them.
I, Aragorn, did my new "Aragorn's Flaming Magic Missiles" routine that I am developing to market. It is a KILLER!!
6) Discussion on next month's "Holiday Dinner & Show"
Next month's meeting is on the 1st Monday of December. That is Dec. 3rd @ 7 PM at "Startime Entertainment". The 1st hour will be "Dinner". Still to be decided is do we order individually from Startime or Potluck and order drinks from Startime or pick a theme (ie-Chinese) and everyone bring something from their favorite resturant? Please email me back to just my email with your druthers. The 2nd hour will be "Kidabra Chapter 3's 1st Holiday Show". Please limit your routine to 5 minutes or less. Also please email me if you are going to perform. Startime has a very nice stage and I have a Fender P-150 Sound System.

That's all for now & Have a Magical Day,
Aragorn The Magician
aka: I used to be Bob
http://www.aragornthemagician.com

Hello
Aragorn, I ha d great time the Kidabra Atlanta Chapter 3 November 2007 Meeting and will be looking forward to my mini lecture. There is a very knowledgable group of fellow magicians in the Atlanta chapter. Thanks again
Merritt