-Before I begin, let me give a quick background on myself. I have been practicing magic for over 14 years now. I have been performing for the past 4-5 years ( full time, my only income). I just recently began workign cruise ships. I work mostly corporate and college events. I am capable of performing an hour and a half comedy show. I have performed illusions in my show also, althought I prefer not to. I am writing this as a story that will hopefully help newcomers to not make the same mistakes I did. I am not asking advice on what I did wrong. Believe me I know. With that said......

- A few weeks ago I was asked to work a very high end event for a local Yaht club. The pay was something in the range of a week and halfs normal work. So needless to say this 20 minute show must be completely amazing. My initial contact with the client began with " We want to make our commador dissapear at the end of your show". I called my agent, who is also a magician, and asked if I could borrow a large illusion of his that I have already performed. Luckly that night it would be free. All I would have to do is stop at his house and hook his trailor up to my car. I would then put my subtrunk and the rest of my show in his trailor. So to summarize I was being paid a weeks worth of pay to perform a 20 minute show and to make there head guy dissapear.
- A few days go past and I receive a call from the actual Commador. He want's to confirm everything. I state" so a 20 minute show, you disspear at the end". He says back "20 minutes? NO NO NO 45. Also would you mind doing some walk around an hour before for our guest". Now in a normal circuimstance I would have said something ot the nature of" of course, for a few extra bucks".(of course more business like). Instead I thought that the fee was so large, why not? Walk around is nothing and isn't a big deal. Also it seemed this is secretary gave me the wrong length for the show. It was 45 minutes long. For personal reasons I had to use a new assistant. I trained her to perform the Sub Trunk and a few other minor details weeks before the event.
- The day of the event arrives(Saturday Sept 26, 2009) . To begin with, it was a horrible day from the start. Here in Ohio it was basically flooding. My show is to start at 8:30 at night. I didn't want to mess anything up so we left for the hour drive to pick up the trailor at 3:00 in the afternoon. There was no way I was going to screw this up. On the way I was explaining to my new asistant how one thing will go wrong for sure. My exact words" One thing always goes wrong. The music has stopped working before. A trick doesn't work. But that's part of the job. You just have to deal with it". That was a giant mistake. One thing did go wrong. Then another, and another, and another.
- I pick up a very expensive trailor and load my things. My agent points out that these locks (which were cut proof locks at 50 dollars a pop) tend to stick. You just LIGHTLY turn the key and they will open. I leave and as i'am pulling into the drive for the show, around 6P.M. (two and a half hours before show times) I get a call. "Where are you? Were freaking out becuase you aren't here". Me" I'm pulling in now". When I pull in I am met by the main dissapearing man and his wife. They want to test the trick out now. Not a big deal, let me get my key out. First lock on back comes off fine. Second lock on back......"Bend" goes the key. It will not open the lock. I try to bend it back, it will not open the lock. I'm an hour and a half away from an extra key. Mad as can be, they find me bolt cutters. Remember, these 50 dollar locks are cut proof. Luckly I am a very muscular guy. I never though benching 400 pounds would come in handy. Within minutes, with veins popping out of my head, the lock sparks and flies off, missing my assistants head by inches. We get both tricks out. We test the first one out, in the rain. Were good to go. (lesson here kids, have a spare key, arrive much earlier than you think, and stick to your contract)
- Everything seems to be getting better, until it's time to take the illusions into the building. I was at the only building left on earth that had a single 15 inch wide door. My illusion wouldn't fit through. I'm freaking out. In one ear I have an secretary saying " your suppose to be doing walk around now" (an hour before I was suppose to). In the other " does this illusion come apart". Me " no it's welded together". They say" go inside and get changed, we will take care of this, we wil lfind another door". When I get changed I come down. The illusion is apart. They say" it pulled apart easy from the base, no big deal". (Lesson here, send your measurements to your client. how big are you're illusions. Also never leave someone else to take care of it).
- I finish carrying my things in and begin setting up my sound and tricks. I am perforing basically in a giant doorway. The angles are awful. I don't even have anything set up and still I hear " can you do walk around now?" (30 minutes before I'm suppose to). I run over, perform a few close up tricks, run back set up a few big tricks, run back close up. This continues. I start the show which is the exact show I did a few days prior to a standing ovation ( minuse the final dissapearance). Reactions are minimul. I won't give anything away about the sub trunk for those of you that don't know it, but something happense and a secret gets broke while I'm inside. I'm fixing it from inside. They seemed to enjoy it. The show is finally over and were getting packed up. A ton of people comeo ver to help me carry stuff out. I realize finally how they got the illusion apart. They forced it apart. REALLY???? They take my sub trunk out on it's side, breaking the top door. (Lesson, Don't be rushed, your magic will be effected. NEVER EVER leave anyone alone with your tricks.)
-I finally arrive back at my agents house at 11 at night, in the pouring rain. I explain the lock. I owe him a lock now. I explain the trick, we take a look at it. There are four bolts that take the trick apart. If you unscrew them, it slides apart. They didn't do this. They lifted as hard as they could until the wood split and the illusion comes apart. The trick is 2000 bucks, I'm waiting to hear how much damage has occured.
- With all of this said and done, I have to say the client was very gracious towards me. They were very professional and I was amazed that there tolerance level. I wish I could work with more clients like this.
-Needless to say, this was a huge learning experience for me. The client was happy with the performance. It was not my best show due to the fact that I was not in control. Everything went wrong and it threw me out of wack. Like I said before, I'm sharing this story for education purposes. I don't need to hear what I did wrong. Thanks.

Wow what a day you had !!
I guess that old saying is true, " When it rains, it pours "
Hopefully getting the illusion repaired won't cost you much money.
We'ved had bad days with our show, but nothing close to what you had to go through.
Thanks for sharing.
Bob.

Slightly. I just sat down and wrote out a few things from this night that will never ever happen again. It was a learning experience. They did receive a good show, but overall it was a learning experience.

Your first (and only real) mistake was accepting the gig. For the amount they paid you, it's a case of "If it sounds too good to be true..." Actually, I can just see all that money you made on the gig going to fixing your subtrunk!

You mentioned Ohio, what part of the state are you located in?

Clyde,
I think we met at the be amazing magic show back in February or so. I was down there performing a corporate show. As for your comments, I will keep that in mind. The next time I am offered a giant gig, you know the same amount it that 7 normal shows would barely equal, is offered to me I will say no. HAHA yeah right.

That's a great (if painful) story. Hope you still clear a profit. Thanks for sharing.