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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
A word of warning: if you go to Vegas put away any floating thread effects and D'lites that you might own. Just about every hotel has a Houdini Magic shop or a Magic Zone and you walk around seeing regular people with glowing thumbs and trying to float their credit cards. It's almost as if they hand you these products as you step off the plane.
If you ever have watched and episode of Taxicab Confessions then you might have seen one in Vegas where one of the passengers had just purchased D'lite and was doing it constantly as he was filmed. Luckily, either he didn't buy it or was to drunk to try his UFO kit. Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
I despise the Vegas shops selling thread the way they do. Know what, though? Even folks that buy it and go in the back room to learn the secret, a month later you can fool them with thread.
Magic is like that – Thank God!!!
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
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dsilverfield Special user 752 Posts |
No, thank short term memory that people have.
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spatrick Special user Tom Sawyer let me whitewash these 517 Posts |
I would like to add some small comments. First of all, thank you to Joey for finally spelling Roccos' name right. Now on to other things.
The MagicZone ideas while good on paper, need magicians, not sales people to pull off. They need to sell items other than the routines that these places pitch. I would love to see a kiosk that sold items that beginners really need (like some beginner effects and books) as opposed to IT and the overused D'Lites (which are so clichéd and overused that Rocco doesn't even use them anymore.). Now onto the comment about magic clubs not buying much merchandise at lectures. I personally believe, as do many colleagues of mine, that the so called lecturers nowadays are nothing more than glorified dealer demo artists. They come in and do about an hour of the stuff that they personally sell and then hawk it after the "lecture". The only difference is that they tell you the secret before you buy the effect. How about this for novel thinking? Have a lecture charge a bit more, leave the "merchandise" at home, and go in and spend some quality time TEACHING the attendees how to perform professionally and some routines that illustrate that concept. People go to a lecture to learn, not to be sold. People watch the discovery channel for the shows, and not for the commercials. Rocco and Virgil knew exactly what they were doing when they set this concept up. (Trust me I know and I will not name names.) The plan from the beginning was to have the "Pitch Artist" stand in front of the booth all day spinning a card and attract a crowd. He would then (according to the script) pull out the D'Lites, and hawk them (they still have thousands of those things floating around that they can't get rid of. Every time I see Rocco he gives me one for nothing). Then if some customers were still around they would go into another routine or maybe pitch a kit or video. They all knew how it worked. The problem with any magic store is that you have only a niche customer base. In a given town everybody needs gas and food, some people need the dentist, some people need a caterer, some people need a doctor, but only about 20 people need a magic store to get what they need. Once you have sold to those 20 you are done, unless you always get new inventory. Our local magic dealer combines a magic shop, with a hobby shop, rents out the other half of the building to a daycare, and uses the top floor for magic shows, dances, and private affairs. If the magic is slow that month, he still makes a living, and the magic that he does carry is easy to do, and he stocks most refill items (vanishing wands, hat tears, mouth coils, flash paper etc.) Magic on its own is a tough challenge. S. Patrick |
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Kenardo1 New user 72 Posts |
I have only seen one Magic Zone. It was located in the mall off the New York State Thruway in Rockland County. I passed it about a week before last Christmas. It really looked pathetic; no customers and all the wares laid out. I don't know if it survived the holiday season, or if maybe I passed it at a bad time. What saddened me most was that they were selling knockoffs and "secrets" that really were not theirs to sell. I believe (not 100% sure) I saw a version of Pen Thru Anything. I really do not feel sorry for the franchisees who hoped to make a quick buck and failed; because of the ads in the magic magazines I feel they had the knowledge knowing what they were getting into. As for the Vegas stores, that's business too. I think they are doing a lot better for many reasons: new customers (tourists) all the time with money to spend and tons of magic shows to spur interest. That's life!
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magicswan Loyal user springfield,ma 253 Posts |
I wish I would have thought of it.
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Close.Up.Dave Inner circle Behind you! 2956 Posts |
Quote:
On 2004-03-30 00:05, Keith Raygor wrote: I was thinking the same thing. I have seen one Magic Zone in the Mall of America and I was disgusted. The teenager running it was playing with D'lites all day and performing for people, I guess this was the good thing I saw, he was able to perform it. The bad news was everyone already knew what those were and no one was interested in them, too many people have seen them. Then I started talking to the guy. He said, "He was pretty good for the amount of time he has been doing magic." I then asked him for how long and he said two months. I felt like laughing yet crying at the same time. Two months into magic and he already owns a magic shop. I really don't think this is good for the magic community. Yes, Magic Zones do spark interest to laymen, but for the good of magic they should at least get people with experience selling magic and not Jack from chemistry class who needs a summer job. |
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magicswan Loyal user springfield,ma 253 Posts |
They wanted us to go around the mall and "advertise" so folks would come by and buy our magic... At first I had a huge problem with selling our secrets to just anybody, but then that's why I got hired. It sucked, but then it just became a "job". It was like when I sold "wild levitation " to this movie star, he wanted to buy it, what was I to do, that's my job! So I sold it to him. A couple of people were upset but that's what I get paid to do.
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