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kenscott Inner circle 1869 Posts |
Don't know how I missed this post. Chris first sorry this happen to you. You know it is funny you can do 100 great shows and if you do one that you get a bad report on you really fill like crap.
I have been doing schools show for about 7 years now. I started with a Anti drug show. It was good however I just was not happy with it so I stopped doing it and focused on my reading shows and now Character ed shows. The drug shows were a very HOT topic a few years ago, now they seem to only book the show in the month of OCT. which is Red Ribbon week. A couple of suggestions. One I would loose the name "say no to drug show" or "just say No" reason is that it is so overly used. Find a title that is unique or one that everyone is not using. I think Jim may have mentioned this but doing a anti drug show for k- 3 grade can be tuff. Most of the kids don't know what the drugs are that you are talking about. Perhaps you can give an example as to what a drug is . For ex. show them that parents can give them something to them if they are sick. Kids that age see cigs. & beer more than anything. I have used a thing in my show where I ask the kids " if one of your friends ask you to smoke one of their parents cigs. what are you going to say" They all say NO " if someone ask you to drink some alchol / beer what are you going to say?" They all say NO "If your parents ask you do clean your ROOM. what are you going to say? This gets a very funny laugh because most will say NO. I then show them how powerful the word NO is. It can help them but they have to know when to say NO and whom to say NO too. These are just some examples that have helped me in my shows. But again I have decided to stop doing the drug show but rather sell them my character show. At the end they will be much happier with this show in my opinion. You did good about giving the money back. Best, Ken |
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stephenbanning Regular user United States 178 Posts |
Hey Chris,
I appreciate your passion also. To some degree you have to realize that not every show will please everyone. 1) Focus on your input not just their response. In other words, if the show was good, you did your best. This does NOT mean to ignore their response as it may mean there are things in the act to change. This is especially true with new material. 2) The saying "there are no bad audiences" is a fallacy. Bette Midler once said about her act, "Sometimes you have a bad audience. It's as if all the dummies in town said 'Hey, let's go see her show." Do a great show anyway and move on. 3) If it doesn't affect the magic, change it. Response from the audience is extremely important for repeat shows. I try to learn from every performance what the audience likes. This doesn't mean that an audience in another part of the country or another age group will react the same way, but it helps sell the show. I think Tony Daniel's show probably works very well in his part of the country. May less so in others. 4) The customer is always right. I always try to make the customer happy. I use the Dale Carnegie approach of partnering with them. In another business where I worked where complaints were common, my first line was "I want to help you. I'm not in business to see unhappy customers." Then I would follow this with (and this is a customer service technique not unique to me) "I can't go back in time and change what made you unhappy. I wish I could. But what can I do now to help the situation?" Sometimes a complaint is not about the business, it is about the person's situation. I try to sympathize. Another line I use is "and the last thing you needed was..." This helps them realize your position as well. Sometimes people need to vent. 5) The customer is not always right. Despite number 4 above, there are genuine con artists out there. They will give you checks that bounce, cancel at the last minute, etc. That's why there are contracts, etc. Contracts are important for avoiding misunderstandings. This is less important if you don't make a living at magic. 6) Let them know specifically what you have to offer. When someone asks for a show over the phone, I ask where they heard about me first. This lets me know how much they know about me so that I can sell my benefits to them. If they've seen my website I know they understand more about what I do. Then I ask what kind of show they're looking for. Then, in one sentence I describe what the children will experience in the show. Finally I tell them the cost of the show, which is what many were shopping for in the first place. Remember that show business and magic are not always the same. Show business involves money and people will react differently. I hope this helps. Go Salukis. I got my Ph.D. from SIU about seven years ago. Cheers, Steve |
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