Call #1
Ring, Ring
Me: Hello, Joe the Magician
Caller: (young sounding possibly "special") Do you do magic?
Me: Yes I'm the magician.
Caller: Do you teach magic tricks?
Me: I offer a workshop for adults and children where they learn a dozen tricks. How many students will there be?
Caller: Just me. Do you teach the trick where a $1 bill changes to a $100?
Me: Yes, Is your mom there?
Caller: No.
Me: Your dad?
Caller No. But my grandma is.
Me: Could I talk to her?
Caller: Do you know Jim Snack. He taught me a magic trick.
Me: Could I please speak to your grandma?
Caller: OK, hang on. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAANDMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Grandma: Hello,
Me: Hi this is Joe the magician.
GM: Hello, Christian must be calling you about magic lessons. He is behavorially challenged. We tell him if he behaves that we will get a magician to teach him some magic.
Me: How old is Christian?
GM: 13. How much do you charge?
Me: $100 an hour for private lessons.
GM: That's too much.
Me: That's what I charge. You might try some other magicians in the phone book.
GM: I think Christian has called them all a dozen times. We were thinking of paying $50 an hour.
Me: I could do it for $75.
GM: Let me put Christian back on.
Christian: Are you going to teach me magic?
Me: Ask grandma, If you are good I think she might have someone teach you magic.
Christian: Really?!?! When?
Me: You'll have to talk to Grandma. I have to go now. Bye bye.

Between these 2 call I spoke with a fellow magician in the area. Christian has called him a lot. He has actually told Christian and his grandma on multiple occasions to stop calling him if they do not plan on hiring him.

Call #2
Ring Ring
Me: Hello, Joe the Magician
Christian: Do you do magic?
Me: Yes I'm the magician.
Christian: Do you teach magic tricks?
Me: Didn't I talk to you a week ago?
Christian: I don't know.
Me: Can I talk to grandma?
C: She's busy.
Me: Well do me a favor and give me a call when she's not busy.
C: Hang on.
GM: Hello.
Me: Hi it's Joe the Magician.
GM. Oh hello.
Me: I just recently booked a magic workshop for kids 8 and up. It is not one on one lessons but it's only $30 and includes a magic show before the workshop.
GM: Wonderful, when and where is it?
Me: May 7 at the Great Room Theatre in Gansevoort.
GM: That's too far away.
Me: Well I know you have been promising Christian a lesson for some time now. I just thought you would like to know about it.
GM: Let me put Christian back on.
C: Do you know the trick where you turn a $1 into a $100?
Me: Yes I do but you need to have a $1 and a $100 bill to do it.
C: Can you teach me?
Me: Not over the phone. Ask your grandma about having a lesson. I have to go to a show. Bye now.
C: Bye


Call #3
Ring Ring
Me: Joe the magician
Christian: Do you teach magic.
Me: Hi Christian. We just spoke a few hours ago, remember?
C: Oh yeah.
Me: Did grandma say it was Ok to call?
C: Ummmm
Me: Can I talk to grandma?
......
You get the idea.

There has been at least a dozen "Christian calls" and frankly I am getting sick of being Christian's reward for behaving. I must have at least an 1/2 hour of phone time into this farce. If they want to hire me, fine; but how do I tell these people that I am a business, not an 800 number for entertaining their grandson?

Joe

You employ the magic of "caller ID."



Lyndel

I think "Grandma" would understand that if you told her that exactly. Do you have caller ID on your phone, when he calls, just don't answer and let voicemail get it.

First off the more serious problem you have is you dropped your price to $75 for no good reason.

Spend 2 bucks a month on caller ID and forget about Christian and his little tirades.

Just simply hang up the phone on them. Say nope and be done with it. Why is that so tough to figure out? If you have spent a half hour on the phone on a conversation that even if you DID book the deal you would be horribly disappointed then you need to learn to hang up.

Ask yourself the question. Do you really want to teach the little rat anyhow? Is it really worth the discounted price you quoted? When he calls hang up after politly saying no I won't. Seems pretty simple.

Phone companies have a service where you can block calls from certain numbers. If there's an extra fee involved, it may not be worth it, but it's possible the service is already included with your calling plan. If so, you can just *60 them away forever.

So, Christian is calling you now...I was wondering what happened to him. And he is still looking to learn the $100 bill trick.

He was calling me a few weeks ago, so I invited him to a show and workshop I was doing at my local Arts center. He was a very nice fellow, definitely a bit challenged, but I wouldn't call him a rat.

After my show, I gave him a copy of 102 EZ Magic Tricks and offered to help him learn one trick from the book. He called me a bit later and had not selected a trick to learn. He still wanted to learn the $100 bill trick. I told him it was to difficult for someone his age and suggested that he visit the library and find a magic book, select one trick he wanted to learn and get back to me and I would help him learn it.

When he called me a few days later, he had not yet selected a trick to start learning, so I once again told him that if he was serious about learning magic, he had to select one or two tricks from a book to begin with. If he was able to learn those, perhaps someday he could learn the $100 Bill Trick. He never called back.

I guess he just couldn't focus on the simple task of selecting one trick to learn, so he is looking for someone else to reveal the sevret to him. Be polite, but firm about what your limits are.

Jim

Cmon guys cut the kid some slack. It sounds like he is in the mind state of a 5 year old. You'll hurt the poor kids feelings. Have a heart.
IMO

Shane

First off rat was a typo. BRAT was the word.

Oh and an unsupervised child using the phone to bother businessmen at work is certianly within the definition.

Hurting his feelings is not really a consideration. He was given his information in more than one polite phone call. Grandmother should teach him to stay away from the phone. This is a parenting issue regardless if he is challenged in any way or not.

Firm is what is needed. Very firm. Not rude, but not coddling either.

The young man, challenged or not, is not interested in magic as much as he is in making as many of those $100 bills. If he were at all interested in magic, he would of learned at least one if not all the tricks in the book given him by Jim Snack. But he learned none. If you speak with him again and he brings up the $1 to $100 bill trick, ask him what he would do with all those $100 bills.

I had this happen once. The boy also challenged, and in a wheelchair, not only thought what I did with the $100 bill was real but wanted to duplicate the effect enough times to buy his way out of his wheelchair. He said:

"With enough money, I can get the right doctor to help me"....

This encounter will be a bit tougher than it appears but hey, you are a magician and a darn good one. I'll let you handle the rest.

Great point, Randy. Good catch.