Well the weather is looking good.Its time to go out pitching.

Who out here got my DVD on pitching or even Building a Tip for busking and is going out to make some money ?

Please share some stories here.This "Step Right Up " is always slow,so lets hear from some of you.

Later,Don

Hi Don, always good to see you on the board, and thanks for your invitation to do some "jackpotting."

I did my first outdoor show of the season this past weekend, a big flea market with about 90 vendor spots. Good weather, sunny but still a little chilly in the morning; business was a bit slow but consistent, so I kept busy. I was selling Svengali Decks and Magic Worms (Fuzzles/Squirmles). BTW, that's a very strong combination, as you noted on your Svengali Pitch DVD.

At the end of one worm pitch, I explained, as I always do, that the worm is a great magic trick for children who are 8 years of age or older. Then a little kid right up front pipes up and says, "Well, I'm six but I act like I'm eight, can I buy one?"

I asked his father if he'd be willing to help him out with it, he said yes and forked over a fiver, so I said "SOLD, to the big six-year old!" That got a big laugh from the crowd, which also helped to attract more folks to the next pitch. SETH

P.S. I have no doubt that little kid will be President some day.

Great story Seth.
Its funny but only a pitchman can really understand this statement,
" every pitch is the same but different"
You just never know what might happen on the next pitch.

This is why I love pitching so much...never a dull day.

Thanks Seth,have a good one,
Don

Hey Don, here's another good worm story for you, I'm sure there are other folks out there with similar tales:

Last fall I noticed an older, distinguished gentleman standing off to the side, and watching my worm pitch at least three times in a row. When I took a break, he walked over to me and said "I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, and I know how that worm works, it's done with magnets."

I told him that was a good guess, but not correct. Then he says, "Well, then it must be static electricity, right?" I said that was a good guess, too, but also wrong. After a few more tries, he said "You mean I have to buy one if I want to know how it works?"

I said yes, because it IS a magic trick, and he bought one. He came back a while later with a big smile on his face, saying it was darn clever, that he got his money's worth, and he would be entertaining his grandchildren with it. Another satisfied customer! SETH

The weather is great. I was just at a VERY small flea market this past weekend.
I was pitching the worm and the Svengali decks (as taught by Don Driver).

Just to give you an idea how small this was, fewer than 100 people showed up in the two days. (Not recommended crowds, by the way).

And yet, the magic worm pitch is so strong, I sold 24 of them! My booth was the only one that stayed busy. And people of all ages were buying them! I can't wait for the big flea market in two weeks.

Keith

Don, are you selling the worms via your site or another site? I can't remember and am too durn computer stupid to look.

Hey Santa,
Just emai me and I'll send you in the right direction.My email is at my profile.

Don

Thank you sir, I've seen your squirmels (?), top grade.

I've been studying the DVD, and the weather is great here at the beach. I've been out the last two weekends with the Zibit, and I'm thinking about doing the Svengali /worm pitch. With my limited experience being on the "other side" at the flea market, I really understand what Don means when he says, "be a pitchman". It's truly an art, and I have been learning from the other vendors around me. Once I get the Svengali pitch up, they'll be learning from me!

Don, you have a zibit don't you? Do you do everything at once, or do you set up the zibit one week, the Svengali the next? I would love to hear your thoughts on the zibit pitch.

It's going to be a good summer.

Eric

Eric,
All I did last summer was take out the zibit.I have gone back to pitching because I missed it to much.

You don't need a pitch for the zibit.Let it sell its self from the banners.Just do like Doug says and you'll make money.

I know several guys that have their zibit up next to the Svengali pitch joint and their wife working the zibit.It works very GOOD.

Have a GREAT summer
Don
P.S. email me for squirmles
Don

If you have one of my Zibits and (from what I hear), BRILLIANT marketing instructions you have a money maker...if you have Don's stuff you have the NATURAL way to enhance one with the other...Zibit folks will buy the worm and the Worm folks will pay to see the Zibit. Now lets see...hmmm TWO monies from one person? Egad.

Now here's something I'm hearing this year more than past years...first let me ask a question...is the worm buyer mostly male? (I'm not sure just asking) Well if that's so, I'm getting reports that my original ZIBIT banner text is doing what it is designed to do and that is get the FEMALE customers as well...in fact LOTS of them. So IF your Worm clientele is mostly male here is a way to bump the tip into a 'couples' purchase...then you even have a triple hit! Pitch him the worm...she looks at the Zibit and then he goes in to see what she was looking at! He wont want her to see he secret of the worm anyway so he can fool her with it.

Tip: Don't undersell either pitch...have respect for both your endeavors...as in don't give away a free peek if they buy a worm and don't cut the worm if they spring for the Zibit.

You need Don's stuff...pure and simple. And if you are going to 'show' you need my original How-To because without it you've got a far less (FAR LESS) chance of making it and you WILL be making a ton of mistakes you can easily avoid.

Money aside...this is all about having FUN as well...just ask.

Since this thread has gotten onto the topic of Zibit's, let me tell you what happened this past weekend.

I went down to Tennessee to spend the weekend with our own Don Driver. Saturday and Sunday we went to a flea market. Don asked me to bring my Zibit and he was pitching the worm.

Let me start out by saying that I followed Doug's advice. The tent was set up and the banners were displayed exactly as Doug suggests in his How-To manual. (Great advice, by the way!)

Saturday was dead! The other vendors stated it was the slowest they had ever seen this particular flea market. (We found out later there was a big car show in town.)

However, there was ONE spot that was making money that day. (Ask Don how many worms HE sold that day. Anyway, you guessed it. The only person making any money that day was the guy with the Zibit!

But when Sunday rolled around... WOW! With Don's advice I added a one word question onto posterboard. Using Spanish puncuation, it said "Chupacabra?"

Sunday, the crowd was much bigger. The other vendors were doing much better. But again, there was one spot where there were crowds gathered and people lining up. Yep, they were all waiting to spend their money to "See the Strange Thing".

About 400 people just had to have their curiosity satisfied! (And satisfying my bank account!)

One vendor came up to me several times and kept saying how I had it made. No stock to buy, very little setup, and people LINING UP to come see it! (I think he was a little jealous) By the way, the neighboring vendors just had to see what all the excitement was themselves, of course after paying the admission fee.

It was so much FUN (as Doug points out) watching a group come up, send one person in to see the Zibit, then having them ALL pay to come see it.

I'll give you one example. A group of six teenage boys, who all happened to be Hispanic, came up. They were reluctant to pay to go in but sent one boy in and told him to describe it to the rest.

The one boy went in and just froze. The others kept asking him, "que es?" (Spanish for "what is it?") He never moved, just kept staring at the Zibit. The rest couldn't stand it. They all paid and went in!

It was a great weekend. Getting to spend time with the legendary Don Driver AND make good money!

One last thing. The weekend before I did both, pitched the worm and had the Zibit, by myself. I recommend that you get another person to take the admission fee for the Zibit. I know I lost out on some worm sales because people were crowding to see the Zibit. And I lost out on the some opportunities to talk people into seeing the Zibit because I was pitching the worm.

Thanks for a great weekend, Don! And thanks to Doug for a great product and advice.

KeithM

One adjustment to the above (and thanks for the report!)

I can't go into it here...read the How-To but I wouldn't put the word Chupacabra? on the signage. The signage is a bout as scientific as it can get and bare bones DEAD ON TARGET. It is a psych magnet AS IS. There is are major reasons it is the way it is. That extra word WILL throw off the balance and ADD an element that will turn off a bit of business...the whole point is to attract EVERYBODY and the reason for a BLIND pitch in the first place. So the way to play the Chupacabra angle is to verbalize it by mouth. Drop that word in with a big question mark when there are Hispanic folks walking by. Talk it don't show it on a sign. They love this stuff and have a great time with silly mysteries..it also allows you to make verbal contact with a group...put it on the sign and you are identifying what is inside as a certain TYPE of something...even with a question mark it identifies it as a type of thing many will not care to see. I cant say it right here without tipping the whole thing but I know you know what I mean. It's a temptation to alter the signage and it's my judgement that every alteration is a slice out of your pie (Overall). Sure it could target a certain group but that's not what we are doing with this show and that's not why this show is kicking the butt of the old way of doing it. Read the How-To for 80th time. Don is right in that it's a good word...it's just not a good word to display on the banner because then th little show beciome4s something else again. The formula is solid gold as is. But use that word as a VERBAL question and you can add some diamonds.

I did the zbit/pitch combo with my wife last year. You really do need a second person. Both joints can get really hopping.

It is a bit strange to have crowds spending money with you while no one else does anything. I was asked back to specific locations where I worked by neighboring vendors. Either the worm or zbit draws a crowd.

The worms most of the time outgrossed the zbit but not always. Factor in stock costs on the worm and a zbit seems about an even opportunity for money.

I used the chupacabra sign last year...it was the wrong thing to do. It didn't damage me too much but looking back I should have just done it straight out of Doug's manual. I would have made a bit more money, possibly much more.

Dropping the chup word in, as Doug says, would be the best.

Together they can pull some very serious money.

So - what do you do when your Zibit is getting restless and you can’t find a fair?

Well, for something completely different, take Doug’s plan, and apply it in a different way…
OK, so I’m just a bit off center, and changing something that works is not usually a good idea, but adapting, morphing and exploring the edges is what we are about, and along the way learning occurs. After all, no one ever learned anything by sitting back and watching – DO, and risk failure, see what you learn.

Anyway, Zibit is all set in a box, ready for a captured event that didn’t happen as planned… family weekend commitments have been consuming much of my time but a small window opens, so time for some fun.

Following Doug’s plan as closely as possible, I set up signage (wording from the plan, don’t have it – Buy it now!) and hauled my old wooden crate down to the road. It’s a small country road, with no shoulder and usually only local traffic, but Saturday the local Indian tribe was having their annual Pow-Wow. This meant traffic. I set up in the late afternoon about 30 ft off the road, in a grassy clearing under a shady oak tree. I set my box on a small, otherwise empty flatbed utility trailer nothing around except me in a lawn chair reading a book (Tarbell, in this case). The three signs started about 150 feet down the road.

So here is what I did wrong; 100 times less accessible than walk by traffic at a fair, 100 times less willingness to stop, 100 times more “What the H3LL is that, Marge, must be a rip-off?”

Begins the fun…
Within about 5 min. I had a car pulling off the road… then another, and it kept going…
I only had about an hour operating before I needed to move on. I made some bucks, had a lot of fun, heard several interesting stories about what I had in the box, NO ONE felt ripped-off, No one asked for their money back and I got to talk to some very interesting folks.

One guy stopped “Just to experience the Carney atmosphere… Like a throw back to the old days of road side tourist traps.” Handed me the money, even paid for his friend, asked if he could take pictures of MY SIGNS!

Another woman said “I’ll tell you exactly what it is. My brother hunted it about 30 years ago”… and then played me the entire story of a local urban legend of the Goatman… All I said was, “Wow, I never heard that before. Guess it could be, I really don’t know – found it in an old house I was emptying out for a friend. Found it in a closet, just like you see it in the box, newspaper (dated 1981) and all…”

My point-
If Doug’s plan works along a roadside with all the disadvantages I imposed upon it, it’ll work for you even better, just as Doug has laid it out! Get your Zibit, get Doug’s plan, and start having some good old fashion fun making money for a show. Now THAT’S entertainment.

Steve

Looks like a beautiful setup. Is that an E-Z Up tent in the background?

I especially like the phrase "Easy Magic You Can Do," which is exactly the point of a good pitch. As Don always says, the trick needs to be amazing, but nobody will buy it unless they think they can do it, too. SETH

Not an Easy Up....this tent is a heavy duty one made here in CA. all that comes on the DVD.
Any questions about the DVD just drop me an email
PS: THANKS AGAIN DON!
KW

This years Del Mar fair...3 different sellers with the worm...none of them really pitching...went last Sunday and it was a light crowd to be generous.

It's NOT the gas prices guys...Gas useage is UP this year...is the F*n $8 for a small cup of Beer! $4 for weak ice tea...$12 for a Cheese Burger. These fairs are killing the vendors with cost of space rent and it'll only get worse...clueless. And the 'folks' are peed and not going to the fair like they used to.

Doug,
My friend Carl is there pitching the squirmle,but like you said,its not a pitch.

Hes set up right next to the climbing wall.I worked a few fairs with him last summer with your mermaid.

If you go back do tell him who you are.

Jeff,Go to http://www.magicpitch.com all you need to know about my DVDs are there.

Thanks,
Don

Doug,
Just talked to Carl.He said you two talked last year,so you two do know each other.I didn't know that.

He said,hes sorry he missed you this year and says HELLO.

Later,Don