Ok, I am thinking of doing the following:

I am going to try and get some shows at area car dealerships. Here's why. I have a 3 yr old and have shopped for a car with her and it is IMPOSSIBLE to do. SO I figured, why not perform for the children while the moms and dads shop for the car. They get quiet, the kids are entertained, car dealer is happy.

Any thoughts?

Better have a lot of routines.

I once was hired by a real estate development to perform for families before they went on a tour of the property (kind of like today's time share sales pitches). It was good for about a year, then the salesmen realized they could leave the kids with me and take the parents out on their own. Sometimes the parents were gone for two hours or more. I had kids who were bawling, kids who grabbed props and ran off with them, and kids who tagged along with me from family to family, spoiling the magic for them (Watch this! He pulls two big balls out from under that cup!).

I had that gig a good 20 years ago when I was just a kid myself and didn't know how to handle situations like that. I'd never allow it to happen again, but if you allow it to, it will. Believe me, it will.

Your idea is good. Just make sure everyone knows the ground rules going in and make sure you know what to expect as well.

Good luck!

Thanks for the post Jon.

I was going to have two/three set times per day. So the parents would have time to look around and then when it came time to do the money talk, the kids can be preoccupied for a little bit. But you raise good points and I will keep all of them in mind.

Thanks.

I don't know how much interest you've had from car dealers. However, I was in the automotive sales industry for several years. Furthermore, my father still is, as was my grandfather. And I can say one thing of every dealership I have ever seen:

Car Dealerships are notoriously cheap. They rarely spend money on anything unless they can definitely realize a benefit from it. Being that the auto industry can be very stop and go, meaning there are times when it is just absolutely dead, and some times when they are absolutely mobbed, trying to schedule set times for shows will be difficult.

Keep us updated as to what success you may have. It is certainly an interesting idea!

What I am planning on doing is offering exclusivity to the dealer. If he agrees to have me do one show every Saturday for the month, he gets the market exclusively. I perform for no other dealer in the area. Hey dealers may be cheap, but here in the boonies of Massachusetts they like keeping their customers happy and do a bunch of different things. So I think I can get one or two to let me help them out.

Hi,
I have done a bit of this (well quite a bit really) I have not found that too many items were needed, the last one I did earlier this month was aimed and advertised as Jungle book day. They had Jungle book 1, some promo's of Jungle book 2. Someone cooking free burgers and me entertaining the kids.
The thing is really, you need a street type act. You know, no real reset about 12-15 minutes of magic that can be done with the kids virtualy on your toes.

I make balloon models and the modeling you can time to suit (make them complicated stuff for time filling).

I find this works well for me and the showrooms have good budgets.

Phillip