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Mark McDermott Regular user Union Mills, IN 111 Posts |
Jim,
How do you get most of your gigs? Referral , repeat bookings, cold calling or do you have an agent? Tell us the real secret to be a superstar.... All the best, Mark |
Diamond Jim V.I.P. Diamond Jim Tyler 231 Posts |
The real secret to being a super star is sequined underwear. No one can see it but it makes you feel like superstar. And when you feel like one you act like one. When you act like one people start to say "Hey! You're more than a magician. You're a superstar." The sequins do rub you raw in a few places but it's worth it.
I get gigs because I'm a hustler. Not in a bad sense. I'm always hustling work. I've passed out probably a million business cards since I was sixteen. My name is easy to remember so even if they lose my card they can still find me. I've been performing professionally for 26 years. For 19 of those years my mainstay was restaurants. For many years I did 6-8 restaurant shifts per week. Imagine doing some of the same routines 20 times a night, 7 days a week, for 20 years. My routines got tight and I met a lot of people along the way. It also helped with my creativity because I always had a place to try new things. This is how I developed so many products from working in the trenches. Nowadays my money comes from private events, my products still only account for maybe 10% of my income, and every now and then I'll go out and tour. I do very well at m lectures. But magicians are not my target audience. I didn't get in this business to fool magicians. Being a professional magician is like being a priest or minister; many are called upon but few are chosen. I have about a dozen agents in town that call on me from time to time. I use the term agent loosely. I consider an agent to be someone who is selling you. Most agencies get a call for a magician and the agent says I can get one of those no problem... They're cheap. And then they call every Tom, Dick and Harry with a business card that says magician. There forth I don't rely on agencies. I'm lucky in that I have many loyal clients who use my services again and again. And by the way... We make our own luck. Did I answer your question? |
Zombie Magic Inner circle I went out for a beer and now have 8733 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-02-16 01:48, Diamond Jim wrote: How timely. I was just posting about that in the workers section to someone's response that today magic is not in good shape and there are less places for a magician to perform. I said "some make their own opportunities". |
Mark McDermott Regular user Union Mills, IN 111 Posts |
Why yes you did, thankyou!
Can you get those undies at Walmart ? Lol All the best, Mark |
Diamond Jim V.I.P. Diamond Jim Tyler 231 Posts |
Zombie,
That's something I didn't touch on but Yes... Creating your own work. Example: When my first Bamboozlers book came out I thought to myself that bartenders would love my books. So I approached an online bar supply site and convinced them to stock my books. I also contacted a local bartender school and convinced the owner that I should come in and teach his students some simple bar tricks. Of course I took my books and some bar related magic products and created some new customers. Sometimes we have to think out of the box. |
Diamond Jim V.I.P. Diamond Jim Tyler 231 Posts |
Mark,
The short answer is 80% of my work comes from word of mouth from people who have seen me work. 20% of it comes from referrals. 56% of people that use statistics don't know what they are talking about. |
Ramin Regular user 119 Posts |
I was led to believe that 72% of all Statistics were made up. : ) Hi Jim!
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