If you’ve got the heart to perform, the desire to entertain and the will to succeed, then the magic business might be for you. The line of work isn’t considered conventional by most people, but unless you are like most people, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.

You’ve decided to embark on a career that involves connecting with audiences by entertaining them with magic and illusions. You’ve worked on your skills, your presentation and on your show. Now you’re ready to get out there and find people who will want to see you perform.

That can get tricky because with so much competition out there, being good at your show may not be the only requirement to get bookings. And unless you’re prepared to do some more work and to wait for the fruits of that work to pay off, you might be disappointed at the lack of gigs you can get for yourself. But if you’re prepared to go the distance, learning how to find and get performance gigs will eventually pay off with results you may never have initially imagined.

First thing you should know is what kind of audience you’d want to perform for. Are you more inclined to work with children? Or is a more mature, corporate environment more your liking? Don’t be concerned now with what is more financially rewarding. The idea is to get you performing at your best because this increases your chances of referrals and repeat bookings.

Once you’ve established your target audience and you’ve created the best show you can for it, you can go out soliciting bookings for your performance. But before you do, it will do you a world of good to have a video presentation of one of your performances (preferably with the target audience of your choice). This is so that as you approach potential clients, you will be able to demonstrate your skills and how your audience responded to your performance. For a prospective client, being given this kind of information is important as it answers their concern of your effectiveness as an entertainer. Once that has been settled, it greatly increases the chances of you getting awarded the project.

After creating your demo video, you will need to look at your calendar to see what times of the year does your target audience hold most of its events that will be needing your services. If you plan to perform for corporate audiences, it will be best to take note of a company’s annual conventions or sales rallies. Also note the organizers who will be planning such events and call to inform them of your services. This initial call is meant to introduce yourself. (Your demo video will be important here.)

However, that one call should be followed up by at least 2 more over the course of a quarter. Make sure that you’re within the organizer’s radar especially a month before the events you’re targeting take place. If you call too early and not follow up, they might forget about you. But if you call too late, you might miss the opportunity and someone else would have snapped up the gig.

If you are prepared to do some pro-bono work or for a very low fee, then participating in as many events as you can will get you exposed to as many people as possible. As more and more people get to know you and your show, interest may drum up and requests for better paying gigs may come in.

Finally, if you are truly committed to the profession of magic and illusion shows, it will help for you to be a member of magic guilds and societies such as the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Society of American Magicians, or the Society of Young Magicians. These groups can help you not only with your magic skills but also in getting you recognized in the area you are based in.

With all these information in getting your next gigs, it cannot be stressed enough that you need to be dedicated to this kind of work. It is not the easiest and the rewards may leave much to be desired especially if you’re just starting out.

But if your desire to entertain and interact with your audience is genuine, they will be able to feel that and connect with you in turn. That is by far, the most effective basis of getting asked to perform again - the rewards for which aren’t simply measured in terms of money.

About the author:

Preston Houer has been involved with the art of illusion and sleight of hand for over 30 years. Let Preston show you how to Have Fun With Magic. Visit His Site Today! http://www.have-fun-with-magic.com

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You want to get the best magic kit for your kids. I don t want your kids to be disappointed by an inferior or inappropriate magic kit.

Here are six things to look for when shopping for a kids magic kit.

1. Specific suggested age range: Every kid should have an age group that it was created for. For example a lot of magic kits are sold for ages 4 to 104 . Well, what that means is that half of the tricks are appropriate for kids and half are good for adults. The problem with this is that most kids will get frustrated because 50% of the trick are too hard for them to learn. Kids want to learn all of the tricks in the magic kit not just half.

2. Instructions that are fun: You want to have the instructions for your kids magic kit to be fun and exciting. For example, you don t want a magic kit with just printed instructions that have no illustrations.

Studies have show that over 61% of kids learn best visually, so getting a kids magic kit with DVD instructions is ideal.

3. Item should ship out within 24 hours: If a website doesn t have a product in stock, it shouldn t be listed on their website. You don t want to wait 2 weeks for them to get the item instock, you want your kids magic kit promptly! A surefire way to tell if a site has an item in stock is that their shopping cart checkout page will have their realtime stock listed of each item they carry.

4. Lots of Testimonials: Every site should have testimonials or reviews from actual parents about their kids reactions to the magic kits. An endorsement from someone like David Copperfield is impressive but he doesn t have kids and isn t necessarily a good judge of what kids nowadays think is cool, but other parent know what kids like!

5. Secure check out: When you begin the checkout part of your order, make sure the page is secure so that your information can t be stolen. Most online shopping carts only operate in secure mode during the part of checkout when you enter your personal information, and that s fine.

Here are two ways you can tell if you are submitting your information at a secure site:

#1 look at the address bar in your internet browsers window it should begin like this https:// The s in the https means secure.

#2 a closed (locked) padlock will appear at the bottom of your browsers window.

6. Customer service phone line: Every site should have a phone number you can call to ask any questions you might have about their kids magic kits or to place your order over the phone. Having a phone number to call is basic customer service, and I would be skeptical of any site that doesn t want you to call.

Now that you know the six things to look for, I m confidant that you will find a kids magic kit that is fun, and age appropriate for you children.

Louie Foxx
http://www.amazingmagickit.com

copyright 2006 by Louie Foxx

About The Author

Louie Foxx is a professional children’s magician based out of Seattle WA.

This article is free to reproduce, but by using this article you agree that you will not alter the content. All links must and copyright notice must remain. Links must remain standard HTML tags and cannot be converted to another form of link.

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Dressed For Success

So you have an awesome magic trick you want to perform on
somebody. You ve practiced it thousands of times, perfected it
in front of the mirror and now are ready to take your act to the
streets…ok maybe not the streets but to one of your friends or
family members. But wait….what are you going to wear??? You
say What?, who cares what I am wearing? . Let me tell you
something, image and presentation is everything, it is like
giving your audience the total package. What is the first thing
people see?? It s you of course, this is your first chance to
make that great first impression on someone before even doing
your magic trick bit. You may think, I can wear anything to do
my magic trick and it will still wow them and you know what, you
are probably right, that is if you perform a great magic trick.
But you can take that to a whole other level, and that is with
your image. It s like shopping for a car, you first look at the
look of the car, the one that looks better is the one you will
check out, even though the uglier car may have the same sport
suspension and high powered engine underneath its covers, but
you see what I mean.

If you are dressed in just your regular jeans and T-Shirt and
performing tricks, yes you will still probably get great
reactions, but if you stepped up your dress code a bit, believe
me, you will leave even a more lasting impression to your
audience. Think about it for a minute….think of all the great
magicians out there from David Blaine, David Copperfield, Lance
Burton, and the list goes on way beyond the people I mention
here, you have an image in your head when I mention these people
to you, right??? David Blaine, he wears nothing to fancy but he
is usually in a nice black collared shirt and black pants, that
gives him that mysterious look….David Copperfield, always
dressed up to the T for his shows. Now I am not saying go out
and wear a tux or your best suede suit to perform, but be aware
of what your are wearing, it can be the difference from a good
performance to a great performance.

About the Author

Dion Semeniuk is the owner of the popular online magic store, This is Magic! To receive 4 free magic trick videos and learn about performing other magic tricks, visit http://www.thisismagic.com

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