Dear Louis:

If it is not to personal. Has this world wide economical crisis (receission) put a damper in your bookings and BOR? And if it has what adjustments have you made or will make?

Don

No one is outside the crisis. The first thing getting cut is entertainment. So yes, we’ve felt it like in any other business. We try to be proactive. Maybe you don’t know but I do not operate alone. For the last 16 years I’ve built a company around my brand. We are a team of 10 people working everyday from 9 to 6. This doesn’t include all the touring, productions, corporate or special events than come our way and almost always take place outside that working window. Unlike a normal company, we never rely on average sales. There is not such thing as average when we are producing one off events and shows.
When crisis came along, like the last one did back in 2002, we try to convert problems into opportunities. No bookings? We produced a tour! It’s about being proactive and creating the work. Maybe there are not that many people with money to book you but they can buy a ticket. Theatres also have less money so they welcome private companies that want to use their space and give them an opportunity for ticket sales. It’s a good deal for the theatres and keeps artists on the road.

Thanks for your answer Louis. Wishing you continued success!

Don

If it's not too personal of a question, does everyone have a set wage or is it percentage based?

Nothing personal about that. That’s a very good question. All the members of the production company are full time employees, much the same as in any other kind of company. We work every day on a variety of projects from designing events (such as EMC), hosting corporate events at our studio, producing festivals and making theatre and television appearances. This in addition to producing the DVDs in the Essential Magic Collection.

Thanks.