I love stories like this. Congrats on the happy union on both accounts. It sounds like you've got someone who really gets you and supports who you are, which is so important when you are an entertainer! I hope you have many, many happy years with her (again on both accounts!).

Hello Fitz:

Great Story! I own a Strange Thing Zibit Show . The best thing I can recommend is to follow Doug's manual to the letter. I wish you all the best on your first venue. Let us know how it goes for you!

Turnpike Pringle

Had one of my usual busy Halloween performing gigs: tarot/ palm readings in a large new age type store. Set up my Higley Death Worm next to me in an appropriate indoor setting, complete with large crowd controlling display panels. Had a private arrangement with the store to show it to the attendees for free.

A large banner announcing the strange thing spanned over the top of the sidewalk entrance of the store on the street where the annual Halloween parade was held. Standing room only for many blocks!
Also contributing to the growing mob was a series of post-parade walking ghost tours which were meeting at the store every thirty minutes, so there were a few hundred people purposefully in the area steadily for a couple hours.
MANY people got to stare at the strange thing and loved it!

I was busy. The store was busy. The people got to be intrigued. A GREAT Halloween night!
Obviously I made enough to buy a Higley Shrunky Head on sale!
brane

Today is opening day!

I'll be at my "day job" till around 2:00 then I'm off to setup my magic stuff at the Children's Museum of Phoenix for a magic gig from 5:00PM till 8:00PM. I'm hoping to meet my Father in law for the Zibit setup at around 3:00PM. He is going to run the Zibit show while I do the magic at the museum. I will close up shop at the children's museum at 8:00 and walk about a mile back to the Zibit, and I'll grind the show till about 12 or 1 AM. Did I mention I got home from my tech gig last night at 1:00AM (after a full day of "work") and I have another show tomorrow morning? Ahh, it's good to be working!

A little tired, and very excited!
Fitz

P.S. Thanks Doug for the pep talk and added advice the other night

Well I set up the tent, and My Father in law came to run the show for the first 3 hours while I did magic for the huge crowed at the Children's Museum. Turns out the fair was having a deal of some kind (free entry until 7:00PM?) so the museum was dead. There was no wait once the doors opened and I had no audience. We decided to call it an early magic night and I was fine with that. I made my walk to the main First Friday event.

When I got there traffic was light, only $3 the first hour. Ouch! We dropped the price to 2 for $1 and bam, we were swamped the rest of the night. I had a blast,and learned a lot. My "bally" turned into a simple sentence from the manual and I quickly learned you can't do a pitch but you simply talk to the people. A local magician showed up at the end of the night and tried to bally full bore, and it was an instant turn off.

I think the key right now is to give them a "deal". Next month I think I'll make a sign that says $2 and then tell them they can get in for a buck.

My favorite part was when people would ask me where I got IT. I would simply tell them the truth. "My wife gave this to me as a wedding gift, and she bought it from a retired showmen that is now living in California. He would take this and other strange things out and show it to people in a setup just like this one." Then they would ask how she found him, and I would say, "I don't know, but she does work for a museum." That sentence made all the sense in the world to them.

I didn't break any records but after I payed my rent I... left with a great big smile! Oh and my landlord for the day, dropped my rent 50% because I brought him more business.

Bottom line, Doug is a genius! His system works, and it has to be a Higley creature to get the desired results. Out of SEVRAL hundred happy people I'm sure I had the most fun. I'll be back next month...

Fitz
Zibitarian

P.S. If your on the fence about buying a Zibit just do it! Unless of course, you live in Arizona...

P.S. If your on the fence about buying a Zibit just do it! Unless of course, you live in Arizona...


Or California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and of course, Arizona..

Or Ohio....

Hey...pay no attention to those Protectionists...obviously Union thugs out to stifle my business. (Unless it's the part where they say good things)

But seriously foks...in all the years and all the mers in all the states I think I heard about ONE running into another ONCE. Just hasn't been an issue yet. Besides...we have contingency plans.

Doug thanks for the pep talk last week, it's great customer service.

BigKahuna thanks for your input as well!

I can't wait till next month... maybe I wont.

Fitz