http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=118319728202199

Why?

Yikes.

OK, it is currently "unavailable". What was it?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/gigsalad_media/w......99a1.wmv

Must be a joke.

WONDERBOB?

I have feeling this is real.


Mike

Erm.... I guess this unique advertising message sets him apart from his peers??

Omg. Yes! YES!

Woman two: "I'll have what he's having."

That was awesomeness. It's like making a taco but using pizza instead of the shell (look it up online! Sick!)

It's not a joke, it's for real and he is trying to sell his services

Well, his audiences actually look like their having fun. As for the promo reel, I don't need to say anything about that.

I did enjoy the chick in the bikini top.

He is, or use to be a Café Member.

I really hope this isn't the future of magic...

Must be a David J Castle graduate!

I wonder if he offers his services in my area!

Wonderbob!

I think Wonderbob needs to watch this guy and then reconsider his act... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3tEEy_a2NA

Ok, I agree this makes me cringe.

But, in the “magicians helping magicians” spirit that the Café is *supposed* to be about, doesn’t it make sense to offer a constructive critique of this, rather than just shaking our heads and making snide remarks?

It could be argued that any helpful suggestions will fall on WonderBob’s deaf ears. It may even be true…but we don’t know that. Offering a critique of this video might at least serve as useful information for someone else who is preparing a promo video.

As Jim Steinmeyer remarks in his recent lecture notes, “Any !@#$%^& can knock down a barn. It takes a carpenter to build it.”

(And WonderBob: if you’re reading this, and want to jump in, I’d love it if you would. But given the tone of this thread so far, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t.)

Since “dares go first”, my two cents:

It seems to me that WonderBob is aiming at the birthday party market. If that’s the case, I think this’ll work ok for him. What I see in this promo is a kind of lowest common denominator magician. The tricks are run of the mill and WonderBob’s casual dress (t-shirt and jeans, somewhat clownish red and white jacket) says to me “low cost birthday party magician”. This is an active market. It’s not where I want to be, but it’s where I (and many others) started.

He overhypes himself with the voiceover (nothing we haven’t heard before). He makes some generic promises: “a fun magic show…with loads of audience participation…some of the most amazing magic that you’ll be talking about long after the show is done…I can customize the show to suit your needs.” It all comes across as the work of a beginner, someone who’s selling himself as a guy who does tricks, and not much else. He obviously also does balloon sculpting, a good (probably necessary) feature to include in this market.

(Looking at his website, WonderBob is only charging about $150 for a show. That seems like an appropriate fee for his level of work. I could be wrong--anyone in the Maryland area care to chime in?)

It does bug me to see this kind of lowest common denominator stuff out there—to some degree, we all suffer by being associated with bad or mediocre magicians. But for those of us who work to be above that, I don’t think stuff like this is a threat from a business standpoint.

WonderBob, if you’re reading this, here are a few things I’d like to see done differently, the next time you make a promo video:

1. A better look. Better costuming would be nice. At the very least, get out of the t-shirt and jeans look. Or, if you MUST go t-shirt and jeans, make it *really* nice t-shirt and jeans. For the outdoor events you were seen at in the video, casual dress is not a bad choice. But I really feel that magicians should make themselves special, and there’s the old show business rule, “Always look better than they [audience members] do.”

2. Some sense of character or style about your work. From this video, you’re a guy who does tricks. That’s about all I get from this.

3. Better material, or stronger presentation of your material. I appreciate the way you chose the effects for the video—they were quick and visual. But again, no real sense of your style or character. And they were mostly generic magician prop stuff that is questionable to a thinking audience—dove pan w/ foam “cake”, long pole that is obviously not wood, steel or anything else non-collapsible, etc.

4. Overall attention to detail: I think you did a nice job of choosing still images—people having fun, applauding, smiling as they assist you, etc. This makes your work look good. Hopefully, as you continue to work and acquire more photos, you can get away from things like the flaring of light in some of the photos, red eye, distracting elements in the shot, etc. The dog moving around in the background during the vanishing ketchup bottle and linking rings video segment doesn’t help. On the up side, I appreciated that the video was very short and to the point. Although I think you can do a lot to improve it, you did get your message across pretty succinctly.

I’m not sure where WonderBob is going with his magic. Does he plan to move beyond the low-cost birthday market? If so, he has a lot of work to do. I wish him well, and hope that he works to make his magic stronger, his image more distinct, and his promotional materials more elegant.

Full disclaimer: I don’t claim to be an expert on promo videos (I’m still plugging away at making MY first one!), but can only tell you the way I see it. If there are more expert opinions out there with constructive criticism, join in!

Very well said Ronin, I enjoyed the read.

Durgy

I agree,
that post should be in a required reading for all budding magicians.