Having entered many competitions, I know how much it has cost me. I have purchased many effects purely with the hope that they might help me win an act, but to never use them. I buy costumes and suits which I think will do me justice, but then don't wear them.

I've devised so many complete acts, which either didn't make it to fruition or didn't win. Forcing me to start again and purchase all newer tricks to hope that the next act is bigger and better.

I know some magicians enter a competition for the sake of entering it, and 9 times out of 10, they don't win. I believe an act that wants to win has to work at it.
I also know some of you will say that you should perform the tricks you perform in your regular shows, well most standard effects are other peoples, and a winning act should really contain your own material. It can also be said that winning a big Competition like Fism or IBM takes additional material like a guitar, music or laptop (which all go into the cost of the act). I know this shouldn't be the case, but it is becoming more common that's for sure.

Winning a completion is a learning process. You have to find the winning formula that makes you stand out from the rest, while demonstrating skill and entertainment. It is very different to real world magic and they should not be compared. But an act like that costs money. Maybe not in the finished product, but in all the stages getting that finished product together.

How much do you reckon it has cost you?

Steve

P.S: I believe I've spent over £2000 in the various acts I put together purely for a competition. My last act was Sherlock Holmes based, and just that act alone cost me approximately £275 for all the props involved and took a year to put together.

I have never entered a magic competion yet but I have entered a few big talent shows. I plan on entering a magic compition in the next 3 to 5 years. that's because I want to make sure I have a soild act that can compete with all the other magicians that compete. Also its not just about winning its also about entertaing your audience. I know somone that had the a great act, went to a magic competion and didn't even place but he was the highlight of the whole event because the audience loved him!!!

Also the wonderfull magicians that win magic competions are people that do harder moves like making full decks of cards apear out of the air. But also when I enter the a magic competition I'm not goin to do all of that fancy stuff I'm going to lay out my personailty to the audience. For example Soma has won big in the past few years with his phone act he has in a way beat out the people with cards and doves. What soma did was make every thing he used make sense to them. he did manipualtion but with cell phones something I don't think any magician has done.

Lastly put out your personailty to the audience. This will make your preformace great. By doing this you don't have to talk you can have music that fits with the preformance of it!!!! Or you can talk, but if you do to just to let you know they don't usally win unless you are halrious!!!!!!!!!!!!

those are just some of my tips hope this helps best of luck
magician 4life

Hmmm... interesting question.

My Six Card Rap - which won Special Prize of the Jury in 1991 cost:

Music Backing Track - $12
Baseball Cap - $10
Magic Unlimited Jacket (custom made for another purpose) - $90
Sunglasses - $5
Press Duds on my shirt so could rip it off - $2
Jumbo deck of cards - $3

$122 total

An Ham Lin won the $10,000 prize at the SAM/IBM combined convention last year with nothing but cards. I guess the real question is what is your time worth? That's hard to answer.

I've never bought anything speciffically for a competition piece as I enter material out of my regular act or perform stuff that I've aquired on spec but never put into my formal program.

I only enter local or regional competitions though. The biggest and most prestigious being the PCAM Pro challenge in 2005 which I won doing my cups and balls act.

I guess some of the illusion acts will cost a fortune. Unless you have a regular gig on a cruise ship (which most don't), they are for stage competitions only.

I'm thinking now about all the CD manipulation acts that go on for ever. They produce hundreds of Cd's. But that's an act that really only works for magicians in competitions. The Cd's are special and cost a small fortune. That combined with the backing track, holders and stands etc. must cost a fortune. Maybe more than a full scale illusion act.

After seeing a rather well know magician do his award winning silk act I thought it would be very funny to do a burlesque of his act by having a large electric sign on the side of the stage that would tick off a number every time a silk was produced. It would give a running total of the cost of each silk and production item, perhaps even with a cash register bell going off every time the number increased.

Either that or start the act with all the silks produced and then start putting them back into the production boxes. The visual of feeding a 50 foot rainbow streamer back into a Jap box I thought would be very funny

Ah, but think about how many cards An Ha Lim has purchased over the years (he probably goes through about a dozen decks each performance ). He also has a tux that is tailored with his specific card droppers. I doubt this is the one and only tux he has ever used. As his act evolved, I would imagine more custom tailor work would be done to each tux. He had to pay for his passport, visa, and plane ticket to the US (not to mention hotel, food, etc. once he arrived). Just because we see him produce a bunch of cards does not mean there aren't plenty of other costs involved.

Each book purchased contributes to this. Each lesson taken, each session with a director, each session with a coach, costumes (this does carry weight with the judges), props, and tons of trial and error. I know I have sunk a lot into trial and error. Something doesn't work and it goes back to the drawing board. And it's not like I could sell it on ebay - it was something specifically tailored for my act.

Speaking from a stage contestant standpoint, at the end of the day, it costs a lot. I'm not sure there's any way to get around it.

Peter, I agree with you fully. The hidden costs are just too numerous to mention and they add up to BIG numbers collectively.

I have won competitions at a regional level but have never competed internationally. I can honestly say it has cost me nothing. I showed up at an Irish magic championships one year and borrowed props off people back stage (I had left my act at home). It was enough at that level.

If I was competing at a higher level I would spend on costume and peripherals rather than on the magic. The spend on the magic is the years of practice, the books and DVDs and lectures I have paid for. Not some trick bought specially for a competition.

I'm always tweaking my competition act. The color scheme changes, this prop doesn't make sense, I ave to toss it and come up with something else. I can't begin to say how much I've spent on my competition act.

-m.

Matt, that is so true. There are so many things that make sense at one time but as the act develops, they just don't fit anymore.

I'll agree with that. My latest act has made so many U-turns and presentation changes, all requiring new loads or props, its incalculable. I'm just glad its all tax deductible!

Tax deductions only help if there is sufficient income to afford it!

Richard

Too true... Not that I know by experience ... or anything...

Johnny Ace Palmer wrote an article about how to win a magic competition. What he says makes a lot of sense.

The current act that I use for competitions, that I also use to close my shows, or do if I'm allotted 10 minutes, cost me roughly $100. That included a marketed item and materials to build a custom prop. I do need refills for each performance, and that runs me maybe $10 for 50 or so, plus time.

The Café's Kyle Jarrard has a great "winning act" that costs about $4 per go. In short, it's not the props; it's you.

Ah, but that is the product. Right now my act costs me next to nothing. But the process to get there has been one of the most expensive ventures of my life. Don't forget what it cost to get you where you are now. And very few minimalist acts (none come readily to mind) win major contests. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just saying it is not the norm.

Even Shawn Farquhar's act (which seems minimalist) costs a great deal. He has to pay royalties like crazy on his music.

No act is cheap. In one way or another, it costs... and it costs huge.

It's not the financial costs it's the time and energy costs to put together a competition act. That's why a lot of people suggest it should be something from your regular show, so that you can get a lot of flight time with it.

One Deck and 5 coins. Only 10 seconds or less resest.

Bairefoot