I have in fact been writing down festivals when I find them in the street.

I appreciate your thought. The problem is, figuring out how to get seen by the people I want to hire me.

That’s not the problem you don’t even have a show yet. That’s what he’s and so many others are trying to tell you.

Do you have any online presence as a performer? And if so, what do you have? If no, what do you think you are capable of setting up quickly?

I know that. I never said I was ready to perform NOW. But I will be.

The only thing I have online, is some video my kid shot of me on Thayer Street.

When product development and marketing are strategically intertwined from the beginning, the chances of success skyrocket. That’s why I said early that planning is key. It’s important to be ready on day one with everything. No he can’t run ads right now, but he can have it all thought-out and ready. No business should open their doors until they are ready to do business. Just like with the show itself, mental practice and planning the marketing is very important.

I think Ed is right on target with the way he is going about it. I Personally would be writing everything down and penciling in a date on each task. I say use a pencil so it can be changed if necessary. (Just don’t make delaying a habit for no real reason)

Also, just like a business you need to cover the doors and windows from the public until you ready to open. I would not put stuff online yet. You don't won't people calling you if you're not available.

Tom

Tom, ideally, I agree with you - beginners should be working on their show and the business behind the show, their business operations at the same time, from the beginning. In an ideal world that would be perfect, but for most beginners it is entering two different areas of which they know nothing about. It also creates overwhelm and much confusion which quickly becomes discouraging and frustrating and preventative to most.

This is why it is important to learn things sequentially, in sequential order - knowing what to do first, second, next, and so on to make things much more practical and manageable with better focus and easily attained goals at the same time.

One can't market a show until he know what the show is and who to market it too.

Much of the advice is is good and well-intentioned but not good for someone like Ed. thomasr asking and pushing his "online presence" - he is no where ready for that and that is not what he should be working on at this point. Ken tried to break things down a bit better for clarity, but marketing and looking for gigs, and cold calling senior living places (all decent advice when the time is right and the other things needed first are already in place.)

Yes, I wish magicians would learn both the performing side and the business side at once, but they don't. Ed could because of us identifying it here for him, but as someone else said he doesn't seem to hearing this. He is not coming back saying "thanks for the information offered, here is what I have so far, this is what I'm working on, this is what is next, and so on." No he is asking about marketing (when he doesn't know what to market or to whom.)

My question for Ed is do you get up in the morning an put your shoes on, and then put your socks on next over your shoes? Of course not, that would be incorrect and silly, yet that is exactly what you are doing here with your approach. You should be researching performance markets to determine who you want to perform for. Then decide what type of show would be most appropriate for both that audience and the buyers/bookers. THEN start working on that show. No online presence yet, no marketing yet, no website yet, no making videos yet, no calling Madison Square Garden for available dates yet, they are all premature and out of order.

This is a process and the process can't be changed or rushed without creating much more overwhelm, problems, obstacles, and more.

I think the one thing missing from Ed and this entire thread (which is how we know he isn't doing it) is IF he WAS working on these things in the right order, he would be asking questions about these things and sharing what is doing and any progress.

It is clear many people are here to help him, but he does have an attitude toward all of this. I thought it was just against me, but I'm hearing from others here saying the exact same thing.

I certainly don't know why you think he is going about it the right way. Encouraging him to do and be as he has will not help him.

Maybe this is an example of trying to teach an old dog new tricks? Let's face it Ed has been posting this same "I wanna get ready to do this for years now with excuses galore. By now he should at the very minimum part-time on the side (while still working at Walmart) be making $20,000-$30,000 per year supplementing his income.

Instead of focusing at the obstacles he should be seeing the opportunity. This is where the "I will do whatever it takes" mindset comes in which obviously is lacking.

No. But I know where my shoes are before I put on my socks. I am fully aware that I'm not ready to market. I know that. But that doesn't mean I can't have the information while I'm building my show. You tell me to get "experience." Well, to get experience, I have to perform for people. Before I can perform for people, I have to let them know I'm out here. So, in that sense, YOU ARE the one asking me to put on my socks over my shoes.

You state that I'm not asking the right questions, and then you don't state what the questions should be. That's actually rather typical for you.

I have been doing magic since I was sixteen. I do not currently have a show because I lost 90% of my props in an eviction! And, keeping the family together, with food on the table, a roof over their head and electricity being provided is more important to me than buying new props at this point. I am trying to put my show back together, and I won't promote until I have, but I thought it would be helpful to know what to do when I'm ready. If you can't understand that, then there's nothing holding you to this thread.

Oh I agree... but the topic is how to market from a beginner level. Assuming you have something to market, having an online presence is the first step.

This is a bit concerning... you don't have a show because you lost your props? I can do a show with a deck of cards and some clothesline. Ideally some linking rings too but those are pretty cheap to get.

Excuses! Ding, ding, ding! Of course you can do a whole show without props or with things you adjust have around the house.

A performance comes from you not the props.

Ed, I have given you ideas to "get experience."The Open Mics were great because you don't even need a whole show, you can just go do one routine. There are plenty of these events in coffee shops and book stores that don't have alcohol if that is a concern. These rarely even have musicians or bands, perhaps a solo guitarist/songwriter but that would be the most music.

Hi Ed -

I agree with this comment that Thomas made. That's one of the reasons that I talked about making calls to get into daycare shows (to practice / polish your show & get testimonials and photos). Tom gave you an idea for how to get into birthday shows (via coupons available at a daycare). Fedora had an idea to gift a child's birthday show to a colleague or friend, for their child, niece, etc, so you can film it and get feedback from other professional entertainers.

But let me take this thought a bit further.

You seem to think that doing one show (or two shows) for a children's museum, zoo, carnival, holiday party, etc. will (magically) lead to more shows, because people will see you and want to book you for their event. This "big profile gig" seems to be your unicorn.

But here's the tough question...

What if I doesn't work to get more shows? What are you going to do next?

What other plans and actions will you take to get kids shows at birthday parties and daycare centres?

Many ideas have been shared on this thread.

----

BTW, you can learn lots online. YouTube and other sources.

You can learn about how to create a flyer using Canva, how to build a website, etc.

You can learn how a kids entertainer grew his business.

For example, here's an interview with (retired) kids entertainer Dave Risley. He's a legend. At one time, he was doing close to 600 shows at year at daycares, and he got them by calling for bookings. In the first 5 minutes of this interview, he talked about how he booked his first 20 shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-lWw6-BJ8

You can learn how to design a basic flyer or poster. There are videos and articles online. There are also books you can buy with samples of other magician's flyers and posters (Sammy Smith published some books on these subjects years ago, as did David Ginn).

So, the info you seek is out there, if you don't have the skills and you "need" to learn it yourself.

The info is out there on how to be a good kids magician, too. Lots of threads mentioning sources such as books, DVDs, conferences, etc. Christopher T. Magician, David Ginn, Ken Scott, Tommy James, Silly Billy, Tim Hannig, etc.

(There's an old saying that Dean Hankey talked about years ago on another magic forum. The idea of "Time Vs. Money." Sometimes you have a lot of time, but no money. So, you work on doing it yourself. Sometimes you have little time, but have some money. So, you invest in getting others to do projects for you.)

---

One more thought, and Ken Northridge touched on this, as did I and others.

An excellent way to get shows is by doing shows, and being seen doing shows (spin-off business, repeat business, referrals, etc.).

However, those have to be good shows. Otherwise, doing a show might lead to very few spin off shows, or possibly no more shows at all.

How do you get good? By actually doing shows for audiences.

It's a circle, and you have to take action to break into it.

- Donald

Ed I think you should take note of Donald's post. You have shared your frustration with not being able to break in without already being in.

The only solution to that is to take steps to put yourself in. And follow the road from there.

Figure out who you want to perform for. Figure out the sort of show that serves their needs. Develop a show with that in mind. Experiment with free opportunities for initial experience. And when you have something worth charging money for you can figure out your approach from there.

It is hard to skip to it because we really don't know this prior stuff. Tom and Donald talked about daycares, but if you don't like it or you don't have a show for young children that may not be something that fits your needs.

I talked about cold calling senior centers. But if your show isn't fitting for older folks, particularly if you don't have at least a basic sound amp, this may not be what you're looking for.

So really hammer down your audience demo, make something of a show for it, and then practice it in front of that demo until you get a positive response from that demo to the point it's worth something.

Then figuring out things like invoices, bookkeeping, contracts and other basic business things need to be there.

Then you can figure out the proper outreach for that market when you understand what it is you are trying to do.

It sounds like a lot but most of that is pretty easy nowadays with a plethora of information and tools readily available.

And if you need tips somewhere the cafe is always around and helpful. Notice that even Mindpro has continued trying to help even though in my view you were slightly rude to him.

Nonetheless, best of luck!

Ed, every single person on this thread has provided actionable ways to get gigs. They've explained where to get initial contacts who can give you leads to gigs where you can get experience with low risk even with a less-polished act, use those to get referrals, create more awareness of who you are and what you have to offer.

Again, you don't know what you don't know, and you won't know until you test the waters. While I agree with Tom that planning is a key aspect, right now you don't have anything to plan. You don't have a product, or a market, or a timeline, or any of the other things that are required to plan.

At the very least, you should have a plan (with deadline targets) for how you are going to identify those elements needed for a real plan. Trust us, we've all done this before -- and most of us dozens or even hundreds of times.

We really are trying to help.

I've grown weary of this thread, so I'm going to make one final comment and then go away.

Ed, you're getting a whole lot of information here, and, if it were me, I'd be confused something fierce. Should I put an act together first, or figure out a marketing and advertising plan first, or both, or neither? How should I split my time? Who do I contact? How do I reach them? On and on and on. Yikes.

I would suggest putting an act (or, in your case, two acts) together first, and ignoring all the rest. Just focus on the acts. You said you don't have props, but you can do a lot of magic without store-bought props. Once you have your two acts, then worry about how to get them out there. Not before.

Gentlemen, I'm signing off.

Nothing happens without a good, market-appropriate act/show first. Without this nothing else matters.

So here's a quick step by step plan for you right now...

Put together a set of tricks you can perform in nursing homes and assisted living. Keep in mind that many residents will not be able to remember cards, hold objects, etc. I'm not sure what tricks you have ready to go, but there are lots of great choices.

Call nursing homes and assisted living centers, ask to speak to the activity director (or e-mail them) and let them know you are a local magician who would like to perform a short performance for the residents, free of charge. Let them know the days and times you are available.

Have some business cards or postcards you can hand out to anyone who asks, that's for both residents and staff.

This will lead to polishing up your performance and it's a great place to meet people who may be interested in hiring you. Staff and residents all have kids, grandkids, churches that have family functions, etc.

This is the problem with opinions is it can be confusing and send him off in many different directions. He needs a proven structured curriculum and system to make this much easier.

Also, don't fool yourself nursing homes are not easy to do and they can be a difficult audience - especially for an unestablished beginner and an unproven show.