I seem to be developing a knack for writing posts that create controversy (which may or may not be a bad thing), so here's another question.

Those of you who advertise your shows through collateral (brochures, business cards, etc), or on online (web sites, social media), do you design this material yourself or use professional designers? Please no suggestions or opinions on what I can do: I am not looking to do it myself.

And please let's not get into AI. I know it's out there, but a lot of people in the creative professions are up in arms about it stealing their work and their livelihood.

Back when I was 15-16, and in a twisted attempt to save money, I decided to do my advertising myself. I collected flyers and brochures from other local magicians and studied ads in magic magazines, but my three-fold brochure for my "Magic From the Land of Fantasy" show turned out a mess: clip art, a couple of drawings I did myself, and some verbiage. This was loooong before Photoshop and similar programs. I was proud of that brochure until I was talking to a prospect who had received it, and he said something like "We received your [momentary pause] material... " I caught his meaning and found myself trying to talk around it. It didn't work, and that brochure didn't go out again.

I've been telling young set designers for years: the audience will see what's really up there, not what you think is up there. And it'll have your name on it.

Actually, using AI in your magic business might be a good topic for another thread.

But I won't start it.

I use professionals.

I hope this was on topic and hope it helped.

Yes it did and thank you!

George,

Like you, in my early magic days, I had to work with what I had. No Photoshop, no high-end computer, just grit and whatever tools were within reach. I still have some of those old posters and brochures; they’re great for a laugh or a memory, but I certainly wouldn’t use them to book a show today.

It wasn’t until I stepped full steam into the non-magic business world that I truly grasped the 'two heads are better than one' philosophy. I realized that being the smartest person in the room was actually a liability. My success in those ventures came down to one thing: I hired people who were far more talented in their specific niches than I was.

The struggle for most magicians is that they don’t have a full staff to lean on. They are often 'one-man corporations' seeking advice from other 'one-man corporations.' Without that external expertise, things like advertising, bookkeeping, and budgeting are all learned through expensive trial and error. The magician isn't just the show; they’re the entire HR, marketing, and accounting departments, too. In the beginning, you have more time than money. As you grow, you have more money than time. The most successful performers are the ones who recognize exactly when that flip happens and stop acting like their own intern.

Yes, times have changed and in 2026, it’s going to be hard to get deep into the business side of business without mentioning AI in the business. I won’t change the topic of advertising the magic show other than briefly saying, I firmly believe AI is one of the best business tools out there today for the magician. For some, it can be the smartest person in the room. But yes, that’s another topic.

Tom

Not even close.

The internet has put an office staff at your disposal for MINIMAL investment. Most pay more for their data plan on their phone. Fiverr and other companies have placed quite reasonable services for almost anything at your fingertips. All office services can be controlled remotely and efficiently. It is not about time or money. It is about being in 2026. Being current with this is what matters. All without AI. Go figure.

But then again none of that is what George asked was it? As always you drag us way off topic and then will claim victim when you’re shown the error of the statements. He didn’t ask about your old magic days and using stone tablets cave to cave. Please stay on topic.

Yes, George, you do have a knack for asking some great questions. I for one enjoy them. I also think many can learn from your topics and the responses.

Since you asked about us, I will tell you what I did, do, and have done, and what has led up to this point rather than offer any type of business advice for others.

I do both. I do many original designs and layouts myself, and then also use professionals to either improve, enhance or finalize it.

If you (or anyone here) do not know my story, in a nutshell it comes into play here with this. I became a professional performer at age 12 with a family act. Our parents were our managers since we were minors. They hated it, and were terrible because they were old school Eisenhower and before generation, and really didn't like or want to know much about entertainment. So they were kind of forced into it by us and our interests.

Not only did this include managing us, but all business operations and everything it entailed, including marketing and promotional materials, ads, press, and so much more. The press and media loved us and expressed great interest because we were young and cute, a novelty, yet very professional.

Since I didn't care for how my parents were doing this, I very early began a search for information (any information at all) on the entertainment business. Everywhere I turned I ran up against a brick wall. They was nothing for live entertainers. There were things for actors, singers, musicians, even clowning and puppeteering, but nothing for live entertainers. If anything you had to take these types of resources as "try to adapt them" to what we were doing. It didn't work or translate well and often created more problems that it was worth.

Eventually I spoke to several experienced pros that we worked with that eventually became my mentors. They agreed that there was nothing available for live entertainers or entertainment business and they (several of them) took me under there wing teaching me everything they (and their agents, managers, publicists, etc.) knew that was not common knowledge or for general consumption. What I was seeking was industry secrets and operation. It was extremely rare and every eye-opening. We covered the entertainment industry from Vaudeville and silent films, on up to the 80s, all aspects.

As I learned this information I had the task of eventually firing my parnents and eventually representing and managing ourselves. I soon realized that I was able to also rep other acts for the same expense as I was doing for us, which led to me opening my first entertainment agency.

Our dilemma, including advertising was always the same. Everyone we turned to tried to use conventional business approaches and methods to try to market, promote and advertise live entertainment. This simply didn't work. I could never find anyone who could do this up to what I needed, was envisioning, or to meet our expectations. By this point I was the frontman performer in our act, the booking representative agent, and the manager for our whole business operation. The last thing I had time or patience for was learning how to do advertising, graphic design, typesetting (back then) and press and publicity.

After hiring close to I'd say 15 or 20 others for these tasks, no one really met all of our needs. So I invested in the education to learn this myself, not because I wanted to do it, but so I could learn and then hire and train someone of our own, working for us to handle these responsibilities. Eventually this led up to me creating a team of employees (back then we had an office and showroom) and they handled all facets of all of my businesses by this time (multiple agencies, our own three acts, all of the acts and artists on our roster, and all of the live event production and promotions that we produced through my production company.

I still have and use this team til this day. I could not imagine operating without them. I know this is not possible for most, but it all stemmed from me learning as much as I could to best communicate this and train others to do this for us.

It is a huge element of an entertainment businesses success. Early on in our businesses we must wear many hats, but hopefully at some point, especially now days, this can easily and affordably be outsourced.

When the internet and online world took off, it became unfeasible and unnecessary to have and maintain our office and showroom so I told the team that we would no longer have the office or need their services. While I realized and took a hit from the growing online world, I did not immediately see the possibilities and opportunities of being an online business and having remote workers (that term didn't exist yet back then.) Following the meeting of letting them go and perhaps only using them for projects and on an as-needed basis, they came to me a few days later and proposed keeping the team together (each with their own unique duties, responsibilities, and areas of specialty) and introduced me to the concept of remote working.

They could each work from their home, and connect via the internet and electronically to collaborate on projects. I was ecstatic! I never wanted to break up the team, but it had become ineffiencient to work physically in our office/showroom the way we had.

It has been great. They are now all scattered all around the world and rarely see each other but have been doing some of the best work for myself, all of my businesses, and now we have extended their services to my clients, students, venues, and associates.

So I feel we never compromised our needs and yet found a way during all stages from beginning to current to make this consistent and progress. They stay up on all the trends, new tech, and advances in marketing, advertising, and promotion which is great for me so I can focus on my own areas of specialty.

I did like it when I took the reins and tried to do this in the early days, but it was great learning and training others to do it with and for us. Like most things this is an important aspect of entertainment business operations. If you are just a performer and really only need to advertise your services this is easier, but if you get to the point of needing to advertise and promote your act, the venues you are appearing at, tours, or other aspects, it evolves to likely beyond just yourself. If you are just performing locally you could always take control and learn it all yourself if you are inclined to want to do this. Otherwise outsource it.

There is much more to it these days - brochures, business cards, one-sheets, bios, media kits, video demos, social media content, press and media, websites, landing pages, lead magnets, SEO, AI, and so much more than back in the day. They each have their own place but it is more to have to learn if you want each of these aspects.

In a STRANGE coincidence, I use those exact same professionals. Hmmmm.

First of all, a disclaimer: This is what I did. I’m not suggesting this is what you should do. I am a local magician, not aiming to be a celebrity or the standard of professionalism.

About 90% of my promotional materials did myself. Or at least it was based the other’s suggestions and knowledge. That includes brochures, business cards, mass mailings, even my entire web site. I also wrote my own scripts, did my own sound, answered all my own emails, and did my own taxes! Most of the time I did my own promo shots. the Magic Cafe avatar you see to the left was taken in my living room on self timer.

A time or two I experimented with a professional designer for a brochure. Not only was the design not to my liking and didn’t fit my personality, but it did not produce results. As I remember it performed worse!

I also hired someone to do my taxes one year after I was convinced I was doing something wrong. The tax professional saved me about $20…and then charged me $250 for his services!

Again, I’m not saying this is the right way or the wrong way, I'm saying its an option, and it worked for me.

Is it working for you guys? Probably yes. Then I cite the case of ain’t broke vs don’t fix.

Glad it's working out for you, Ken. And as Danny said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But you do need to be careful with outside designers. Here's where the distinction between a graphic artist and a graphic designer comes in, and it's not semantics. You have to be very clear about what you want, treading that line between what it looks like and what it accomplishes.

For several years, I was a guest judge at a local college's High School Theatre Festival, judging the set design and graphic competitions among other things. The first time, at the poster design event, I noticed that most of the entries had nothing to do with the show they were advertising. The other judge (a professional graphic designer) and I looked at each other and agreed that most of them were "art" instead of "communications design." So I explained that the only purpose for a theatre poster's existence is to get people interested in watching the show, and you only get about three seconds to either get someone's attention or not. After all the critiques were over, everyone was smiling and nodding and thanking us.

Apparently the teachers took that message back to their schools, because the next few years were different. And at our suggestion, they even had QR codes on them.