Re: Help, I suck at marketing
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I'm in grad school for engineering, and I love the puzzles involved in mechanical design, but I have another passion. I have always said that I would give up engineering in a heartbeat if I could be a successful magician. I'd accept a slightly lower salary, but I wouldn't want to be doing birthday parties all day for the job. The fact is, at the risk of sounding immodest, I am a kickass magician. I have a great stage presence and personality, and I get sincere compliments from my audiences all the time. I've been performing for 18 years, and know all the ins and outs of magic performance and presentation that separate the great wizards from the mediocre.
But enough with the self-praise. My problem is that I am absolutely terrible at magic marketing. Back in high school I never held a job because I did birthday parties fairly regularly. Towards the end, I got a job at a local restaurant doing tableside magic. After I went off to college, though, my performances gradually died down. Now I barely do a couple per year, although I haven't really been trying, either.
I'd really like to get back into it, and I need some help. I have a target audience, but I'm not sure how to get to them. I hate doing birthday parties and kids' magic. Often when I approach a restaurant in the past, the response I get is "oh this would be great for all the kids we have." The kind of magic I like to do is sophisticated and funny. I want adults who thought that magic was just for kids to be blown away and entertained. The obvious venue I have thought of is corporate events and private cocktail parties, but there must be others. What other sorts of venues are there, and how do I target this audience?
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If you REALLY dont want to do the small gigs, (not a good idea IMO) have someone do them for you. Find some teenager thats interested in magic, hire them on and train them in your style.... and then pay him half of what you charge because he's an "apprentice"
BOOM! residual income with free word of mouth advertising too.
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