So You Want to Get Started in the Birthday Party Business?
Evolution of a Business Card
Doing Free Shows
Colouring Sheet
Getting Started
Getting Started - There's no quick way!
Choosing volunteers
Controlling Troublesome
Children
Ideas on the Silk Fountain
Pass the Parcel
Getting your magic act
together
The following article was written by Dennis Michael, an extremely knowledgeable magician from New Jersey, USA. You can find Dennis’s web site at: www.magicalbirthdayparty.com
So You Want to Get Started in the Birthday Party Business?
Below are lists to keep in mind when entering in this business. If you understand all this then you are on your way. If not, then you need to educate yourself in this market area.
Requirements for Performing for Kids:
- Must have a love for Children
- Must Respect the Children, Assistants, and Volunteers
- Must have a love for this Chosen Profession
- Must have a Genuine Enthusiasm for this Profession
- Must Understand and Incorporate Audience Management Techniques
- Must Incorporate Humour
- Must Utilize the Birthday Party Child Several Times
The following is a list of Birthday Effects using Birthday Tricks or Props:
- 20th Century Silks with Birthday Silk
- Silly Billy's Happy Birthday Sketch Pad "Magic Party Picture"
- Axtel's Drawing Board and Axtrax Happy Birthday Song Routine
- No-Tear Happy Birthday Banner
- Happy Birthday Paper Tear "Birthday Happy"
- Happy Birthday Silk Production
- Happy Birthday Silks with D'Lites Candle Routine (May not be on the market yet: Like Mismade Flags)
- Happy Birthday Candle Hat (Prop)
- Happy Birthday Sponge Cake in Dove Pan
The following is a list of great tricks which could be used at Birthday Parties:
- Vanishing Bandana (Great Self-Working & Easy to Do)
- Egg Bag (Comedy Routine)
- Miser's Dream (Easy to Learn and Plays very Well)
- Cartoon Silks Production (4 Volunteers)
- Ken Scott's Fantasy Magician (Plays very well)
- Chair Suspension (Expensive but adds Illusion to Show)
- Flying Carpet (Expensive but adds Illusion to Show, Heavy, & Need cover to carry in)
- David Ginn's Yellow Sponge to Star (Make the Birthday Child the Star of the Show)
- Pizza Box Surprise (With Picture of Birthday Child) (See Ken Scott)
Puppets for Happy Birthday Parties:
- Axtel's Vern the Bird with Axtrax! Happy Birthday Routine
- Axtel's Drawing Board and Axtrax Happy Birthday Song Routine
Great Videos for the Birthday Party Magician
- "Making the Birthday Party Dough" by Ken Scott (Best for Understanding Magic, Showmanship, & Marketing)
- "Funny Business for Kids" by Patrick Page (Humour is a Requirement)
- "The Birthday Party" By BJ Hickman
- "The BJ Hickman Magic Show" by BJ Hickman (General Magic for Kids)
These are the best
books (Top Four), in my opinion. However, there are many others.
Great Books for Understanding the Birthday Party Market
- 1. "Birthday Magician's Handbook" by Fiscus (Must have to Understand the Birthday Party Market)
- 2. "How to Become Your Area's Top Children's Entertainer" by Eric Paul (Must Have Marketing Book)
- 3. "Professional Magic for Children" by David Ginn (A Broad Understanding of Magic for Kids)
- 4. "Kidbiz" by David Ginn (Great for adding Bits of Business to your Routines)
Enhancements for Great Birthday Party Shows (Adds Value and Increases Your Asking Price)
- Adding a Live Animal
- Adding Sound and Music to Show
- Adding an Illusion (Chair Suspension, Flying Carpet, Balloon Sword Box)
- Adding a Backdrop (Barry Mitchell's Wal-Mart Spider-like)
- Adding a Puppet (Axtel's Drawing Board, Vern the Bird, etc.)
- Adding Ken Scott's Fantasy Magician
Basic Birthday Party Show Format
- Warm-Up Routine
- Introduction Routine (Presenting the Birthday Child)
- Fantasy/Instant Magician (Making the Birthday Child a Magician)
- Induction Ceremony (Making Birthday Child a Member of the Society of Magician's Assistants)
- Running Gag #1
- Novelty Magic (Humour Impact: Example: Vanishing Bandana)
- Kodak Moment (Multiple Volunteers Example: Cartoon Silk Production)
- Running Gag #2
- Magic Routine (Audience Participation)
- Magic Routine (With Birthday Child)
- Running Gag #3 (Successful Conclusion)
- Magic Routine (Danger-Type: Hand Chopper-Older Kids, Snake in Cans or Spider Trick for Younger Kids)
- Illusion Routine
- Closing Routine
Some Great Birthday Party Marketing Tools for Promoting your Shows
- Goodie Bag
- Live Animal
- Illusion
- Puppets
- Magic Kit
- Magic Booklet
- Assistant Certificates
- Free Magic Wand
- Autographed Framed Photo
- Refrigerator Magnet of Business Card (You put it on there)
Establishing Credibility: Must Get from Client to Promote Yourself
- Letter of Referral
- Testimonial
Some Great Birthday Party Advertising Methods:
- Best Free Parent Type Magazine found in Supermarkets (Has other entertainers in it)
- Place Flyers in Local Supermarkets
- Place Flyers in Business Establishments which Moms Visit (Dry Cleaner's, Beauty Salons, Exercise Centres, Etc.)
A business card is one of the most important advertising tools you possess. Some entertainers advocate you should hand out 1000 business cards every 6 months! It is important to have an eye catching design and either a photograph or a logo that will become instantly recognizable. I
I'm still not completely happy with my business card and I may change it again the next time I go to the printers. However, you can see the evolution of my card below starting with a very basic design from a "business card machine" to my final design in the bottom right corner. I hope it has improved with each design.
Please send in pictures of your business cards!
Here's a close-up view of my current business card:
This article was written by Magician/Hypnotist Mark Starr. To find out more about Mark and products that he sells go to: www.markstarr.com/magicians/products.htm
I think, to a certain degree, it's part of our business to support charities on occasion. But we can't take all of them. My technique is as follows:
- They must fill out an information form. This weeds out 95% of them because they just don't do it. It's a form that asks questions like who else is donating their services, how much of the money is going to the charity, and (this is a big one) is ANY OTHER ENTERTAINER getting paid to appear at the event.
- If I do decide to donate a show, I require them to mention me BY NAME in all advertising, including radio and television spots. This is spelled out in both the aforementioned info sheet, as well as the contract.
- In lieu of a show, I sometimes offer a magic kit to be sold or auctioned in my name.
- Alternately, I ask the group to sponsor my show with a split of at-door ticket sales.
Another option is to have them find a larger business to hire you as THEIR donation, i.e. a sponsored show.
I came across the idea of using colouring sheets as giveaways on The Magic Cafe. I think it is a really great idea! However putting it into practice was not so easy. My initial ideas was to use Paint Shop Pro. It has a feature called "Find Contours" which should just trace an outline of your picture. Unfortunately it didn't really work. In the end I just printed out the picture I wanted to use then traced round the edges on another sheet of paper. I then scanned this back into Paint Shop and touched it up a little. I then imported this picture into Microsoft Publisher and added all the other detail and text.
This article was written by Mitch Solway from Toronto, Canada. He offers some excellent advice on getting started as a children's entertainer. This article was originally published in The Magic Cafe.
The best way to learn effects fast for a
kids show is to buy easy to perform kid show effects. Most of these
effects come with routines including what to say. A lot of stuff for
kid's shows that come with routines already can be quite expensive as
they tend to be large and colourful - although not all.
Effects like "Hippity Hop Rabbits" and "Run Rabbit Run" are good.
"What's Next" is easy to do as well. Depending on the age,
"Stratospheres" can work as well. These tricks and routines are easy
enough to learn, but you will need to do a bunch of shows to make your
money back.
However, the
real challenges with kid's shows is your performance and ability to be
entertaining. Kid's have a very short attention span and you will need
to be amusing and engaging for them. So, even though the tricks come
with routines, you will need to be able to pull them off and perform
them in an entertaining style. Many magicians advise coming up with your
own routine. This is a natural outgrowth of doing an effect as you will
find that the "standard" routine that comes with it does not "flow" well
because it is not something you would normally say or do. So you need to
figure out how you can do the routine but in such a way that it is
natural to you and entertaining to the kids.
Another important area is that kids will throw you off. Part of the fun of performing for kids is
that they are unpredictable and can often be aggressive. You must be able to manage the rowdy or challenging ones, who actually figure out how
you did the trick if you have not practiced enough, and then tell
everyone how it worked. Or ones that won't sit down or ones that keep
getting up to look behind your magic table to see the tricks etc. You
need to be able to manage the kids and STILL BE FUN AND ENTERTAINING. This is tough and can only come with practice and experience.
I started doing kids shows when I was twelve, but I practiced magic for
about four years before that and would just go through routines in my room
in front of a mirror many times until I felt comfortable doing it. Then
I would do shows for my family and my parent's friends when they came
over to refine what I had come up with and to get more comfortable.
Performing when I was twelve was, I am sure, a novelty for the families that
hired me - but they were VERY impressed and I got MANY repeat bookings
all the way up through high school and university because I practiced
hard and took all the steps required to become a good kid show magician.
Performing magic for children can be very rewarding but be prepared not only
for yourself but for the kids and for the parents that will be paying
you.
Getting Started - There's no quick way!
This excellent article was written by Scott F. Guinn from Idaho, USA and was originally published in The Magic Cafe.
If you are new to magic, you have no
business whatsoever learning a routine right away and then going out and
charging a couple hundred bucks to perform it. I don't know why, but
somewhere along the way, people got the idea that it is easy to be a
paid professional magician. IT MOST DEFINITELY IS NOT!
You simply MUST pay your dues! Musicians, tradesmen, etc, don't expect
to go out and earn a living after reading one article on their chosen
profession, but people seem to think that is perfectly legitimate with
magic.
You need to learn how to routine and construct a show, how to present
the magic in an entertaining way, how to dress, speak and act
effectively, how to be likeable and entertaining, what to do if a trick
goes sideways on you, how to handle an audience, misdirection, where
your act will be booked, for what audiences and what venues you will
perform and how to go about getting them, etc, etc, etc.
What many would be magicians don't seem to understand is that the actual
TRICKS are the LEAST important part of a successful magic act.
The big problem here is that there are all these beginning magicians who
have taken none of this into consideration, and they run out and perform
for money, and their acts are TERRIBLE! It is clear to the audience that
they haven't put any time in learning their craft, and these "magicians"
end up fooling only themselves.
What's worse is that this type of thing makes it that much more
difficult for the true pros to book shows, because it leaves a bad taste
in the mouths of that audience toward ALL magicians.
Tom Hanks has a great line in the movie, "A League of Their Own": "It's
SUPPOSED to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it. It's the
HARD that makes it GOOD!"
I would encourage beginning magicians to seek out a mentor, to build a
library of books (not just on magic, but on etiquette, grooming,
grammar, sales and marketing, handling people, theatre production, etc).
Spend at LEAST a year or two finding good material, learning it,
adapting it to your style and mannerisms, putting together a good script
for it and routining it in a logical manner. Then perform it as often as
you can for free for as many different groups as possible.
Give these people performance critiques to fill out anonymously, where
they rate you in a number of areas (appearance, presentation,
entertainment value, professionalism, age-appropriateness, etc) on a
scale of 1-10. When you consistently average over 90%, you are ready to
start charging. This may take several more years.
I know this sounds like a lot of work (it is) and not much fun (but it
is) and the long way to go (it is), but it's also the best way. You
learn your trade, you get performance experience, you discover what
works and what doesn't and how to read and handle people.
Does it work? Well, it's what I did. Once I started charging, I have
always guaranteed a full refund if my show didn't meet or exceed
expectations. In 12 years and literally thousands of shows, I have never
once been asked for a refund!
There are more original ways to get someone to do a certain role in a game or even to come up and help with your next trick. Try some of these:
- Choose the child with a birthday nearest June 7th (or any date you like!)
- Choose the child wearing the most yellow
- Choose the child who is wearing polka dot
- Choose any child who was born in May
- Think up some original ones yourself
And for team games:
- Everyone born in the first 6 months of the year versus everyone born the last 6 months of the year
- Everyone born on a even date versus everyone born on an odd date
- Everyone wearing blue versus everyone not wearing blue
- Everyone raise their hand with either 1 finger extended or 2 fingers extended - 1s versus 2s! Simple!
- Alternatively, simply go through the children giving them a number (depending on how many teams you need).
Controlling Troublesome Children
This article was written by Kent Wong and originally appeared in The Magic Cafe.
The key to controlling that older kid who
acts out all the time is understanding why he is doing what he is doing
in the first place. If you are doing a show and there are mostly 5 and 6
year olds, but maybe one or two slightly older kids (say 10 years old),
the older kids may have a tendency to act out. Kids that age like having
a sense of control and they don't like being fooled.
So, they act out trying to regain some attention, and look superior by
putting down the magic guy. How do we get around this? There are many
different ways, but here is mine:
I make him part of the show. Yup, I subtly co-opt him into the program
so he gets the attention he's craving, feels like he's superior to the
other kids and has a good time.
Whenever I'm performing for a mixed age group audience, I make it a
point to approach this older child beforehand. I spend a few minutes
with him to get to know him. I perform one or two tricks just for him
that "the younger kids would never understand". Then I ask if he would
do me a favour and sit fairly close up front during the show.
Now, during my show, I have several instances where something "seems" to
go wrong with the effect. The first time that happens, I look at the
older child in very obvious mock seriousness and say something like "Did
you do that?" I play this up as much as I can with additional comments
like "We've got to keep a close eye on this guy!" By this time, the kid
is playing innocent and going along with all of the attention he's
getting. Every time something goes wrong for the rest of the show, I
blame this kid. He's actually looking forward to it and is having way
too much fun to heckle. If he is really stubborn about things and
insists on heckling, DON'T COME BACK TO HIM UNTIL HE CALMS DOWN. Then,
once that has happened, start paying attention to him again.
Anyways, I know this approach is contrary to what some other
professionals may say, but it has worked well for me over the last 10
years or so. I like this approach because it doesn't make the disruptive
child feel bad unnecessarily. In many cases, kids act out of instinct
rather than malice.
Here are a couple of quick ideas you can use with the silk fountain. First, in each layer as you fold the fountain, sprinkle either glitter or confetti. This will give you a dazzling display as the fountain unfolds. Secondly, you can produce a small bottle of wine/cola (or any other similar size object) by having the item concealed in your arm of your jacket. Hold it in place by keeping your elbow bent and when the final layer begins to unfold reach inside the fountain and let the bottle slide down your arm and catch the bottle as it falls. It will look as if the bottle came from the middle of the fountain.
Pass the parcel - a simple game that children love. I use it with nearly every birthday party I do in the 4-7 age group. Nearly everyone knows how to play this but here are a few points that you may find useful:
- Number of layers. I use to use 7 layers but found this made the game slightly too long. Now I use 5 which keeps the game going at a fairly fast pace so it doesn't become too long and drawn out.
- Paper. The reason why I use an odd number of layers is to save a bit on cost. (I'm very frugal - but my wife calls me tight!) The first layer I use nice wrapping paper. However, the second layer I use newspaper. Make sure you don't use anything with naked women on it or upsetting headlines. To make sure of this I always use the property pages from my local newspaper. The third layer is back to wrapping paper, the forth layer is newspaper and finally the out layer is wrapping paper again. Like this you have nice paper on the outside and on the final layer. Just after Christmas I'm always on the lookout for cheap wrapping paper which I then buy in bulk!
- Layers. I always put a couple of sweets in between each layer.
- Wrapping. Don't wrap the layers too tightly. Only use a couple of pieces of Sellotape. Young children may have trouble unwrapping the layers if you do it too well!
- Balloon. Sometimes I add a balloon to the circle which the children pass in the same way as the parcel. Whoever is holding the balloon when the music stops must do a forfeit to win a small prize. For example: Make the sound of a dog!
- Tradition. I have seen for sale special bags for pass the parcel (so you don't have to wrap the prize up each time) and also some special musical toy that's passed around instead. Personally I don't think these are a good idea. Everybody knows the reason why children love pass the parcel is because they like making a mess!
Getting your magic act together
Does this sound like you:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/47215
Do something about it! "NOW" is a great time to do things!