the Curator wrote:There's a section about that subject on the magic cafe. You should pay a visit there.
And good bizarre magic pays more than any other kind of magic and is highly commercial (rates are between 1500 and 10000 euros for a corporate bizarre evening), contrary to some beliefs. But good bizarre magic is rarely seen and is absolutely not a beginner field.
You should first master the classics, before going bizarre.
I wanted to backtrack on something I said originally and clarify, based on what the Curator points out here about income scale.
Yes, as with all aspects of magic you can reach these levels of income per gig I know many that do BUT, I also know that it depends on how you market yourself, your networking elements (who you can shmooze for a more crude way of looking at such) and likewise either your own marketing/business savvy or that of your management team (should you be so lucky). As my old chum Dean Hankey points out, there is a reason the word BUSINESS dominates the idea of "Show" when seen together.
I have seen rates comparable to what's been quoted but more than not, I've found that the more common and realistic rates one is going to find within the "backyard market" will rarely top the $800.00 and for that, you need to do some serious footwork as well as cultivating a solid reputation as an MAGICIAN... not in the sense most here would assume however.
Ignore all the tricks and cool gadgets, look at how someone like Vincent Price or even Orson Wells, James Earle Jones, etc. could simply use their voice and through oratory send chills down your spine. Look at the classic writers of horror and how their words transported you to a new world in which fear and uncertainty were very much a part.
When you can awaken a persons imagination and draw them into your story, you are doing magick... weaving the sort of web that makes all the trickery pale by comparison. But sadly the Bizarre aspects of magic tend to be filled by a plethora of egos that think they're Olivier while barely qualifying to be a Shatner (from his earlier career). In other words, they develop a love affair with their own voice but rarely listen to direction... a typical downfall in all of show biz but most especially Magic... we all tend to get in our own way.
Once you have all the ingredients together -- your orator's skills, people skills, and of course your technical skill as a magickle entertainer, then you can most certain warrant those upper end rates of hire and through clients and patron alike, cultivate a somewhat steady schedule working at those rates. BUT, of the myriad of us involved with this craft it is but a very small minority that ever obtain said levels of practice... which is one of the reasons my personal focus centers on relatively small groups (4-18 typically) with each participant paying a somewhat "steep" price for admission. My inspiration to do so coming from Docc Hilford's "From the Mountains of Madness" and some of the business logic shared within.
If you were to promote a show as being "the darker side of magic" you might find folks willing to pay in around $25.00 each and chances are very strong that you'll be dealing with a much younger (20s) crowd which tends to be more rowdy and "challenging" e.g. some superior people management skills will come in handy.
If however you sell yourself and your show as "Dark Theater" the consumer perceives things quite differently. Even the lower end side of theater demands ticket rates starting in around that $25.00 cap mentioned above -- theater patrons are used to paying as much as $75.00 each for the cheap seats and hundreds of dollars for the prime ones. It is this simple shift of perspective by way of semantics that gives us the upper-hand when it comes to business as well as conditioning the audience -- creating a mind-set that not only makes them curious about what this EXPERIENCE will be like, but far more forgiving when "special effects" don't come off as planned.
For me, working from this position, I can present everything as being genuine (in that I lean towards the psychic side of things), my "disclaimer" being simple fact that I'm selling an Interactive Evening of Mystery Theater... nothing more need be said or you run the risk of insulting the public's intelligence (your shows are NOT a soap box).
Hope this shines some light on things
