talkmagic.co.uk

many years ago - it seemed a little easier to make it as a full time working pro in magic and mindreading...by easier, i dont mean anything other than the places where you could get gigs...

there were more cabaret, seaside gigs, theatres, and generally - people would believe more in what was happening...

things have changed, some for the good, some for the worse...

so these days, has the line slipped between what is classed as a working pro? i personally think it shouldn't have...a working pro to me has always meant someone who only makes their entire living via their gigging...no more no less...

i know i won't ever be, nor, really, want to be a working pro...i enjoy doing too many different things...and a lot of guys i know make a tidy little sum via their performances - but also hold down a regular "normal" job too...

opinions welcome...

if you class yourself as a WP, but you have a full time job too - how do you see things?

i should make it clear too, i realise these things are just labels, and ultimately if you're good, you're good...I'm just interested thats all...and i wonder if, because of many reasons (perceptions, tastes, awareness, cost of living, living longer etc etc) whether these older 'rules' have changed...

Perhaps time to use different labels - Working Pro and Full Time Working Pro?

I don't seem to come across many full time working pro's these days, despite some who wiull tell you that they are.

I even know someone who says he's a full time magician yet works for a temping agency most days of the week but in his mind it doesn't count as it's not a full time regular job. If he didn't work then he wouldn't make ends meet.

However, from the few that are doing magic full time I have had a few say to me that are struggling and will consider work that they wouldn't have considered a couple of years ago.

It will be interesting to see if work increases at home over the summer onths this year with the Euro exchange rate being so poor. Many holidays abroad are now very over priced because of the rate and unless you can go all inclusive I think that many may stay at home this year. That could mean more work. Who knows?

As for me, I have a full time day job and rate myself as semi-professional but as you correctly say, it's a label.

Its only a label and I wouldn't get to caught up in them. I'd say if you make the majority of your income as a magician then you are a full time pro. Any less you are a part time pro. Don't make any money at all then you are a hobbiest, but that doesn't make you less of a magician or performer. Technically a pro is somebody who earns money doing what they are doing. Perhaps you get hired to perform but don't collect money, charity's is a good example. Does this make you a pro? in this day and age if you act professionally then you are a pro.

Taking a non-magic example, when I first started editorial freelancing I also had to do a lot of work through the local temp agency to make ends meet. I was still a professional editor, even though not a full-time one. Similarly, most published authors have to keep a day job to survive.

I'd say anyone who offers a "magical service" and runs it as a business is a professional, however small or large a proportion of their overall income this makes.