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It has become a badge of honour for some, and yet for others, a verbal shield to hide behind. What makes a working pro, a working pro exactly?

These days it is very easy to set up a website via WordPress, get 100s of business cards for free with vistaprint. Do a couple of cheap or free "gigs" and then proudly claim - "I iz a working pro i iz".

At least, thats how it seems to me. Life has changed. People work two jobs quite easily. Some have a great day job that they would never dream of giving up, simply because they love it - or it pays well (no harm in that either). And they can gig in the evenings and be popular, sought-after and even molested quite boldly in the open by the public.

Also, people can do gigs for free, or arrange a night of events with various artistes and get a percentage of the door and go about their business that way. They too will pick 'n mix, work here and there - not strictly being a working pro in the sense that they lead others to believe.

And we can also see people who perform regularly for free or for very little money - but it gains them huge experience, but then it can cause the old ego to inflate to monsterous proportions until it pops all over everyone. No one likes that. Messy.

Finally, the person who pays all of their bills solely by performing the dark arts. And by bills i mean paying their rent/mortgage, bills, every little thing is all paid for purely by esoterically driven means. They have an agent quite possibly, spend a lot of their time sending out marketing packs or other such devices (a huge step away from flyering your own event of course).

So these days, the lines are blurred somewhat. How do you define a working pro exactly? To add to the confusion, you may well get gigs, or work like a monkey for peanuts and the occassionally tickle on the belly - but repeat bookings, proper contacts, hearty fees and other such delights.

What makes a pro, a pro?

If you make your living at it, you are a pro. if you don't, you aren't.

Thank you Tony. To clarify - do you mean to be classed as a full on working pro, your only income is via magic/mentalism/hypnosis etc and nothing else?

TonyB wrote:If you make your living at it, you are a pro. if you don't, you aren't.

Not exactly

If you make your living at it, then yes you are a professional by definition. If you dont make your living at it though, it doesnt necessarely mean you arent professional. Professional can also mean someone who is expert in a given field, regardless of wether they are making a living from it or not.

There should be some distinction between a 'working pro' and a 'pro'.

jim

If your only source of income is being a Magician, then you are a working professional.

I am full time working professional. I do 3 -4 gigs a week and have no other source of income. I spend my office hours promoting, learning marketing, making potential clients and booking gigs. I am a working professional.

I think (and I dont want to sound controversial) making the big hit to become a full time pro is a respect earner. Unfortunately I see a lot of people promoting themselves as full time pro's, when I know they work weekdays in an office then doing the odd day of a gig.

You soon learn who the grafters are in this industry!

Can't help but add:
When I moved to Vancouver I met a guy who claimed to be a working pro. And he did infact earn every dollar through magic. He had a beautiful house, a nice car, two kids. But he was not a particularly nice person, and not a great performer. I couldn't figure out how he was so successfull in the magic field. Usually this type of thing doesn't bother me. My general rule when listening to magicians is divide everything they (we) say by three. But I could never find where this guy worked his magic. He didn't perform for children, he wasn't on a cruise ship. I knew just about all the corperate magicians in the area. It wasn't adding up. And it was just one of those things that annoyed me. I finally broke down and asked one of the other magicians. Turns out this guys wife had a very successful business he stayed home and looked after the kids. He had done a few shows but quickly burned his bridges.

Okay I realize that this has nothing to do with this thread, but I posted it anyway.

And yes you can be a pro, in that you are an expert in a particular field. Pro has also become a generic term. There is also the term, 'part time pro' which by definition is impossible. But in magic or the arts in particular I think it is a great label, it is for those that do have a regular job and make the majority of their income through that job. But they are professional, and they do make some of thier income, by performing magic.

I also say you don't actually have to make money to be considered a pro. I know an excellent magician who only performes for charity events and doesn't charge anything. Yet he easily could, and I consider him a pro.

Waddington , old chap. You are taking the word "grafter" in vain. Being a professional magician or a part time pro or an amateur has nothing whatsoever to do with being a grafter. In fact I don't think there is a single grafter on this site except me.

I get the vibe that you are having enough trouble defining "professional". Please get that right before you learn what the word "grafter" means.

My income comes from performance and like Mark i spend my office hours in my home office getting gigs, handling marketing etc.

But in the past, when economic situations have dictated, I have not been afraid to take on some awful part-time job just to keep the money flowing in. Having a young family means that I sometimes can't be too proud about where the money comes from. Does that mean that during those months when I took on a secondary source of income I stopped being a "working pro"?

Of course not!

Who really cares what people call themselves? (other magicians do Bruce...)
A "professional" is someone, (IMHO) that earns 100% of income from one source. Why bother with "working pro"?. If you are not working, you are broke.
The only thin that matters is when you have websites with the words "professional magician" on them, when you know the guy/girl also has an office job, or whatever.
I entertain very professionally, my personal objective is to be "the best of the amateurs". I have an "income generating interest", I may be a semi-pro, but so far as the audience is concerned, I am a magician.
That's what matters, surely?
Bruce

BrucUK wrote:Who really cares what people call themselves? .... I have an "income generating interest", I may be a semi-pro, but so far as the audience is concerned, I am a magician.
That's what matters, surely?
Bruce

That is indeed what matters most. Irrespective of whether you are performing a charity gig for free, or being paid top dollar to entertain a corporate crowd, they will be expecting 'professional magic'.

I think if you are getting paid to do gigs, then you are, at least at those gigs, a working magician, and hopefully you are also professional! If you you do that full time, and all / most of your income comes from that, then you can justifiably call yourself a 'full time professional magician'. If you win awards, then you might elaborate and call yourself an 'Award Winning Magician'. If you are David Blaine then the succinct title of 'nob jockey' would suffice. I market myself as providing 'Professional Magic for you and your guests, any occasion', because I am prepared to work as a Magician at Weddings and events etc, and I make every effort to perform 'professional magic' at those gigs. Who knows, if repeat bookings keep going as well as they have been lately I may be able to make that leap to 'full time Professional Magician'...
So I'm working as a Magician (whenever a bookings come in! but have a day job to pay most of the the bills), I am performing professional magic tricks at those gigs (repeat bookings are testimony to the fact that my magic is at least perceived as being professional by my audience I guess), so does that make me a 'working pro' at the moment? s*** - I'm even more confused now! I actually wouldn't consider myself to be a 'working pro' but do accept work as a magician - so I would be what? perhaps a 'Skilled Hobbyist Magician who occasionally accepts paid gigs if the price is right and then performs professional magic'? Hmmm catchy title! - I think I'll stick with 'Professional Magic...' on the website and business cards..!

Maybe we could say that a professional magician earns the majority of their income from magic. Otherwise someone like James Brown, with his Shakeaway connections, wouldn't be counted as a professional which would be rather strange.

A couple of years ago I had an office job and sometimes earned £50 doing magic in local pubs. Things gradually built up with restaurant work, corporates and weddings until the day I started earning enough from magic and hypno to quit the day job. That when I "went pro". It pays all the bills and the freedom of being self-employed is great. I'm never going back to the rat-race, that's for sure!

Of course you can also take "being professional" to mean arriving on time, dressing well, performing to a high standard and so on. In which case anyone can certainly be professional if they put the effort in, regardless of how much money they are earning.

Thank you all thus far. A further question for you - does it matter? I have known in my dim and distant past many a poor working "pro", both in money and in talent. Yet I have witnessed a few very talented "others" (I do not know what to call them really?) - those that work a full-time job yet still gig regularly (and are well paid for it too).

In the scheme of things, it appears to me that you can class yourself as a working pro, yet undercut others and not get a repeat booking (due to lack of finesse or entertainment value). Rather like the difference between a true journalist and a hack.

Maybe that's where a residency comes in? A poor magician may be able to talk their way into getting a one-off booking somewhere and if they give a bad performance then only a few people will see it. However a residency means that you can entertain people reliably week after week. That takes professionalism.