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jomarchan wrote:Really well done. Hope you go from strength to strength now. Glad you used The Letter as it never fails to win them over at the start. Well done again.

yeah, and thanks again for the PM - much appreciated!

How do people go about getting CRB checked before performing for children?

Is it necessary?

No Problems. I am lucky as I work and train Children for a local Authority which gives me great oportunities for Marketing my Magic. The Authority paid for my CRB so it was really useful in that way too. I have made a point in saying I am CRB checked on my website as I believe it all helps instil confidence in any person thinking of booking me. So yes I would get CRB checked and get a number etc but I am not sure how it is done these days. In my opinion it is important to have it done. If you are self employed, you can put the cost down to Business expenses as I would have done had the Authority not paid. I am sure it was about £40.
Best of luck

I saw something on cards for magic the other day and thought of this thread, they sell these certificates for magicians assistants. I think they were £3.50 for a pack of 10. Ideal for handing out to the kids that come up and help!

link:
http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh ... 2959#a2959

Will look into this, thanks very much

Had second gig today...pretty much same as last week with a couple of added items

Did a paddle routine with some flies on the paddles which didn't really get much a reaction - too old for 4 year old's perhaps?

Also a new prop, a wand with a mouse's head at one end, and tail at the other end, either one or none can be displayed at any time, this was another nice pantoesque routine that went down really well

Talking to some impressed Mother's after the show and explaining that I don't really charge as yet and would offer them a 30 minute show for free

Three of them bit my arm off, one next week and another in three weeks, the other in January

How do people go onto the next step and actually start charging?

Doing free shows is great perhaps for building your confidence but for me I would not perform too many Freebies. The way I did it was similar to yours. We had our Daughters 5th Birthday Party in a local Hotel. The Room itself was never used, it was in a kind of void and just used for storage, but was massive. We spent a lot of time on tidying and sorting the room out then invited the whole of our Daughters First class to the party. Because the venue was huge the kids just wanted to run and scream and have fun. The second Party we had for her we did the same thing but this time we had some Business cards made up and popped one in each party bag. This generated a lot of work that first year.
It just seems to spiral. Nobody needed to know that I had only been doing Childrens magic for less than a few years. Just so long as the kids have fun and want more.
I would say though that when I first started getting paid for magic, I seemed to work harder for it and I sometimes felt drained for quite a while after. Thankfully I got used to it though.
Now I do Childrens stuff more than Mentalism which was the thing I was performing the most before that first party. I charge what I think I am worth and I have had to turn gigs down because some people seem to think that 'Magicians' don't want to be paid.
Anyway, basically the Party bag thing worked for me to get things going. but don't underestimate Word of Mouth. Its a strong way to get business. It also can turn things the other way as well..

I have never worked for free, and it is a bad habit to get into. If a woman approached you after the show, she was impressed enough to be willing to HIRE you. So you are doing yourself a disservice by pimping out your talents for free. You are also undermining the pros in your area.

Jon and Tony - thanks for the advice. Taken on board

Apparently I will be performing for up to 25 children on Saturday so will have business cards at the ready

Alfred Borden wrote:Three of them bit my arm off, one next week and another in three weeks, the other in January

I'm not surprised, have you ever tried to hire a children's entertainer? They're not cheap!

I'd nip it in the bud now and don't offer any more free, it's simple business sense. You've got gigs with mothers A, B and C, but if they tell their friends they got a great magician for free, then mums D,E and F will be shortly knocking on your door expecting a similar fee-free arrangement.

Alfred Borden wrote:How do people go onto the next step and actually start charging?

I had the similar thing when I started out doing wedding discos. I started out really cheap to get business in, and because I was new to the game, it didn't take long before I was charging more than double what I was charging back then.

You soon realise that regardless of how much you enjoy it and how new you are to doing it, at the end of the day it is a job and you need to recoup your cost in terms of petrol, time, preparation, props, giveaways, wear and tear and it soon all adds up.

Out of interest what is the 'going rate' for a 30 minute childrens show?

I think I can safely say mistakes have been made, but I didn't expect things to move so quickly

A half hour slot at my Son's birthday party has snowballed

Thanks for all the advice guys

And Ace, in answer to your question, no idea, but I'm pretty sure you couldn't book someone for 30 minutes anyway?