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Last weekend I performed at my first trade show at the Islington Design Centre and had a really great time. I normally do weddings and parties but got this job through a referral and an audition.

The Client was thoroughly pleased as they hit their normal daily target by midday and I've been booked for their next show on 21st April at the London Excel centre. I drew a lot of interest from the investors but also from the other exhibitors. Despite a very tiring day it was a great reminder of just how much I love performing magic and how worthwhile all the time spent practicing as been.

I did a lot of rope work which went down a storm, liquid metal that had some of the exhibition girls screaming and running away, the Chop Cup wowed them, some TT work with left people dumbstruck and a few card tricks including an ACR, Topsy Turvy cards ending with a hot shot cut, Lennart Green's stolen cards routine (very popular indeed) and out of this world (fried them). Didn't do any coins.

A photo of me in action...

http://www.stanleygibbons.com/investmen ... elected=60

Ah thats good DAT glad it all went well for you , and I only live 10 mins away from the center....

Sounds like it went well.....I enjoy these type of venues......they are long and tiring, but tooooottaaally worth it!

dat8962 wrote:Despite a very tiring day it was a great reminder of just how much I love performing magic and how worthwhile all the time spent practicing as been.

Isn't it just. Well done, that man!

nice one dat, congratulations.
I have performed at a number of events, but have yet to do a trade show.

Well done, must be tiring work doing it for that length of time.
Glad it all went well for you, sounds like you chose the right effects!

Superb job well done that man...

How well were you received? i.e. did you feel like the poor RAC bloke who stands in the entrance to a motorway services, or were you treated with a bit of respect?

A bit of both really if I'm honest.

The majority of people that passed by were very interested and enjoyed the entertainment which perhaps was seen by many as a relief from the investment seminars that were being held throughout the day. However, you always get the types who are a little aloof and think that they have an answer for everything they see and yes, there were some of these that appeared at the table throughout the day.

I did have some fun with them though and some of their theories as to how things worked were often quite bizarre and they didn’t mind speaking out in front of other strangers that were also watching. Like a red rag to a bull it was quite easy to then go into another routine that was even more impossible and whcih disproved their theory without embarrassing them too much. Where this happened, they all walked away and the remaining crowd enjoyed it all the more for this. Not something the average RAC patrol man can do I suppose.

On the whole, I got some extremely flattering comments from a lot of the spectators throughout the rest may not have said anything but their reactions did say a lot in the positive sense so I was really chuffed.

There were only two occasions during the whole day where something didn't work out and thanks to the good old ID I had an out on both occasions which both got as good, if not better reaction than I was planning for if it had gone right. Funny how this sometimes happens.

I ended the day with a 20 minute demo of basic card manipulation using nothing more than DL's TL's, colour changes, false shuffles, card to mouth, to shoe and general card control. It bought home to me that you don't need fancy XCM moves and how a crowd can be wowed with relatively easy material if it's performed with some confidence.

As I said, I had a great day and I can't wait until the next one in three weeks time.

I dropped the client an email earlier int he week to say that I was working on some new material and they actually said that they didn't want too much change. A good sign me thinks.

Well, yesterday was my second trade show for the same client and was the the ExCel exhibition centre in East London. Another busy day performing but unfortunately the crowds were far smaller than on the previous occasion.

I received great reactions from the specs throughout the day without exception and had some really interesting enquiries which will hopefully come to fruition.

Apart from being asked if I could perform at numerous birthday parties up and down the country I had two appraoches from other traders who are interested in hiring me. A further enquiry asking if I would be prepared to perform in Berlin for a property investment company and an enquiry asking if I could do some work for the organisers of the Olympics. I gave out LOADS of business cards and am hoping that the calls start coming in. It was a little embarrasing in that I appear to have picked up more trade for myself than some of the exhibitors did

Another long day but well worth it....

You have to be a little bit careful about giving out business cards to people when you are working for a company. There is often a little mild resentment from the salesmen and especially the bosses of your own company. After all you are supposed to be promoting them rather than yourself. Yes. I know the potential bookers have asked you for the card rather than you doing the approaching but it is still a problem.

You still have to give out the cards but you must do it with a bit of finesse. Bear in mind that the people on your own stand will be listening to what you say. You should say "this company gets first refusal on any bookings that come up but I'll see what I can do" Then you should get their business card in return so you can follow up on this after the show. If you just wait for them to call you it ain't gonna happen.

One important thing to remember is that the person asking for your card often isn't the decision maker of whether you get hired or not. They might pass your card on to the correct person but by then the thing has gone cold and the chance of them contacting you is low anyway. Better to get them to write on the back of their own card the name of the correct person that has the power to book you. Now you can contact them after the show and use the original person as a referral.

I hope this helps.

You have to be a little bit careful about giving out business cards to people when you are working for a company.

I appreciate this Mark and as I have a good relationship with the company that I was working for I had asked them about this in advance and had their permission.

Then you should get their business card in return so you can follow up on this after the show. If you just wait for them to call you it ain't gonna happen.

That's a very good point and I have to admit that I slipped on there by not getting their details.

One important thing to remember is that the person asking for your card often isn't the decision maker of whether you get hired or not. They might pass your card on to the correct person but by then the thing has gone cold and the chance of them contacting you is low anyway

Yep, another good point but in some of the situations yesterday they were people who are the decision makers but point taken.

Thanks for the advice......

Well done DAT glad to hear it went well for you and the first one