talkmagic.co.uk

The manager of the bournemouth store wants to keep me on for one night a week now, so I guess thats somthing.

This may not be totally honest, but what the heck. How about you organise some customers (use friends and relatives as stooges if necessary!) to write in and complain about the sudden lack of magic, strongly requesting the return of the magish – i.e. you - on a nightly basis?

Thats a great idea Mandrake....sneaky yes! but good

My first impression was to give you the same, "Buck up little beaver" c*** (not the best) that everyone else is giving you, but I decided to be a bit more pragmatic.

The only guy really hitting you with reality on this thread is Mr. Bell.

You know what? Tough, get over it. Get off your ass and start making calls, sending letters and doing what the rest of the people who own their own businesses are doing each and every day. Because you've had these jobs without any worries, you've become complacent.

Well, in the real world of business, places like TGI are bought and sold every day. You are presently experiencing life in the real world of business. Now, you have to actually do some work to replace your lost income - same as every other magician, world wide, who does this for a living.

How did you get those jobs with TGI to begin with? They didn't magically appear, did they? Whatever you did to get those jobs, well, get back out there and start doing that again. There ain't no guarantees and you've been riding the gravy train for however long that you must have forgotten that universal fact.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your main source of income, but the fact remains that a successful businessman is a successful businessman for a reason...And, that reason is that he's a go-getter who doesn't sit back and let it come to him (because it doesn't come).

I suggest that you get letters of recommendation from the managers that you've been working for. I'm sure that they will be more than happy to accomodate you in this area. So, even though your are out of a job on that front, you can still turn this loss into a success. You've now added more firepower to your resume and getting the next jobs should be a little bit easier. As the saying goes, nothing succeeds like success.

Send those letters, make those calls, get out there and do what you have to in order to replace your lost income...It's just an ordinary, average day in the lives of most self employed people.

Mike.

Sorry to hear that mate, but its a matter of getting back on the bandwagon and hitting the phones.

Im sure before too long you'll have a choice of a few different regular gigs then you'll have a dillema that you welcome.

On behalf of all magi, i vote that everyone from TM write a letter to the head office of TGI saying we are no longer going there as they no longer have the type of entertainment that we prefer

There's a story somewhere, possibly in OnLine Visions but I may be wrong, about getting Restaurant work. The details may have been embellished over time but the gist is that a magish asked a restaurant manger about getting work and it was clear that the manager wasn't all that much in favour of the idea and said it would be difficult to justify paying an entertainer who he didn't know, had never seen work, had no valid recommendations to work on, and probably wouldn't be of any benefit to the restaurant etc.

The magish left it at that but next day phoned anonymously and asked to speak to the manager. As he was about to be put through he put the phone down. Next day, same thing, and also the next day until the time he was told that it was the manager's day off. That was the cue for action. The magish got himself ready and went to the restaurant that evening and, being a little careless with the facts, said he'd been talking to the manager and had come to give them a full evening's free demo of what he could do, sadly he was booked most nights and could only make this evening.

Having blagged his way into the place he performed at each and every table to the best of his ability but left comment cards and pencils for the customers to make honest comments and assessments. At the end of the evening the magish collected the cards, made sure they were all good ones, of course, saying how much the magic had enhanced the meal, how they would certainly be back for more etc. These he sealed in an envelope and asked for them to be left on the manager's desk. Next day he phoned, was immediately put through and, as the manager now had irrefutable proof from his customers that the magish was worth hiring, was booked on the spot.

A nice story which I'm told is true. Of course, it could all have gone pear shaped if the manager had called in to the restaurant on his day off but why spoil a good tale!