talkmagic.co.uk

Hey guys,
Just wanted to vent my frustrations for a second or two...
You see, I've been working on securing a nice little residency at a very popular city centre bar/restaurant.
I've done most of their xmas/halloween/bank holiday nights over the last couple of years and was supposed to be sitting down with the management to negotiate a weekly slot.
Then I heard through the grapevine that there was a magician in there on a Friday night! So I popped in to see the general manager and was shocked to learn that this young man (18 apparently) is charging... (wait for it) £8 an hour!
I tried to explain that you get what you pay for, but at the end of the day if this guy is ten times cheaper than me then I simply can't compete - regardless of the difference in quality.
I appreciate money might not be his motive and, yes, we all have to start somewhere, but situations like this can be very damaging to professional magicians indeed.
Thanks for listening - I feel a little better now. Humbug!

$16 an hour? Ridiculous! Well, obviously this guy knows what he is worth

or he does not know how much he can make :O

i did a one hour gig for £20 and I'm 15...and i made £25 in tips lol he doesnt know what he is missing out on :O

and unlucky mate (N)

care to share the bar in question? lived in the city centre for some time and never came across any places that featured any magic.

Bloody youths!!!! Dont understand nothing!!!!

There will be plenty of other bars that you will be able to find work in.

And if the guy has undercut you, then thats his loss, next week you might find a bar where your getting the price you deserve, while he is getting peanuts.

You could always knee him in the balls and break his wand.

Better still -

Knee him in the wand, and break his balls

I assume we're referring to sponge balls here?

Of course of course

Thought so....

personally I would do one of 2 things:

Go to the show and ruin it for him
or
Go and watch the show, then afterwards judge his tricks - you will know what he is doing / using packet tricks etc - which he could well be for £8 an hour

THEN, speak to him about it...and tell him to bog off your patch...'make him dissapear' lol

Magical_Trevor wrote:Go to the show and ruin it for him

How very Prestige. And we know how that ended up!

The Web industry is fraught with cowboys, just like building contract industry. All you have to hope is that his crapness does not reflect on the industry and that the bar wonder does not become disenchanted with magical entertainers. In my line of work, I get undercutting crappy teenagers doing bad jobs all around me.

One the flip side, however, if you are really charging ten times what he is, then maybe you really are too expensive. Not that I'm saying you're not worth it; it just might not fit into this chap's budget and what he really needs is someone at about 20 quid an hour.

What ever you do, don't get into a Dutch Flower Auction, it does nothing for your reputation and the industry. Just move on and find an applicable client.

lol, yeah, I love the prestige...you think stuff like that really happensin the massive 'showbiz' magic business?

There is something sort of vaguely hilarious about the thought of two glasgow magicians squabbling tho i do sympathise (i am not working profesionaly as yet).......sort of ....."huw yoo, yoo takin the pi** oot ma pass ya pie".........sorry but it made me laugh .......actually ive never seen a magician doing magic in a pub/restraunt in glasgow but id love to do it some day (in a more polite manner i admit)........!

Ha ha, well guys, I've currently got three different weekly residencies in Glasgow and this was supposed to be my fourth (I am not being greedy - honest). Anyways, me and a few friends went into this bar on Friday night to see what was going down...
As soon as I walk in the managers identify me to the £8-an-hour guy so he knows I am a magician. I am not going in to cause trouble or to heckle - I am just an interested, paying customer.
Unsurprisingly, he doesn't come anywhere near me and my friends until one of my friends actually shouted him over. The following conversation happened:

Him: Hi, I hear you're a magician too - show me something (hands me his deck)
Me: No, it's cool - you show us something.
Him: No - you show me something.
Me: I think you're getting paid to entertain, not me.
Him: Fair enough. Who do you like the best - Criss Angel or David Blaine?
Me: (thinking to myself - OMG!) Not overly keen on either of them. How's your night going?
Him: Alright. There aren't many customers in though.
Me: (I look around the large bar and lounge area - it's 6pm on a Friday night and the place is buzzing) Are you kidding?
Him: No, seriously - nobody wants to see anything.
Me: Oh. Very, very rarely do I get any 'nos'. It must be your approach mate. What do you say when you approach a table?
Him: <Mumble, mumble>
Me: It's none of my business, but I am friends with the manager and he told me what you're getting paid. I was pretty shocked to be honest.
Him: I am not doing it for the money. I am doing it to get on telly.
Me: (WHAT?!!!) Oh - ok.

Then he walked away mumbling. I never saw any magic but I did see him getting turned away by several other tables that he approached nearby.
I felt like pulling out my bikes and going over to one of the tables he got a 'no' from then raising the roof with my own stuff!

Anyway, that was that. The guy is way out of his depth.

thats crazy! this guy probably just got into magic! He probably saw a David Blaine special and said "I want to do that!" then learned a bunch of tricks on youtube. He wanted YOU to show him magic? Get your job back man.