talkmagic.co.uk

Howdy all,
I recently spoke to a few of my magic mates about recieving tips at weddings etc. They come up with pretty large figures compared to my average £5-£10 per close-up booking!! So what is the best way to get tips? What character do you need to be to recieve more tips?
Thanks

Personally, I do not look to receive tips.

I get paid my agreed fee by the client, then the rest is doing my job and entertaining the people I'm paid to entertain!

You are not a waiter, you are a 'professional entertainer' if you are being paid for performing!

To be honest, I can't recall ever being tipped at a wedding. Sometimes the booker has added £10 or £20 onto the agreed fee if they were very happy with me (or drunk), but as for individual spectators tipping me - no, don't think so. And personally I don't think I'd feel right accepting a tip like that anyway. You're getting paid quite a hefty fee for being there anyway (compared to what the waiters, bar staff etc are being paid). If I started to hunt for tips too I might as well go the whole hog and become a male prostitute.

themagicwand wrote:If I started to hunt for tips too I might as well go the whole hog and become a male prostitute.

then your forum name would take on a completely different meaning...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're working a wedding, don't the couple feed you, too? So not only are you getting paid a comparatively "hefty fee", but you're also getting a nice (hopefully) meal for free. And you want a tip, too?!

themagicwand wrote:If I started to hunt for tips too I might as well go the whole hog and become a male prostitute.

You could even go by your TM username!

*ahem* look at my post above...

Yeah, I noticed that after I hit Submit. I didn't see your post because it took me three minutes to type my reply (I'm typing one-handed tonight - home alone and all that).

I don't think that you should be looking to make money from tips, if you're working a gig, whatever it is you're being paid by the organiser to entertain their guests, you shouldn't be expecting anything from the guests themselves. I think if I was getting married and hired a magician, I'd be rather pi**ed off if I found out that he'd been taking money from my guests.

I only really work weddings and parties so I can't say it's the same for those chaps doing resturants as I've not done enough toi comment on them but I don't think I've ever been offered a tip and probbaly wouldn't take it if I did. I've had peopel offer to buy me a drink, which sometimes I might take them up on but never money.

Who are these friends? They're not American are they by any chance? Tipping seems to be a big thing in the states but over here in old Blighty we don't really do it.

Replicant wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're working a wedding, don't the couple feed you, too?

You sometimes get fed, but not very often.

However, here is a true story:

Arrived at wedding for 2 hour booking. Worked a couple of tables before food appeared. The father of the bride sat me down and insisted I had a meal with them. After the meal the speeches started, so I laughed, clapped, and cried along with the family at the top table. Following this there was about 20 minutes left of my booking. I did some mind-reading things at the top table, the father-in-law paid my fee plus a hefty tip, said I'd be wonderful and bid me a safe journey! Wonderful.

Now some of you may say that I should have stayed another hour or so just to try and make up for the lost time, but it had been a 3 hour car journey for me to get to the venue, and another 3 hours in the car to get back so home, so I didn't!

I don't think you should worry about tips when you are working a paid event like a wedding. Your client may think that it's rude and plus most people who get hired for weddings, get paid a pretty decent fee anyways.

Now if you are working at a restaurant as a Restaurant magician, then it's a completely different subject. But that's something for another time.

Anywho, All you should be focused on is getting your business card handed out to as many people as possible and just entertaining them as well. Once it all said and done, you'll go home with a nice pay check.

Ok.. I know I made a post to this thread about three days ago

The gist of what I said is quite simple; DON'T SOLICIT TIPS!

You have been PAID to be there, so why are your you baiting the guests for more? Especially when it's the Bride & Groom that are supposed to be getting said gifts?

The majority of working PROFESSIONALS will tell you exactly this. You will also find that they charge the organizers of the event, a reasonable fee; the average performer seeing around $500.00 to $800.00 for a nights work (2-4 hour shift). Many, such as several of my friends working the greater Manhattan area, see well over $1,500.00 for such engagements.

I'd encourage you to re-evaluate how you book yourself rather than trying to figure out how to hustle tips.

If you are getting 500 to 800 bucks or more. You really have no need to accept tips.

I see that Ryan has been influenced by his magic friends and that is what has motivated his post. I hate to tell him this but his friends are making it all up. Rival magicians lie about how much money they make. This I can assure him is no exception.

And no. You shouldn't tout for tips at a wedding.

mark lewis wrote:I see that Ryan has been influenced by his magic friends and that is what has motivated his post. I hate to tell him this but his friends are making it all up. Rival magicians lie about how much money they make. This I can assure him is no exception.

And no. You shouldn't tout for tips at a wedding.

C'mon Mark... magician's lie?

They would deceive their fellows when it comes to their rate of hire and annual income?

I'll bet you're going to say that most of them boast about inventing most everything under the sun as well.

I'm utterly shocked

I get a relatively modest fee for my regular Sunday lunchtime gig at a local pub restaurant. Two or three times recently I have been offered quite generous tips by punters. I turn them down not because I couldn't think what to do with the cash but because I am being paid to do a job. That job is to entertain the diners, not fleece them. I believe that my employer would be right to feel bad about me taking extra money from his customers.

If I am offered a tip I always take the opportunity, having gracefully declined to leave a business card with the customer.

On the other side of the coin at a recent Golden Wedding party the person who engaged me paid me a generous tip on top of the fee she was paying me because (her words not mine!!) "You are worth more than you charge". That sort of tip I can accedt, with thanks of course.