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Rufio wrote:Hmmmmm..... Interesting. Yes, definitely not stage work, more of a mix and mingle presumably whilst people are idling, or those who will be trying to flirt or even perhaps whilst there is a lull in proceedings. Yes, I know i've completely sold myself short, but if £550 is about the par (i'd be interested if others disagree, I guess it wouldn't be an exact science), but I'm happy to hand out business cards to drum up future gigs, and for the testimonial.

I'd love to be in a position to earn £550 a gig!

That was for 2.5 hours mind! I've been hired for 6+ hour gigs in the past and charged considerably more! I've also done close up for a lot less. As I said, it depends on who it is as well as location!

Hello, I am not really that experienced... but I wonder if Juan Tamariz type of comedy magic would fit better in these cases?
Great showmanship, entertainment with simple tricks.

I am amazed of how Tamariz uses really simple tricks with a superb presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MJffIZ4o8
Unfortunately it is in Spanish, but you can see the reaction of the audience and how he uses his very very simple trick into a 8 minutes routine.

Haha, he has such a superb sense of humor.
At 0:19 Tamariz says: "hey you guys in the back, can you see the cards?"
Audience: "Yeees"
Tamariz: "Ha, I tricked all of you guys, I have nothing in my hands"
(At 0:29 he goes back to his case and comes back holding nothing again)
Tamariz: "Now I have a deck!"

He then proceeds on describing that his "invisible" deck has hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs, and he apologizes because the invisible cards are getting sticked together because of the humidity lol
He says that he wants anyone to choose any card of his deck, but since it would be suspicious if he directly chose someone from the audience he says that the participant would be selected randomly.

At 1:27 Tamariz: "Randomly? How randomly?, you might ask... Hey Angel!, were you asking yourself? Very good."

Tamariz: "I throw an object to the audience and the one who gets the object... for example lets say a..."
Before finishing his sentence, he suddenly goes to his case pulls out a hammer and then throws it to the audience. Tamariz jokingly explains that they shouldn't be afraid, but the spectator throws it back to him very violently.

At 1:57 Tamariz: "Hey you almost killed me! Just you wait!" (pulls his shoe off and throws it)

Hahaha, from then on he keeps performing with one shoe.
He then explains that it is a rubber hammer... and once he was doing theater and in the first act he showed his rubber hammer to the public. In the second act he pulled the real one. (everyone laughs)

I think it is self explanatory from here on.
The superb showmanship, mixing jokes with anecdotes... I think humor is more important than the "wow" factor.

A lot depends on the number of guests attending the wedding as two and a half hours an be a bit too long for some and not enough for the larger events.

I too think that £550 is rather steep in copmparrison to what other entertainers charge and I had a very usefull discussion at a recent weding fair with some other entertainers.

I charge £250 for a minimum 90 minute session and then increase by a further £100 per hour. This appears to be on par with most other 'one man' performers such as a pianist, guitarist/singer etc.

The danger is that if you price too high against the competition then it's they who will reap the benefit. Of course you don't want to under sell yourself but at the same time you've got to work.

Price is always a tricky one, I charge around about the same as Dat as for me that's about right. It does all depend on where you're performing, somewhere like London will pay better than a little backwater in the middle of nowhere.

£300 for 2 hours sounds about right. Not that I've charged that!

But yeah, as it was a friend, the reality is I would have done it for free, so the best way to look at it, is that I've got a nominal sum, plus testimonials and pictures and wedding magic experience.

When I sort a website out, I'll definitely up the ante. Thanks for the guidelines.