talkmagic.co.uk

hey guys and girls, I had my first proper performance the other night which went brilliantly, and have now had a few people asking how much it would cost to have me roaming at parties for a few hours etc, i was just wondering, how much do other charge per hour for this sort of entertainment, as the performance I did the other night was for charity.

Many Thanks

JT

This is such a tricky subject, magicians are very secretive about pricing (not sure why) but there is a great .pdf on merchant of magic i think it was, about charging.

Basically you need to look at what you need to earn and offset that by your skill level (your worth) then you need to take into account how many people you would be entertaining and for how long.

Hopefully my non answer has given you a bit of an answer!

Much love

Aza

This has come up quite a few times, have a little search and you'll probabaly be able to unearth some of the old threads on the subject.

Someone posted a thread from Money Saving Expert on Facebook last night. It was from 2010, but the going rate seemed to be £250-300 for a couple of hours of wedding table hopping.

Iv'e tried to prise thios clamshell open myself in the past and it comes down to two shools of thought here:-

one: set your fee based on what you expect to live on for a year ( your take home wage plus tax plus insurence) + public liability, performing rights etc and divide this by a projected amount of bookings eg 3 days a week to get your booking fee, usualy works out around £450 a shot thats why most magicians have a day job.

two: take the standard technical fee of £150 a day add £100 for insurences, transport, food and expenses giving you a booking wage of between £250 and £300 per show and you still need a day job but you can decide how many hours you work per show for that fee.

nobody is willing to set basic rates for magic as its diverse and subjective to the individual but you should use £200 per show as a basic guide and go from there.

What to charge is subjective. You have to figure your costs and what you need to not only keep yourself afloat but allow your business to thrive. What are other entertainers in your area charging? Pick up a phone and ask for prices to get a comparison. Then sit down crunch some numbers and figure out what you need to do to meet your needs and stay competitive. And it is okay to charge more, just figure out why you are charging more. What are you offering others are not?

In Montreal I know magicians who charge 250.00+ for a forty five minute kid show and they do very well. And I know guys in Vancouver BC who are charging 50.00 for the same type of show and are having a hard time, (while others in Vancouver are charging up to 300.00 and doing well).

I know I am being of no help. Sorry

The Merchant of Magic blog post wasn't great as it suggests working out your price based on how much you want to earn and how much you want to work.
Eg. If you want to earn £30,000 but only want to do one two hour gig a week then you should charge nearly £300 per hour. Sounds easy right!?

The main thing that annoys me about magician's prices, is the whole notion of getting into magic and within five minutes, you've got a website, a set of business cards and you're telling everyone that you charge £300 an hour, etc...
The problem is you can't offer that value - you don't have the experience to.
It's not just limited to magic though, everyone thinks they can do everyone else's job - oh you're a magician? Cool! I bet I could do that.

This isn't an attack on you personally JT, but you've had one gig and now you want to charge people?

I did a lot of gigs for free before I charged anyone, then I worked for family friends, people my mum knew, people my sister knew, and I charged them £20 an hour - they knew I was a beginner, I didn't fleece anyone.

Then I did about ten gigs in a restaurant for £40 an hour, and much later than that a did a series of gigs in a different restaurant for free.

My advice (and I heard this from someone else) is...
It's much better for people to say, 'you should be paid for this', rather than, 'you get paid for this?'

p.s I'm not secretive about my prices, I charge between £125 and £170 per hour.
As a beginner you should be no-where near this.

p.s I'm not secretive about my prices, I charge between £125 and £170 per hour.
As a beginner you should be no-where near this.

than you jing, blessing be apon you.

my basic rate is based apon doing a magic and disco session so please bare this in mind so it would apear that your guide price should be £100 per show raising to £150 a show after a while of experence.

and yes i did free and cheep shows for two years before advertising a set rate thats why I said you need a day job first then work your way into the big leagues.

Jing, just thought i should clarify, i didnt decide to charge people, someone who saw my show asked how much i would charge for an hour at an event they are organising, when i say my first show i mean my first show that was for family and friends but for the general public and that ive been doing magic for almost 12 years, nor am i looking at this as a long term profession, i have two jobs already which makes me plenty money, it was more an enquiry as to what most people are charging so i could work a reasonable price out from that, for example if every other magician is charging in the region of say 100-150 an hour, then it would be pointless offering my services at 300 because i am well aware that my value is nowhere near being more than theirs. i should probably have clarified all of this in the original post, and dont worry i didnt take it personally just thought i would explain where im coming from, and why the question of charging. it was never an intention to charge for my performances, hence charity gigs, and free shows for friends etc, though i have made several nights extremely cheap by carrying some cards and some sponge stuff haha

A lot depends on your location. If I was working in Kent I'd usually charge around £150 per hour but in London I could easily get away with £200+

On a somewhat different note, I knew a guy in Montreal when he moved into the city he upset almost every magician in town. And Montreal is very entertainment oriented and we have a lot of magicians come out of our city. It really is a mini magic meca. He upset everyone because he would never turn down a show. He didn't care if he got paid $2.00 or $1,000.00 for the same show. I remember he even did shows and told the customer I'll do the show and you can pay me what you think it was worth after you see the show. He wasn't purposely undercutting the other magicians. He was just trying to create a market with an eye to the future.

It took him about two years before other magicians were working for him. He turned into an agent (of sorts) and those trying to break into the business and were good enough, those would get the cheaper shows. The more established you were, the more experienced the better the payout. And nobody was starving for work, or at least not like in other places I have seen.

I usualky keep away from these threads. Most of the time it just opens a big can of worms. Nearly all the professionals I speak to or give work to will start pricing at £350-£450 some will be more and this is (START) price depending on location and number of guests? Fees For trade shows are usually around £800-£2.000+ per day. And most have seperate fees for weddings. Most will be the same as a corporate fee and will normally all be for 2-3hrs (except trade shows) I don't deal with cabaret so not sure how much more that would be?

Residences will be a lot chaper but still consistant.

It will depend on weather the magician thinks they are worth the fee, are established enough or can deliver to the client and make sure they get their money's worth? I myself get really fed up with having to battle with people on pricing as the Magician last year did it for x amount (usually around £150)

If we all keep are fees up we will all be busier and have more work to share around.

I understand some are not full time and don't want to charge the standard professional rate or brcause its beer money for some. I know some semi pro magicians that charge the going rate and are busier than a lot of the pro's. This is because they are good at what they do and keep the fees up. When people ring around the give the same price as the pro's and sell themselves well. I would never have a problem with losing a booking to any one that has all the credentials and charges the correct fee.

But the undercutting is a big problem (as in any industry)

Ring any of the top magicians and book them. I gaurentee you will get a min of £350+ thats if they are free.

Just my two cents and im sure some of you will disagree.

thank you lee for clarifying so elequently the pricings for diferent types of magic, I'm glad my pricing was in the right region and I was right to stick to my gunns when asked to do parties for £50.

Lee Smith wrote:
But the undercutting is a big problem (as in any industry)

Ring any of the top magicians and book them. I gaurentee you will get a min of £350+ thats if they are free.

Just my two cents and im sure some of you will disagree.

No disagreement from me, entertainers should be paid properly. When I started thinking about charging I asked the pros around me how much they charged specifically because I didn't want to undercut them. Admittedly we aren't in direct competition because we do very different styles of show but there was an ethical aspect to this that I couldn't and wouldn't ignore.
If you go below the equivalent of £120-150 per hour you are making yourself too cheap for the rest of the market.

magicdiscoman wrote:thank you lee for clarifying so elequently the pricings for diferent types of magic, I'm glad my pricing was in the right region and I was right to stick to my gunns when asked to do parties for £50.

I was going to mention your post. I completely agreed.