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Why is it always the magician expected to work for free, yet the venue, staff, DJ's, crew, event organisers etc usually get the fee they request. Why are magicians always seen as the freebie...., pi$$es me right off!!!

Why are they expected to work for free. or are you talking from personal experience. if so how are you doing business. If I wasn't getting paid I wouldn't be performing. you should get a deposit then a final fee afterwards and you should have a contract with all the terms and conditions.

Anjorno, it is a statement. Quite often 'magicians' get asked to perform at event, but the 'charity' don't have any money left, however you can hand out your cards etc etc, I was merely stating, why is it magicians that appear to be the ones who will perform for free. As i state, the venue won't be providing food or staff for free, people will have paid a hefty price for a ticket to attend such an event, and yet, there is no budget for a magician. It is not how I run a business, purely the fact people have the nerve to ring and ask you to perform for free, and more so the fact they think they're doing you a favour.

This happens so often, I don't know why they expect a magician to perform free of charge, or maybe just for travel expenses. They normally say it will be a good way to hand out your business cards. Yeah right!

A mate of mine and a very well respected magician had a phone call asking him to perform for travel expense only. He said to her " I would rather stay at home and do to my wife what you are trying to do to my business" a great answer I thought.

I normally say, thank you very much for the offer of giving me the chance to perform free of charge in return for me being able to hand out my business cards, but in this instance I will decline. Cheeky B******s

All the best

Steve

MylieMagic wrote:Anjorno, it is a statement. Quite often 'magicians' get asked to perform at event, but the 'charity' don't have any money left, however you can hand out your cards etc etc, I was merely stating, why is it magicians that appear to be the ones who will perform for free. As i state, the venue won't be providing food or staff for free, people will have paid a hefty price for a ticket to attend such an event, and yet, there is no budget for a magician. It is not how I run a business, purely the fact people have the nerve to ring and ask you to perform for free, and more so the fact they think they're doing you a favour.

I see,. it is offensive when charity events do that. they pay venue, staff, DJ yet the magician gets nothing. "oh but it will be publicity".
Next time this happens you should say how about you pay the dj travel exspences and pay me instead.

I just say no. I do this for a living, and if you want to hire me you pay me. I ask the charity organiser whether he or she is also giving up their day's wages for the event. That normally gets the message across.

TonyB wrote:I just say no. I do this for a living, and if you want to hire me you pay me. I ask the charity organiser whether he or she is also giving up their day's wages for the event. That normally gets the message across.

Hi Tony,

I'm on your side here 100% as I think they are really cheeky B******s I really do. But if when you asked them are you giving up a days wage and they say "yes" what would your answer be?

All the best

Steve

Good question, Steve. It has never happened yet though.

I suppose in fairness I would then have to assess the charity and see was it something I would be drawn to support, then see if I was free. I do support some charities, but normally they are local ones where I know every penny goes to the sick child or hurting family. The mainstream charities, with their teams of paid fundraisers, have to pay.

I used to have this when I was playing in our band. We'd get called up by charities - one particular one I won't mention, all I will say is that they were involved with a premier league Football Club a few years back - with the same story. We'd like you to open the show then we have a comedian, a tribute band and then we'd like you to close the show.

This is how the evening would pan out until 'we saw the light', and the charges are next to the artistes....

8.30pm - We open the show - £0.00
9.30pm - Comedian - £450.00
10.00pm - Auction for various signed items
10.30pm - Tribute Band - £1,000.00 (and I'm not kidding here)
11.30pm - We close the show - £0.00
12.30pm - Evening draws to a close

Now this was in a venue in the birmingham area in a club which had a very large function room and on both occasions we attended this the venue was never full (600 people expected).

Never again.

Do you honestly think it is just magicians that get asked to work for free? Musicians, face painters, almost everyone is asked sometimes even the food people. Most simply say no. Magicians, in my experience, live in fear of 'not getting the gig' Magicians tend to undersell themselves. While other performers ask for a fair price magicians seem to be fine with working for 50.00 for a show. If you don't start out asking professional wages then why would one expect to be treated like one?

We do it to ourselves.

Don't just say no when asked to donate your time. Explain why you should get paid. And your answer should not be, "I'm a professional, this is how I make my living." or, "You are paying the caterer, you are paying the musician so shouldn't I get paid?" Really non of that is the clients problem.

Instead you must give all the advantages as to why the client benefits from having you entertain at the event. All the ways having you there may increase the turnout or at the very least make people stay and pledge more money to the benefit.

And if you can't state the above and sell yourself, then a few things need to happen. The first is to stop what you are doing and find those answers, maybe take some business classes, some marketing classes, maybe figure out an angle to allow your presentation to be about the benefit, your effects illustrate what they are trying to raise money for. The bottom line is if you can't justify your keep in a practical manner that is advantageous to your client, then why should they pay you?

Finally I am not saying you specifically are doing this, or neglecting to do this. But it is a rampant disease in the industry and it puts a hurting on everyone.

Wow!! 30 mins work for a comedian, and £450..

mr invisible wrote:Wow!! 30 mins work for a comedian, and £450..

An hour work for a hypnotist, a grand or more. An hour work for a comedian with a little television exposure, five grand. Fifteen minute appearance by a talentless x-factor hack, fifteen grand. We are underselling ourselves.

TonyB wrote:

mr invisible wrote:Wow!! 30 mins work for a comedian, and £450..

An hour work for a hypnotist, a grand or more. An hour work for a comedian with a little television exposure, five grand. Fifteen minute appearance by a talentless x-factor hack, fifteen grand. We are underselling ourselves.

If you find this shocking then you really don't want to know what a good coorperate worker earns. And if you happen to a motivational speaker, well that is out of the stratosphere.

The only snag of course is that finding corporate work nowadays is harder than it used to be. Companies don't seem to have the budget for entertainment any morebecause of the world wide slump in the economy. However, kid show entertainers are still thriving away. I have often said that the humble (or in my case not so humble) kid show entertainer earns more over the long run that the hot shot corporate entertainer, trade show worker, hypnotist, mentalist etc;. These guys may earn the bigger fees per individual show but the kid show market is more stable and the sheer volume of shows available makes up for it. And of course some people do both so they can have their cake and eat it.