I am wondering what is the best way to book restaurant gigs or cruise ships, trade shows without having to cold call which I have done following a script from a fellow magician. I've sent out mailers/flyers w/no success.

Is their an agent I can contact I live in the Denver, Co area.

benji11 has been the gracious giver of info to paid gig's here;
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157467

Cold calling is just that! mailings and flyers are the lazy way to book jobs. David Ginn says there are only 3 ways to book jobs, by mail, by phone and in person. Only one of those ways is the most successful and that is the last one. Cold calling is not using the phone, it is knocking on doors and speaking to the decision maker in each place. Just follow the logical rules and remember that time = money for both you and the decision maker.

Too many people think you can straight away walk into a cruise liner company, or a number of high profile companies and right away get gigs. Start small. Magic is a business so you have to treat it like one. Overnight Microsoft did not become the largest OS in the world. They started small.

Think about performing for family, friends, local restaurants. Get testimonials, get footage. Increase your client base. THEN go to agents with this and show them your footage, testimonials, even demonstate what you can do for them. From there you will slowly get more gigs.

My first year performing I only got 5 gigs, 4 years later I am on about 70 or so, and I'm only doing this part-time as I'm a full time student completing a double degree.

Start small --> Get connections --> Build a client base --> Expand using your client base and connections with people you have already established

- Anthony

I can tell you exactly how to book gigs but you won't like the answer. Most people won't put in the work because it takes A LOT of work (at first) to get gigs.

VISIBILITY=REVENUE

The number one way people will hire you is by seeing you perform. But it is not enough to just perform and expect gigs to come rolling in. While you're performing, you have to say the right things and do the right things so people will ask if you're available for their event, how much you charge, etc. You have to perform in a certain way to get people in the frame of mind to hire you for their event. DO NOT just perform a trick and expect to get hired....more to come on this in another video. I wasn't going to reveal it but it is just tooooo good

Now you have to think about how to become visible to your target market. So how do you do this? Crash hotels and trade shows. Companies have events at hotels and those are the decision makers...go where the decision makers are and perform for them.

Here is live footage of me crashing a hotel...


Cold calls will also book gigs for you but you will be making TONS of them. And you need video footage. Once again...people need to see you to hire you and that is the purpose of your video. You call them to ask for the person that is in charge of planning their events, ask if they hire speakers/entertainers, when their next event is, and what is their budget for speakers/entertainers. Then ask if you can send some video that they can watch.

Your video is important because if your video doesn't "relate" to them, they won't book you. If you send a video of you performing in the street but you're asking to perform at their holiday banquet then you won't get hired.

Here is a quick clip that can be sent from a cold call to corporate clients...


And here is a clip of me doing "street" mentalism that I would NEVER send to corporate clients for gigs...


The first clip shows them the similarities between their future event and the one I did for that company. The second clip is nothing more than a cool "trick" but they can't envision something like that at a company party because the setting is wrong. If the setting was at a huge Gala where everyone was in a tux then it would be completely different. So be careful about the type of video you send clients.

IF YOU WANT CORPORATE GIGS THEN SEND THEM FOOTAGE OF YOU PERFORMING IN A CORPORATE CLIMATE

I highly recommend you stay away from mailers. You spend a lot of money and get little results. People have to see you to hire you. Crashing hotels is the number one way to book gigs.

benjii, I tried the hotel crashing thing after you first posted it. Do you know how many and how big the hotel security force is? I do and it took about 5 minutes to find out. just a caution that you might be busted trying that, it doesn't hurt but they could stop you.

Paddy

Wow, sorry to hear about that Paddy. Which hotel did that occur? Do you think someone from the party notified security or did someone from security start asking questions?

Paddy what exactly did you do? Hotels don't have security...they just have normal people working for them and nobody knows who you are. They don't know if you're entertainment for an event and people working at hotels don't even know their coworkers because it is a big place.

You can't try something once and dismiss it. Joel Bauer, Paul Diamond, and TONS of other entertainers have built a multi-million dollar business on this one concept.

The only way you can get "kicked out" is by the people hosting an event. And of course that is going to happen (when you do restaurant magic not every table wants you to perform for them). But it will only happen if you look like you don't belong.

I've had people stop me before and say "where is your badge" (most hotel events have badges to determine who is with the event and who isn't) and I simply say "I don't like badges. I'm here to do some entertainment. Do you know where James is?"

I'm pointing out one fact...big events are held at hotels. They pay thousands of dollars for entertainers and speakers. If you are seen by these people then you get hired by these people.

Yes, Benjii, hotels DO have security depts, run by retired cops usually. All i did was exactly as you had done in your vid, lasted just about 60 seconds before they approached me and asked for ID. When I explained what I was trying to do they told me to leave or go directly to jail, I left. This is one of the things that happen when you do this, nothing wrong with trying to crash hotels but you should also warn of what can happen to people when trying it. Risk is a fact of life, for those of us who are professional, we know that and are willing to take the risks. I am just telling people what can happen, not build up great expectations (sorry My [edited].)

That's how I booked my restaurant gig, was in person and meeting the management. Cold calling. You have to get your salesman skills up though. Tell the restaurant management what they get and what value you bring to the restaurant. Now that I have a restaurant gig, I have been spending a lot of time making sure my magic is high quality and does a good job of entertaining the restaurant's guests. Word of mouth is the best way to market yourself, though it's not the only way. So, if I focus on the quality of my magic and do an excellent job entertaining the restaurant's guests, then word of mouth spreads and the restaurant could refer me to others and of course I can market myself for private gigs at the restaurant. So far right now, I rely heavily on cold calling, high quality of magic and then the positive word of mouth I get from the high quality magic.

Paddy are you sure you didn't go to an airport instead of a hotel

Hotels do not know who is there for an event and who isn't. They won't ask someone who walks into their hotel for an ID because it does nothing. You have an ID that says your name...so what...you're here for an event.

Just think about it....someone is having an event...do they tell the people at the hotel the exact names of EVERY person attending the event? No....the only name the catering/event department needs is the person in charge of the event. So naturally, the hotel has NO IDEA who is part of what event (that is why they always ask people coming in).

What you're saying doesn't add up. Walk into any hotel and they have no idea if you're there for an event or not. (Of course the people hosting the event might not want you to perform but the hotel staff has no idea).

I'm not citing theory and hotel crashing is not new; it works. The number one way for people to book you is by having seen you perform. When you crash hotels, people (who have lots of money & host events) see you perform.

You can't crash one event and expect to book tons of high paying gigs. After all, you don't make one phone call to a new client and hang up saying "well they didn't want to hire me, I guess cold calling doesn't work." You have to crash events several times in a month to get in front of people that hire you. You have to call hundreds and thousands of people to get gigs. One is not enough.

If anyone on this forum is scared to crash an event and perform for random people then I you won't make money in this business because selling is your number one priority. Like I said...crashing hotels isn't theory, it works.

IF YOUR FEAR OF FAILURE IS GREATER THAN YOUR DESIRE FOR GAIN THEN YOU WON'T MAKE MONEY

Hi Paddy,

If I may ask many questions; This will help others to make determinations when attending these types of functions.

What hotel did you experience this?
What kind of event was it? Was it a wedding, corporate function, etc?
How many people did it look like it was set up for? 10's, 100's?
Was there anyone at the door issuing name tags?
Were there others there or to perform or other types hired people such as a band or photographer?
How was security dressed? Were they wearing uniforms, plains clothes, suit and tie?
Did an event patron or someone in charge approach you first?
What was it about the circumstances that could have inspired security to approach you so quickly without someone from the event speaking with you first, if that was the case?
Do you feel if you spoke to someone in charge of the event that they may have allowed you to stay and perform?

Thank You for your help Paddy.

The reason I even posted this was because Getting jobs is not easy, Crashing hotels is one way to get jobs, but it is also a way to upset people and give us a bad name. Sometime Benjii forgets to give both side to his methods. Yes all his methods do work, but lets not blow smoke up someone. There are drawbacks to everything and I feel that you should know this part of the work also.

Thank You again Paddy, good stuff to know.

Sounds like an event in which the organizer had their own private security and they knew who was lined up for the entertainment. Maybe you crashed a secret service event!

That is a good one, but the truth is I was invited, and accepted, to entertain Pres G.W. Bush when he appeared in Cincinnati a few years ago. That was a thrill. Had to do some really stupid things for the secret Service people but it was worth it.