Just to let people know, I have been in concert security, crowd control for over 13 years and yes hotels have security. You wouldn't know them until you see their badge. The small hotels motel6 and the like just call the police for problems, but the biggerones you will not see security until someone does something wrong. And then like the Hilton gardens of Kansas City, Kansas durring the races at kansas City Speedway you will see armed security and even police to deture people from committing an offense. To Paddy, sorry that you had such a bad experiance, and to Benji go to a couple of hotels and just ask if they have security and you will see that they do, and if they tell you that they don't, don't beleive them (just try something and you will see for yourself).

Zambini

Ok let me rephrase that...most hotels do not have security during the day. The manager on duty acts as security if something happens (if you don't believe me then go to your closest hotel and ask)

But either way...this isn't a discussion about security at hotels.

If you want to make money then you need balls. You have to perform for people so they see what you do and you have to let them know they can hire you (there are other tiny details but we can save those for later).

Hotel crashing works

And if you want...I have a show on the 11th that came from crashing an event several months ago. They're paying me $1200 for 45min and I will record a testimonial from her which will include how much they're paying me.

I'm not the type of performer that talks the talk. After talking with people like Anton Zellman, Joel Bauer, Daniel Garcia, Alex Rangel (Garcia's friend) and many more, I decided to stop doing gigs below $1,000 because they're a waste of time. These gigs are booked through a combination of methods but allowing people to see me perform is what gets the most gigs.

There are a lot of magicians that claim to make money but they don't. It is important to take advice from people who are doing what it is you want to do and people that can prove they're making money at it.

Benjii, I am not saying that you're wrong. You are correct and crashing does work, but all I'm saying is that you should also tell the risks involved. When I got caught, it was not my first crashing experience, not my last either. But these kids should know the risks involved and that getting jobs is WORK!

That's right. Getting jobs is work. I prefer to have a high quality business card, good salesman skills, high quality magic, a website (if you don't know how to build your own website or you can't afford to hire a professional to do it for you, you can use some free services such as squidoo to build a website and throw the url address on your business card).

I think a combination of having or using a newsletter (or newsletter postcard), having a website, good business card, salesman skills and if you have a little money and know how to do good direct mail campaign to generate leads, then use a combination of those marketing methods. But honestly, I got my gig through cold calling, sitting down with management and then using salesman skills. Once I got my first gig, I invested most of my time and money into practicing and having high quality magic. Once you get your first gig and you do a good job entertaining people with high quality magic then word of mouth becomes another method to market yourself. You can also market yourself for much higher paying private gigs at restaurant and I have a few leads for private gigs at the restaurant I am currently working.

I've worked for Hilton for many years...Most ALL of your "high-end" Hotels/Resorts/Casinos do have security.