If you’ve been watching the blog (or my Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) lately, you probably noticed that I had a nice little chat with DJ Stacey from PopJukeBox. During the show, we talked about what I do, and how I got to where I am, and some of the stories continued after the microphones were shut off (or, before they were even turned on, really). Eventually, she asked about my shows. And while I do a decent number of public shows and events through the year all across the globe, I also do a collection of private events.
Over a given year, I split my time between doing public theatre shows, and private events like Christmas parties, fundraisers, galas, weddings, and the like. And when I mentioned weddings, Stacey reacted with a “huh...you know, I never thought of a magician for a wedding before.” But it does happen. It’s not common in North America, but in the UK, it’s actually quite common...in fact, there’s a whole industry built around it. But truthfully, I’ve had this conversation more than a few times...although not just about weddings. For a lot of people, the thought of hiring a magician for their event never even crosses their mind. And a good number of my first-time clients are these people. Now, I don’t mean that this is their first time hiring me before...I mean, I’m the first magician/mentalist/something-other-than-a-guy-with-an-iPod-and-a-speaker they’ve ever brought into their event to provide some entertainment ever. And it always goes the same way: I show up, amaze the pants off the guests, and later, when I speak to the organizer about the event, they say something like, “WOW, that was amazing. Thank you so much! Everyone loved it...we’re still talking about it! I’m so glad I decided to do something different for our event this year and bring you in.” The fact is, for many reasons, adding entertainment like a magician or mentalist to your event can be a HUGE boost to whatever you’re planning. And a lot of my first-time clients never anticipated the added bonuses of professional entertainment at their event. For example: 1. It Makes Your Event Go From Boring To Exciting Instantly We all dread that demon of event organizing...that the party winds up being a drag. We’ve all been there. We attend (or worse, planned) a party where people show up, make unbearable small-talk, silently eat a meal, endure whatever short program is planned, and head for the door as soon as they can. The night is over by 9 PM at the latest, and a month later everyone who attended forgot it happened. This situation makes a complete one-eighty with one small addition: adding a mentalist, magician, or entertainer to the mix. Before the show even starts, there’s a buzz in the room. “Did you hear that they hired entertainment this year? They got a Mind-Reader.” “What? Really?” Instant intrigue. What will it be like? Will they be part of it? Now they want to stay and see what happens. Then, the MC of the evening announces the entertainer, and by the end of the show, your guests are laughing, cheering, and gasping. They witness something they’ve never experienced before. For the rest of the night (and the next day, and the next year...but more on that later), conversations are popping up all the time about what happened. Why? Well, it’s because...
0 Comments
|
Jeff Newman:
|