Hey guys!
I had my first hired gig this past weekend at my local pizza parlor, and it was incredible! One of the best nights of performing I've had hands down. While I was performing, I definitely learned a lot of different things, ranging from performing, to the magic itself, to choosing who to perform for, and so on. I thought I would kind of break down my two nights of performing to give helpful advice to other magicians out there just starting in the restaurant business, as well as just share my experience with you guys and get some feedback.
Quick Disclaimer:1. This will be a fairly long read, so buckle down if you're ready for it. 2.For those experienced (and even not so much) do take all this with a grain of salt. I'm not a pro at this, but these are things I have picked up on beforehand as well as learned on the job, so there is experience backing these points up. However, they are by no means a concrete slab you have to adhere by, but simply something to draw inspiration from. If you want to use this though, feel free to
So here we go!
Prep Work
I'm going to talk about what I actually did, and then what I should've done or added later I'll discuss in a later section.
Basically, here's what I made sure I had:
Cards: Two of my routines are with them/main median for my magic.
Panic: Sick effect/knew I was doing this from the start.
Rubberbands: Always have them/CMH/Stairway/Pixel.
Business cards:A must/potential future gigs.
Jacket to hold props:Easy access to each prop/sleek looking to seem professional.
Paperclip:Stairway.
Nice looking clothes:Same as jacket, to seem professional looking and like I belong to the staff.
Routines: Obviously/what you are going to perform for the night. My routines were as follows:
1. Kingly routine: Sandwich effect with the four kings, followed by Doc Daley's last trick/synverted(sp?) by John Carney, and then finished with Panic. Panic, being a very hard hitting closer, allowed me to thank them and retire from the table and find a new one.
2. Card finding theme: Joker's wild with two selections, followed by blueprint, and possibly pixel. I talk about how cards can be found through various methods.
3. Rubber, rubber, rubber: I use the theme of a soft spot in rubberbands all throughout. CMH (my hands then on theirs), then I have two bands melt into one, followed by a thumb penetration, and then up the nose. I then go into stairway (that effect got me the most tips). I use a quick gag with stealing their bill, then continue with the soft spot theory. I usually end with that one, or I do pixel, it all depends.
I occasionally would do other effects if I was at a table for a while and we were all doing well. Examples include ACR, card to mouth, or some simple color changes.
Now, most of these are subject to change depending on what effects you plan to perform that night, you might need a sharpie or other sort of gimmick. The point is to have a checklist and double check (haha...pun) it to make sure you have everything. The last I thing I would say you need is to arrive a little early to speak with the manager, let him/her know you are there, and get the lay of the land that night (for example, saturday was really slow to start for me, so I talked with the waiters for a bit until I could find a good target).
Approaching people
Here, first impressions are everything, for both you and the audience. Now to start off, I had a few ground rules I set for myself (coming from advice I have read here on the forums): 1. Don't approach a table while they are eating or seem to be done eating. This is because it's hard to interact with them and get genuine responses while they have warm food sitting right in front of them or are already occupied with chowing down. Also, when they are done eating and ready to leave, they need to leave a tip for the waiter/tress, and will feel uncomfortable about thinking about tipping you as well (even though I don't say anything about tipping me, I'll get to that later) 2: Tables that have not ordered yet are also off the list, unless you catch them the moment they sit down. This is because the server hasn't seen them yet and they are not preoccupied with ordering just yet. 3. Tables with drinks and no menus were ideal, since they had already ordered and were simply waiting on their food.
Now that we know who to perform for, let's see how we get into it:
Opening line: This should quickly engage your audience, tell them what you are there for, and pitch your service. Mine was fairly simple, but is a little extended since it was my first time there and people were not aware that they had hired me.
"Everything doing good over here?/Everyone having a good time?" (Replied with a "yes" usually) "Awesome, that's great! Well my name is Jacob, and the management has hired me to perform some magic around the restaurant for people, and I was wondering if you guys wanted to see anything?" While saying this I am polite, engaging, and joyful. I did get rejected about 7 or 8 times total for the two nights, and when they said no I simply smiled, told them to have a nice night, and looked for a new target.
Routine: You also need a routine pre-determined for said table once you're in with them. This is a little vague since it all depends on the performer and their choice of effects for that night, so this section is a short one.
Once you are all done, you'll need a way to exit ever so gracefully:
This is where a closing line comes in. Mine is simply "If you guys liked what you saw, be sure to tell the manager or your waiter or waitress and hopefully I can stick around. I hoped you guys enjoyed yourselves, enjoy your food (if it was arriving) and have a nice night. Thank you!" I would pack up and/or hand out business cards here, and ask them to simply contact me if they have any events or gatherings coming up. I'm not sure how many I handed out, but I definitely got a lot out there, and some people even said they would be back next week!
I'm not going to break down each night into how each performance went, since I feel like you guys have done enough reading as is (if you made here, thank you, it means a lot). Basically, I only messed up two or three times but recovered well, made some new friends, and seemed to build a bit of a rapport with some of the people there as well as the wait staff. They all really liked me and asked to see magic when I was on a "break" (I chilled by the takeout area when no one was available), and some that I talked to said it was a great thing to have me since I could stall tables if an order was slow or something. I also entertained guests waiting in line for a table, which was also something valuable to have. I was talking to some guys I performed for and they said that instead of associating waiting with the restaurant, they associate service and entertainment, which is very good.
I had my first hired gig this past weekend at my local pizza parlor, and it was incredible! One of the best nights of performing I've had hands down. While I was performing, I definitely learned a lot of different things, ranging from performing, to the magic itself, to choosing who to perform for, and so on. I thought I would kind of break down my two nights of performing to give helpful advice to other magicians out there just starting in the restaurant business, as well as just share my experience with you guys and get some feedback.
Quick Disclaimer:1. This will be a fairly long read, so buckle down if you're ready for it. 2.For those experienced (and even not so much) do take all this with a grain of salt. I'm not a pro at this, but these are things I have picked up on beforehand as well as learned on the job, so there is experience backing these points up. However, they are by no means a concrete slab you have to adhere by, but simply something to draw inspiration from. If you want to use this though, feel free to
So here we go!
Prep Work
I'm going to talk about what I actually did, and then what I should've done or added later I'll discuss in a later section.
Basically, here's what I made sure I had:
Cards: Two of my routines are with them/main median for my magic.
Panic: Sick effect/knew I was doing this from the start.
Rubberbands: Always have them/CMH/Stairway/Pixel.
Business cards:A must/potential future gigs.
Jacket to hold props:Easy access to each prop/sleek looking to seem professional.
Paperclip:Stairway.
Nice looking clothes:Same as jacket, to seem professional looking and like I belong to the staff.
Routines: Obviously/what you are going to perform for the night. My routines were as follows:
1. Kingly routine: Sandwich effect with the four kings, followed by Doc Daley's last trick/synverted(sp?) by John Carney, and then finished with Panic. Panic, being a very hard hitting closer, allowed me to thank them and retire from the table and find a new one.
2. Card finding theme: Joker's wild with two selections, followed by blueprint, and possibly pixel. I talk about how cards can be found through various methods.
3. Rubber, rubber, rubber: I use the theme of a soft spot in rubberbands all throughout. CMH (my hands then on theirs), then I have two bands melt into one, followed by a thumb penetration, and then up the nose. I then go into stairway (that effect got me the most tips). I use a quick gag with stealing their bill, then continue with the soft spot theory. I usually end with that one, or I do pixel, it all depends.
I occasionally would do other effects if I was at a table for a while and we were all doing well. Examples include ACR, card to mouth, or some simple color changes.
Now, most of these are subject to change depending on what effects you plan to perform that night, you might need a sharpie or other sort of gimmick. The point is to have a checklist and double check (haha...pun) it to make sure you have everything. The last I thing I would say you need is to arrive a little early to speak with the manager, let him/her know you are there, and get the lay of the land that night (for example, saturday was really slow to start for me, so I talked with the waiters for a bit until I could find a good target).
Approaching people
Here, first impressions are everything, for both you and the audience. Now to start off, I had a few ground rules I set for myself (coming from advice I have read here on the forums): 1. Don't approach a table while they are eating or seem to be done eating. This is because it's hard to interact with them and get genuine responses while they have warm food sitting right in front of them or are already occupied with chowing down. Also, when they are done eating and ready to leave, they need to leave a tip for the waiter/tress, and will feel uncomfortable about thinking about tipping you as well (even though I don't say anything about tipping me, I'll get to that later) 2: Tables that have not ordered yet are also off the list, unless you catch them the moment they sit down. This is because the server hasn't seen them yet and they are not preoccupied with ordering just yet. 3. Tables with drinks and no menus were ideal, since they had already ordered and were simply waiting on their food.
Now that we know who to perform for, let's see how we get into it:
Opening line: This should quickly engage your audience, tell them what you are there for, and pitch your service. Mine was fairly simple, but is a little extended since it was my first time there and people were not aware that they had hired me.
"Everything doing good over here?/Everyone having a good time?" (Replied with a "yes" usually) "Awesome, that's great! Well my name is Jacob, and the management has hired me to perform some magic around the restaurant for people, and I was wondering if you guys wanted to see anything?" While saying this I am polite, engaging, and joyful. I did get rejected about 7 or 8 times total for the two nights, and when they said no I simply smiled, told them to have a nice night, and looked for a new target.
Routine: You also need a routine pre-determined for said table once you're in with them. This is a little vague since it all depends on the performer and their choice of effects for that night, so this section is a short one.
Once you are all done, you'll need a way to exit ever so gracefully:
This is where a closing line comes in. Mine is simply "If you guys liked what you saw, be sure to tell the manager or your waiter or waitress and hopefully I can stick around. I hoped you guys enjoyed yourselves, enjoy your food (if it was arriving) and have a nice night. Thank you!" I would pack up and/or hand out business cards here, and ask them to simply contact me if they have any events or gatherings coming up. I'm not sure how many I handed out, but I definitely got a lot out there, and some people even said they would be back next week!
I'm not going to break down each night into how each performance went, since I feel like you guys have done enough reading as is (if you made here, thank you, it means a lot). Basically, I only messed up two or three times but recovered well, made some new friends, and seemed to build a bit of a rapport with some of the people there as well as the wait staff. They all really liked me and asked to see magic when I was on a "break" (I chilled by the takeout area when no one was available), and some that I talked to said it was a great thing to have me since I could stall tables if an order was slow or something. I also entertained guests waiting in line for a table, which was also something valuable to have. I was talking to some guys I performed for and they said that instead of associating waiting with the restaurant, they associate service and entertainment, which is very good.
