DOUBLE BOOKING PROBLEM

Here is an issue I have never quite figured out the answer to. Sometimes two or more companies want to book me for the same event or on occasion for two different trade shows which happen to share the same dates.

Even a magician can’t be in two places at the same time so I have to figure out the best way to handle the situation. If I turn down one company that means that I lose a potential client. All I can do is hope for the best that they may book me for a further event down the road but they probably won’t because the momentum is lost.

Another issue is that one company may wish to book me for one day and the other wants to book me for the entire show. The problem arises when the company that wants to book me for the one day is the one who books me first! It would be unprofessional and unfair to suddenly back out of the first contract in order to take the more profitable booking.

One seemingly obvious solution is for me to hire another magician as a back up. I have tried this in the past but it never works! Very few magicians have the ability to work trade shows and represent a company. They are pretty good at the magic but that is not the purpose of a trade show presenter. Many magicians think they are merely hired to entertain and they have fulfilled the job requirement at a trade show. Alas they haven’t and not by a long shot. The purpose of their presence is to draw crowds, hold them and most importantly act as a “living commercial”. In other words the objective is not so much to entertain but to SELL!  Or a better way to put it is to help the sales staff to SELL!  They do this by studying the company literature and consult with the marketing department to get an overview of the products and services offered.    They then need to work out a script which incorporates the magic into the presentation. They then need to liase with the company to get the script approved. Once that is done the hard work of memorising the script and rehearsing the presentation has to take place well before the show date.

None of this is easy to do and 90 percent of magicians have no idea how to do this and that is why many companies hire performers who advertise on the internet that they do trade shows but in actual fact have no idea of the correct way to go about things. They think they are just there to entertain but that is NOT the point of them being there.  And then, as one company recently remarked to me, the results are “somewhat ineffective”

So this is one reason why I no longer hire other magicians as a back up if I get double booked. Another problem I have encountered is that if another  magician is booked at another booth on the same show the company I am working for is not pleased there is another magician at the same show as it takes the shine off their own booth as understandably they want to stand out at the event and not have their effectiveness diluted by another presenter.

I have no answer to this conundrum. That is why companies who want to book me should get in first and not delay their decisions. It has to be first come, first served. Even a magician can’t split himself in two! So BOOK NOW WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!

How I put a script together for a trade show presentation.

Here is an example of how I incorporate company messages into my magic presentations at a trade show. This video has certain limitations but it should give you an idea. The first limitation is that it was not done at a trade show! However, it does show you exactly the procedure I use. The second limitation is that I only wrote the script the day before the video was recorded and subsequently I did not have enough time to learn it. Normally I have a lead time of several weeks to prepare what I say at a trade show but this was an exception. And of course as I stated, it wasn’t for a trade show anyway!  Alas since I wasn’t able to learn the script in time I had to type it out and lay it beside me while I performed. And of course you keep seeing me glancing at the script so I can see what to say next! And that doesn’t look very good at all!

Still, for what it is worth here you go. This was for Wendy’s fast food chain.