James Sanden

I had the honor of performing close up magic as well as my comedy magic act at Magic Chicago, Chicago’s premier showcase for magic last night.  It’s a great venue that welcomes both Chicago magicians, as well as those from elsewhere, making for an excellent monthly show.

There are two things I love about performing at public magic shows.  First, while I love performing my birthday party show or magic at a trade show, those aren’t my favorite types of magic to perform.  At a public magic show I can perform the material I’m most proud of and the effects that most express the magic I love best.  Second, while I love performing close up magic as a restaurant magician, the customers are there for dinner, not just to see me.  Sometimes they come in specifically to see the magician, but even then I’m an addition to the experience, not the experience itself.  Even when I perform close up magic as corporate entertainment, I’m usually an addition to a cocktail party or hospitality suite, and not the main attraction.

But at a public magic show the audience is there to see magic.

They even paid money to do so.

So while I’m grateful for the many and varied ways I earn a living with magic (variety truly is the spice of my work life), I treasure the chance to do what I love for an audience who came just to see magic.  It’s a purer form of performance and I always look forward to the opportunity to do so.

So thanks Robert and Ben!  You’re doing a service for us all!

I performed close up magic for a trade show today at the annual Inside Counsel Superconference.  My client, Victoria Court Reporting Service, Inc., had asked me to promote her business with my magic.  As a bonus at the end of the day I provided corporate entertainment for the attendees at the cocktail reception. 

Trade show magic is a unique form of performance, very different from the stereotypical birthday party show.  It’s a hybrid combination of close up magic and sales and marketing.  The magician (that’s me) researches the company, determines the features and benefits of their products or services, chooses magical effects that will effectively communicate those benefits, then writes and rehearses a show to sell those benefits to the attendees.  Sometimes companies will even hire a performer to integrate their benefits into a formal stage magic show for a sales meeting or the like.

 While not all Chicago magicians offer this type of performance, I really enjoy including it in my repertoire.  Preparing for the show engages a part of my brain I typically don’t use except when marketing my own business.  And the writing is really a challenge.  Making the performance educational, magical and captivating given the subject matter is quite an endeavor.

 But it’s worth it.  And I’m talking about for the client.

 According to research conducted by Exhibit Surveys, Inc. of Red Bank, New Jersey, live demonstrations and entertainment are the most effective methods for attracting booth visitors in an exhibition hall.  And magicians receive the highest ratings, after product demonstrations, for product identification and recognition.

 So if you want an effective way to make an impact at a trade show, give me a call!

OK, perhaps not in the traditional sense, but I did perform magic on our cruise ship while on vacation.

As a Chicago magician, I don’t have access to any major cruise ports, per se.  (Though there are the casino boats, which I really should contact about performing, now that I think of it…)  But my wife and I met some wonderful folks on the ship who loved my close up magic and tried to get the cruise director to set up a comedy magic show for the rest of the guests.  (Not much demand for my birthday party show on the boat, I guess.)

He didn’t go for it.

What I ended up doing was performing close up magic in the casino.  (OK, it was less a casino and more two tables in the piano bar)  What made it fantastic was that the casino was closed, so I was able to perform magic while sitting where the dealer usually sits.

A close up magician couldn’t ask for a better venue.

A smattering of folks showed up for the performance, including a cruise ship travel agent who might end up helping me get booked as an “official” cruise ship magician.  Not a bad outcome, if you ask me, especially since it was as far from a “business trip” as you can imagine.

Hey, have magic will travel.

I know.  I have a tough life, don’t I.

It’s great to be a magician.

I had a magic show on Saturday and when I showed up at the venue I found myself in a long, rectangular room with a dance floor smack in the middle of it all.  The guests were split between the two sides of the room, some within a few feet of the dance floor and some 30 feet or more away.  The layout made it impossible to perform either my corporate magic show or my birthday party show because half the audience would have missed the entire performance since I could only face one side of the room at a time.

Thank goodness I was hired to perform close up magic!

Now, the fact that I was performing the ideal type of magic for the venue was neither luck nor accident.  As I’ve written about before, most people don’t have a clear idea of the broad range of venues magic is perfectly suited for.  But beyond that, many actually don’t even know what type of entertainment is best for their own event.  People may think they want a comedy stage magic show, but the layout of the room, the type of event, the schedule leading up to the performance or one of a myriad of other factors make close up magic a better idea.

And as a Chicago magician, I feel it’s my job to bring my expertise to the table.  And really, it’s in the best interests of the customer.  I know they want to have a successful event and I know what type of magic works and what doesn’t in various situations.  In fact, sometimes I even have to talk a customer out of magic entirely because it’s not the right choice for their needs.  And while it may seem ridiculous to talk a potential client OUT of hiring me, I feel it’s always best to make sure they are happy, with or without me.

It all comes back around in the end.

So, if you’re in the market for entertainment, but don’t know if magic is right for you, give me a call.  I’ll let you know.

As a Chicago magician I have my birthday party show, my close up magic act and of course the comedy stage magic show for corporate entertainment.  I’m missing one classic type of performance though…

The 2 man show!

There are a lot of classic duos, both within magic and without.  Two of my favorite magician pairs are Penn & Teller and The Great Tomsoni & Co.

My good friend and fellow magician, Dennis Watkins, and I are working on just such a show!

We’re planning on having magic midgets, the meanest straight jacket escape in the world and a bullet catch without bullets.  It’s going to be strange, ridiculous, funny and very, very magical.

I’ll keep you updated with developments as they unfold!

One of my favorite magic quotes is from a famous New York magician, Al Baker.  He said, “The difference between an amateur magician and a professional is the amateur does 1000 different tricks for the same audience, whereas a professional does the same tricks for a 1000 different audiences.”

Malcolm Gladwell talks about this idea in his book, Outliers: “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimal level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”

While that’s certainly applicable when practicing sleight of hand for close up magic or card magic, there’s a missing factor in performance, whether you’re talking about birthday party shows for kids parties or comedy magic shows for corporate entertainment.

Good old fashioned stage time.

See, one can only get so far in becoming a master magician by practicing in isolation.  One has to actually perform in front of live audiences.  And not once, but hundreds of times (or thousands, as Gladwell would argue.)  This is one of the biggest benefits of performing close up magic at a restaurant like Fox’s.  Whereas stage magicians only get to do their magic show once a night, at the restaurant I’m doing my show 15 or 20 times a night, if not more.  It’s a much quicker route to mastery.

And with 10,000 hours to log, the more I can speed up the process, the better.

I was talking to another full-time Chicago magician the other day and he was saying that he wanted to get to a place where he didn’t have to hustle for gigs.  He just wanted to be able to focus on his close up magic and corporate entertainment performances.

I understand his point of view and can see how nice it would be to have your magic shows be in such demand that you didn’t have to market yourself, but I also realized something else:

I really enjoy hustling to get magic shows!

Now, I don’t mean being a con artist or stealing other Chicago magicians clients.  I’m talking about thinking creatively about how I can more effectively reach my target markets (whether that be performing a birthday party show or being a trade show magician), how I can better communicate the value of my services, how I can more accurately understand the needs and concerns of my customers, and other criteria too numerous to count.

I’m studying search engine optimization, sales techniques, best practices.

I’m networking, passing out my business cards at Fox’s on the River and I’m making calls.

Lots of calls.

And believe it or not, it’s fun.  I didn’t think it would be.  For many magicians, it’s the least pleasant part of being in show business.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love performing far more than selling.  And I do get frustrated at times.  But the challenge speaks to me.  I’m inspired by the process.  In fact, as corporate magician Bill Herz describes it:

“Both magic and business are about putting yourself in the spectator’s (customer’s) shoes and seeing what works.  Both magic and business are about selling (performing) an idea.  Both are about the wording and the subtleties.  Both are about being around and in front of people.  Both are about practice; the more you do of it, the more successful you get.”

He’s right.  It’s actually the creative aspect of business that I find the most interesting.  Just like with a magic show, I try something, whether that be an ad or a way of describing the benefits of my services, and see what works, keeping what does and discarding what doesn’t.  And then I try again.  In fact, when someone hires me I feel much like I do after having performed a successful magic show.  The similarities are striking.

Whoever knew that the business of show business could be this fun!

As a Chicago magician I get gigs from a number of different sources.  Parents will find this site or my birthday party show website online, or someone will see me performing close up magic at Fox’s on the River and hire me for corporate entertainment.  And sometimes it’s through the online entertainment company, Gigmasters.

There are lots of Chicago magicians who can be hired through Gigmasters, so there’s lots of competition.  To help potential clients make their decision, Gigmasters has a rating system for their performers based on client reviews, dollars earned and number of performances.  I’m celebrating because after receiving a rave review recently…

I now have a 4 star rating on Gigmasters!

(For the record, it’s 4 out of 5 stars, but that’s only because of the weight given to dollars earned and number of performances.  My reviews have all been 5 stars across the board.  If you want to read the reviews, you can check out my comedy magician profile.)

Just a few more performances and I’ll be at 5 stars!  (I’ll let you know when I get there.)

As a self-employed Chicago magician, I’m a big believer in continuing education and over the years have invested in books and courses about close up magic, comedy magic, card magic, birthday party shows, corporate entertainment, trade shows and a million other topics.  As part of this ongoing practice I recently registered for a time-management and productivity course called The Master Plan. 

It’s a fantastic course (if you’re not in Chicago they offer a teleseminar as well) and I highly recommend it.  I’ve learned a great deal and it’s made a huge difference in my productivity and success as a magician.  The course is designed around a number of conversations, structures and practices to have you be more effective.

What I noticed this morning is that a challenge I’ve had for years is starting to not be a problem any more.

See, in the past I’ve had this problem with time disappearing (I know, I know, as a magician I shouldn’t be surprised when anything disappears.  Ha ha ha.)  I’m working and before I know it hours have gone by and it feels like I’ve gotten nothing done.

But as part of The Master Plan I’ve taken on my schedule and how I manage my day.  An important concept in the course is to set yourself up to win, so I’ve been experimenting with how I set up my work day in order to have myself  be more effective.  The best technique for me has been to list all the areas I want to work on in a given week on a spreadsheet, putting the amount of time each will take next to it.  I highlight those items that I want to accomplish on a given day and put them in order of importance, making sure that I’m covering different areas (business calls, marketing, projects around the house, etc.) over the course of the day.  I make sure the total time for the tasks isn’t more time than I have available that day and then I get to work, starting with the first item.

There are lots of reasons this works for me, the biggest one being that I don’t have to think about it during the day.  I just go from one task to another, regardless of whether I want to do it, am in the mood, think it’s important, etc.  I get a LOT more done this way.

Which brings me back to this morning.

As I was working I noticed myself being annoyed.  And it was because I wasn’t focused on a particular task.  I was aware of the time I was taking doing what I was doing and was present to the tasks I really wanted to get done today.  I finished what I was doing and got to work.

Apparently mid-30′s dogs can learn new tricks.

As a Chicago magician, like many entrepreneurs, I find working from home and managing my own business to be both rewarding and extremely challenging.  While I never thought of it this way prior to becoming a full time close up magician and corporate entertainer, being an entertainer means literally building yourself as a business.

And I had never built a business before.

I’ve read magic business books and researched best practices on the internet.  I’ve developed shows for kids parties up to corporate events.  But one of the things that has made the most difference is having someone who has already done it be willing to answer a million different questions.

Which brings me to my pal, the wonderfully talented and amazingly generous, funny motivational speaker, Brad Montgomery.

Brad started out as a comedy magician many years ago (sorry, Brad) and has devleloped into a corporate comedian and motivational speaker.  And while he is very successful, he always takes time for me and is committed to my success.  And given that he has worked with companies ranging from Microsoft to the FBI, I still can’t believe he takes the time (let alone has the time) to help me on my way.

A lot of what I have accomplished I owe to his coaching and advice.  He’s taught me to not think too much, to just take chances and to make sure to laugh along the way.  I couldn’t actually write out all that he has contributed to my career, but at the very least, I think he deserves public acknowledgement.

Lastly, one of the most important things I’ve learned from Brad is generosity.  I see the importance of “paying it forward,” whether that’s to another card magician or to a small business owner who needs help with their website (which Brad helped me out with as well).  So thanks, Brad.

Oh, and Brad.  I have another question…