ENTERTAINMENT TRADE DIRECTORIES

Get a hold of some of the hundreds and hundreds of trade directories available. These trade directories list the details of every possible event. These includes, State Fairs, Exhibitions, Rodeos, Flea Markets, Casinos, Trade Conventions, Cruise Ships, Shopping Malls, Festivals, Concerts, and many more. There are 100’s and 100’s of these in this country alone.

There are so many of these directories, that there are even directories of directories!

Select the type of market you would like to cater to, and start your direct mail campaign (using MORC at www.M-O-R-C.com) an get your information to them. Use Email, Postal Services, Faxes, or hand deliver them.

These directories tell you all the details of the events: places, contact personal, dates, budgets, entertainment sought, and much more.

When I was getting into the fair business I found the trade magazine "Trade Shows and Exhibitions", published by MacLean Hunter, to be invaluable.

With just using this one single directly - I was able to book over 30 major exhibitions and fairs right across Canada, just to work over the 5 months of the summer. I repeated this same circuit over and over every year for 12 years - All just by using this one directory.

During the winter months I used the trade manual "The Directory Of Shopping Malls" published by the association of shopping malls and plazas, to book myself into the biggest high traffic malls. This got me more than enough work for the 5 months of winter. I again, repeated this circuit over and over, for the last 12 years!

These two directories, Trade shows and exhibitions, and the directory of shopping malls kept me working for the 12 years! - and this is just in Canada. In the USA, simply multiply the number of trade directories by 10, and thus multiplying your work and income potential also by 10.

There are many others (IAFE, Pull Star magazine, ASCAP, Variety Magazine) I worked the Exhibitions and Fairs circuit exclusively for 12 years. There was no need to book any other kind of show! Once you pick your circuit, the shows repeat every year, in sequence. So you just do them again!

While working at these exhibitions over the years, I have come to meet many performers, because every large exhibition may have 50 or more acts each performing on the grounds somewhere - EVERY SINGLE DAY!

I love to watch hypnosis, and the hypnotists performing would work several shows daily.

Just To Give You A Real Life Example:

He also performs a ‘Hyp’ act in one of the many bars located right on the grounds every night at about 11:00 pm. This was an adult show and was privately sponsored by the bar owner. This is 10 more shows over the 10 days, bring the total number of shows he performed to 40 shows in 10 days.

Even if the average show fee is only $1000 (that’s way below market for a Hyp show), that would be - yes $40,000 in 10 days!

But that’s not all. There is also a private grand hypnosis show held in a theater after the fair is over. You need to buy tickets for this. This is a grand show with all the frills and included dinner. Tickets are $50 each. The theater holds 300 people and has always been sold out every time I have gone there. This theater show is advertised by the hypnotist himself during the 40 shows performed throughout the far. There may be up to 4,000 people at each of these 40 shows. That’s a lot of free advertising for the hypnotist.

At 300 seats times $50 per seat, that’s $15,000.

If the hypnotist get even only 25% of that theater show, that would be another $3,750. Add that to the $40,000 working stage shows, and that brings our total to over $43,000 for 10 days! - Wow!

But we are still not done yet!

That income does not include the hypnosis and motivational CD’s that the hypnotist sells after each for the shows. These CD’s sell for about $20 each, and after doing 40 shows, I would estimated that he will sell at least 10 CDs to the 4,000 people in the audience watching ever single show. That would mean at least another $200 in CD sales for each of the 40 shows, or $8,000 in cash sales.

This particular Hypnotist also had a limited number of Video tapes available (about 25) for the participants to purchase at $25 each, so that they could see how silly they really were on stage. Add together 25 tapes times $25 each tape times 41 shows = $25,625.00 extra profit - per fair!!! (This is the back end product! - more on this later).

So, if you do only 20 Fairs or Exhibitions each year (that’s only one every 2 weeks, and no other smaller shows), that’s $25,625.00 per show times 20 shows.... Can you say $512,500.00 per year! - in almost clear profit! - for doing what you are already doing anyways!!! Is it worth it to hire a full time staff person to only video tape and package CD’s, so that you can make and EXTRA $512,500.00? - each year!!! - and you are only working HALF THE YEAR!

Remember also, that the Booking Agent does not get commissions on these extra CASH back end sales! This is almost CLEAR, PASSIVE, EXTRA PROFIT for YOU the performer!

Can you see why back end products are much more important than the actual act itself! All big acts know this! Can you see now why I have ‘let go’ of doing Magic Shows completely (my personal choice). We will discuss more on Back End products later.

The grand total of doing 30 fair shows, 10 bar shows, a gala theater show, and selling CD’s and Videos after the performance, amounts to over $75,000.00 of income for each 10-fair that he worked!

This is typical, not an exaggeration at all. In fact, these are conservative figures!

These performers would then go to the next 10 fair, already scheduled for them by their booking agent, and do it again. They would repeat this year after year!

The elite show in Canada is the Canadian National Exhibition and this show runs for 18 days. Do I need to go over the income figures? Its about $120,000.00 for 18 days of work - Not Bad!

I know of two hypnotists, Wayne Lee and Terry Stokes, that performed at exactly these type of hypnosis shows, for 10 days straight at fairs in western Canada.

They would then go to the next fair, already scheduled by their booking agent, and do it again. They would repeat this year after year!

This circuit can also be repeated for Colleges and Universities. There are virtually 1000’s of these also.

Do I want to go back and do birthday parties? No!

Now Here is the real kicker:

There are literally 500 exhibitions and fairs happening in the United States EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND!!! Now re-read that statement again! Its true!

At my peak, I performed at about 50 exhibitions per year (I went all out!!!), in Canada alone! - and had side booths going on in 1 or 2 nearby shopping malls run by my staff at the same time to sell the back end products. I found it better to work hard for 10 days straight, and take the next 5 days off and rest.

Exhibitions and State Fairs draw millions of people and most fairs will run either 4 days, or 10 days, some go for 18 days. If you get an act in these shows, and you are good, you will work forever! Other fairs will also refer you. Exhibitions and Fairs may have 5-50 ACTS PER DAY! Should you tap in to this? Yes! This was primarily my market, since the fair dates are all set up in sequence, and they repeat every year. This alone is a gold mine!

When working these large arenas, always carry a business card or flyer with you as you never know who you will meet, when moving through a lot of people at these large Exhibitions - mostly other Exhibition promoters!

CORPORATE AND TRADE SHOWS

Corporate Trade Shows are big on the list and for good reason. They pay big money. Why because corporations have big money to spend. Big companies know the value of good advertising and promotion.

These shows are based on the principle that your entertainment skills will bring potential business prospects to your clients booth. The magician, in the course of his routine, incorporates his clients product’ into the patter, in the hope to have onlookers remember the product or the products name. In essence, the magician is playing the part of a ‘Pitchman’, selling the companies’ product to the trade.

There are numerous courses available to show you how to incorporate a companies’ product into your magic presentation so we won’t touch on it here, only to say that it ranks among the top paying shows in the magic industry.

Trade shows pay anywhere from $1,500.00 to $3,500.00 per engagement. You may be required to work 4, 5, or 6 hours straight, with breaks. It is a constant pitch to a constantly changing audience. If you don’t like to travel to the real big paying shows, this may be the niche you are looking for.

I know of a Magician in Toronto, who’s monthly shows schedule consist of about one quarter of his business doing trades shows, yet it accounts for up over 75% of his income.

Are You Ready To Travel?

Some performers will be given the opportunity to travel. Are you ready to travel? If you are given the opportunity to travel to Europe to make $25,000.00 would you go? or would you stay local at $250? Remember,

A small town will keep you small!

If you are free to travel, Las Vegas and the Cruise Ships may be of interest for you. Its not for everyone, but these two agendas will pay the biggest dollar in all the performing arts.

Las Vegas has many many spots for entertainers to work. In fact, there are 100’s and 100’s of opportunities available - if this is the lifestyle for you. Vegas is open from 9:00 am to 4:00 am, 7 days a week. There are many ‘non-headliner’ acts available in the lounges and small casinos. This is where you can make the big bucks, even though these are small shows.

Can the casinos afford to pay big bucks? Well, if you have ever been to a casino in Vegas, the first thing you will notice is that there will be rows and rows of slot machines every where. Between 5,000 and 20,000 slot machines.

The second thing you will notice is that all the slot machines are busy, and you may have to wait a half an hour to one hour to find a vacant one. Each slot machine pulls in average about $2,000 per day. You figure out the math - then ask your self, can they afford to pay a top entertainer $1,000 a day? My conclusion is that they can.
Some magicians have a lifetime contract to work Vegas. I know a couple of magicians that work there and are millionaires. I also read in a magic magazine of one magician that is a billionaire.

Cruise ships will be touched on later.