Too bad that the social media community wasn’t on hand for the performance by Illusionist Chris Pilsworth, this afternoon. Besides being entertaining, the event turned out to be extremely insightful.
LESSON #1: CLIENTS AREN’T PAYING FOR THE SHOW
Chris ended his magic show by saying that he loves what he does and considers it play, not work. His clients aren’t paying for the show, because he does that for fun. His clients pay for the paperwork, contracts and other administravia he doesn’t enjoy nearly as much.
LESSON #2: RECOMMEND THE NEXT PERFORMER
It turns out that the organizers of this magic show also arranged a magic show by another performer last year. At the end of last year’s show, the performer recommended Chris Pilsworth for this year’s event.
LESSON #3: EXHIBIT PROFESSIONAL COURTESY
At the end of the show, I recognized Eric Leclerc, a magician I’d seen perform before. I approached him to remnisce about that appearance and asked him if he had any business cards with him (they’re cool… made to look like baseball cards). He declined giving one to me noting that it wasn’t his performance and therefore not his place to promote himself.
