Brian T. Lees products: page 3

The difference between an average and great magician is the audience connection. Audience members text, talk with their neighbors and do other things because they are not tuned in, connected, with the performance. This ebook identifies the connection, points out the importance, and covers a few tools magicians can use to capture and strengthen that connection.

• The Audience Connection
• Capturing the Audience
• Different Connection Tools
• Working the Connection
• Wrapping it Up

1st edition 2021; PDF 17 pages.

Audiences rate magicians based on their entertainment experience. One can have the best of everything: magic, manipulation, etc. and still fail in front of an audience. This material is not new. It has been taught in the theater industry and at schools for a very long time. However, there are not that many materials written to bring these skills into the hands of a magician.

This ebook will identify key elements that the magician must follow, and be aware of as he/she performs. Suggested materials might seem unimportant or a waist of time. But those same elements could be the factors that...

As entertainers we must use every tool available to delivery our magic to the audience. Body language, often not considered, enhances the connection, compliments the communication and directly impacts the entertainment factor. This ebook identifies body language. It is an attempt to bring the skills associated with theater into the hands of the magician. We have to play to those in the back row and balcony. The best approach is to entertain using your full body.

• Body language
• Body elements
• Timing and body language
• Body language comparisons
• Wrapping it up

When performance opportunities from brochures, flyers and other marketing activities slow down you need to pick up the phone. Cold calling has played a major role in almost every industry. These calls fill cancellations in schedules, book shows while traveling from city to city, and can help fill those calendars during the slow months. When you find yourself waiting for the phone to ring there is no reason you cannot make a few calls and book yourself. The materials in this text will get you started.

• What makes cold calls work
• Join the telephone soliciting team
• Best times to call
• Pre-call ...

An approach to turn drive by cold calls into contracts for performances.

The hardest part of promoting our magic is making cold calls. As part of business, cold calls are done to get our name out. The goal is to prompt hiring committees/individuals to reach out to us before they open the doors to floods of entertainers searching for work.

This text will provide sample approaches, materials you need on hand and ways to introduce yourself to organizations. The focus is on your information and potentials your magic can support/enhance their events. A good cold call will place you in front...

The Confusing Crayons is a well known classic. Two crayons and two cylinders are introduced. A volunteer gets one cylinder and selects a crayon. The magician takes the other cylinder and crayon. Instructing the volunteer to follow along the cylinders are turned over, back again and then over. The magicians crayon is right side up and the volunteers pointing down. This is a class that, up to this point, requires the use of a volunteer.

Confusing Crayons, 1 Person Routine is done without the need for a volunteer. Communication takes place with the magician's audience interaction. The audience...

Entertainment should not be a menu of prices set in stone. There are ways you can charge more for your performances. The power rests in the key elements of communication. Bringing the conversation to an ultimate "take it or leave it" conclusion may not be in the magician's best interest.

There are four elements that need to be covered through conversation. Quoting a price without knowing those elements is a problem that chips away at the magician's profits. Magicians who make more money deploy these elements. They are not hard. In fact, they are so simple to work with that no special training...

Businesses in a wide range of industries use coupon marketing. It prompts customers to return and helps promote referrals and recommendations. Magicians might consider coupons to help fill schedules during the slow seasons. The keys are to relate the coupon to a specific reason/justification, set an expiration date and control the number of coupons printed/distributed.

This text will help you get started with a controlled coupon marketing campaign. The coupon is printed on your color printer. The number you distribute is based on your established customer list. The results could turn into...

There is $ to be made with community events. There will always be community needs and non-profits that work to address them. This text helps you get started planning events with non-profit organizations. If the organization has event plans in place you can work with them. If they do not have plans this text helps you partner with them to coordinate activities before, during and after the event. When schedules slow down, events are always close by that you might tap into. Pending the size of those events income potentials can be substantial.

The marketing impact between the event and the...

Create your own flyers, brochures and promotional DVD. This text takes you through a word processor, to image programs onto publishing. From publishing it teaches you how to build a slide show and finally converts that show to a DVD.

Written referencing Microsoft Word, Paint, Publisher and Power Point you can produce your own materials using your computer and printer. For those bigger duplications, you can provide "print/copy ready" materials saving set up and production charges.

• Word Processing
• Paint Program
• Publication
• Images
• Brochures/Flyers
• Power Point
• DVD
• Documentation/Media...

Everyone has creativity. When you select the color to paint a room, pick out an outfit to wear or the wrapping on a present you are exercising a form of creativity. One only has to recognize that, and learn to develop it. New magic is the result of someone coming up with an idea and developing it into a trick/routine. This ebook identifies creativity and the creative process. I have included a step by step narration of one of my signature tricks "the magical egg tray". The process begins with an initial idea and works through sequential steps to bring the routine to the finish. Creativity, like...

As magicians we are hired to entertain. The show must go on is a harsh truth that we all accept responsibility for. The fact is performances do not always take place without problems. If you have ever found yourself standing in the lights, with a failed trick you know what I am talking about. The audience knows the magic was a complete flop. There is no one else on stage with you. When that happens, we all promise we will never put ourselves in that situation again.

Your magic may be "performance ready" but is it also "audience ready"? This text talks about conditioning for the unexpected....

Two magicians do a show. At the end one audience leaves the show walking out like students changing classes at high school. The other comes out excited, talking about some of the "WOW" moments of the show. The difference between the two magicians is the entertainment factor.

You can have the best equipment, do the latest/greatest magic and still fail. The true unit of measure for magicians is the entertainment factor. That factor is controlled entirely by the audience. This text identifies elements that impact the entertainment factor.

• The Entertainment Factor
• Entertainment Factor Impacts ...

Working on tips, fund raising and ticket sales are sources to generate free money. The term free identifies no contract/invoice. But it doesn't mean you do not have to work for it. This text gets you started with these approaches. It is nice to have the guaranteed income of a contract. However, in the proper situations, locations and with a professional touch the income with these activities is unlimited.

• Everything old still around
• Fear
• Apply yourself
• Working for tips
• Working on tickets
• Taking it to those in need
• Wrapping it up

1st edition 2016, 20 pages.

A very strong market for magicians is fund raising through the school system. The chance of hosting a "no cost, no risk" fund raiser can be one of the highest demand performances a magician can do. This is a minimum administration, short term event that can bring in substantial amounts of money for both the school and the magician. A no cost, no risk magic show translates into a two or three-week event that ends in deposit.

This text is a primer to get you into the school shows market. Begin with the high schools and let the referrals lead you in other directions onto new customers.

Fundraisers have always been popular. There will always be organizations that need to raise funds. And, there will always be needs out there that fundraisers will be launched for. The success of these events depends on community support, and ticket sales.

When organizations host fundraisers they always reach for the free, and least expensive ways to promote their event. Many of these organizations are very good at their activities and operations. But the reality is that they do not focus their daily operations on event promotions. As a result, they often need help.

This text is a coaching...

Competition for performances today is more intense than it every was. Organizations are comparing information on large numbers of performers. Loyalty remains. But being the previous entertainer, only for the reason he/she worked it before, is not always the hiring factor. Individuals/agents are now looking beyond the cost. The non-documented elements are starting to carry a lot more weight in the hiring decision.

A dear friend once said that it is better to position yourself to be hired over and over, then to make one deposit and never perform again. That statement carries a lot of weight....

Many dream of becoming a full-time magician. This dream can become reality if you are willing to plan, and put in the extra effort to make it happen. You need a business plan that can compare to the needs of your existing home budget. This is not a get rich overnight activity. It requires step by step sequences that help replace your current home budget needs with the net profits you can generate through your magic. This text will provide you with a solid foundation. It covers the plan, marketing and helps you make that full-time decision based on research.

• Full time magicians day
• The 80/20...

Gospel magic can be done as a business. But there are steps in the planning process, research needed in the market place and calculations that have to be done first. There are times we can make the decision. Then there are others where the decision is made for us. This ebook will give you a strong foundation approach. It will identify how you determine expenses, project income and how to plan for your net profits. If you do your homework this book will identify if making an income is practical in your area.

Magicians perform Gospel magic for free, some charge to recover their expenses and...

Magic performances grown to the point you need an assistant? Is working with an assistant one of your dreams? Want to take your performance up to the next level? There are many things you need to prepare for BEFORE bringing on an assistant.

This text will help you consider ways the assistant will function in performance. It will help identify responsibilities you can assign to her both on and off stage. Beginning with the standard application forms that are available through the office supply store, it suggests additional information that should be included with the application.

Costuming...

The house is packed. Standing room only! Your music starts and you walk out to begin the show and everything goes wrong. The music fails, you forgot to load some of the magic. Your favorite routine comes apart and you are standing in front of a large audience with no clue what do to next.

Speak with any entertainer and they will confirm that mistakes and problems are part of the performance. These situations are not reserved for any specific magician. Young or old, just beginning or seasoned veteran, we all experience problems at some time or another.

This ebook helps identify ways to...

Magicians are exposed to all kinds of magic. Illusions, card, coin, close-up, and other types of magic pass through our hands/eyes almost on a daily basis. There is no way a magician can remember them all. But with a good backup system, bringing them back into your performance can be easy as read/follow instructions.

• Preface
• What is backup and purpose?
• Where do I start?
• Time to input information
• Cross reference sheets
• Keep it up
• Wrapping it up

1st edition 2020, PDF 16 pages.

Teaching a magic class is another way to generate income and promote yourself as a supportive magician. Community venues are always searching for programs such as this to host. They use these events to keep the community involved, provide productive activities for youth, and add additional services to their community programs.

This text outlines a basic magic class, provides materials you can use and can get you started with your first series of classes. Teaching a class will not pay as much as a large performance. But it still provides a solid base for income. A magic class can help fill...

A primer on when, what, where and why a magician would keep a series of personal journals.

• Journals
• Magicians Journal
• Daily Planners
• Daily Journal
• Creative Journal
• Magic Files
• Dreams
• Inspiration
• Wrapping it Up

1st edition 2016, 25 pages.