Archive for the ‘Restaurant Magician’ Category
June 15th, 2009 | 
Author: 
I knew I was becoming successful when more and more people started to hate me for no reason. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that you’re finally getting somewhere.
As much fun as that is, it’s not as good as people gushing over me. Here’s an email I received from Jeff Copeland.
Jeff Copeland
Alright Zachary,
Here’s a quote while it’s fresh, I can’t sleep, too excited and going over notes from the phone call:
Zach Waldman is an amazing fountain of knowledge. Overflowing, exhaustive knowledge that will flood your noggin with the tools to get booked and be successful. I threw Zach a few bucks for his Restaurant Magician’s course and I was granted more than my money’s worth. The best part about it is how it pays for itself. The first night you work a restaurant, the course is more than paid in full. I didn’t even have to work a night at a restaurant to pay for the course because Zach sets you up with the tools to get a higher fee with whatever shows you may already be performing, even if it’s a birthday party show for Aunt Sally’s co-worker’s nephew. With this course, money will appear in your pocket. Cards will flow from your finger tips. And Celine Dion will sing your name with angelic hosts across beautiful canyons and distant hills.*
On top of an amazing video course, Zach grants a one hour coaching phone call where he personally walks you through any problems you may have and encourages your endeavor. That call literally drained the battery on my BlackBerry as Zach helped me to do better marketing for my show.
Thanks Zach, for being an awesome friend and coach,
Jeff
www.JeffCoParty.com
*All results may vary based upon dedication, practice, and Mrs. Dion’s personal schedule.
How To Book More Restaurant Work Than You Can Handle
If you didn’t see the last Rocky movie, you really missed out. You may be questioning my cinematic taste at this moment, but really, it’s an awesome flick.
There’s a great moment where Rocky says, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Hell yeah, Rocky! I feel like picking on somebody smaller than me right now. Think about it, if he gets back up after the beating, I’ll be helping him to build character. If he doesn’t… uh, oops. Nevermind.
Seriously, it really is about your ability to get back up after being knocked down. Here’s the thing; Most people are so scared of getting knocked down, they never get in the ring.
In my opinion, fear, not money, is the root of all evil. It’s fear that prevents people from evolving and it’s what keeps them ignorant.
Since fear and the many ways it destroys humanity is such an enormous topic, let me boil it down to something that matters to you, the wannabe restaurant and/or bar magician. If you’re scared to approach a restaurant to ask for a job and you let that anxiety prevent you from doing it, you’ll never become a professional entertainer.
In the beginning, everybody is nervous approaching bars or restaurants to ask for a gig. However, the pros are the ones that do it anyway. They don’t let fear get in the way. After they talk to the first manager, they realize it’s not that bad. The second restaurant is much easier to approach and after awhile they’ve gone to so many that they aren’t anxious at all.
One of my students happens to be a boxer. He told me a story where a guy acted like he was going to hit him. My student stood his ground without flinching at all. The reason he said he didn’t flinch was because he’s been hit so many times, it doesn’t scare him.
Most boys growing up know the fear of being in a fight and how that’s always worse than actually getting in a playground scuffle. Getting punched isn’t really that big of a deal.
If your boxing ring is to be restaurants and bars but your fear of rejection prevents you from making an approach, it’s the same as never getting in the ring at all. Don’t let this happen to you. Be nervous and take action anyway.
Another way people let fear get in the way of their progress is by thinking everybody is out to rip them off or take advantage of them in some way. One of the reasons I make a great living performing comedy-magic while other performers struggle is that I’m always educating myself and I’m not scared to pay for it.
For example, I’ve purchased several products from a marketing guru named Marlon Sanders. Specifically, I bought The Amazing Formula, Gimme My Money Now, and the Promo Dashboard. If you go to Marlon’s site for The Amazing Formula, you’ll see he offers a triple your money back guarantee.
Seriously, if you do what he tells you to do and you don’t make money, he’ll give you triple your money back.
Despite this, I know people that won’t buy his product. They are so scared of being ripped off, they won’t even take a look at the information.
My friends, if you buy something with your credit card or with PayPal, you’re protected from fraud. There really isn’t anything to be scared of. I market circles around the other magicians in Los Angeles because I keep learning. I’ve never once been ripped off on the Internet and I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on marketing material.
Every single thing I’ve bought (with the exception of this really bad manuscript on working tradeshows) has made me money. Each course has paid for itself many times over. By the way, even the one bad manuscript I bought was a lesson…in what not to do.
People’s fear of being ripped off hits close home for me because I’ve had people ask for refunds for products before they even got them. For example, I had somebody buy How To Book More Restaurant Work Than You Can Handle and the system didn’t generate the necessary PIN code immediately. He got the code a few minutes later but decided to ask for a refund.
When people do things like that, I know they only have one toe in the water. If the water is at all chilly, they run away, fearful that the glitch they encountered indicated they were being scammed.
Keep that in mind with your own sales process. If you sell anything on your web site, make sure everything works perfectly. No matter how much you test, once you go live, you’ll encounter something goofy that needs to be fixed. Take care of it right away, otherwise, you may be losing sales.
Here’s a big secret for you. The Amazing Formula was the first product I got from Marlon Sanders. He promised it would work for products or services. I applied everything he said to my comedy-magic business. While other magicians and so called marketing experts were critical of my tactics, I booked more and more shows and commanded higher fees.
We’ve been in this recession since the beginning of 2008 and that ended up being my best year ever! Even now, I’m continuing to book private parties at a steady pace.
It all comes down to this; Don’t let fear get in your way. Don’t let it stop you from approaching restaurants so you can finally become a professional restaurant magician. Also, don’t let your fear of being ripped off stop you from getting an advantage over your competition.
I promise if you do what I say in my course, How To Book More Restaurant Work Than You Can Handle, you will get gigs working restaurants. If you don’t, I’ll give you your money back. If you’re scared to take that bet, do me a favor: Put on a dress and get a day job, show business isn’t for you.
The hardest move to make is the approach. Just take a look at guys as they get their nerves up to approach women. The fact that they’re rarely sober when they finally do stagger over proves my point.
Since the approach scares people so much, it’s no surprise this fear keeps people from taking action. Obviously, nothing happens until you take action.
By the way, the approach starts when you go looking for restaurants and bars to perform in. Again, that’s the reason there are so few professional magicians working these gigs. Most people don’t want to walk into a restaurant, ask for the job, try to explain they don’t do kids shows, get looked at like a weirdo, and then get rejected. You’d think they’d be glad you didn’t want to be around children.
Anyway, you get my point. A lot of magicians want restaurant or bar gigs, but they don’t want to approach these places and face the hassle. What they’re forgetting is when they do get hired at a restaurant, the entire job is the approach.
Only now, instead of being rejected by the manager of the Stevie Nicks Fajita Roundup, you get to endure the vacant stares of European tourists that think every American approaching them is going to pull a gun and ask for their three Euros.
Don’t get me wrong, all of this isn’t as bad as it seems. It’s probably way worse than you think. Still, it’s a fun job and most people are super cool. Think about it this way.
If you have an office job and don’t like somebody you work with, you have to see him every day. When you’re a restaurant magician, you may have to put up with entertaining lawyers, republicans, and other unsavory types, but then they leave. Well, they may leave. In my case, I just described the regulars (and my friends) at one of my bar gigs. See, magic brings everybody together.
Since the approach is the hardest part for most people, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how you can make doing it better. By better, I mean less painful and more success with people that want to see your magic as opposed to telling you to they’d prefer to watch the hockey playoffs on TV (even though its July).
Like everything, a good approach doesn’t sound canned. There is nothing creepier than a sales guy that delivers a canned script to you in person. They always have a far off stare that reminds me of the kids in Children of the Corn.
Just like your show, you have to learn to be yourself. Being yourself means being honest. As a matter of fact, a good approach will blend into the opening effect and the rest of your show seamlessly. Something I was guilty of years ago was “stepping on stage” when I started the magic.
For example, I would walk up to a table being myself and when I started in with the tricks, I suddenly “stepped on stage” and became someone else. It wasn’t like I was doing a character, I was just scripted. I also insisted everybody call me Malakai.
As I found my voice, which is just another way of saying I got comfortable enough to be myself on stage, my shows and my approach became more honest. When you achieve a high level of stage comfort and can be yourself, everything becomes way easier. In fact, it’s so easy, you wonder why you made things so hard on yourself.
I’ve never been able to bullshit an audience. For instance, when I work The Magic Castle, I do four shows a night for seven nights in a row. I improvise a lot and when I first started at The Castle, I would do a show, and if something in particular got a big laugh, I’d remember it for the next show.
However, when I repeated the line, it never worked again. I had people watch for this phenomenon and they agreed I was performing the joke exactly the same with the exact the same wording, yet it wouldn’t work the second time. The audience could sense my lack of enthusiasm and sincerity.
That’s not to say I couldn’t use the line ever again. What often happens is in the heat of battle weeks later, I’ll remember what I said as renewed passion and it gets a laugh. The bottom line is that it’s not the words, it’s the honesty of my intent at the time I say the words.
You may be wondering what this has to do with approaching tables at restaurants. If you recall, I mentioned that being honest in your approach and being honest in your show will make the two indistinguishable. By being yourself and by being honest with how you feel presently, as opposed to canning enthusiasm you once had, you can accomplish this goal.
For example, I may be working one of my steady restaurant gigs and the place is slow. I don’t want to just stand around doing nothing but it’s possible the few people in the restaurant don’t seem very approachable. Now, there’s a difference between not very approachable and not approachable at all. I’d rather do nothing than try to interrupt a couple fighting with a baby crying at the table.
Assuming the tables are approachable but not the most desirable, I may walk up and say, “Hi, my name is Zach. I’m the house magician. Now, I know you want me to leave, and believe me, I want to. However, it’s slow in here and if the manager doesn’t see me working, I may be a victim of the recession. Here’s my first trick whether you like it or not.”
That opening is actually pretty close to what I’ve used. It’s always gotten huge laughs because I’m very charming and talented. You probably aren’t, so I don’t suggest you take my opening. Not only will you get in trouble, you’ll be labeled a hack and beaten with a tube sock filled with bars of soap. The kind of tube sock with the colored bands you pulled up real high around your knee as a child of the 80′s. I never did that even when the other kids thought it was cool. I knew, even then, it was a lame look.
Actually, the real reason you shouldn’t take my opening is because it wouldn’t be honest for you. I don’t use that opening all of the time. I only use it when I really feel that way.
One of the mistakes a lot of beginning restaurant magicians make is to have memorized openings. You don’t need to memorize what you’re going to say when you approach the table. All you have to do is be a normal person walking up and introducing yourself and explaining what you do. Now, I understand that being a normal person and being a magician rarely go together. Do your best to see how human beings behave and learn impressions.
Sincerely, I believe the sooner you can get comfortable performing and being honest, the faster you will achieve happiness and success. Your shows will be effortless because you simply express the truth as you see it in your present moment with charm and a little magic. Remember, be yourself when you approach the table and continue to be yourself throughout your show and people will love you for it; unless of course, you’re a jerk.
