Video Clip Du Jour - From The Archives

This was a Kick Off Meeting for Proctor & Gamble's Corporate Buildings Department


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Starting the process

Today I tried to make some calls. I don't have a land line and my cell phone signal at home is sporadic. I guess now that I'm going to go into selling mode I'll need land line. . . damn. Moved quickly to plan B. Spent the morning searching the internet for local Entertainment Agencies, Party Planners, and Meeting and Event Planners. I sent out a simple e-mail to see who was interested in getting my stuff.

Greetings!

My name is Tom Frank and I am a comedy magician specializing in corporate motivational entertainment. I am in the process of sending out promo packs and demo DVD's and I was wondering if you might be interested in taking a look at my materials.

Thank you for your time, interest and support and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.


Sincerely,


Tom Frank
"Seattle's Newest Attraction"
www.IndustrialStrengthMagic.Com

I sent out 39 e-mail's and within a few hours I had 4 responses requesting my promo packs. I've never been a big fan of blind mailing. I think it's a lot better to qualify who you send materials to. I opted not to send them out today. When you send promo out on a Friday (to a local address) it will be delivered with the weekend mail and the recipient will be looking through 2 days of mail. I will send them out on Monday, they will get there on Tuesday and I will call in the late afternoon to verify that the got it. I like to talk to the person the day they get it, while it's fresh in their mind. We will start a dialog and I will find out what their needs are and the sort of things they are currently planning.

Nearing the end of my old promo

Back in the day I had an idea for a promo piece. I wanted to make something so cool, I would not get thrown away or even filed. What I made was a magic coloring book (a trick where there inside pages go from blank to line drawings to full color pictures) promo piece. I coallated them by hand and made each one myself. I printed 5000 covers and enough guts to make 1000 coloring books. The magic coloring books are long gone but I am still using the covers to send out. I'll be glad when their gone. To give you an idea how old this promo piece is. . . I had hair, or at least more than I have now.

My good friend and graphic artist Steve Weinstein has done all my stuff for over a decade. I think we need to start talking about the next piece. The world is a changing place and so is the way people are doing business. Need to figure it all out and start making money. . . again.

Demo DVD for Agents

Show Business

I've been gearing up to book some gigs. Figured I would start out with agents and party planners. When submitting demo tapes or DVD's to agents, it's important not to put your contact info (phone number or website) on the DVD. Remember, they are the middle man and they don't want the client to be able to contact you directly. Agents have never really done much for me. The real trick is being self motivated, making the calls and selling with the customers needs in mind. It's been a decade since I was a selling machine as far as gigs go.

Today I pulled out some of my old resource materials. Outlines of plans of attack. The information gathering phase is where it starts. Sometimes finding the decision maker can be a chore. I had forgot that there is a definite structure to selling. Determining the customers objectives is key. If you can show them how you can help them achieve their goals you have a much better chance of booking the gig.

Asking a general benefit question is important. For example, "Successful managers like you are interested in increasing repeat customers; is this something that is of interest to you?"

So, I guess I'll dust off my selling chops and put together a comprehensive campaign for several markets.

Selling services has it's own set of challenges. Role playing sales calls are very helpful. It's tedious work that you have to learn to love. Doing the show is the easy part, getting it is the hard part.

Pics Du Jour

Went to Cle Elum yesterday to visit with the kids.


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We had a good time. We went to a park, a trail hike and a cemetery followed up by a sub standard meal at Burger King.
I miss my kids so much.

Video Clip Du Jour - From The Archives

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And the bullshit keeps coming, and coming, and coming.

Pic Du Jour - From The Archives

Tuesday Night Session

More magic, more fun, more friends.

As usual, our weekly get together did not disappoint. Our core group of Steve, Tim, Mark and I were honored by a visit from Steve Dobson and Chris Taylor. They made the trek up from Spanaway. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mr. Dobson is one of the finest magicians I've ever met. He treated us to a batch of new moves, routines and ideas. He showed us a nifty spellbound sequence as well as a rocking side steal. The man has got great hands and a heart to match.

He then fried us all with some coin work that will appear on his upcoming DVD. We watched the night disappear as the session didn't end till 3AM.

We talked about what we liked about magic and how lucky were were to be able to share this gift with our audiences.

Video Clip Du Jour - From The Archives

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Moonday @ The Fenix Underground

This was a weird night. Not quite sure what I was doing there, but I'm always up for trying new things. I had a good enough time people watching and I think Rick was happy to see me there. Sage and Kat were there in some elaborate costumes that they had made from scratch. They had these huge staffs adorned with bells, chimes, cloth strips and other assorted trinkets. Flo, the artist formerly known as Jason was there too. As he put it, he worked his magic on the dance floor. Jason is the Bondage Master who tied me up and gave me a run for my money at the Houdini Seance Performance where I did the 50 Rope Escape.

There were a couple of very strange stage performances complete, with belly dancers, a live band with a techno middle eastern groove and a chick with nice tits and a rams hat drinking a cupful of blood.

I felt disconnected most of the time. Alone in a room full of people. I forced myself to strike up a superficial conversation with a young cutie. That was nice. All in all, I'm glad I went.

Street Performing

Worked the Market yesterday and today. Had an interesting emotional metamorphosis during one of my shows on Sunday. Later it occurred to me that I don't understand the dynamics of what makes an audience react to a performance any better than I understand my own emotions. Crazy. I feel my performances are consistent, however the audience reactions are wildly different from joke to joke and show to show. I almost turned on one audience after getting an apathetic vibe from a 10 year old girl. I said, "Why don't you go home and watch TV?" I then did an impression of her with this blank stare. I wanted desperately to get her to smile or have fun or react, but I only succeeded in biting myself in the ass. I dropped my attitude, went into the cups and passed the hat. Didn't bother getting up on the box and finishing with the coins and the rings. Strange thing was the next show was GREAT a very involved and vocal audience. In a age of diminishing attention spans, I guess I should count my blessings.

Today I worked a bit, sold a set of cups to Justin (a philosophy professor from Victoria, B.C.) and pissed in a cup. I choose not to let it bother me. I will do all I can to see my kids, and if that's not enough. . . well, I did my best. I'm going to see them on Wednesday!! I can't wait! Shame Buster isn't here I know he was looking forward to seeing them as well. Maybe we'll go next week as well for Hope's Birthday.

I took a walk this evening along the beach. Thought a lot about different things.

Now I'm off to some kind of Full Moon Fetish Night at the Fenix. Not sure why I'm going other than the owner and his wife have been asking me to come for months. Usually on a school night for Buster, but with him in Cincinnati; I've got no excuses. So I guess I'll party with the freaks a bit and see what happens.

Another Weekend At The Fenix

I love my job!

Had a couple of visitors at the Fenix. Brian Cook showed up on Friday night. We had some fun working the crowd. Busted out "Card On Ceiling" both nights. Got a great reaction. Rick bought us a round of drinks and magic filled the air and the weekend.



Saturday I dropped Buster off at the airport. He went back to Cincinnati to his uncle's funeral. Bummer

I was bummed about another week without my boy and blew off street performing. Went to see "The Aviator" instead.

Saturday night Lawrence showed up at the Fenix. I had another good night of magic. Did my "Linking Bar Straws" routine a few times to receptive audiences.



Something cool happened tonight. They hay large screens all over the Fenix combining live footage from the bands combined with psychedelic imagery. Dr John (their video guy) shot some footage of me and put me up on the big screens doing some visual magic, It looked great with the crazy computer graphics. I liked the added exposure.

Pic Du Jour - From The Archives