Hi all,

Have you guys thought about your future path in magic?

Magic is indeed a very fun, entertaining and of course EXPENSIVE hobby. Although i have already spend alot of money and time and other non-monetary cost in Magic, i still think that it is one of the, i mean THE coolest hobby one could ever wish for.

Anyone here wants to turn professional in magic? As in not in terms of skills, professional meaning that more than 70% of your income comes from the Magic industry.

I believe that there is alot of magicians out there who are semi-pro like me, which means although we do earn from shows and selling of props but its not our main income.

I was thinking through few days ago, about whether i should carry on to commit myself to become a pro after my NS, to think about it, it is just not as easy as it seems to be.

Recently i have meet up with alot of magicians and friends, most of them say that i should be a full-time magician since i am actively involve in Magic, been doing shows, and stuffs.

To think about it, it will be fun to do so, i have always want to be a full-time magicians spending my time performing and exploring in new genre of magic.

But the thing is this, i have also meet up with alot of full time magicians for the past weeks, many of them have family, imaging this, how am i suppose to pay for all the expenses if i do not have enough show for a particular month?

This is a job that gives you very unstable income, if you are successful, you might have at least a stable income to support yourself, but i met before full-time magicians that have no show for 2 months!!! not because they never try, is just that there is no available shows in the market, haiz.....

this friend of mine got a show overseas, he is going there for 2 weeks which in return will be paid $3 to $4k, everyone is like "wow" but he said that how many times will a magician get this kind of offer, sometimes he dont even have shows on for 1 month.

Sometimes, you cannot just live with your passion, this is Singapore, although money cannot buy everything, but without money, you have partically nothing..... So, i gonna be practical....

Share your thoughts about this topic :)

I thought of that before. Technically if you want to work as a Magician, you must market yourself alot. And produce new materials for your stage.

Technically, it is almost impossible to use magic to earn a living for your family, due to the unflexible income, but if you like something, you wont really want it as a living to you, cause its the passion.

Just like other arts like dancing and design, they wont have business now and then, so whenever they have, they leave a good impression and then give out name cards to people, hopefully they will call them. Although ya, its marketing in the end, but those dancers, still will have to practise and wait for those jobs.

In singapore, its quite hard for performers, because of the market and the culture of singapore, making performers hard to find jobs, and money is always the issue.

So after all this, will i be a full - time magician, it really up to what i wanted to do in future le, I might be one, but I wont be one when i got married. But i will still perform for charity or other small events. :) So in the end, to me, its not the money, its the thought of it. :)

Larry

Good topic...

Here's my view:
If you want to become a full time performer you'll have to be ready to put in lots of hard work, you'll need to have something different from the rest. Think about it, anyone can get performer (e.g. magician) anywhere, so what is the thing that make you stand out from the rest?

Being a full time performer you might like to consider learning other talents as well to keep yourself upgraded, many times client called me to ask for someone who can mix magic, balloon or juggling in a show, if you miss one of it that might means your client getting someone else for the job.

Alternatively you can work on the streets if there's no show for the day (take note that street performing is a job). Being a busker does not means you'll earn lesser, I can make my living just by street performing alone and I've been doing it's for 4 years. (yes, I don't street performing everyday)

There are performers who also work other jobs for their regular income till they can earn enough by performing alone before quitting their jobs, you might like to put it into consideration.

-Alan-

I think being a magician is not only about performing, but also to further advance magic.

Like how all those DVDs are made, fresh new ideas bring about "new" magic, and different variations of old magic. So, besides concentrating on performance, there should be also enough time spent on experimenting and coming up with new stuff.

This will also give you a unique identity Eg, the person who created {insert sleight} got that sleight named after him.

Who knows, in time to come, you can release a few DVDs, and i bet each DVD might bring in constant income as people continue to buy and buy.

Its like how far of a full time magician are you willing to go...

I'd love to become one... however, like what you've stated, the income is not really stable.

Going full-time is like you can do what you enjoy doing the most for a living.
Whoa.

To me, i took it up as a hobby, i'll let it remain a hobby.
Magic is something that i took up because i was fascinated with effects done no matter on TV or something. Magic is also something that i feel WOULD help in your future career.

Blame it on me, but i like to be special and i feel that magicians are a special bunch of people that do something different of the normal life.

Being a full time magician has it's pros and cons. Lefty, since you studied business, why not incorporate your business ideas together with magic? I feel it would all together make a whole new feel. Hope it helps =)

Like you said, the general 'magic show' market in Singapore isn't as well developed as say in countries like the US, where magic has had a huge following for a very long period of time. I fully respect the people in Singapore who are full-time magicians and give them nothing but my blessings for their future, but let's all be realistic here... probably in another 5-10 years time maybe being a full-time magician might be profitable but for now, I don't think it will reap much benefits.

My father once said to me "If you want to be a magician, then you better be one of the BEST in the world. Don't be a magician and be stuck doing small kid shows... be a magician, be serious, go outside (overseas) and learn. Be the best."

- harapan ong

Well, someone got to get the ball rolling, if there's nobody starting performing now, even 100 years later it'll still be useless...waiting does not make any different, it's the present performers that build the reputation so that 5-10 years later it'll become profitable to every magician. So start performing performing now! ^_^

We can also wait 5-10 years, but if everyone wait and nobody work won't it still be the same as now even after 5-10 years later?

-Alan-

Actually this applies to all types of work, not only in magic.

You've got a cool dad though ^_^ I think there are a couple of other guys here on this forum who are also keen in exploring magic as a career besides you Lefty. So, you are not alone in this :)

ning