MagicGizmo

The children's birthday party continues to be a lucrative source of income to many magicians and will likely continue to be into the foreseeable future.  It is not that parents necessarily are intent on having a magician at their kid's party, they just typically want two things: (i) for their child to have a special day and (ii) for it to be as easy as possible for them.

In performing birthday parties for children for many years, I came to realize that  parents (usually the mother) are the ones who pull the party together and are usually not comfortable in entertaining children or know what to do.  When I started out, I was making a few bucks doing magic while in high-school and I remember one party in particular. For some reason, my show ran shorter than advertised and there was a sense of panic in mother's eyes. It was "What will I do now with all these kids?"  I managed to salvage the situation with a few extra tricks but learned a more valuable lesson, many parents don't have much of a clue on how entertain children.  The primary role of the magician is to entertain the kids and take this burden off the parents.  This way they can relax, take pictures, and enjoy the party.

If you do an hour show at a birthday party, this covers about half the time of the typical 2 hour party, but what about the rest of the party. The parents have to figure out what to do for the remaining time.  Some magicians have found that providing the entertainment for the entire party to be a profitable solution to this problem.  I know many magicians scoff at doing more that just the typical show and would rather stick to the pure magic. There is nothing wrong with that.  But for those that want to consider doing more, here's how the party format typically will work for a party that starts at 2:00pm:

1:45 - Magician / Party Entertainer Arrives to Set-up
2:00 - Guests Arrive and greeted by Magician, Magician can perform simple tricks in a strolling magic style during this time
2:10 - Magician leads kids in children's games, latecomers join in as they arrive
2:30 - Magic Show
3:15 - More children's games or magic teaching session
3:30 - Picture taking and/or more games
3:40 - Cake, Ice Cream, and Present Opening (This part is done by the parents, while you organize and pack up.)
4:00 - Party Ends

There are some advantages to this format over a typical show-only party:

• Set-up is done before kids arrive making it easier and quicker
• Fee is higher. If you normally charge $150 for a 45 minute show, the 2 hour party may run between $225 and $250.  While this is lower dollar per hour hour figure, there is less travel and set-up time per the length of the performance so this is really not a problem
• Once the cake and ice cream begins, you just need to pack up and go.  The parents handle it from there.

A few more ideas and tips:

• There are many online resources and books available on games for children's parties
• Make sure the birthday child is specially recognized
• Create specific time slots for your busy week-end schedule and try to get the maximum usage of your time, for example you might have slots from 10-12, 1-3, and 4-6.  This allows you to make maximum usage of your day, if you accept a job from 11-1 in the middle of the day, this can impact you ability to get as many bookings.
• Make sure you discuss how you and when you will get paid in advance. There is nothing worse than waiting for the check when you are off to your next appointment and mom is fist deep in ice cream.
• While you are trying to take more burden off the parents for the birthday party, consider offering goodie bag magic kits or a custom kid's magic book for them to give away to guests. More income for you and less hassle for them.