Ask, and you shall receive…

First, I asked Facebook…

I posted the question in a Facebook magic group to understand how magicians interpret the question. There were over 206 comments. I was interested in the answers, but I cared more about what they revealed about their definition of a great investment.

The majority of Facebook users responded with “books.” Very few actually named examples of books. The Facebook magicians seemed to define positive investment as such that it returns a personal and long-term reward. The impact of reading a book or having a mentor (often suggested) feels incredibly personal and ongoing.

It’s a rather pure and beautiful definition of a great investment in magic.

Based on these findings, I’m going to interpret the meaning of “best investment" for this newsletter post as…

…Making Lots of Money in Magic

I’ll write quite broadly towards Magicians and define good investments as spending decisions that give you a measurable or monetary return on investment (ROI) over a lifetime. And I’ll only look at three areas; there’s no singular answer because you need to invest in multiple avenues to make a big financial return.

I will be writing about magic IP in a future post, so it will not feature here.

1. Magic Tricks

It’s financially wise to assess the ROI on magic purchases if you are performing professionally. That might sound hard to do, but there are many great ways I know magicians can figure this out.

Owning an illusion that can make a company owner appear on stage might lead to you booking more corporate gigs.

I know magicians who value their purchases on a “cost per use” basis. So they divide the retail price by the number of times they expect to use the trick.

If you want to go to a real data-driven extreme, start writing down how often you perform tricks at your gigs. You might change your mind about the value of that one expensive trick.

I know two magicians who separately landed primetime TV shows because they happened to perform the toxic calculator force to important people at the channels.

Here are some recommendations for versatile magic tricks that every magician should consider purchasing. You will get a lot of mileage out of these, in part because they are customizable but also because they are all evergreen.

These are not recommendations from a performing magician. They’re recommendations from a magic consultant, who consults for performing magicians. Don’t @ me.

Super Sharpie (Prediction)

I wonder how much some of the most famous mentalists value their nail writer gimmicks. Super Sharpie appears to be the best, and I know a few great mentalists who do not leave the house without one.

Sidenote: Why is there a word in magic for a force but no word in magic for the act of updating a prediction during a routine?

Digital Force Bag (Force)

You need a great way to force anything. Svenpads are brilliant, but they’re not as versatile and always-ready as Digital Force Bag.

The Code (Mnemonica)

You need to learn mnemonica. I remember seeing Doug McKenzie performing mnemonica a decade before anyone knew about it to basketball players and being absolutely floored. If you don’t want to learn mnemonica, buy The Code by Andy Nyman.

Invisible Deck (Failsafe)

I hate to say it, but it’s a worker. You can always go back to it if a trick fails, and it’s versatile for every situation. I’m not saying it should be in your show, but it should be in your backpack.

Contact (Souvenir)

I’m a big fan of Contact by Rick Lax. But I’m using it more as an example of a trick that leaves your spectator with a “souvenir.” Something to remember you by. Even I have laymen friends who have torn cards in their wallet from that one time a magician showed them a trick. Factor in the pandemic when choosing a souvenir trick.

Sinful (Nothing On Me)

When all else fails, your iPhone battery has died, and you’re at a nudist retreat. You still need a great trick. For many magicians, this tends to be coin tricks, or perhaps they’ll quickly set up the toxic force on someone else’s phone. Sinful is the most underrated magic release, in my opinion.

It has a similar vibe to tricks like the crushed and restored soda can and the phone-in-balloon, but Sinful is yet to be exposed all over the internet. Wayne Houchin is one of the smartest people in magic.

Honorary Mentions: SvenPad, Loops, ITR, Electric Dice, Thumb Tip

2. Marketing Tools

This is a part of the magic industry that magicians do not like to talk about. The market is competitive, and why should every magician know the secrets to book all of the gigs.

Do NOT spend your money on Facebook ads. Every person I know who works as a Facebook ads manager says it’s the worst thing to do as a performer in a niche industry. Focus your efforts on more organic feeling forms of marketing.

I’ll only mention this area briefly—If this is a topic you want to learn more about, let me know, and I’ll get an expert on SEO or mailing lists to chime in.

SEO Services

What do you get when you search “How much does it cost to book a magician?” — You get a list of magicians who have successfully understood and invested in their search engine optimization and google rankings.

They’ve found the less competitive terms people looking to book a magician use, and they’ve written great blogs with good keywords. Congratulations, Alan Hudson.

Mailing List

Magicians need mailing lists. I’ve wanted to write a full post about this for a long while. Mailing list automations are a thing of magic. Automated sequences could email clients a few weeks before their birthday, before Christmas, six weeks after you performed etc. Mailing list automations are a gold mine that magicians are yet to invest in and absolutely should.

3. Invest in You

When I founded my first company, I was lucky enough to generate a lot of revenue incredibly fast. A few weeks after launch, I sat at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with my Dad, and I asked him for advice. I’d never had money before, not like that, and I wanted to know what to do with it, where should I invest it?

My Dad asked me how much of a yearly return I could get in a standard savings account. I said maybe 0.5-1%. Then he asked how much I might get in the stock market. I said maybe 4-6%. Then he asked how much I could get in property. I said maybe 5%. And then he asked how much I invested in my first company…

The answer was £475.

That was the cost of the original prototypes and the flights to Los Angeles. My Dad didn’t say much else; he didn’t need to. The return on that investment was considerably high and blew all the other avenues out of the water.

Invest in yourself. You are your best investment. Invest your time, invest your money and invest your confidence, belief and passion. It’s compounding and difficult to measure. If you want a return that lasts a lifetime, invest in your life. Watch films, see shows, travel, make friends, tell stories and get inspired. Pursue projects you know will probably never work out. Learn from them. Make mistakes, get things wrong, learn to apologise and build things.

Oh, and buy bitcoin.

How would you rate this week’s newsletter?

Great | Good | Meh