I received an email from a young magician looking to be my apprentice.

from his email:

I am contacting you as an aspiring sleight of hand artist/stand up comic. 

My enquiry is to ask if you have worked with an apprentice in the past or if you have an option to do so?
Regards, -------

My reply included the following:

Dear —–,  If you are interested in learning how to be a magician as a trade I can give you the opportunity to learn about all that is involved.
a 40 to 80 hour working week involves 25% gigs, 70% marketing and business, and 5% skill building/creativity. “

Thank you for your prompt reply. As it has only been a hobby rather than a vocation, I can admit that I  only put in the 10-15 hours a week on average but most of that is  research and perfecting tricks.

I gotta say, 10 to 15 hours a week is an excellent amount of time to use for research and perfecting tricks. It’s an important part of being a magician, though it is only part of the skill-set needed if it is to be pursued far enough to become professional and worth hiring.

As I was driving my kids to school this morning I asked them if they could list three things that should be on the top of the list if you are going to be a professional magician.

I ended up being the one to come up with the list, since the afore mentioned email exchange had got me thinking about what is crucial in this business.

A I R . I made this into a little acronym to help my kids remember it. I now think of Mike Myers in the Love Guru when I come up with acronyms.

Adaptability, Integrity, and Reliability

I initially had it in a different order, but it didn’t quite fit my lofty ideals ( I R A )

Adaptability. As an entertainer there will inevitably be requests from potential clients to perform for an audience which you may not have imagined you would be performing for. If you are adaptable, you will be sensitive to the need of the client and work out the best way to fulfill the need. However this has to be balanced with integrity.

Integrity comes into play when you see that you have limitations and do not over-promise, and say you can do something you can not do. This can be difficult when you really are desperate for work, however, you will only besmirch your reputation by not delivering the goods after promising that you can do it.

Reliability comes into focus here as both integrity and adaptability will be enhanced by your reliability. Being on time, always is so vital to your own attitude toward your own work. Arriving late at a gig makes you drop several stars on the clients rating of your performance, without even seeing anything you do. This is not the same as when someone has low expectations and then they are pleasantly surprised by what they see. It’s more a case of them seeing you as incapable to start out with and everything you do after that is just lucky.

I was very impressed that after my little dissertation in the car, on the way to school this morning, my  8 year old daughter remembered what the three things were.

A I R