Handling Special Requests

“What if you spoke and I moved my mouth?” my client said with a grin.

“Great idea!” I gushed. “That’s so funny!”

I was moments away from being introduced to 500 kids in an auditorium. My long-time client wanted to introduce me, but no handheld mic was available for him.

His idea? For me to speak backstage and he would move his mouth while in front of the kids.

It worked beautifully…well we liked it, anyway. Mostly I think it confused the kids.

He walked out to the kids and began moving his mouth and gesturing. From behind my backdrop, I began speaking into my mic.

“Good morning, children! I’m Assistant Principal Bill Snyder. I’m here to introduce our magician for today. But you might be wondering how you can hear me even though I don’t have a microphone. It’s MAAAAAAGIC! Now please welcome magician Cris Johnson!”

Giggling, I walked out on stage as my client left.

I wonder if he picked up on the fact that I spoke as though he was Chef from South Park?

Either way, it was really fun. We laughed about it later in the day after my second show.

As far as special requests go, this was pretty easy.

When you perform magic, you’re going to get all kinds of weird special requests.

No, I’m not talking about the lame “Can you make my wife/husband/class/child/sister/brother/random stranger disappear?”

I’m talking about actual requests.

Some are easy.

When I was doing a lot of fairs or festivals, my clients often asked me to mention the sponsor.

Easy enough: “And I would like to thank XYZ Company for sponsoring the event.”

Others were tougher.

In schools, I often get special requests.

I’ll be setting up for an anti-bullying show or my character education program.

My client will come running over to me with a sheet of paper.

“Can you mention these 11 points during your show?”

Sure. I’d be happy to completely alter the content of my show with 15 minutes' notice.

Other requests are absurd and downright dangerous.

During a few hypnosis shows in the past, my clients would tell me they were just going to have kids carry their chairs up to volunteer.

No way.

If you’ve never seen a stage hypnosis show before, it involves 20 or so members of the audience sitting in a row of chairs before the audience.

When I arrive, I request the 20 chairs be placed on the stage or wherever I’ll be performing.

But for those few gigs, those in charge thought it would be easier to have these teens carry their chairs to the stage area from the audience area.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of 20 teens scrambling for a spot on stage while wielding heavy chairs sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I push back on this idea every time.

Once I even got a poor review on The Bash because I would not honor special requests.

I’m sorry, but I won’t compromise on safety.

Nor do I honor special requests that would embarrass someone.

In a few corporate hypnosis shows, I’d have someone whisper to me before the show started.

“Hey, can you make Coy and Vance kiss during your show?”

“Why?” I’d say.

“Because it’d be funny!” would be the reply.

“No,” I’d say.

I’m not big on special requests. I have my shows tightly scripted and timed out.

But if someone comes to me a reasonable amount of time before the show – a minimum of two weeks – I’ll try to accommodate them if I can.

However, I will stress that customizing your show is a great way to stand out from the pack.

If you’re going to do it, I recommend having certain spots during your show where you can slide in that customization.

I first learned this 20 or so years ago from Dave Dee, the brilliant marketer who was an astoundingly bad performer.

Anyway, Dave would send along a questionnaire a month or so ahead of his show.

He would ask for the names of three people to call on during the show. And he’d ask for a little information on each.

During the show, he’d ‘plug’ those names and bits of info into his presentation.

Good idea.

One of my friends does a similar thing with his school shows.

He has a couple of spots where he can slide in customized content.

I admit freely that most of the time I’m far too lazy for this.

But if you decide you want to customize your show, you can use it to sell against guys like me.

Like everything else in your business, systemize it.

Send the questionnaire. When you get it returned, plug the information into those slots in your show.

Voila! You’ve instantly created the perception you’ve customized your show “just for them.”

The reason I recommend having slots in your show to add this info?

Actually, two reasons.

One, done properly you’ll keep your timing intact.

Two, if no one bothers to send back the questionnaire, you still have most of your show intact.

In other words, you’re not relying on that special information to flesh out the majority of your show.

To close, customizing your show and agreeing to special requests is a great marketing strategy.

And it gives your audience a unique experience.

Just make it part of your overall ‘system’ and you’ll avoid disaster.

And you’ll save yourself the trouble of building a brand-new one-time show from the ground up.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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