Making Client Requests SOP

I was in my loft above my garage packing for a run of shows.

I keep all of my magic equipment in my loft. It’s all neatly arranged, with places for individual shows, larger effects, backdrops, and supplies.

This day saw me standing on a chair, installing the Math Show backdrop cloth to the frame.

As I was adjusting the cloth, I happened to look down on the shelves where I store all of my random supplies.

My eyes fell on the box pictured above.

“Ah!” I thought. “Newsletter idea!”

The box of rubber bands is very special. Look closely. They are latex-free.

Years ago (It’s been so long I don’t remember) a school told me one of their students had a severe allergy to latex. They requested that I not bring anything with latex into the school for my show.

That included balloons and even rubber bands.

At the time I remember being fascinated. Rubber bands? Do they make latex-free rubber bands?

Turns out they do. I got a huge box and have been using them ever since.

Why is this important?

Simple. I didn’t just use those latex-free rubber bands for one school. I now use them for all of my rubber bands for every show I do.

And I even use them for non-performance needs.

Need a rubber band to hold a bag shut in my case? Use the latex-free bands.

Need a hold two decks of cards together? Go for the latex-free cards.

My point is not to make you think I’ve got some weird rubber band fixation.

No, the point I’m making is to make these special requests part of your normal protocol.

You never know when these requests will come up again.

In my case, I have had schools forget to tell me about their latex-free policies until the day of the show.

I’ll be wheeling my equipment to the performance area. Someone will breathlessly stop me and say, “We forgot to tell you – we are a latex-free school!”

“No problem,” I will say with a smile. “I use latex-free materials.”

Any special request I get automatically becomes a new part of my standard protocol.

Life is easier that way because it’s one more thing I don’t have to think about.

Making these special one-time requests my standard ongoing protocol isn’t restricted to materials, either.

It extends to language requests. If one school asks me not to say a certain word or use a certain kind of prop, I make that my standard protocol moving forward.

Because if one school requests it, another one will too. If I’m already doing things that way, I don’t even have to think about it.

And sometimes, I’m preemptive about it. There are certain things I can’t do or say in my shows that I realized on my own.

Guns.

I can’t use any guns or gun imagery in my shows.

Knowing this, when I wanted to buy Smokey Mountain Magic’s Pop Gun, I had a problem. It was a gun.

While it looked ridiculous (a bunch of soda cans glued together to form a makeshift gun), it was still a gun.

So, I changed what I called it.

Have you ever seen those scenes at sports games where the guy launches t-shirts into the crowd?

I framed the entire effect around my desire to start selling branded t-shirts. Then the pop gun becomes my Beta-testing t-shirt launcher.

Now it’s not a gun but a ridiculous invention to throw t-shirts into the air.

Problem solved.

Everything I’ve been discussing up to this point has been for kids' shows and specifically school shows.

But this idea of turning special requests into your standard protocols can easily extend to other markets.

In corporate work, you may find that the hotel you’re performing at does not allow the use of fire.

That’s just a hypothetical example. But if I was still in the corporate market and one venue made that request, I’d make it part of my standard protocol moving forward.

That way, when I run into it again, I don’t have to worry about pivoting or changing my show on the fly again.

I’ve already prepared. I’ve already made the adjustments.

To me, this is key because your market is educating you on the dos and don’ts of working in that market.

Some magicians won’t bother to listen. I’ve heard stories of magicians who refuse to adjust their acts.

Maybe you’ve heard the stories too.

But if you are the one who listens, you’re the one prospects will turn to over and over.

You’ve listened. They know you ‘get it.’

The result? You get more bookings at higher fees.

Isn’t that why you read this newsletter?

Until next time…

---Cris

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