Go Broke, Get Rich... Maybe

How is it that out of all the areas of magic we could have chosen, we pick the most expensive by far? Oh because that’s just how it goes. We chose to be illusionists. That means we’re the guys doing the tricks with big boxes.  Amongst other magicians, you have to work extremely hard and pay your dues to earn that title.

In our spare time over the summer Brandon and I both worked at our local magic shop to help out. After every time a trick is pitched and the potential buyer hears the price they just freak out. Come on it’s only $17.99. That’s nothing. 

The problem with wanting to be an illusionist is that the majority of your show needs to be illusions to really be considered as one. And man do they cost money.  We have to save up thousands for just one illusion. But seriously, it’s worth it! To make money you have to spend it first and literally go in the hole to buy a few big props so you can move from the title magician to illusionist.

Fairchild Magic Illusions

There are lots of things that make illusions expensive though so the price really isn’t that bad when you think about all that goes into it. First off, you have to pay for the building materials. Then a lot of labor and TLC goes into getting them put together and all pretty. And many illusions have certain builders who are the only ones allowed to build and sell them. And of course it took an extremely smart and creative person to come up with the idea! They deserve to get paid for it. That also includes the rights to perform it.

Then after you finally get your prop you can’t forget having road cases, which can be just as much as the prop sometimes.  Professionally built illusions are made to last. But we've seen a lot of guys who just throw their props in the back of a trailer or van like it’s nothing and it destroys them. You can’t just wrap them in bubble wrap or blankets and expect them to withstand travel. Those cases are tough and for a reason; you have to protect the illusion. It's really smart to spend the extra money and get the case.

 

Our sweet Isabell in front of some of our road cases

Once you spend tens of thousands of dollars then you can start performing in larger venues for bigger audiences and hopefully make the big money. Go broke, get rich. It hurts to spend money like that I assure you, but it’s worth it in the end. 

Illusion Brainstorming

Last night Brandon and I had a lot of fun planning our new show. In case some of you didn’t know we will be rebranding our entire business through the rest of this year and we will have a new name, logo, promo video, and website being launched in January of next year. With this rebrand I will be a much bigger part of the show so as of now we are designing routines that will include me as often as possible. As opposed to the normal of me just being on stage for just illusions and maybe one or two other tricks, I will be onstage the majority of the time.

Current Illusions

Well we officially picked our next 3 illusions that we should be getting in the next year. One will be released with all the new rebranding material and should hopefully be on the promo video. This is an original illusion that no one has seen before and we are really excited to get it done! The other two we will buy in 2014. I cannot wait to perform them! As of now Brandon and I constantly perform 3 illusions and our 4^th illusion is in the workshop being redesigned so it isn't pictured above. We actually just got rid of 2 illusions to make room for bigger & better things. So in our magic career we have retired and given 3 illusions to better homes.

 

Past Illusions

So our show is definitely in the transition stage as of now. When living in Columbia it was always about perfecting the show, and just building it every so often. Now being in a tourist town, we have to be able to revamp our show every year and switch out routines and illusions in order to keep our audiences happy. People will come back every year to the same place just to see you perform and that’s awesome! We have definitely been extremely happy with the way things have turned out since we moved here. This town has so much more potential for us.

I feel like with this completely new dynamic for us with our new look we are finally finding “ourselves” as performers. We always thought we knew what our look was but sometimes it takes an outside eye to help you really see. Now that we have a logo and a feel for who we are, it seems to be so much easier to decide what tricks and illusions fit us best. We don’t want to blend in with other magicians and illusionists. We want to stand out in our own way. Even if we don’t have the most unique tricks out there, we want to be known for our entertainment value. That is our main purpose.