I receive at least one email per month from magicians around the world. Their notes usually begin like this:

Dear Mr. Cohen,

I am a magician in [name of town] trying to build my client base and marketing reach.

I would like to use your idea of doing parlor magic using a high end hotel as a base. Would you object if I used that approach here in [name of town]?

Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Do I split ticket sales with the hotel? Or, does the hotel pay me a fee and take all ticket profits? Does the hotel supply drinks as a part of the show price? How long should the show be? How much should tickets be? etc. etc.

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Before I offer an extremely rare rant (not the type of prose you’ve come to expect from me), here is my form-letter response:

Thank you for writing.

I wish that I had some secret formula that I could explain, at no charge to you. But the fact is that I’ve spent ten years creating my business, and I’m unable to pass along this knowledge to anyone who asks.

Having said that, here is the advice that I’ve sent out to other magicians who want to start their own shows.

1. Hire a good publicist (usually between $4500 to $9000 per month)

2. Expect to lose money for the first 2 years

3. Stick with it nevertheless

4. Word of mouth advertising takes a long time to build to critical mass. (For me it took five solid years)

5. Don’t expect the venue to be helpful in promoting the show – do it all yourself. Later, when they see it’s successful (3 or 4 years later), the venue will come on-board to help promote.

6. The show needs to be held often (not once a month, but at least once a week)

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And I never hear from them again.

This cycle has played itself out many times over the years, because people see my fully formed business, and think to themselves, “I want THAT.” What they lack in understanding is that the final product is the result of years and years of trial and error. There are no codified rules that I can toss down from my hotel tower.

I remember going to a jazz club once in Tokyo. The musicians were highly skilled, whipping out rollicking licks that they’d practiced years to learn. But they didn’t have heart. They didn’t have the texture of New Orleans jazz players. They were imitating “Jazz Music” wholesale, in a way that had been presented to them as a learnable format. The ‘what’ was there, but the ‘why’ was not.

If you want to start a one-man public show, you have to ask yourself, “Why?” Do you intend to make money, become famous, use the show as a vehicle to get private bookings? A combination of these?

If you’re committing yourself to a weekend show schedule, will this cut into your private bookings? Will the dream of starring in your own show cause you to sacrifice “real work”?

The purpose of my show has evolved over the past ten years. In the beginning, I suppose I was like many of the fellows who write to me today: I performed at private events hither and yonder, and was looking for ways to expand my reach. I figured that if I had a showcase to invite prospective buyers, they would be able to make informed decisions before deciding to employ me.

A main difference, though, is that I already had an act. I didn’t need to formulate a brand new act and a business plan at the same time. Also (and this is a biggie): I was willing to lose a lot of my own money because I believed in my concept.

I can’t take any credit for the concept of performing an intimate magic show in a hotel. Magicians have been performing in hotels for years. I was fortunate to be introduced to the Waldorf after having started the show in my friend’s apartment, and later at a private club.

Magicians who write to me, though, seem to think that a hotel would NEED a magic show in the first place. Or that a hotel will benefit from having an in-house magician. “It will attract people to the hotel! The bar will sell drinks to the audience members!” they say. The sad fact is that a “magic show” is nowhere near top-of-consciousness for hotel executives who are concerned with bottom lines, managerial reviews, and property owner evaluations.

If you persevere and eventually start a show like this, you also need to keep it running. That means you need a steady stream of general admission audience members. In the beginning you can obviously comp in friends, family, clients, prospective buyers, and so on, to help fill the seats. But after a very short while, you run out of people who you know. And you can’t rely on the venue (hotel/club/etc) to do you any favors. On the contrary, they will likely ask for you to comp in their VIP guests as well. If you’re attempting to make money in this venture, you may have to think twice.

As I type this, I realize that I have a lot to say on the topic. Ten years of details, in fact. But I’m not planning on releasing this information at this time. Sorry to those who have been asking, but no books, dvds or ebooks are in the works. Two or three years before I retire from Chamber Magic, I do plan to hand-pick and mentor some other magicians so that they can carry on with the work I’ve begun. Until then, I plan to keep performing at my beloved Waldorf Astoria, where the staff and I have become family, and we work together to entertain the refined, smart and stylish guests who expect nothing less than an exceptional evening.