… And Drive Ticket Sales Through The Roof

For Your Show Sponsors!

By John Kaplan

When I first began doing fundraising magic shows for school and community groups, I realized I‘d have to help these folks promote the show.

Of course, I wanted to provide this assistance in a way that didn’t require a lot of time or effort on my part.

One of the things I hit upon was the “Celebrity Volunteer” concept.

Now, I’ve been performing the “Lester Lake Guillotine” and “Harbin Portable Sawing” illusions in my shows for years.  The beauty of these effects is that they can be done with virtually anyone from the audience, with no prior coaching.

I discovered that, by pre-selecting the victi… er, volunteer, groups could add a “celebrity” component to their promotion of the show.

In the case of a school sponsor, this “celebrity” is generally the principal or popular/unpopular teacher.  Occasionally it can be a well-known student, such as Student Union president or popular school athlete.

Groups other than schools will typically involve a local media personality (DJ, TV anchor or weatherman, talk show host, etc).

Politicians make excellent “celebrity” choices as well (especially during election years)as do sports celebrities, police chiefs and other noteworthy individuals.

Selecting the right “Celebrity Volunteer” really helps these groups sell tickets to the event.

To help ’em even more, I created some killer flyer and ad templates that I include in my sponsor Project Kit (a big box of posters, press releases, announcements, camera-ready flyers and other publicity materials that I provide to sponsors of my show).

These “Celebrity Volunteer” templates generate a lot of interest in coming to the show to “see So-and-So sawn in half!” and give your sponsors yet another tool to help sell-out their event.

For anyone doing fundraising magic shows, including a “Celebrity Volunteer” routine as part of the show (and providing sponsors with some promo material that effectively hi-lights this feature) is a must.

Promoting a “Celebrity Volunteer” routine almost always results in free publicity either before and/or after the event.

This makes it a great feature of ANY type of public show you may present … fairs, festivals, theatres … and well worth considering if you’re looking for an easy way to get free publicity.

Incidentally, a number of years ago I recognized the potential of the “Celebrity Volunteer” becoming an additional revenue stream for groups that book my fundraising magic show.

So, I added a couple more flyer templates to the Project Kit materials they receive and now these groups are earning thousands of extra dollars with their fundraising magic events through their use of the “Celebrity Volunteer” feature.

That certainly makes them very happy – and keeping clients happy is what it’s all about!

John Kaplan