The Blackstoneian 
The official newsletter of I.B.M. Ring 200
Volume 4, No. 7, July, 2008 Editor, Eugene Raymond Soucek
AL HILLMAN COMPETITION WINNERS
The sixth Al Hillman Magic Competition is history. Although I was not able to attend the meeting or take part in the competition, I have been told that it was a great night and the magic, as always, just keeps getting better and better. The winners this year are:
First Place - Conrad Colon
Second Place - Dennis "Coco" Eleuteri
Third Place - Ben Winter
Congratulations to all. It was a very tight competition.
THE THEME FOR THIS MONTH: MONEY!
Money Magic that is! Whether you like to do magic with coins or with paper money, this is your chance to dazzle everyone with your skills, gimmicks, or subterfuges. I will also be doing a workshop on the one dollar-five dollar bill switch known as “Beswitched”. This super money trick is the invention of Mr. George Hample of PA. In the recent past, Mr. Hample did a lecture for the John McNicholas Magicians Roundtable which was extremely well received by all in attendance. But, he did not teach Beswitched at that time. So, bring $7.00 in NEW Bills (a five and two singles) and get ready to learn a great effect that you can keep in your pocket to amaze everyone at a moment’s notice. Oh yes, don’t forget to bring your favorite money effect to share with everyone.
WELCOME BACK RAYMOND
Our recently married president has returned from his honeymoon in Hawaii. In a recent conversation with Ray, he expressed his great appreciation for that beautiful state and the terrific time he had there, but he said his was glad to be back – he missed us all (yeah, I bet!). However, he did sound exhausted. Maybe he needs a vacation.
THE SUCCESS IN MAGIC SERIES
The Success in Magic Series!
“Dedicated To Bringing Your Magic to the PAYING Public!!!”
Written & Published by Eric Paul
http://www.MoreMoneyWithMagic.com
Inside This Issue:
Follow-Up, Follow-Up, Follow-Up!:
I recently posed a question to a group in Chicago…
If someone called you to book a $2,000 corporate show; and they left a message and you called them back and also left a message; but you didn’t hear back right away-
How many times would you call them back?
The best answer to this came from my buddy, Dean Hankey of the Dean’s List. He said, “Until!”
Amen, brother.
Of course you would follow this through until you booked it. So why would you give any less effort to a mailing campaign, an email campaign or any other means of contact that you use to get gigs? We all do it. I’ve been guilty of it myself. We mean to follow-up with someone. We mean to get that third step out to that group. We mean to set-up our auto-responder system.
Let me be absolutely blunt and to the point here. And believe me, this comes from tried and tested experience. I am not one of those guys who just talks of what should work, I know from experience on the streets!
If you send out only one mailing to your list and do no 2nd or 3nd step at the least, you should save your money and not send anything out! Yep. That’s blunt.
But I could not be anymore emphatic about this. I see it all the time. Coaching clients of mine wonder why they’re not getting the results they should be. Almost every time it can be traced to dropping the ball on steps 2 & 3. And this goes for email too. If someone goes out of their way to visit your site and request more information. If you only send them one thing and expect them to respond, you may as well not bother responding to them at all. Now I hope that I am preaching to the choir here, but I fear that I am not.
Set-up systems TODAY to handle your data- base (the most profitable tool you own) in a proficient and professional manner that leads them down your sales funnel to your ultimate goal - a booked gig!
And this is not as much work as it may seem. If you don’t have a system running now, the start-up work is all you’ve been avoiding anyway. And seriously, once you have systems in place, your business runs smoothly and most of the work has been done for you already. It is just simply a matter of plugging them in.
Next time, I’ll give you killer example of a follow-up tool I’ve been using that is so easy you’ll be kicking yourself that you haven’t been using it all along.
In the meantime, if you are interested in having a proven system where most of the work has been done for you already, you owe it to yourself to check out: http://www.moremoneywithmagic.com/magic-success-system.htm
Yours in success,
Eric Paul
SCHEDULE FOR THE YEAR 2008
July 15th - Money Magic - Everyone bring $7.00 in NEW Bills (a five and two singles) Gene Soucek will give a workshop On “Beswitched”
August 19th Picnic swim party at Gene’s house
September 16th - Magic Jeopardy
October 21st - Jim Angelo Card and Mentalism Competition - Show us your best card or mentalist effect or routine
November 18th - Lecture TBA / Nomination of Officers
December 16th - Holiday Party / Initiation Performances
We meet at: The Stelton CommunitWe Community Center, 328 Plainfield Avenue, Edison, NJ; on the third Tuesday of every month; doors open at 6:30 p.m. – Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. You are invited to join us for coffee at the local diner after the meeting.
WORDS OF WISDOM
"I love mankind; it's people I can't stand."
-- Charles Schultz
"It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously."
-- Oscar Wilde
I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore I am perfect.
