I May Not Be "Big Time", but I'm Always a Professional

Thursday I received a frantic call from the Carol Stream Park District (CSPD), a repeat client of mine. I've worked a few events of theirs over the past few years and it is always nice to hear from past clients.

They were in a bit of a panic because of a very unprofessional move or two from someone claiming to be a professional in the business. OK, I shouldn't be so insinuating. Could have been a fluke for this guy or just a bad day or something. Could just be a simple misunderstanding. Who knows for sure?

Back in May, the Park District scheduled a magician (someone I've never heard of before) from the Northwest suburbs to perform on July 28th. This was to be a small event for local kids where a magician would do about 30 minutes of magic and the kids would then go off with a Park District worker and learn some simple magic tricks they could build and perform themselves. No big deal.

Well, apparently for about a week prior to the event, the folks at the CSPD had been calling the so-called professional to confirm the date. This is a standard practice for both the entertainer (who really should have called them first) and the people booking the talent. Neither the magician nor the agency pimping out the guy returned any of their calls, which, naturally, brought about the panicky state from the CSPD folks.

Thankfully, they decided to call me in the hopes I had the date and time available to perform a show, anticipating that the magician had made himself disappear from the booking. The last I spoke with them left me with the possibility of the gig. If they hadn't heard from the guy by NOON Thursday they were going to just book me. As luck would have it I did have Friday morning open and the magician didn't even return the call. Since the event was about 3 miles from my front door I was happy to take the gig and "save the day" as one person put it.

Even though I am NOT a magician (I work for a living. Ba-Dum-BUMP!), they knew after working with me a few times before that I am a professional and would not let them down. They knew the show would go over well and they would have no headaches with me. That made me very happy indeed.

Plus, since they've been kind enough to hire me a few times before and since they'd already gone through enough headache I told them I'd take the gig for whatever money they were paying the magician, which as it turned out was PRACTICALLY NOTHING, another indication that the guy was not the busy, polished, and working professional he claimed to be (What's the adage? You get what you pay for!). Being a last-minute gig I viewed it as found money and didn't even try to get my standard fee.

When I got to the event they told me they'd heard from the guy that morning. He took another gig and never bothered to tell anyone. I guess they never got an actual contract with the guy (which is another very unprofessional move on his part) and felt that it was no big deal. Good freakin' lord!

So in essence I got a little extra cash, a big ego boost, some great word of mouth for my act and some great references for my professionalism. Not a bad day for me. I mean, I've made my share of mistakes in this business, but so far as I know, stories like this are not told about me and that suits me just fine.

This kind of thing happens all too often for my comfort. I've told you before about how you can spend a lifetime building a good reputation in this biz and blow it all in less than five minutes. This kind of thing, though not my mistake, can have a ripple effect across the board. When one performer blows a show or something equally as awful, it makes ALL OF US look bad. The client is that much less likely to hire ANY performer, be it a magic act, a juggler, a tap dancer - whatever.

When you do this to a group like a park district, word spreads about that performer QUICKLY. Park district folks TALK. Even though that performer may be mentioned by name to the first people to hear the story, much like the telephone game, by the time it gets to the 5th person or more, it could be ANY PERFORMER who screwed over the CSPD and that's bad for business. Thankfully, they also talk about the good things and for at least a little while I can feel like the good guy.