Recently I was on stage and had more fun that I’ve had in ages.
For the first 10 years of my adult life, I was a professional magician and comedian. I earned my living comedy clubs, corporate events, doing shows in diverse places ranging from public fairgrounds to Quonset huts to all of the in banquet rooms to high school gyms to living rooms of the rich and famous (and more commonly the not so rich or famous.) I loved it.
But for a couple of dozen reasons, I morphed my job into that of a professional speaker. Now I make a living as a motivational speaker… Not a magic trick inside of any of my current stages. No. Magic. On. Stage. Ever.
Rightly or not I felt that the magic is a distraction from my message. I’m able to use comedy and humor freely with the speaking… But somehow it always felt like a round peg in a square hole to bring out a magic trick.
One of my pals was running a casual magic show in one of the smaller… and more amazing… theaters here in Denver. He asked me to headline as a guest. I was thrilled.
It was fun for so many reasons. Including:
- My ONLY job was to entertain. No message. No agenda. No obligations. Just transport the audience and everything else was a details. FUN!
- No hard time commitment. I was headlining. The audience was rocking so I went late. Everybody was glad. (In the corporate convention and meeting world going late is a nightmare for the client.)
- The audience wanted to be there. They had to invest their own $20. (Usually, in my speaking world a leader or committee decides on their own that I will be a good fit for their audience. The audience has no buy-in towards me or my program. They don’t know me or what I’m going to do. They have no idea if I’m going to tell funny jokes and stories or teach them about Excel spreadsheets. Often when I walk out on stage they are dreading seeing me.) Having a “ready” Audience was a treat!
- I loved working with my friends. Dave Shirley, the guy who wants the theater is a world-class entertainer and a really fun nice guy. William Rader and Gregg Tobo are two outstanding magicians who are also dear friends. Gregg is more or less my age and I’ve known him forever. (In my normal job I set up alone, trouble alone, perform alone, and get ready for the next event in the next city. It was super fun hanging with friends, laughing, sharing the anticipation of a good audience, and going out to celebrate afterward.) Another treat.
I love being a speaker. I love being a magician. My FAVORITE clients (hint, hint) are the ones that hire me for a keynote in the morning, and then stay to do the entertainment after dinner. It’s a win for the clients for financial reasons. (They save on hiring a separate entertainer with separate travels costs, etc.) And it’s a blast for me to get to “play” with the audience I met in the morning.
It might not be my primary offering, but magic is still at the forefront of what I can offer to audiences. And still something that I feel passionate about. Magic brings a bit of joy to our hectic lives and offers a vacation from the present thoughts that often invade our overactive minds. Bring on the magic.
Brad Montgomery has been a magician since seventh grade and a comedian his entire life. He’s performed his magic everywhere from cruise ships to comedy clubs to corporate and association audiences. Most of his work today is as a motivational speaker or magician speaker. If you’re looking for a fresh style of entertainment that feels more like an experience than show we hope you’ll contact us today to discuss how to make your event rock.
Brad, what a great gift you have and how wonderful to be able to share it.