Can I Get a Witness! Amen! - Stone Cold Magic Magazine

Can I Get a Witness! Amen!
By Jeff Stone

I wish I had a creative way of saying THANK YOU for the enjoyable entertainment you have shared with us today. These older ladies don’t get much fun like this anymore. You have brightened their day. Keep up the good work as you share you talents entertaining and making other people happy.

I would recommend Jeff Stone to anyone for entertainment, fun, learning, and humor. He is very talented and extremely relatable. Everyone loved him and hung on his every word, and that is no small task with a room full of 8-11 year old boys, and their families.

Thank you for your skillful performance at our recent company Christmas party. We enjoyed your magical presentation, and even more importantly, your fun entertaining sense of humor. It set the stage for a tremendously successful company event.

Stone Cold’s show was amazing. He seemed to be in our heads the whole time. How did he know what I was thinking? The show was more then Jedi mind tricks though. His humor and charm made me putty in his hands. What a riot! I would recommend Stone Cold Magic for anyone.

Magician Jeff Stone handcuffed Regence BCBSU President Scott Ideson and cut his tie in half! Luckily, he used his magic to restore Scott’s tie to its original condition.

These quotes above are all actual quotes from actual clients. I show them to you not to brag (ok . . . to brag), but rather to demonstrate that amazing quotes are easy to get. Each of the above quotes came, simply because I asked. I have many more, but I wanted to just show a few. Go back and re-read a couple of those. They’re pretty impressive quotes. They even sound like hype you might find in a magic product ad, but they’re not. So how do I get these quotes?

I don’t have any amazing secret, but I do have a few pointers. Before I get to them, I’m assuming that I don’t need to spend too much time convincing you that quotes/testimonials are good, right? What do you do with them? Put them on your website; put them on your brochure; put a short one on your business card, fliers, etc.

So let’s see a few tips on getting them. The biggest tip is that you MUST have a good act. Duh! Let’s assume that you’ve been reading your Roots and Branches like a good little magi, and thus have developed a good solid act. The next big thing is just ask. Who do you ask? Well let’s look at a couple of the different venues:

Children’s Birthdays
Family Shows (mixed ages)
Strolling
Stand up

For all of these, refer back to Fruit Baskets from No Stone Left Unturned 2008 issue to get a refresher course on gift giving to your clients. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment card letting them know that you’ll be back “on Friday morning” to pick it up. When you bring the gift (if you’re hand delivering it), you can pick it up. If it’s not filled out, leave the gift and say, “would it be ok if I came back this afternoon for it.”

It’s ok to put a little pressure on them. Probably one of the best things you can do these days with technology as cheap as it is, get video and audio. For Family or Children shows, get permission of course, but just take the camera around and ask the kids, did you like the show? What was your favorite part? Why did you like it? Don’t forget to get a video/audio of mom answering the same questions as well. You can then transcribe the testimonials for your written literature.

In a strolling situation, again, get permission, but you can do a similar thing. On many occasions, I’ve brought other magicians along on my strolling gigs. Get permission from the host ahead of time to have your friend get some footage. After you’ve been strolling for about 20 or 30 minutes, have your friend go up to some of the groups and ask a few questions: Has the magician come by yet? How was s/he? What was your favorite thing that s/he did, etc. It’s a good idea to have the host of the event announce that you’ll be doing this ahead of time. Also, you can kind of cheat, depending on the event.

If it’s a wedding, family reunion, etc. there is a good chance that someone is already going to be filming it. If so, talk to that person. Ask him/her to talk to the guests about their experience with you. For a stand up show, again, with permission, you can get a friend to interview some of the guests after the show. Notice that the examples shown are from the guests, not the host or person who hired you.

When you want to get an official letter from the company who hired you rather than the guests, ask to speak to the person in charge of PR. If at all possible, make sure that person is at the event. Take time before, during and after the event to get to know this person. Then after the event, ask him/her “as a favor” to write you a “quotable quote” on company letterhead. S/he’ll know exactly what to do. That’s what PR people do. They know how to spin it.

Also, keep in mind that you can simply use a hand-held tape recorded rather than a video camera. That may be less intimidating. If you’re going to use the video footage (rather than just transcribe it), check with your local area to find out what the laws are regarding that. You likely will need to get permission to use the footage from those you film.

Well those are some simple thoughts for your digestion. Good luck with them. Let me know how things turn out. Until Next Month . . .

Please Take a Moment to Reply To and “like” This Article

PEto says:

July 2009 at 10:07 am

Great thoughts, Jeff. It was nice to have you “reply” in “column” form to a question I asked from the last Stone Cold Magic Mag! I hadn’t thought about using a vidoe camera, but I like that idea. Simple and quick response even before you leave, and the testifyer (is that a word?!?) doesn’t even have to do any “work” (like filling out a card, etc.)

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 5:39 pm

@PEto – a friend of mine used this technique at one of his shows. One of the people on the video testimonials was still laughing so hard from the show that he could barely get a word out for a testimonial. That laughter is the biggest testimonial of all!

Steven says:

July 2009 at 12:35 pm

Funny (or sad, however you look at it) that President Scott Ideson wasn’t let out of those handcuffs.

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 5:44 pm

@Steven – He’s still in my basement.

Grandpa Chet says:

July 2009 at 3:22 pm

This is something at which I’ve been the WORST. (The second-worstest thing I’ve been, is behave as a grammarian.) I have consistently forgotten to strike while the iron was hot, and when I contact “them” a week later it’s well-nigh impossible to reach anyone who remembers much of what happened.