Wow, What A Great Lecturer!
He’s So Good He’ll Never Return…
by Kenton Knepper

Recently one of my friends was in town lecturing. It was a more in-depth lecture – the kind of thing the local boys had been saying they wanted most. With some cajoling, I managed to get my friend Mr. A (not his real name) here. He did a great job in Vegas and the pros loved him there. Then he lectured in my hometown of Phoenix.

The morning after he was here, I received e-mail from the president of the local club:

“Kenton, How about writing a review for the club Paper on Mr. A’s wonderful lecture. He is a truly fine gentleman and a very believable Magus”.

That’s quite a compliment, isn’t it? Surely this lecturer who is such a believable Magus and presents a “wonderful lecture” will return to this area! Won’t he?

NO.

Why not?

Knowing these secrets will determine whether a lecturer you like can and will ever come, or come back, to your town again. If you care about really learning from lecturers who teach the real work and not just sell you on buying their tricks, these secrets matter to you. They will determine what you will and will not get. What happens is literally in your hands. You will create the outcome.

Here is my answer in part to the club about the lecturer and whether I would write a review:

I am glad, as was Mr. A that a number of people showed up. It is very important to Mr. A that he helps other performers with his work. It’s too bad he won’t be able to afford to come back to Arizona to do his lectures, as much as he would like to do so however.

Lack of sales makes it highly unlikely Mr. A will ever return except to do performance things with me, or very expensive workshops. I am very glad everyone enjoyed so much what he had to say. Unfortunately, he could have made more money doing a half an hour performance at home than spending the week out here. As I tried to say at the start of Mr. A’s lecture - if you like who comes to lecture in Arizona - buy their stuff or they won't come back. Not because they don’t want to - but because they can’t afford to hand off their own work and secrets at a great cost to themselves.

It’s not a matter of being crass; it’s a matter of being realistic.

Real pros are pros. I guess it’s like the old phrase of putting your money where your mouth is. Spending attention and freely giving praise is wonderful - but no one yet has paid their landlord with these.

Mr. A was very happy with all the attention people paid to what he said and the copious notes people were taking. He is happy for the art that many understood what he had to say. I agree with you that he is a fine gentleman too. He has a lot of class. He would never tell you what I am telling you. But I will let down my guard in this instance.

These are the hard facts - if attendees at lectures don’t make it worthwhile financially for a lecturer to be there, he can’t ever afford to come back. Not due to spite at all, but due to reality. No one wants to lose lots of money in time, travel and expenses just to teach their long-won knowledge to people who don’t feel it’s worth paying for…

“I paid my ten bucks, I am a member - I deserve name lecturers. They owe me for coming to see them”.

So I would rather have someone else write the review of what Mr. A did and how much it meant to those attending. You see, I am prejudice. I saw what little bit he sold. That is what a lecturer has as real feedback about whether or not the lecture was of value to attendees - what was sold. I appreciate your next morning praise, but it would have been a good thing to buy him dinner last night.

It’s little wonder many pros have turned instead into traveling magic shops. Lecture attendees have make this happen. Club members around the world bemoan the so-called “Dealer-lecture” and demand more “performance-oriented” lectures. They have of late exclaimed with fervor that “we don’t want more tricks, we want more principles and concepts from our lecturers”. In the lecture last night from our friend, they got what they said they wanted and far more.

But in reality attendees most often give their money to the people who sell them packet tricks, special props and funny decks and not to the real teachers who share with them the inside principles and concepts they swear they need.

Mr. A’s lecture proved this point out as well. The attendees say they want one thing, but where they put their hard-earned money shows their truth.

I feel badly for the wonderful Mr. A last night and for my town too. He was great and attendees said how important his sharing of knowledge was to them. But word gets around.

I can’t tell a pro after last night that they must come to Phoenix because they will be treated well. I can’t tell the meaningful lecturers that those who enjoy their lecture will make it worth their while to come. Such may not be the case at all, no matter how well liked their lecture may be. Unless they just want to sell tricks as their lecture. For that, people here seem willing to give up their hard-earned cash.

No one save for the demo-and-sales-dealer lecturers and people trying to make a name for themselves go to an area where few show up, or where those who show up refuse to buy what the lecturer sells. Sales are the way to let the lecturer know we appreciate their being there. Lack of sales shows a lack of appreciation.

You know that when friends such as Daryl, Michael Ammar, Jay Sankey or Michael Close come to my town, I still buy something of value from them. They usually tease me about that. “You’re a silly man, my friend, buying that” as one of them recently put it to me. They know we can all simply “trade” things and yes perhaps we share much of the same basic knowledge and concepts between us. Still, I always buy something from them.

Even last night I bought a $150.00 item from my friend Mr. A’s lecture. Why? Because I wanted him to know I appreciate that he came to my town. Period.

I can visit with my friends and I don’t have to wait for a lecture to do that. I am blessed that way, and I understand not everyone is so fortunate. Just the same, I pay them for lecturing by purchasing some of their wares and putting my money where my mouth is. Even with my close friends.

I back up my words with my money. The lecturers get the message. They also get the message when club members do not do so. It’s a sign of whether they should come back to a location ever again or not. Money to a lecturer is a sign of appreciation and respect for what has been given to attendees.

A group wants me to lecture in a nearby place. I wanted to go there very badly. A few friends live there too. Six people showed up at a recent lecture there for someone else. Although I have not been in that town to lecture for over seven years, and they really want me to come, guess where I will NOT be going to lecture. People have to show up, and they need to show the lecturer they are thrilled that the lecturer is in their area. They must put their money where their mouths are. Or the lecturer won’t ever come again. They cannot afford to do so, if they are true professionals. Mr. A, for example, is just that.

In show business, this is nothing new. It is true of concerts; magic shows, touring theatre presentations and anything else.

You get what you pay for and what you pay for comes back.

What you don’t pay for doesn’t come back.

It’s basic business.

Words are great. Some of us pay our bills in part by our words.

Attendance and money however is a sure way to show a lecturer he is appreciated. As I said, a lack of these means a town won’t see the more meaningful lectures. Real pros cannot afford to spend their own time and their own money on teaching people their trade secrets for free or nearly free.

No other profession expects a professional to do so.

Ours, sadly, thinks this is “only fair”.

So I am afraid I cannot write an honest review of Mr. A’s lecture last evening. While it was grand, deep, meaningful and beloved, he barely made a penny. That means this friend won’t come back to my town unless he meets me here for performances we do together. As far as the magic clubs in town, he will not exist to them save for the cover of magazines and in articles in our trade journals.

Not because of his attitude – but because of our own.

I'd blame this all on the economy, but just today the same people spent hundreds each on apparatus that was exceedingly overpriced, and that they will never perform.

It would be nice to blame the outside world and the woes of currency, but in this case I 'm afraid it's just who sells the flashy-looking stuff.

People concerned about money pay only for things they know they will beable to use or have inherent value.

Last night, what was useful went left for unpaid, while the flash-and-dashdemo made off like a true scoundrel.

Because we make them do that to us.

Lectures only bring to us that which we insist on paying for in return. We vote with our pocketbooks, not our accolades.

Kenton