Trade Show Magic

By Stefanie Cohen
Columbia News Service

"Keep a close watch on this bottle and your quarter," said Seth Kramer to the crowd assembled at the recent Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference and trade show in Providence, R.I.

"Don't blink or you'll miss it," he instructed the audience. "Right before your eyes your quarter will penetrate the sides of this solid glass bottle."

He tossed the coin in the air, and, miraculously, it landed inside the bottle, apparently piercing its side without so much as cracking the glass.

"Now this might look impossible," Kramer said, shaking the bottle, the quarter clinking within. "But here at Praxair, we strive to make the impossible possible. From molecules to magnets, we do it all."

Kramer is one of a handful of magicians nationwide for whom the ultimate venue is not the birthday party, the company picnic or even the standing-room-only stage show. Rather, it's a trade show, where companies like Praxair, one of the world's largest distributors of helium, will pay from $2,000 to $5,000 a day for a performer who can make attendees stop and listen.

Only a handful of magicians make a living this way, said Kramer. But those who do pull off the greatest trick of them all: making a living doing the work they love.

"I read a quote somewhere, 'If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life,' " said Kramer, who dropped out of law school to become a magician. "That's sort of what I base my life on."

Part-pitchman, part-marketing expert, trade show magicians combine sleight-of-hand skills with savvy business acumen. Their patter incorporates company buzzwords and marketing messages. Companies like Pitney Bowes, Sprint hire them to boost product sales or to display how their services stand out against their competitors.

"At first I thought, 'Is this how we want to be represented?' " said Valerie King, director of sales and marketing for Praxair. But after watching Kramer work the crowd, she changed her mind. "I wouldn't ever come to a trade show without Seth. The people are so entertained by him, they come looking for him year after year."

Incongruous as it seems, magic and trade shows aren't such strange partners.

"A trade show is the modern version of the medieval bazaar," said trade-show magician Paul Gertner of Pittsburgh. "The merchants plop down their rugs and showed their wares. And the loudest pitchman generated the biggest audience."

Eddie Tullock pioneered the trade show magic field in the 1950s. Tullock, an engineer and a magician who had once been a carnival barker, persuaded Westinghouse to use him at trade shows and -- abracadabra! -- the trade-show magician was born.

"Tullock understood how to talk about electricity, and he had the magic skills," Gertner said.

According to a national Trade Show Bureau study, magicians are the second-most- effective way to make people remember a trade-show exhibit, just behind product demonstrations, but ahead of robots, contests, comedy skits and caricature artists.

They aren't just pulling rabbits from hats.

They spend weeks working with a company, learning its language and culture. Steve Dacri, a Las Vegas magician, attends company sales meetings before a show.

"The first thing I ask a client is, What is the purpose of the show?" Dacri said. "Some shows are selling shows, others are about collecting leads, others are about keeping their name out there as an industry leader."

"The people who hire us often know less about the trade show than we do," said Harrison J. Carroll, a Buffalo, N.Y., magician with a marketing degree. "I've done over 500 shows. I know a little about them."

One thing he knows is how to attract a crowd. Unlike a theater audience placidly sitting in chairs, trade show attendees are mobile. They won't stop unless they have a reason. Magicians have to develop a pitch that will bring people closer.

Carroll opts for the low-key approach. He doesn't cup his hands around his mouth and yell, "Step right up! Step right up!" Instead, he is nonchalant. "Hey," he says to whomever is walking by. "Check this out, this is kind of weird." Then he starts palming coins, turning red cards to blue, kings to aces. Soon, two people are watching, then three. Once a small crowd forms, the rest is easy.

When his crowd is at its maximum, he'll start with the company's message. Then he'll start "filtering" the crowd for his client. He'll ask questions about their business practices to help his client decide who is a potential customer.

Not every magician can pull off the trade show routine, although many try. Some can't build a crowd properly, the pros say, and others don't realize that the emphasis is on the company, not the magic.

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