The good side of my ADHD is when I go into hyperfocus. And boy did I the last two weeks. I spent about 80 hours editing this 7-minute video of my magic shows and children’s entertainment. It’s great fun performing at schools, birthday parties, and family events.
Had a complaint on WhatsApp today from a children’s birthday party enquiry. From a business perspective, I don’t think it is necessary to justify one’s prices but I thought it interesting to make a rough breakdown.
Sorry if the prices of my party entertainment are too high. But the cost to hire magician and birthday party entertainer Ritchie Rosson (me) includes:
DBS criminal records check
Public liability insurance
£2000 sound system; iPad, remote control system, cables, spares of cables,
£1000 second sound system in case of unlikely breakdown of first.
£10,000 magic tricks and props; for every trick you see me perform I have bought and tried out 100 times more that weren’t up to par.
£££ balloons, and other tricks that use up materials in the routines.
£££ costumes; shirts, hats, trousers, trainers; all to be new(ish) to look fresh and fun
££ website
££ reasonably up to date iPhone so that I can do emails/messages and other party business for clear communication with my lovely clients.
Cost of my car which I only have for my shows. I walk and run most of the other days.
£20 per month for Adobe Premiere Pro so I can edit videos of my magic shows to not just show to my clients what I do but the process makes me a better entertainer by seeing myself on camera; what I do well and what I don’t.
£££ Attending magic conventions such as The Blackpool Magic Convention .
£££ dvds, books, downloads to learn magic tricks.
£££ cost of a computer and running it to edit all my sound effects and music.
££ my wages for the hours and hours I spend prepping my magic shows, learning magic tricks, editing music etc. You may think the price is for 1 or 2 hours but it’s hundreds of hours of prep time to bring what you see at a party.
£ It’s my full-time job and I think I deserve a reasonable remuneration for dealing with big groups of wild children as well as parents and missing my weekends for your party.
I’ve probably forgotten lots of other things but all worth it for the brilliant fun we have : )
Always have a fantastic time entertaining with magic at Wentworth Golf Club. My 5th, 6th, 7th year there? I’ve lost count.
I had a wonderful time in Dec of 2023 performing at lots of schools. Some of them for 50 children, but my favourite is the biggest shows of two or 300 children. Here’s some fun footage of me at St John’s primary in Kingston.
Has Huggy Wuggy been cancelled!? He briefy features in my birthday party shows but a mum told me he’s banned in her school now. What did Huggy do?!
The Mini ADHD Coach by Alice Gendron. I’ve read a silly number of books about ADHD since suspecting I had it and since diagnosis. I struggle with the dry ones. I need humour to take the edge off this at times dispairing condition and this has it in droves but also super cuteness, straight-to-the-point advice without the waffle and padded-out anecdotes that authors are probably doing to tick the 300-page demand of their publishers.
Fun-filled funny fun magic shows at the awesome George Yard Shopping Centre in #braintree next Thursday 26th October.
Great fun for children and families.
Shows at 11:00 – 11:30, 12:00 – 12:30, 1:00 – 1:30, 2:00 – 2:30…
I have entertained at over 1,000 birthday parties over the last 12 years. Children’s parties can of course be utter chaos but I have found a route into making them brilliant fun and super memorable for children and parents. The two-hour birthday party package works so well. Sorry to brag, but I get such great reviews and happy clients when I do two hours. One-hour bookings are ok but it leaves a window for kids to go wild and bring chaos to the party. In the two hours, I’m there 45 minutes early to set up. As the children arrive, I am READY! There is fun music playing. I immediately start joking with them, doing magic tricks, and using my bubble machine. At the end time, they all go home and the packing up happens after they’ve left. I put sooooooooooooooo much preparation time into my magic shows also so much work for me; to travel to, and from the venue. Carry in and out lots of heavy equipment. To prepare tricks, props and costumes, for the show. The actual performance while I’m there is a fraction of what I give, so I decided it best to do all my children’s birthday parties as two hours.
Face painters are super skilled and kids and adults look great with their faces painted especially for Halloween events. I recommend if you book them for an event with lots of people, to book 2 or 3 as it takes time and children get painfully bored queuing. I offer magic entertainment for children at events in queues such as waiting to meet Santa which I had great fun doing at Westfield shopping centre last Christmas.
I have entertained over the last 12 years at over 1,500 birthday parties and learned a lot along the way.
For a birthday party which is a small intimate gathering that can get chaotic, if you are having a party entertainer such as Ritchie Rosson (that’s me!), a facepainter is a big distraction with kids and parents not knowing where to be. Sitting for the show or in a queue? I tried it with the face painter coming to get children but that meant pulling them out of the show and just interrupted the fun we were having.
Because I want the children to have the most fun at my parties and my lovely clients to be super happy; as of Autumn 2023 I am no longer offering my entertainment at birthday parties with a face painter.
Ritchie Rosson podcast episode 3. Episode 2 is out next week.
Ritchie and James from Olympicubs talk magic, children’s entertainment, productivity, phone addiction, neurodiversity and scaffolders. Olympicubs – James’s awesome magic shows and children’s entertainment https://www.olympicubs.co.uk Fantastic phone safe lock that has changed my life https://amzn.to/3F6IWCA
Ritchie Rosson – Children’s Entertainer & Magician 