If you are trying to sell your show to a stranger you better have an answer that will create interest in what you do and perhaps be ready to give them a quick impressive demonstration. If you do a ritualistic type of show you are not always carrying your altar, candles, grimoires and other trappings of your trade. Unless you can paint a wondrous picture with words for them, you are going to lose a booking.

Masklyn ye Mage, or Tony Andruzzi was always ready to give a quick demonstration. He did his "Ring of Power" or a Voodoo effect where he raised a blister on his finger. With his storytelling that went with it he usually got the job.

You can't do Bizarre Magick without storytelling!

My answer to any such questions is simple. I tell them that I tell stories of weird and wondrous things and often, strange and inexplicable things happen during the stories. I then tell them a story about my grandmother who was half American Indian and all Witch, of the very nicest kind. In the course of the story I do a trick that ties into it. The effect is so old it has hair on it, but it plays well and it lets me tell the person a bit about myself. It almost always gets the job.

I'm sure that what I have to say is old hat for many of you. That by trial and error and doing many shows you have already reached many of the same conclusions. I am not trying to put myself on some high pedestal, I just want to tell you what I've learned over many years and what works for me.