If you have entertainer's blood running in your veins and you know you have to get in front of people and perform, it is very important to get work and find places to perform to satisfy this inner urge. Many times it can happen that a skillful and gifted performer has no work. This is sad but true especially now-a days when times are economically difficult. Performing in front of other people is not for everybody, and for those who have it inside their system, it is very important to find ways and means to express their gifts. It's pretty easy to find places to work for free - especially if you are a standup comedian - there are many clubs and bars available, but it's not the same with magic and other performing arts.

I remember starting out in the early 90s by doing magic. At those times there was a serious depression in Finland, which is the country where I live, and I had just run out of work. I didn't know what to do, but as a kid I had been very interested in magic and practiced it a lot, and done several performances. So I was at a point where I didn't know what to do, but my magical interests were buzzing underneath the surface. I started to practice with the cards and coins, and read some books I had in my bookshelf. There was nothing forced in this, it was a very natural interest towards magic. Very soon I also started to use all my spare money to buy new books and accessories from magic stores. I was mainly interested in close up magic, but I also knew I had to build sooner or later a solid stand up act.

I'm telling you this, because this is how my career started, and I feel it might help somebody out there. The next thing I did was to show these tricks that I had nearly learned to my friends. I was a bit amazed to see the great reactions I got from them. Actually the reactions were bigger than I thought possible! It wasn't so much about me, because I really wasn't a very skillful performer at that time, but I experienced the power that magic has over people.

Very soon I realized that I could go around in restaurants and other places where there are lots of people and perform my magic and make money. And that is exactly what I did! I made a list of restaurants nearby and on Mondays and Tuesdays I contacted their owners and went to demo my tricks for them. Almost every time the restaurant owners were delighted about what they saw and wanted to book me! I told him that I was available and we made a deal almost immediately. My fee was also very reasonable in the beginning, so I had no trouble in booking gigs for myself. Very soon I had a 20 or 30 restaurants in my neighborhood and counting, where I could go on a gig by just calling the owner and arranging appropriate time. I was doing only close up magic, I didn't have a stand up act back then.

Very soon I met hotel owners and other private corporate people on my gigs, and when they saw me do my magic they wanted to get my calling card and book me. In the beginning I had to do lots of field work to get my business running, but after few years people started to call me and I didn't have to run after clients anymore. This was the time when business started to function on auto pilot. Very soon I got requests to perform for children and do other kinds of stand up performances, so it was time to start to build a solid stand up act as well, but my close up work was the starting point to my career.

I want to encourage you if you feel performing for live audience is something you want to do, to go out and find work for yourself. In the beginning it doesn't pay well, but once you establish yourself the fees get bigger and more reasonable. Don't be afraid to take action and it is also very important for your soul as a performer to make it happen.