We were lucky to catch up with Professor Phelyx recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Professor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
However unlikely, let’s say you have decided to become a professional juggler. As I actually know several professional jugglers, I feel at liberty to use this uncommon art form as an example but feel free to replace “juggler” with virtually any skill or discipline because my advice will be the same.
This is the most important advice I have for you: Do NOT waste all of your time learning to throw and catch. Brace yourself when you learn how comparatively little any throwing and catching is part of being a professional juggler.
The gritty truth about being a professional entertainer is that we are absolutely winning the game if performing occupies 15-20% of our time “at work”. 20% is a thrilling percentage. Factoring in marketing, maintenance, rehearsal, etc., what is the amount of time most of us get to enjoy the pleasures of actual performance‽ About 5% or less is the cruel reality. Having a functional education about the facets of being a business person who sells the service of entertainment will increase the amount of time that one gets to enjoy being an entertainer.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a professional entertainer who performs comedic mind-reading and other “psychic” demonstrations. The short terms are Mentalist or Psychic Illusionist. I perform this service as a headliner with full-length shows and I also have the pleasure of performing as Emcee, variety act, and keynote speaker. I specialize in corporate entertainment and I am proud that most of my engagements are encore bookings. The fact that organizations and ticket-buyers who have experienced my work want more of me is wonderfully flattering! You can think of me as a corporate magician who promises to deliver an experience that folks will talk about for ages!
Mine is a very interactive form of entertainment and I am delighted to make my audiences the stars of the show!
My first show was in 1981 and I was just ten years old. It is fun to see the reactions I get from folks who are so surprised to meet someone who discovered their calling so early in life.
The best part? With so many years of experience and having produced many events myself, all of that education is part of the package. My clients call me because they know or have heard that I am one of the top professionals in my field and that, by booking me, there is no need to worry about ease of process, professionalism, or reputation-making impact!
I am a plug-and-play resource and my reputation is my most valuable asset!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
The thing that I wish I really knew when I was struggling to become a professional entertainer is that we are surrounded by extremely valuable resources. Virtually anyone you meet is a resource for learning and connections. Further, connecting with people who are successful in what you aim to do is pretty easy! While it may seem intimidating, most folks are very willing to help.
Build your network and be brave about it. I am paraphrasing here but, Reba McEntire once said something close to: If you aspire to be famous and you think you can do it all by yourself, bless your heart. The “bless your heart” is code for good luck but it ain’t gonna happen.
Build your support system and maintain it with kindness and generosity.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Ultimately, I want to be able to begin creating resources for artists that I wish existed when I was creating my career from scratch. Sure, I want to continue performing but I have reached that period in my career that I believe I have information I can share so other artists might be freed up to entertain their creative side as opposed to struggling to learn the ins and outs of being able to at least be self-supporting. As unfair as it is that a career in the arts is stereotypically rough, I don’t foresee that changing for a long time. I want to help!
Contact Info:
- Website: phelyx.com
- Instagram: @professorphelyx
- Facebook: ProfessorPhelyx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phelyx/
- Youtube: Professor Phelyx
- Yelp: Professor Phelyx
- TikTok: @professorphelyx
Image Credits
Dave Wood Photography