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Millard Grubb-Master Marketer
Millard Grubb and Sherri Lewis
Millard Grubb has worked as a magician, hypnotist, mentalist, speaker, and consultant over the last thirty-one years. And during that time almost everyone of his shows was booked by himself.
Around 1980, an agent booked me for three weeks at a hotel claiming the hotel would only hire me if I also worked for two weeks at the same hotel in three months, Millard mused. It turned out that the agent told the hotel that it could only have me for the original three weeks if they booked me for two weeks in three months, added Millard.
From that point Millard booked almost every show himself using marketing techniques he learned from marketing maven, Jay Abraham.
Millard’s career has been centered on the private party and banquet market, although he once had his own TV show in Chicago.
I had always wanted to make a living performing. Most of my friends and family, poo-poohed the idea and told me to get a real job, Grubb remarked.
I was fortunate enough in college to live right down the street from Ben Stone, owner of Delben Manufacturing and worked with Ben building two-arm choppers, die-boxes and the like. I also got to know Ben’s friend, Bobo at this time and learned coin magic from the master, remembers Millard.
Grubb performed as David Harper while going to graduate school and through the 1980’s. It was during Grubb’s graduate work that he met famed bar magician, Frank Everhart. Frank and Millard became fast friends and he spent many evenings talking with Frank and his wife Lee about magic and comedy. Frank even took Millard along on a gig or two so that Millard could learn timing and how to handle a crowd.
About the same time Millard met Jack Dean and was introduced into the world of mentalism. Grubb notes that Jack had an extensive library of mentalism, especially Robert Nelson and Jack lent Millard materials every chance he got.
It wasn’t until Millard met Richard Webster and Docc Hilford that his mentalism career took off. I found that the time I spent with Richard and Docc was the spark that made me focus on having a mental show that was funny during that time in my life, said Millard. Interestingly enough, it was also Richard and Docc, along with Brian Flora that caused Millard to get into the family market.
Millard had not done family shows and was forced to market himself in new ways to make sure he had shows. And over the years, Millard tried almost every marketing idea and technique to book shows. Now, Millard gives us the best marketing idea to come along in many years. Millard can say it best:
It used to be that you just went around talking to folks, handing out business cards, doing a show here and there… and if you were good…. you made money. With the advent of the Internet and several gurus telling us how to market, you’ve got a dozen ways to spend your money on marketing and not any real guarantee of success. You’ll find hundreds of sites all proclaiming, Make your child’s party unforgettable and fun! Or Let (Insert anyones name here) reveal the inner workings of your mind!
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