A School Show That Makes Money
Most assemblies come out of a budget somebody has to defend. A family night is the other way around. You sell tickets, the whole family comes, and the show is the reason they turn out on a weeknight.
The same show, with the parents in the room
Forty to forty-five minutes of comedy magic in your gym or cafeteria, on an evening when families can come. It is the same show that plays a daytime assembly, with one difference that changes everything: the grown-ups are there too, so the jokes work on two levels and nobody is standing at the back checking their phone.
Children come up and help all the way through, and they go back to their seats looking good. Nothing is loud or startling, no child is ever put on the spot, and the show is sensory friendly.
What your school provides
- A room. Gym, cafeteria, stage or multipurpose room
- One standard electrical outlet. That is the only power I need
- About thirty minutes to get in and set up before doors
That is the whole list. No staff, no equipment, nobody has to stay late. I bring my own professional sound system and microphone, which matters more than it sounds in a gym that echoes.
Six ways schools cover the fee
My fee for a fundraiser night is $800. Almost no PTO pays that out of its own account, and none of them should have to. These are the routes that actually work, roughly in the order I would try them.
A local business sponsors it
A realtor, an orthodontist, a bank branch, the pizza place. They cover the fee, you keep every dollar taken at the door, and their name goes on the flyer that travels home in four hundred backpacks. That is real reach for a local business, and far easier to justify than a logo on a program nobody keeps. I am glad to be listed as sponsored by them.
Ticket sales carry it
The route most schools land on. You set the price and you keep the money. The show is simply the thing that fills a gym on a school night, which is the hard part of any family event. The arithmetic is below and you can check it against your own enrollment.
Title I family engagement funds
If your building receives Title I money, a share of it has to go on bringing families into the school. A family night is exactly that. Worth one question to whoever handles Title I in your district, because that money is already set aside for this purpose.
The program budget, not the assembly budget
Three of my four shows carry a message that has its own funding in a lot of districts. Anti-bullying, character education and literacy are budget lines a school can defend, and they are not the same pot as the one marked entertainment.
Pair it with something that already earns
A book fair, a bake sale, a concession stand, a spirit night. The show fills the room, and everything you sell alongside it is margin on a crowd you would not otherwise have had. Reading Is Magic on book fair night is the pairing that makes the most sense.
Your local education foundation
Most districts have one, and most of them fund exactly this kind of thing. They are used to small requests from individual buildings, and they usually move faster than a grant.
A 400 student school, tickets at five dollars
Put your own numbers in and see where it lands.
- 200 tickets at $5 brings in $1,000
- Concessions, say 90 sales averaging $3, adds $270
- My fee takes away $800
- Your school keeps $470, and the evening cost you nothing to put on
Your break-even is 160 tickets. Everything after that is yours. And if a local business sponsors the show, the very first ticket you sell is already profit.
Nobody can promise you a turnout, so treat this as arithmetic to check rather than a forecast. What I can tell you is that a magic show fills a gym on a school night more reliably than almost anything else a PTO can put on.
If your guests do not enjoy the show, you pay nothing. I have never had to honor it, but it is there so the risk sits with me rather than with a PTO trying something new. You are already selling tickets to an evening you have to fill. You should not also be gambling on the entertainment.
Including a PTO evening much like yours
Carroll Baker's magic show was the perfect addition to our elementary school carnival! Carroll was very easy to work with and showed up early to be sure he could set up and start on time. He engaged with the audience and the kids were excited to be part of the show! It was a fun time for everyone!
Stephanie K.Hilliard City Schools
Carroll Baker came to Taylor Road Elementary and performed a magic show for the whole school during an assembly. Students and staff alike had a wonderful time and appreciated both his magic and his humor. The rabbit trick was a favorite! Thanks, Mr. Baker!
Amy R.Taylor Road Elementary, Reynoldsburg
Any of the four assemblies works as a family night, and every booking still comes with its printable teacher guide. Not sure which one suits the evening you have in mind? Tell me about your school and I will say what I would do.
Tell me about your school
Your date, your grades and roughly how many students. I will come straight back with whether I am free and what it costs, and I will tell you which of the six routes above I would try first for a school your size. Spring dates go earliest, so it is worth asking sooner rather than later.
Would you rather talk it through? Call or text 614-800-8909.