Small Biz Special: How A Small Theater Gets Attention

0:00What does it take to run a great local business? Which is to say, what does it take to be a really small player competing against everything in the world for somebody's time, somebody's attention, somebody's money? It's not easy. And now let's just make it a little harder. What if you are a delightful little local gem? You are a magic bar and theater. Just to say you are doing it really local here. your entertainment on a local scale, competing against not just big theaters, but Netflix, just regular television, literally anything that anyone could do on a Thursday and Friday night or whatever, it's not easy.

0:46And yet, Illusions Bar and Theater is doing it well. So what is Illusions Bar and Theater? Illusions Bar and Theater is a company in Baltimore, Maryland. They also happen to be very prominently featured in a exciting new list that Entrepreneur published. It's called America's Favorite Mom and Pop Shops. We partnered with Yelp to identify 150 small businesses, local businesses, mom and pop businesses around the country that we identified through their Yelp rankings and engagement and some other metrics to be among the favorite. And when we slice it even further to America's 15 favorite local entertainment experiences, well, then Illusions Bar and Theater becomes number two.

1:34So what's the secret? What's going on over at Illusions Bar and Theater? Just one little theater somewhere in America that's doing it right. That is doing small business right. That's what we're going to explore today on Problem Solvers, but in a really interesting way. Entrepreneur also partners with Yelp on a podcast called Behind the Review, which is such a fun concept. So, okay, the show is hosted by this person. I'm Emily Washkovic, Yelp's small business expert. And Emily, who is just so passionate about helping small businesses, does this really interesting thing, which is that she picks a business and then picks a single Yelp review of that business.

2:17and then goes and talks to the person who left the review to find out what their experience was like at this business and what compelled them to leave a review. And then she goes and talks to the business owner to find out what was happening on the other side of that review, the person who is working really hard to serve customers and hopefully get them to the point where they're so happy that they leave a review. And that is what Emily did for Illusions Bar in Theater. So what you're going to hear after the break is Emily and a reviewer and Illusions Bar in Theater. And together what you'll get is a sense of what it really takes to run a small local theater business competing against everything and succeeding.

3:06Coming up right after this. This episode is brought to you by Walmart Business, proud sponsor of Entrepreneur Magazine's America's favorite mom and pop shops. It's the Walmart you love now for your small business. From boardroom to break room, enjoy everyday low prices on an ever-expanding assortment of the things you use every day, all organized into key categories and easy to order. Plus, you can open one shared account for up to five users. Create a free account today and start shopping at business.walmart.com. That's business.walmart.com. All right, we're back. So now I'm going to turn it over to Emily from Yelp and the podcast behind the review from Yelp.

3:51And she's going to introduce the reviewer, the reviewed, which is to say the folks from Illusions Bar and Theater. and what brought them together for one great customer experience. Reviewer Derek Y went to Illusions on a date night with his girlfriend and had such a great time that he wrote a review about it and then wanted to talk to me. I also sat down with Spencer Horseman and Nicole Bailey, of course, the dynamic duo behind the business. Let's hear about this incredible independently owned business. It really just has this old school kind of circus look and feel to it. Right where we walk in, we're actually greeted by Spencer, who is the owner.

4:38He was the first one to meet with us. We were actually the first people to show up that night. He takes down all your information. He walks you directly to a chair. So you do sit down at a table. Everybody's spaced out a little bit and gives you the menu, tells you a little bit about the show at first. hey, this is an interactive magic show, primarily going to be using cards. He goes, get ready to volunteer or I will volunteer you. But he has such a great vibe to him. So much energy right out the gate. So it was great to have that. And then Nicole, she's basically his assistant and the bartender there as well.

5:15So right when you get in, you can go up, order drinks right away. We did ask Nicole for her recommendations, which she liked and they both had these huge smiles on their face and really happy that you're there right when you walk in you feel like you're in for a good time the words interactive magic show can strike fear in the hearts of even the most bold among us and might have some people heading for the door which is why spencer's up front about the nature of the show from the beginning and why Derek and many other reviewers mentioned it in theirs. I had a great time here. Spencer and Nicole are the ultimate team together.

5:55They make this event so fun with their charm, their smiles, and altogether laughs. Spencer is the magician and Nicole is the head bartender. This show is interactive, so be prepared to be called on. Trust me, they won't get up and embarrass you in any way or throw knives at you. All the tricks and illusions are centered around cards. I can't remember the exact number of people that each show holds, but it might be around 30. Plenty of space around you. You'll be seated at a table actually facing the stage and bar. They do make their own drinks. And during the show, Nicole will come around and get drink orders.

6:27So you don't have to get up in front of everyone and absolutely would do this again. I mean, their energy brings the show together and it's a lot of fun. I mean, who doesn't want to drink and be a part of Card Tricks? A great magic show is thrilling and exciting. and full of wonder. A bad magic show can be excruciating. That's definitely not the case with Spencer's show at Illusions. He's been performing professionally since he was a child, taking to the road first with his parents and then doing his own show before he could even drive. I grew up in an entertainment family. Both of my parents were former Ringing Brothers Barman Bailey Circus clowns.

7:09They'd met in the circus, traveled around the country for a number of years, Then it settled in Baltimore, where I was born and raised a few years later. And around a year of age, a couple of things occurred. My father was hired by McDonald's, and he became Ronald McDonald for their company for 22 years by the time he retired. And then from there, they opened up a magic supply store. So thus starting my, I guess, magic education at four. And I started traveling and performing alongside my parents and their shows when I was six. Started doing my own shows out and about nationwide by the time I was eight.

7:42After I graduated high school, I was performing, touring overseas, and my father and I decided to partner up in the business together to design, develop, and build the Illusions Bar and Theater. Most of the performances that I did up until that point were always private events. I would either travel again out to a function or either a wedding, a corporate event, a convention, a trade show, et cetera, et cetera. So we decided to actually make our home base so people would come to us. and now over 16 years, and we run year-round every Friday and Saturday at 9 o 'clock. We specialize in strictly magic shows and also specifically the unique brand of magic that I have created and honed over my study and over my career.

8:24Spencer's business partner, Nicole, didn't really think about the magic business prior to meeting him. They're life partners first, but Nicole's corporate background and marketing experience have helped grow illusions. Plus, she's a killer mixologist who keeps the audience happy and engaged. Don't expect to see her on stage anytime soon, but you better believe she's keeping things humming along during every performance. Magic, in its purest form, is cool and all, but it's not really my bag. The reason that I was drawn to this and wanted to become involved was that it's more of an experience. He's really funny.

9:03And my favorite part, and this is a post-COVID development, is that the more intimate crowd, everyone feels like they know one another by the end of the evening. And they become friends. I watch total strangers become friends and hang out after the show, making new acquaintances, making because they feel involved in this thing together. So they start out a little awkward and kind of shy. And then by the end of the night, everybody knows everybody. They're like cheering for each other by name, that kind of thing. And it's all like a big group experience versus two people sitting together in the dark in the back of a theater somewhere.

9:40And that is just really special to me. There's not a whole lot of theatrical sort of pomp and circumstance in his performances. He's much more vaudevillian, more quick and sharp humor. One of the secrets to the success of Illusions is the intimate nature of the performance space. that's entirely by design and allows both Spencer and Nicole a chance to get to know the audience and for the audience members to get to know each other. When you come, it is to experience the entire venue itself. We are not just a random magic show in a random venue. We're not just a random magic show in a random bar or hotel.

10:21And we're not just a random venue that hosts a random different performance of some sort. For us, we look at illusions as a full experience because of the history of the space, because of the history of my family, the history that just encompasses the entire building, and then also the intimate nature of our venue and the fact that it is just a two-person operation. It feels much more intimate. It feels more personalized. We're not just random employees running this for whoever and then sending an off-site owner a check. When you come into the door, you're greeted by myself. I check in. I get you your seats.

11:00I give you kind of a rough overview as to the experience of the show, meaning I never reveal what I'm going to be doing, but I do let everybody know no bad seat in the house, but it is an interactive experience. It doesn't matter where you sit. You will be involved. And that is all that I say. We check an ID. Your drink ticket includes your first two drinks, which then they go up to the bar and Nicole takes over from there for the hour before we open up. So she is master bartender and drink slinger that pumps out drinks for all 40 guests prior to the show. And once the show begins, runs about two hours, including a 15 minute intermission.

11:46Within the show is a wide mix of different styles of magic. There will be examples of sleight of hand, some card tricks. There's usage of then audience members and mind reading and mentalism. And then because of my specialty over the years of studying Houdini and other extreme styles of magic, I then incorporate dangerous presentations into my show. So it is a little something for everybody. And on top of that, just being a magic show, not just a magic show, it's also very comical. When people come in there, we're getting a lot of dates. We're getting a lot of anniversaries, birthdays, parents visiting from out of town.

12:25Graduation season right now is a big time, obviously, as well. So because of the nature mixed with the alcohol, the feeling and the energy in the room is more around that of a comedy club, as opposed to a strict magic show or theater show where everybody just seated quietly, politely clapping at the right times when they're supposed to. Since we only seat 40 people in the venue, and as I mentioned, everybody gets involved, we keep the lights up the entire time. So everybody can see everybody at all times. I can see everybody at all times. Nicole can see everybody at all times. Which one allows her to do her job as well as she does is because she can immediately see if somebody has an empty drink and she refills it.

13:04Nobody's ever waiting for anything. And then I play off of the audience heavily. So any little moment that occurs, I improvise and make a joke about. And again, all in good fun. I make most of the fun of myself, of course. But the humor is very playful. It's very spontaneous. So nobody really gets a moment to let their guard down. They never know what's going to happen. This is not a normal magic show by any chance. Attending a performance and participating in a performance are two very different things. and not everyone dreams of being in the spotlight. Somehow Spencer and Nicole make it work.

13:44The combination of their outgoing personalities and the craft cocktails can loosen up even the most reluctant of audience members. Everybody gets involved, but there's certain levels of involvement. Some people you get to just sit right there at your chair and yell something out at me. Other folks, I make you stand up and do something. Other folks, you come front and center, but that is something on my end that it's, that's a science of who to pick. You don't want to pick that person that is terrified the fact that their date put them in the front row center. And they're like, Oh my God, I don't want to help.

14:17And I know that person. I'll go, Hey, make them feel welcome. I'm going to go, here's like the smallest job that you can do. And it still makes them be like, okay, he took into account the fact that I'm shy. I'm socially awkward. I don't want to do this. I just wanted to watch a show, but okay, this was okay. I feel good. And then you have the other people that are too outgoing. And you also don't select them from the get-go either because they can veer, they can direct your show in a direction you didn't want to go. So it is, it's a balancing act, but it keeps it fresh for us each night. It's always a nice compliment when people go, it always feels fun for you.

14:48And I'm like, yes, it genuinely is. Like I play off the audience just as much, if anything, than what I already have in my head. I have a structure to the show. We know, but like she improvises stuff behind the bar too. She's not a performer, but her natural like sense of humor and timing is killer and there's moments that we generally make each other laugh during the show because of things that happen and you can tell that i like to heckle him yes behind the bar yes oh it works it pans out well yes they come in and initially they are a little bit apprehensive about helping out or whatever but as the night moves on and he sort of caters to that so in the beginning of the evening it's maybe not as much asked of the audience.

15:28And as they go on and they're more comfortable with one another and they've had a drink or two, but it expands and you have people doing things and they've even said it to us that they would never imagined they would do when they walked in the door. So they walk in and they go, no way. I'm so scared. I'm sitting in the back. And by the end, they're doing all kinds of stuff because they feel like these people are safe. They're in a safe space. Everybody is having a good time. And so they feel okay to do that. And that's sort of bonding for everybody. And it is the coolest thing to watch from behind the bar.

15:55I can tell you that right now, because I can see the audience the whole time. So I get to watch all this stuff happen. I have a front row seat for that. And it's very, very cool. Illusions has limited operating hours and performance days, but it does offer private events on non-performance days and even sometimes travels to the client to perform. The theater has limited capacity and doesn't serve food, but people are allowed to bring in their own meals if they want. And full bar service is available throughout the show. This allows Spencer and Nicole to keep things small and compact in terms of staffing.

16:29It's actually just the two of them operating the business. Everything from greeting guests at the front of the house, to marketing, to bartending, and cleaning up after the show. People tend to forget they come into this place and it's beautiful and clean and organized and well-oiled machine. People forget that it is, or even don't realize, it's just the two of us. We are not a corporate entity. Like I said, we're not some offsite owner that just comes in and collects a check every month, every week, whatever. We're there every moment. We are the cleaning crew. She's the art designer. She's the menu designer.

17:08She's the bartender. I can tell people she does literally everything, and I just do tricks, and I clean the bathrooms, and that's about it. So she actually keeps everything really the well-oiled machine that it is. but I think in today's day and age, people tend to forget what that means. Since we're open to the public Fridays and Saturdays, we do a lot of private parties there the rest of the week too. That is also a big part of our bread and butter as well. We do a lot of team building events, corporate events, birthdays, weddings, et cetera, et cetera. Or then if they're just looking for my entertainment and they have more guests than we can fit in our space, then I will obviously come out to your function.

17:47And two Saturdays ago, we had a double birthday party in Alexandria, Virginia. So we drove an hour and a half to Alexandria, Virginia, performed there for two hours, hour and a half drive back, feed the dogs, drove down to the bar, set up, and then opened up for our nighttime show. So we do a lot of that sort of jumping back and forth as well. And so people sometimes need to be reminded that, hey, look, we're doing the best we can. It's just the two of us, right? We don't have any backers. We don't have investors. We don't have some big company email corporate entity behind us and we're just copying and pasting this.

18:19No, it's just us. So everything that happens is in real time. If you get an email response at 2 a.m., it's one of us. It's not anyone like there's it's literally because that's the other part is that it's all the back end that we're doing as well. So the running to the store to get supplies. A lot of the time, a barometer for success in small business is getting bigger, adding products or hours or locations, even just growing number of employees. Spencer and Nicole, however, see things differently after experimenting with that bigger is better mentality. There is something to be said about less is more.

18:57We have different performance spaces than our space in our building that we've used over the years that seat either 40 people or 90 people. And we have discovered that how we're doing the shows right now is how we used to operate the first four years we were open. And then we were getting a following. So of course, naturally the belief is, well, you expand, right? You make it bigger. So we did that and we made a bigger show, but that became a more traditional style show. Darkened theater, lights were down, 80 people, big stage, some lights and video and all that stuff. It was great. It was still fun.

19:29Reviews are still solid, but there wasn't that consistent level of - The reviews weren't as personal. As personal, right. The personal connection. COVID happens. And ultimately, the upside of COVID was it allowed us to step back and reevaluate and go, okay, what sort of experience do we want to create for people? Because all of a sudden, people are stuck at home for a year and a half. So people actually want live experiences. They don't just want passive experience now on TV or at the movies or whatever. So we have found that having that intimate experience has actually been hands down better.

20:03We've had people, again, long-term customers that have been to both shows, all three shows, actually. Big show, Zoom show, intimate show, and across the board, they have said, hey, we prefer the smaller shows. Well, what it allows more of, and this has always been the case even with the larger shows, but with a smaller audience, it allows us to convey more appropriately how important each of those people is to us. So every single person that walks through our door, whether they give us a bad review or not, matters to us. every single one of those people matters to us and we are able to show them that.

20:39When there's 90 people, it's a little bit harder to spread the love. You know what I mean? So every person, I want them to feel seen and cared for and we're more capable of doing that with a smaller crowd. So we try and keep it in that manageable realm where we can keep that personal touch because there is a line at which points you start to lose that. So I think we're in a very happy place right now with that. But that's important to me. I mean, I know it's important to you too. Well, and ditto, it's easier to gauge as a magician, even creating, right? It's easier to gauge what people like, because I can look everybody in the face.

21:12I'm not just relying on audio, right? That using the dark, I can also now see people's faces. I can see when people are starting to wander or not, if they're focused, if they're actually laughing, if there's grinning, if they're doing the things I request them to do, close their eyes or whatever, I can see all that, right? So I can change my act in real time. I can change my scripting. I can change the magic that I do. It's part of the reason I have the intermission is because I use the first half to gauge and go, all right, what material did they like there? And then I can shift the second half.

21:42As I mentioned, beginning of the show, we'll start off with some, get people warmed up. Because again, a lot of people never been to a live magic show. So you have to almost coax them into how to appreciate them. And so I have a very specific philosophy about how I perform my magic. And I start off my show by explaining that. So that way it already puts people in the right mind frame. But you do that with things that they know, some card tricks, sleight of hand. But then everything else from there is all anything but what people have ever seen before. Anything in anything that I use. So thoughts from people's childhoods, danger elements, staplers, and all sorts of things.

22:15It's interesting, again, within the smaller setting to be able to shift and change in the moment, to address things and to fix things, literally and figuratively, be it either with the show or somebody goes, hey, bathroom's clogged, guess who's going back here to fix it? Not a joke. Not a joke. Sometimes keeping your business small means you're the one who has to do the little things, like unclog the toilet, even if it's during intermission, when you're also the star. Spencer definitely emphasizes that it is a business, not just standing on stage, telling jokes, performing card tricks, and having fun with the audience.

22:57He and Nicole do work very hard to keep it fun for everyone who comes to the show, even when those less than fun things pop up for them. When you're the main employee for your business, sometimes it's hard to get separation between work and your personal life. It's both the entertainment aspect and also the business aspect of it. And there's a belief that my dad had, which was a very overly simplified version, but it actually gets straight to the point. So there's a term show business. It's two words. There's more letters in business. And that's in any sort of show performer background where you have plenty of experiences that are very big and flashy, but it lacks any sort of emotional connection.

23:43Vice versa, So you have somebody that you have an amazing emotional connection with and like a tiny little 10 person performance in somebody's backyard that doesn't have all the pizzazz. And so we try to take that into account of all these little things. It's everything from the intro and the information you get at the door. We basically pick up our phones 24-7, which we try not to do, but we do because we're just like, all right, it's just boundaries. We don't know them. So we are always trying to help people with the ticketing issues or any of their questions. And we try to lay all that out on our FAQ page and people won't read it.

24:17They just kind of jump ahead and call and they want to ask other questions and that's fine. And we're happy to help them. The cocktails in the bar, the hour that you come in to relax, everything has a purpose and feels like it meshes together. Again, for the lack of a better example with that gentleman pointing out the old outdated footage on the TV. Well, yeah, that's from the 1920s. It kind of fits our motif of being in the 1920s. That was the point of the whole design of the bar. It'd be kind of weird if we had football game playing within our atmosphere. It'd be kind of weird. No, that really doesn't work.

24:47Spencer and Nicole are referring to a review they received about the atmosphere in their establishment, and particularly the stale old footage on a television playing before the show. That stale old footage was actually a video of the legendary comedian Buster Keaton, a staple of the 1920s, which was a purposeful choice for both the physical comedy and the 1920s atmosphere of the theater. I had so much fun responding to that review. I loved it. The thing is, they didn't really have anything bad to say about the service or the experience. I opted for the kill them with kindness approach. I sat down in my notebook and I wrote this response because I was like sort of furious, to be honest.