The Working Act

The business of being a performer.

Short, practical writing on getting and running gigs — booking, pricing, contracts, follow-ups, repeat business — from performers who've booked their own live shows since 1986. Backed by real numbers, not theory.

Pricing

What should you charge for a birthday-party magician?

The going rates for a kids' party, why the cheap gig isn't cheap once you count the drive, and a simple way to land on a fair number you won't resent. Plus a free pricing calculator.

5 min read Getting paid

Why every entertainer needs a deposit policy.

A deposit turns a "maybe" into a booking and protects your date. How much to ask for, and how to make taking one painless instead of a chore.

5 min read Contracts

The performer's contract: what to put in it.

You don't need a lawyer to have a solid agreement — you need the right sections. Here's what every entertainer's contract should include, plus a free template generator.

5 min read Money

What entertainers actually owe: taxes, estimates, and the deductions you're missing.

Self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and the deductions performers forget — especially mileage. A plain-English guide for US working performers.

6 min read Money

Nobody is setting up your retirement.

No employer 401(k) is doing it for you. The retirement accounts built for the self-employed — IRA, SEP-IRA and Solo 401(k) — in plain terms, and the one habit that works.

6 min read Money

Saving through feast and famine.

Gig income is lumpy: a packed December, a dead February. A simple system for budgeting on irregular income, so the slow months don't sink you.

5 min read Money

Do you need insurance to perform?

Liability, gear, and the certificate of insurance a venue asks for — what performers actually need, why it's cheaper than you think, and how it wins bookings.

5 min read Money

Is your act a business? Sole prop, LLC, or S-corp.

What sole proprietor, LLC and S-corp actually mean for a performer, in plain English, and roughly when each one starts to make sense.

6 min read Booking + AI

A birthday party, scribbled on the back of a box — booked from a photo.

A booker's handwriting, a photo, and four words: “book this birthday party.” What happened next — including the moment the assistant refused to guess and let a human make the call.

4 min read Working smarter

We taught our booking system to answer for us.

For forty years the eleven emails before a gig were ours to type. Now an AI assistant can check availability, quote, contract, invoice and text a client by conversation — over the same software, with the brakes built in. Here's how, and where we drew the line.

4 min read Trust

The brakes on an AI that can spend your money.

Scopes, an audit trail, dry-run and rate limits — the four guardrails we built before we'd let an assistant text a client or take a deposit.

4 min read A day in the life

Your booking business, from a text on a Tuesday night.

It's 9:40pm and a lead lands. A year ago that meant opening the laptop tomorrow. Here's the whole booking handled in four messages from the couch.

3 min read Data + AI

We let an AI read 114,736 client records so you don't have to.

The most valuable number in your business is the clients who'd book again if you asked. Here's what happens when you can ask an assistant about your own history in plain English.

4 min read How it works

One booking, three ways to make it.

The same booking — same date, same show, same money — can land three ways: the client makes it, a program makes it, or a sentence makes it. One system, three front doors.

3 min read Working smarter

Bring your own AI.

Already talk to an AI that speaks MCP, like Claude? Point it at ActBook and it can run your bookings directly — through the same scoped, audited API.

3 min read Data

When do clients actually book? We looked at 5,449 of our own gigs.

Median lead time is 89 days — but nearly a quarter book inside 30, and the busiest performance day isn't Saturday. What the data says about how entertainers get booked.

4 min read Data

There's no "when clients book." There are two calendars.

We ran the lead-time query across eight long-running acts — 22,665 gigs. Median lead time ran from 29 to 112 days, and it splits into short-lead weekend acts and long-lead weekday acts — our own two acts landing on opposite ends.

5 min read The craft of getting booked

The 11 emails every entertainer sends before a single gig.

From "are you available?" to "paid in full" — the whole back-and-forth, where it quietly costs you bookings, and how to fold eleven emails into one link.

3 min read Pricing

The hidden hours in a $750 show.

A 45-minute show is never 45 minutes. Travel, setup, teardown and admin turn it into most of a day — here's how to see the real hours and price for them.

4 min read

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