Why is Gentry called the Intellectual’s Illusionist?

Gentry believes that magic and related arts (such as mind reading) are inherently fascinating and philosophical, but have suffered a lot of mistreatment from bad performers who have poor taste. He has degrees in philosophy and rhetoric, and sometimes teaches composition and rhetoric at places like Carnegie Mellon University, Temple University, Duquesne University, and Temple University — as well as a couple of community colleges.

Is Gentry a snooty, boring, or pretentious “intellectual?”

Not at all. The apostrophe-s in the phrase “The Intellectual’s Illusionist” means that you — the audience — are the intellectuals, while Gentry is just lucky enough to work for you! His performances are 60% mind-reading, 20% classic magic, 10% humor, 10% philosophy, and 100% participation and fun.

Gentry realizes that the slogan “The Intellectual’s Illusionist” can be polarizing or even off-putting to some, but he would rather obey his own artistic instinct than try to fit the standard mold of a “corporate entertainer.”

What is the going rate for a hiring a live entertainer? How much should it cost?

Nobody knows — seriously — but it is safe to say that any good performer who performs mainly for adults will generally expect a fee in the four or five-figure range.

When dealing with clients who sincerely do not have that kind of budget, attitudes amongst professional entertainers vary widely. As for Gentry, he prefers to stay busy and make a lot of friends, so he uses teired package pricing for those who can afford it, and the honor system for those who can’t.

Can’t dishonest people take unfair advantage of Gentry’s honor system pricing by pretending to have lower budgets than they really have?

Yes they can, and it has happened before, but most people aren’t that cheap.

In most cases, Gentry is experienced enough to know whether or not the fee someone offers is within the reasonable range for the type of event they are planning, and for the kind of budget they are likely working with.

Why so expensive?

Because a full-time entertainer works at least as many hours as any other business owner, but can only bill for a handful of those hours.

Regardless of what most entertainers may say, entertainers are not paid exorbitant fees for the one or two hours that they entertain an audience; they are paid reasonable hourly wages for the countless hours of risk, sacrifice, and hard work required in order to deliver those one or two hours of entertainment to you and your audience.

Professional live entertainment has to be expensive, because entertainers must charge enough to make up for all of the uncompensated hidden labor (and hidden risks) that make their performance possible.

And in the case of “celebrity” entertainers, they are even more expensive, simply because that is what their notoriety is worth to your event!