Reading at a pamper night

Hey, I've been asked to be a reader at a pamper night in March! My first public gig. What advice do you have for me for the night? What types of spreads/decks do you reckon I should have up my sleeve?

Do you know of any fun spreads or tarot activities I could do on a pamper night for mums of primary school age children?

Also, how do you personally charge for that sort of thing? If you don't mind saying. Should I charge per person, per hour, what do you do?

i did a "mom's night out" thing a few times. it was a fundraiser for school for the 6th grade trip. i found that short spreads work best if you want to give plenty of people a chance at a reading rather than long ten card spreads. i did a one card reading and a three card reading, they had their choice. the one card was five bucks...i got some of the teen girls doing that one and the three card was 15. i always had a line and i was able to offer a good amount of money in donation to the trip and still got a good amount for myself! there are many spreads here that could be used if you search them out. i just did basic ones. it's up to your comfort level. bring business cards!

That sounds like a fun night!

If I understand the setting correctly, it's basically a group of ladies getting together for a mom's night out. Unless this is a charity affair, I would book it like any other party.

How many guests you are expecting to read will decide on your approach. When I do parties I usually tell them about six guests per hour, so everyone gets a nice ten minute reading and I do maybe six cards for that. It's a quick reading but long enough that it doesn't feel rushed. Of course you can do shorter readings if you need to. I have even done events where I do one card readings standing up and go through twenty guests in an hour, but this is a different situation.

Two ways I play this. It is either a party where the main event is something other than me, or it is a "Tarot Party" where the main reason for the get together is for the readings.

If it is a party where the ladies are doing their party things and getting readings while that is going on (birthdays, cocktails, etc), I show up and set up in a separate room and have them come in one at a time.

If it is a Tarot Party, I give the group a brief history of the Tarot, ask them about their own 'psychic' experiences (to get conversation going), maybe show them how to use the cards and pendulums and such, and let them play with that while they are not getting their own reading done. Sometimes I set up in a separate room for these parties, and sometimes I set up in the main room and everyone sits around and listens to everyone elses readings - this is the best fun as they will all interact and comment as each reading happens!

For either situation my fee comes out the same. For events and parties I charge $150/hr with a minimum two hour booking, and for Tarot Parties I charge $25 per guest at six guests an hour. The only difference is that at a Tarot Party the hostess gets her reading for free, and I sell my books and such (the hostess also always gets a free gift).

Hope this helps a little.

- Dennis

Thanks, Dennis, that does help! I just got an email from the organiser saying that all the services at the party have to pay £10 for their table! So I think I'm going to tell her that I will book the table if she can book in advance 12 customers for me for two hours, at £10 per customer. Each customer will receive a 10-minute reading plus a free calculation of their 'year card'.

ETA: Okay, I've sent her an email saying if 10 people book, I will attend, at £10 per reading.

Yay good for you! With these types of parties people want to have fun and be entertained so if the deck you are using has a serious looking Death and 10 swords I would take them out prior, just to keep the reading short and fun.

I too would do 1-3 cards max and if they want more information that is the perfect lead in to handing them your card and suggesting they contact you for a full private session.

Are you handy with astrology? If so you can carry an ephemeris and look up their birthdate to see where their sun and moon are and go off of some basic stuff with that.

Or Astrodice, or a junk oracle, those are a couple more little tricks you can have should you hit a wall with a person. Depending on how confident you are you can also ask for their keys or a photo they have and go off of whatever psychic hits you get from those.

Good luck! Good for you for stepping out and persuing your passion!!!

I would take at least two decks, because you might get there and change your mind about which one you want to use! You could also do little yes/no questions for fun by splitting the deck into two piles and finding where the sun card lies. That makes it visual and suspensful too for the entertainment side of it, people can watch and see what happens.

Totally agree with the above post about understanding that you are there to entertain!

Take a deck (or two) that are upbeat. The Thoth is probably not the right deck for this crowd, unless it's a bunch of Goth Mom's!

Ha! So true, keep your audience in mind! If you are reading for Goth moms or rock musicians (which I have done then by all means take the Thoth or the Hermetic. They will go nuts and eat it up. Otherwise, take something more gentle and happy!

My main party deck is very upbeat and happy so I tend to leave Death in there because he is actually fun looking. But some decks aren't like this so just take it out.

I am going to take:

Vanessa Tarot
Radiant Rider
Anna K
Morgan Greer

I'm thinking of using Nisaba's technique of turning over the same card on the top of each deck and allowing people to choose the deck they prefer.

I am no good with astrology, so I will offer a 1-3 card draw and a free calculation of the 'year' card with interpretation.

I will most definitely be handing out my business cards and explaining that I do in-depth readings by email. I think I will print out small price lists for people to take away as well. I will offer a discount to those who attended this event, with a deeper discount if they refer a friend. (So if they get a reading later, it's 10% off the reading; if they get a reading plus a friend of theirs has one, too, they get 20% off the reading). Does that sound okay? Although admittedly my price list is already super cheap.

Thank you, littleiris, minrice and Dennis!!

YES!

Make sure to hand out as much literature as you can; and giving out discounts is a great way to build up business!

IF you are trying to go pro (or semi-pro) don't sell your services cheap. I'm making the assumption you are good at what you do. Most 'pro' reader colleagues in my area (Colorado) charge $80 - $100 (US) for a one hour private session.

- Dennis