Dress For the Job You Want

Not the job you have.

I love that saying. Why? Because it is true. If you don’t dress for the job you want you will never get there. That being said I am bad at doing this. I am not very good at wearing clothes that reflect what I want to be.

Of course I want to be a professional entertainer. And for the longest time the entertainer type I wanted to be was a clown. And dressing like a clown is not a good way to keep your current job. Plus dressing like a clown is a great way to get some strange looks in the grocery store and apparently there are people who are afraid of clowns.

Recently I have shifted my focus to being a professional magician. As a magician I tend to focus on close up magic or magic that is done close to the spectator. I would love to get into stage magic but I feel I would be more David Copperfield then Penn and Teller. Granted Copperfield is an amazing magician there has just been a lot of feathered hair and feathered outfits.

So how do I dress more like a magician without looking like a douchebag? I love top hats, however a full size top hat makes you look strange no matter what. Luckily Harper bought me an awesome short crown top hat. Which is basically a short top hat it looks a boxy derby. Sure wearing atop hat all the time is strange but on me it just looks cool.

One trend in magic that I avoid like the plague is what a lot of the street magicians wear. Eyeliner. I understand that it makes you look cool… but does it? As someone who wears makeup when performing as a clown I fully understand using makeup to make your features stand out and make it easier to communicate with your audience. Unfortunately a lot of street magic is performed mere feet from your audience. If they can’t see your facial expressions then you are failing as a performer.

So I probably won’t start wearing sequins or eyeliner to work, but how can I dress more like a magician while still being professional? I have my awesome hat which helps, I carry cards with me all the time which is a bonus but how do I convey that I am a magician? I work in a real estate office as a broker which means I need to look professional and not super crazy, so a tuxedo is out. Any suggestions?