I've just realised how much I have neglected to blog about the things I have been doing and now I need to start giving regular updates as I am not in England.
A brief history for those of you who don't know. The wife and I came out to Benidorm for a long weekend early in January. We both liked the atmosphere and decided to look into moving out here permanently. I found a local English speaking radio station, sent them some audio of shows I had done on UK radio and arranged a meeting as I was coming out to perform in a showcase with the magic act. The showcase was a waste of time as only 1 agent was there and they only booked acts for shows out of the main Benidorm town - no use to me as I don't drive. However, the radio was a very positive situation and on 7th June I moved out her to present the 10am to 1pm slot (Spanish time) every Monday to Friday.
This entire week has been very emotional. From the farewell dinner at the restaurant to the final hug with the wife to the bad news from home during the week to the nerves of being left alone in control of the radio station. No wonder I have been adopting the siesta tradition and sleeping most afternoons! The siesta did catch me out on the first day as I tried to get some things from the supermarket to find they were closed but I'm used to it now.
I'm happy to say that, right for the start, I have been getting very positive feedback from the management and listeners at the radio station. One lady said that she used t turn off the radio at 10am but not any more as she love the music and chat from me. Listeners have commented on little features I've tried to bring to the show and the bosses seem to like it as well. All in all, a great start nd I'm going to do my best to continue in the same style.
My biggest problem is earning enough money to keep going ut here. I had hoped to get the close-up magic act into some restaurants but the big ones tend to have multi-national diners and the small ones with mainly English speaking diners are too small to afford me. As a result, I've sort of put that option on the back burner and I'm hoping a friend out here who has lots of good contacts with the hotels can manage to get me in front of one or more entertainments managers so I can either host evening shows or perform my magic cabaret (or both).
My other avenue of attack is hosting karaoke at pubs and so on. I've got my first try-out tonight (Sunday 14th) and this could lead to several nights a week of work so fingers crossed. I've done some hectic karaoke jobs in England so I should be OK but I'm not letting my guard down as I need to gte used to their sound system before I can relax a bit.
So there you have it. A week of highs and lows. Tomorrow I'm ff to the police station to sort out some official paperwork - nothing nasty it's just that's where they do it over here. I'm using the services of a legal person and it is going to cost but it means everything will be done right first time and I can work legally before the week is out. This will makes finding work much easier as they have been clamping down on illegal workers out here for a while now. Cash in hand jobs are few and far between.
If anything major develops in the next seven days I'll try and blog about it straight away, if not I'll issue another missive next Sunday.
Adios from blisteringly hot Benidorm for now.
A brief history for those of you who don't know. The wife and I came out to Benidorm for a long weekend early in January. We both liked the atmosphere and decided to look into moving out here permanently. I found a local English speaking radio station, sent them some audio of shows I had done on UK radio and arranged a meeting as I was coming out to perform in a showcase with the magic act. The showcase was a waste of time as only 1 agent was there and they only booked acts for shows out of the main Benidorm town - no use to me as I don't drive. However, the radio was a very positive situation and on 7th June I moved out her to present the 10am to 1pm slot (Spanish time) every Monday to Friday.
This entire week has been very emotional. From the farewell dinner at the restaurant to the final hug with the wife to the bad news from home during the week to the nerves of being left alone in control of the radio station. No wonder I have been adopting the siesta tradition and sleeping most afternoons! The siesta did catch me out on the first day as I tried to get some things from the supermarket to find they were closed but I'm used to it now.
I'm happy to say that, right for the start, I have been getting very positive feedback from the management and listeners at the radio station. One lady said that she used t turn off the radio at 10am but not any more as she love the music and chat from me. Listeners have commented on little features I've tried to bring to the show and the bosses seem to like it as well. All in all, a great start nd I'm going to do my best to continue in the same style.
My biggest problem is earning enough money to keep going ut here. I had hoped to get the close-up magic act into some restaurants but the big ones tend to have multi-national diners and the small ones with mainly English speaking diners are too small to afford me. As a result, I've sort of put that option on the back burner and I'm hoping a friend out here who has lots of good contacts with the hotels can manage to get me in front of one or more entertainments managers so I can either host evening shows or perform my magic cabaret (or both).
My other avenue of attack is hosting karaoke at pubs and so on. I've got my first try-out tonight (Sunday 14th) and this could lead to several nights a week of work so fingers crossed. I've done some hectic karaoke jobs in England so I should be OK but I'm not letting my guard down as I need to gte used to their sound system before I can relax a bit.
So there you have it. A week of highs and lows. Tomorrow I'm ff to the police station to sort out some official paperwork - nothing nasty it's just that's where they do it over here. I'm using the services of a legal person and it is going to cost but it means everything will be done right first time and I can work legally before the week is out. This will makes finding work much easier as they have been clamping down on illegal workers out here for a while now. Cash in hand jobs are few and far between.
If anything major develops in the next seven days I'll try and blog about it straight away, if not I'll issue another missive next Sunday.
Adios from blisteringly hot Benidorm for now.
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