Forums > Social Chat > poi jobs

Posted: 15th Mar 2010
please note, the spinner wouldn't even get the $35, each spinner gets about 10-13 dollars, and the left over 1-4 dollars get put into a company expansion fund...

O.B.E.S.E.

Owned by Mynci!

Posted: 15th Mar 2010
it's a great idea, but you need to beef up the plan before you are getting into the performances themselves,

i'm trying to start up a similar thing here, i've been spinning 5 years and with my dad's help [he's a financial advisor] i'm putting together a plan but it's bloody hard work!

Posted: 15th Mar 2010
The amount from each show that is to be set back for expansion is only 10 dollars flat. I havent got any insurance or anything yet cuz i havent added any fire poi to the business. And i can take criticism and all that its just that last night i didnt go to sleep at all and got alil bit cranky, srry if i POed anyone off or anything but yea

Posted: 15th Mar 2010
Wasn't that movie 'Gummo' made in Ohio?

The popcorn extends life... The popcorn expands consciousness...

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
I have nothing to add in regards to the initial topic of this thread, but I must chime in about one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen "Gummo" -

The movie "Gummo" was based on the village of Xenia Ohio, but it was actually filmed in Nashville TN. Xenia isn't as bad as the movie portrays. It's more like a small, closed minded, highly religious, low employment, low skilled, low education, speed trap for a community that you would never want to live in. (I grew up not to far from Xenia, near the much cleaner, friendlier village of Yellow Springs)

Not only do they have Gummo, but they also had one of the largest tornadoes in Ohio history (F5) rip their village apart in
1974. The village of Xenia has had some bad luck.

Not all of Ohio makes one want to commit suicide (as one feels after watching Gummo), but I can't wait to move away from this flat, highly populated state!

Ok I am starting to ramble on now... thanks for your time, back to my brightly colored time traveling space ship.

Groovy

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
lol huzza!

Never take candy from strangers...... But popcorn is okay!

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Off topic eh? Sorry I thought I parked my space ship in Social Chat, not Social Discussion. Better get back to topic, lets see, where did the chat leave off? Ohh that's right, some were crushing a sixteen year old's dreams of self employment. I wish you all peace and good flow.

Groovy

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
OhioSean....

you ain't half a funny bugger!

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Sorry had to change the topic for a bit, the criticism was becoming cruel and personal.

Yellow Springs, OH is a very cute lil hippie village.

I think we should be more supportive of wicca15. He is one of us now.

The popcorn extends life... The popcorn expands consciousness...

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Lol I was only joking sean. (hence the smiley face) I don't care about the off topic stuff. Teasing. And I suppose it was getting a little cruel, but on the other hand, he does need to get things together. I'm definately not saying that this is a bad idea, but he needs much more planning and insurance. Otherwise he will be screwed up the wazzoo with some idiot running into his poi (fire or otherwise) and somehow managing to get hurt, then, in the true idiot fashion, suing the spinner for what the idiot did. I apologize for seeming harsh, but it seemed like people were starting to rush into a bad situation. I would definately up the price though. This isn't something just anyone knows how to do. I'd say you could push 40 for the right light poi and somewhere between 60 and 70 for fire poi if you really wanted to. It'd leave more room for expansion and more people might join you. Course you'll still need some kind of insurance or a waver that shifts responsibility to the person that hired you.

forgive my harshness? Spinning for money is a good concept for sure, But I get skeptical when things don't seem right in the fort. You know what i mean?
EDITED_BY: Ascilith (1268763040)

Never take candy from strangers...... But popcorn is okay!

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
I am supporting, but what I was saying was that as he is quite unskilled for this, which I guess explains the low prices, but he charges like nothing if we were to do a show under his company. My old exchange student did fire shows for 50-100 Euro each and they're not really that good. They're OK and can put on a good show, but they're not that good skill wise.

I'd do $25 per song if they do more than one song for sure though, and the price for fire eating I think is pretty damn low because fire tends to be dangerous, hence the expense.

Since you are most likely now getting a range of performers, you might want to put their videos along with their own separate prices on your site.

I also have something you might find very useful. On this site you can have them imprint labels onto glowsticks that you buy in bulk in wholesale from them. I just found them from Ascilith and bought myself 50 6" glowsticks of assorted colors for $27, about 35 with shipping. And they're stationed in IL so you'd get low shipping costs too. You can use them like awesome business cards with your site name on them. They do however, have a setup fee of $48 which means the first time you order you give $48, but everytime after that, it's just the set price of imprinted glowsticks, which depends on how much you buy because the more you buy, the cheaper they are.
https://www.glowwithus.com/promotional_glow_sticks.htm


I'd say that's something worth putting your expansion money towards

Also: I saw the video of you, if you are Tox, you should be damned amazing at glowstringing/poi. You need to get practice in with something like sock poi maybe if problem is control. But still, 4 years? I think you need to look up some tutorial videos, or other videos of spinners for some inspiration. Because I don't think anyone lacks the talent.
Such as here's some random guy's 1 year video, which is why I was surprised when I saw your video and all you could do was a sloppy 2bt and butterfly (no offense)




And for your video, it looks more like this:



Sorry if that was harsh, but I tend to be blunt so don't take that very hard. But that's why I was surprised when I saw on your site that you have been practicing for 4 years. If you guys really did hit a wall, then I'd suggest a teacher that is closer to as good as the guy in the first video. What I want to really tell you is, get out and practice different moves, learn to dance with poi, look at other people's videos to inspire you. If you're so willing to put all of that time into running a business at such a young age, which I think is really awesome and I would love to do myself but wouldn't even know where to start, than I think you could be really awesome at poi.

I hope my little motivational speech, I mean type :P, helped you in some way
EDITED_BY: SpinnerofDetroit (1268765563)

The only luck is bad luck.

Shut up before I stall my poi up your ass

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a pessimistic bastard, and I commend and encourage you for wanting to get out there and do your own thing and that.

BUT

Originally Posted By: wicca15The price is 25 dollars each show

Originally Posted By: wicca151 show lasts the length of a song so if you choose a long song you get a long show.

Originally Posted By: wicca15ive been performing for about a year, but i only practice when im not doin schoolwork,working two other jobs, so i have very lil time to practice, i just learned a reverse three beat weave.

Is it just me who thinks this is bit of a rip-off?

Let's just say someone picks a 5 min song (about average for most genres). That's $50 for 10 minutes.

Do you really think your skills are worth $500 an hour? Or $5 a minute?

That's like the same price as going to see a gig.

I think you really need to re-evaluate your pricing, especially until you have more spinners on your roster or you have put more time into improving your skills.

Best of luck though
EDITED_BY: T-S-A (1268764431)

"We were making castles in the sand: Now we swim in the seas that swept them away"

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Hmm, I took quite a while updating mine ^^^(look up if you haven't seen my massive edit), I do have to say one thing that never struck me about the prices. T-S-A is right about that. You need to think off a different system of payment, not per song, but just to come and perform. The fact that it was per song just kinda flew over my head.

I think something like per hour, or just to come there for however long they want, or set a long routine of different performances and charge for that.

See when you posted on here, you just got a flood of ways to improve your business. And remember not to take it as an insult ,we're just giving you constructive criticism.

Since the tone of our voices doesn't really communicate over typing, the line between the two tends to blur.

The only luck is bad luck.

Shut up before I stall my poi up your ass

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Maybe if I only communicated through writing in my life. But since this is just a forum, I can just merely say what I mean if I look at it and it looks a little "not-sure-what-it-means-ish."

The only luck is bad luck.

Shut up before I stall my poi up your ass

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Whaddya mean we ain't not been talkin' right?

"Are you sure it's safe to drink bleach?"
"Yes, bleach is 90% water, we are 90% water, therefore: we are bleach."
-Nathan Explosion, Metalocalypse

Posted: 16th Mar 2010
Oh crap! Did I just turn into FT for a moment?

(Hands Nash a Mountain Dew)
EDITED_BY: Refuge Crew (1268777476)

The popcorn extends life... The popcorn expands consciousness...

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
Per song? Alright I'll have to agree with the others on that. But yes, this all should be meant as helpful. The skepticisms we have would be multiplied tenfold by people that don't spin. Considering half of them are mortally terrified of fire. I'm glad that you're getting out there, but these are just things you must take into effect. I think Detroit had some good advice. Learn to dance with them. Make them almost an extension of you. People usually think im a clutz and completely uncoordinated but when you put a pair of poi in my hands, they couldn't believe their eyes.

Lol whaaat? Callin americans stereotypical...?

To Detroit: Lol good. I wasn't sure if my message with the sites on it sent or not. Glad you found a price that you liked. I'm curious to see the quality of these ones.

Never take candy from strangers...... But popcorn is okay!

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
I think we ran another one off. I am wondering if he knows his thread is very much alive.

Stereotypical... No... but have you seen this movie?


Non-Https Image Link

The popcorn extends life... The popcorn expands consciousness...

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
hey im still hear just a lil busy, i am very aware that this thread is alive lol, im just wishing it would stay on topic, i am taking in everything that is said on here, I just found out that i am unable to hire across states due to me being 16 and would have to create a intra something and lets say mother jsut doesnt want me to do that till im 18(which totally sucks but yea) i could still continue to work in other states tho without her knowing, i have my mom creating up a waver release form for customers to sign if they want any fire shows. This will wave any future law suits away from us lol. I am learning new stuff along with it too once i get more free time i will be posting more vids on the website, i know alot of people on here are critiqueing or how ever you spell it lol, so i will be posting more later, the reason why there isnt any lighting for the glow stick poi is thats how i see it (it should be really dark so the customers cant really see you, that way the lights are more vibrant.) I am thinking about learning some dance moves to incorprate into it but lets just say im the worst dancer u will ever meet so its a slim chance of me learning something usefull lol, if anyone else wants to help me out it would be great
Thanks
wiccan

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
I haven't seen it yet. Any good?

oh dancing to poi doesnt mean knowing how to dance. Just let your music move you. You'll see what I mean eventually. Make sure somewhere on the waver it says something like "I have read and understand that I take full responsibility for any stupid actions taken by my guests and am liable for their actions" or something at least cursory that puts all blame on them if a party guest tries to run into your poi.

Never take candy from strangers...... But popcorn is okay!

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
Originally Posted By: Ascilithoh dancing to poi doesnt mean knowing how to dance. Just let your music move you. You'll see what I mean eventually.

Man, that sh1t is tight.
Yo diggity!

Last time I came here a friend of mine just got triple-jacked over a steeplehammer and jessop jessop jessop jessop jessop.

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
Originally Posted By: wicca15lets just say im the worst dancer u will ever meet so its a slim chance of me learning something usefull lol, if anyone else wants to help me out it would be great


I wouldn't consider poi dancing to be the typical style of dancing. Like yourself I can't dance for , I fall over my feet and look like a bear having a seizure.

However, learning stuff like turning, opening your arms out, moving your feet, changing your body position and stature all add to your "dance". When you learn a "move", like the 3 beat weave, learn it backwards too, that gives you the ability to turn with it. Extentions are simple but very effective and can be thrown in too.

The problem I see with your spinning is it's too closed off, everything is done pretty much with your hands in front of you and together (weave, butterfly), try breaking apart, moving your hands to the side, so if your doing a butterfly move 1 hand out or up, or move both hands appart in a circul opposite each other and back into a butterfly, or throw an extention in. Or you could try with the butterfly moving it around in front of you as a whole, so keep your hands together in butterfly, and move them around together in a circul in front of you, or change from same time to split time.

All of these things that can be picked up fairly quickly with a little practice, and can really add some dynamics to your spinning. Learning flowers really really REALLY helpped me, not so much learning to do a 4 petal antispin flower in its self (which is cool) but it teaches you to open up and move your body around. Have a look on youtube for wallplane flowers, I personally find them easier than wheelplane flowers and at the stage your at, I really think it would help add more to your performance.

Pendulums are great to learn and throw in, they are simple and can be used to change from same direction to opposites, stalls are good to learn too, even the most basic (stalling down, or too the side) can add that little bit more to your routine, so your not just switching between butterfly and weave, you could do something like:

3 beat weave > rev 3 beat weave (to turn) > pendulum > butterfly > split time butterfly extention > bring it back in > move the s/t butterfly around in front of you > part your arms and sepperate the buttefly > stall the hand you didn't pendulum with > weave > extention with 1 hand > weave > corkscrew.

Just adding them simple things can make it much more interesting to watch than:

butterfly > weave > butterfly > weave > corkscrew > weave > butterfly

Please don't think I am picking holes, as I said before, I commend you for your ambition and think it's great that your getting out there and doing it, and I am trying to be helpful in my own way.

Best of luck

"We were making castles in the sand: Now we swim in the seas that swept them away"

Posted: 17th Mar 2010
Originally Posted By: UnscrupulousChavOffersFootOriginally Posted By: Ascilithoh dancing to poi doesnt mean knowing how to dance. Just let your music move you. You'll see what I mean eventually.

Man, that sh1t is tight.
Yo diggity!

Last time I came here a friend of mine just got triple-jacked over a steeplehammer and jessop jessop jessop jessop jessop.

Well, that's what happens when you take a load of Triple-Sod infront of the Boz boz.


You can't say the warnings wernt there

EDITED_BY: T-S-A (1268850738)

"We were making castles in the sand: Now we swim in the seas that swept them away"

Posted: 20th Mar 2010
Ok, im wondering if anyone else has any tips for me, cuz as i posted earilier im unable to expand the business to other states im srry for misleading people that did want to join. But i will be more than happy to get some tips or anything that you guys want to give me.
Thanks
Wicca

Posted: 21st Mar 2010
I dont every really put my say in anything poi related cuz its become to much of opionated perspective on everything about it but starting a biz is much easier in a larger city period and you have to be GREAT i think to really charge people for an art that is worth way more than 25 bucks a show but it has to be perfomed well and demonstrated with technical skill and beautiful motion "footwork" so just think before you get in over your head just my honest opinon on this thread here is my video just so u dont think im talking out of my ass well "spin whith passion and let it be your outlet(:"


EDITED_BY: poiboi33 (1269222205)

Posted: 21st Jun 2010
i can do about 20 to 30 different tricks along with a lot of variations and live about 2 hours from columbus should email me gecko7897@yahoo.com

Posted: 21st Jun 2010
hit me up at gecko7897@yahoo.com i spin poi am decent and live in ohio bout 2 hours from columbus thanks

Posted: 21st Jun 2010
What I was told is the people who perform on cruise ships make ridiculous money. Like $2000 per session big. And it so happens my mom has a connection to a cruise line from an old friend so I'll definitely look into that.

The only luck is bad luck.

Shut up before I stall my poi up your ass

Posted: 22nd Jun 2010
Originally Posted By: gecko7897i can do about 20 to 30 different tricks along with a lot of variations and live about 2 hours from columbus should email me gecko7897@yahoo.com

Since you felt it necessary to grave dig I feel it necessary to start spouting my existential bull about poi spinning. You are limiting yourself horribly by thinking of poi as "learning tricks". Everything is simply different motions in relation to each other creating different patterns, you can literally do the exact same "trick" dozens of different ways and it comes out looking entirely different, labeling is simply a poi spinners claim to fame and a way for one spinner to communicate with another easily without having to demonstrate.

I don't want to ever hear of you saying tricks when referring to poi ever again, you can come out of the corner when you've learned your lesson.

Posted: 22nd Jun 2010
To elaborate on "you can literally do the exact same "trick" dozens of different ways" think of the arm motion for a split time butterfly, now a pac-man, now a split time butterfly extension, now an in-spin, it is all the exact same pattern is it not?