This is part 3 on How to Get Work ... and Keep it! ... by working as a Guest Entertainer on a cruise ship

Cue Sheets Always have your cue sheets ready to give the production manager. These will include any music cues and lighting cues. You will always get time to rehearse and this will be the time to go over any cues. The stages on the ships today are incredible and have everything. Prepare cue sheets for light and sound technicians. Early upon your arrival on the ship the stage manager will contact you. He or she will want to know what special requirements you need and how much rehearsal time to schedule. You should be familiar with your technical requirements. Talk to him about the kind of lighting and sound you need and any backstage help you will require. At rehearsal you should be able to supply written cue sheets that explain how and when all the technical things happen during your act. For recorded music I use a programmable mini-disc unit. If you use recorded music I recommend that you put it on the highest quality playback method you can. If you use extensive and complex lighting, I recommend you bring videotape of your act to show the lighting technician how you'd like it to look. Light fixtures change from place to place, but the same mood and affect can be created from various sources.

Live animals Some acts do use live animals on ships, to do this you need to get pre-approved by head office of the cruise line you are working for so they can sort out the paper work well in advance. To travel with livestock is the responsibility of the Guest Entertainer.

Theatre Conduct It is important that you are familiar with stage deportment; how to enter, exit, and take a curtain call. This is all part of professionalism, simple theatre 101. First impressions matter, but never more than when you are on stage. During the first 30 seconds, your audience will size you up. They make judgments about you that will color their attitudes about what you do. The first moments are critical. You need to strategically decide how you will present yourself immediately upon your introduction.

Likewise you should give careful consideration to the end of your act. How will you finish? How will you exit the stage? Cruise ship shows all have emcees, so you will be called back to the stage for a bow.

Usually, an act will finish their last routine and take a bow as the M.C. announces the act's name. The band will play a quick and bouncy piece of music as the performer walks off stage. The emcee will then ask the audience to "call the performer back," with another round of applause. At this point the entertainer walks back to the stage to receive the applause.

The theatres on cruise ships today are more equipped than most theatres on land, with the latest sound equipment, lighting and video equipment. Try and view your act as theatre and make use of all the technology available to you. In my act I use a video montage to introduce my Chaplin act. I have also performed close-up magic on the main stage and had it projected behind me on a large video screen. On a cruise you will be expected to know how conduct yourself and your act in a real theater setting. This is not always something a magician that is used to working solo is familiar with. You will deal with other professionals like the an emcee, stage manager, sound engineer, light technician, orchestra leader and other professional entertainers that you will share the stage and dressing room with. You should know stage terminology, blocking and what light designs you will need. If all this is foreign to you, get some experience before trying the ship market.

CONTRACT A Guest Entertainer Independent Contractor Agreement will be issued each time a Guest Entertainer is contracted to work on board. The contract should be reviewed carefully and signed accordingly. The contract will say how much money you are being paid on a weekly basis and your travel dates. You will also get a boarding letter. This letter will come in useful when going through immigration as they may ask to see it. Quite often when traveling through US immigration I am taken in to another room while they confirm with the cruise line that I will be joining the ship. This agreement will also give your flight details, the port agents details of the country you will be flying to and often your return flight. There are times where you don't get your return flight until you are onboard. Always have a copy of your contract and boarding agreement with you. You will need to show the boarding agreement to the security officer when you get to the gangway on the ship.

CONTRACT PAYMENT Each company differs on their pay system. There was a time when I would be paid on the ship on a bi-monthly basis, but this is no longer the case. In my case my agent gets my money on the 15th and 30th of each month and she then transfers it to my account. I prefer this because then she can take out her commission and it saves me having to send her the money. I know there are still ships where they act gets paid onboard and also some acts who have the money deposited directly in to their bank accounts.

During a ship's drydock, refit. Or maintenance period that falls within the duration of a contract, it is at the company's discretion to either pay the Guest Entertainer on a pro-rata basis or provide a round trip airfare to the Guest Entertainer's "home" airport and back to the ship. When I finish this contract next week the company is accommodating me for two nights in Gibralter before I transship to another ship for a week. They will pay for my hotel, food and any travel while I am staying in port.

Guest Entertainers are paid for the day they embark the ship, but not for the day they disembark the ship. Travel days are not usually reimbursed unless otherwise agreed.

For US citizens the company must report all earnings and a 1099 form will be issued at year end. All Guest Entertainers are responsible to payment of government taxes and so forth. In my situation I am a non-resident of any country having left New Zealand almost five years ago on a full time basis and so I am in the fortunate position of not paying tax. I have set up a US bank account so that I can have a US visa which I find very handy when paying onboard accounts.

Cruise Director While onboard the ship, it is the Cruise Director who looks after the Guest Entertainers and is the person in charge of scheduling performers and putting together the daily 'newspaper' on what the days activities will be. More often than not, it is the CD that will be introducing you, so have a very short and precise introduction prepared so that s/he can use it to bring you onstage. They don't like to read long winded introductions so my advice is to keep it short and simple. The cruise director is also the person who will be reporting back to head office about your act and how it was received. You will never really know what the CD is thinking and in my time on ships I think I have seen it all. You get the cruise directors who are very professional and care about their guest entertainers, yet on the other hand you get those that don't care at all. In one case, I had a CD who didn't even bother to turn up and introduce me, so I had to do it myself AND take myself off stage. The next night he never showed up and so another guest entertainer introduced the act. Without a doubt the worst CD I have ever worked for, just plain lazy and didn't care. When I approached him on the matter his comment was "I could get more money working at McDonalds" ... I told him maybe he should go there and work instead. This same CD I made a noise complaint because there were parties next door in the cabins every night going on until 3am, this went on for almost 2 weeks until I complained. We had the dancers in the hallway and none of the guest acts could sleep. When I complained the CD told me not to hassle his dancers, then I found out that he was the one holding the parties!!! Sometimes you can't win. I try to keep out of the CDs way, just go on, do my job, be polite and that is it. They do have a very busy life on a ship and they run a large department so as little hassle from guest entertainers makes their lives that much easier.