I appreciate your story, Glenn.
When you think about it, magicians are the ultimate con artists...
They get paid to fool you !
However, once I found out that being an entertainer rather than a magician was what people wanted, I got paid a lot more. Then I found out from a (Now) world-class author, who was doing a great mentalism show at the time that doing family shows and "kid shows" was where the real money was. It was true.
All kids have birthday parties.