I have been performing close up magic in some fairly unusual venues recently. A week or so ago I worked at a big event for IDeA (Improvement and Development Agency for local government) - they had their drinks reception in the Gorilla Kingdom at London Zoo. The host for the evening was Michaela Strachan who came over from South Africa where she lives to present awards etc. Anyway, had a nice email from the organisers today…

“Having seen some of the ‘tricks’, I can truly say they were incredible.  I know for sure that people were amazed and delighted.  I hadn’t told people beforehand either so we had the surprise element as well.

It’s the first time we’ve used a magician at our events, and following the success, I’ve kept your details on file for the future.  Thank you for your time and support and contribution to making the evening a great success.”

Things have been pretty busy for a few weeks… as well as the usual events, I have been doing a lot of company awards dinners. I guess it must be the time of year. Actually, on Thursday this week I have an awards lunch and then a dinner in the same day! Sometimes the organisers get minor celebrities to host the awards. Last Monday I was in Manchester and the host was Moira Stuart! I don’t know why but whenever I see famous people at events they are never singers or actors, but always newsreaders. If you look closely at this picture of me and Moira you can see Charles Burns the excellent silhouette artist in the background…

A lot of clients are asking me whether I am able to provide additional magicians for events (this is recommended if you have 150 or more people). In days gone by entertainment agencies would usually handle this but in modern times many bookers choose to go to the artists directly. This means more choice as you are not limited to the magicians on the agent’s books and also works out cheaper as you don’t have to pay their commission.

I am more than happy to recommend additional magicians for your event - ones who I have worked with a lot and can personally vouch for! Please see my magicians UK page for more info!

A week or so into the New Year and I have already failed on one of my resolutions which was to try and keep this blog updated! Christmas was as crazy as ever and I had jobs everywhere from central London to Birmingham, Hull and Newcastle. January has already been busier than usual and I only had a few days off before getting back into the swing of things. Another resolution (that I have stuck to this time) was to add a few new tricks and ideas into my act. Mainly because when you work as a close up magician you often do the same tricks 6-12 times in  a night. This means that after a few months you have done them hundreds of times so it helps to put new things in to try and keep the act interesting.

I think a lot of people must have got engaged over Christmas as I am getting quite a few wedding related calls and emails, including one the other day for 2012! Now that’s what I call planning…

Have had about one day off in the last two weeks, Christmas parties every day! Every year seems to get busier. I am still smiling though, just about,
I think I have a 2 hour window on the 24th to do some Christmas shopping. Thanks to all the companies that have hired me this year for their events, including the ones who were making bookings for a third year in a row.

Have been neglecting this blog recently on account of being rather busy. The main reason being that the Christmas party season has snuck on me and started before I thought it was going to. By rights tonight should be the first official Christmas party that I do as it’s the 1st of December but I have been working at different events since Wednesday. Wednesday daytime was one of the more interesting jobs I have done in a while in an office at Canary Wharf. Not only did I do about 8 or 9 magic shows in a training room but also was asked to judge the results of a model building team-building excersise the staff had been doing. An honour indeed! I left to go to a second job and didn’t stick around to hear the reactions to my thoughts on their labours.

So, Christmas party magic season has begun in earnest. I have just checked into an executive room at the Holiday Inn in Basingstoke - the only difference I can see between this room and a normal room is that they have left me a free KitKat Chunky. Tonight am at Tylney Hall at a big corporate event working again alongside The Three Waiters so should be a good job.

Just a couple of weeks before Christmas… still lots of last minute enquiries coming in. Every year there are a couple of dates that everyone seems to want. This year for me they are 6th and the 14th. Have turned down so much work for these nights it’s unbelievable.

November has been reasonably busy, and in the last week I have done a couple of very different events both in the North West. On Thursday I was working at the super-modern Manchester Hilton in their Cloud 23 bar which has amazing views over the city (see the picture on the left, the bar is on the top floor). It reminded me a bit of going up the Empire State building, although without the 3 hour queue. This was a client event for a Cardiff-based company. Last night was in Oldham at a 70th birthday party held in a private house. Both fun events.

I Dsd the largest event that I have worked at all year a couple of weeks ago: The Computing Awards for Excellence 2007 in Battersea. Around about 1100 people attending at a cost for a table of 10 people around the £3.5k mark! I was working alongside two of my magician friends Alan Hudson and Dave Jones (Dave got me the gig so thanks if you read this!) On Thursday I am back at the same venue working with the same elite team before spending a few days hanging out at the International Magic Convention in London.

Only a month or so to go before Christmas party season kicks off again.

My phone and emails are both going crazy with December enquiries for parties. I do still have some dates free, although many of the peak dates are now taken. It’s still worth checking as even if I can’t come along, I can usually recommend another close up magician who will do a fantastic job for your party. If you are looking online for magicians it must be pretty tough sifting through all the websites out there.
At the moment I am generally able to reply to emails within a few hours.
Yo ho ho.

Received this reference the other day in relation to a booking I did in Surrey recently. Will be added to my references page in time but in the meantime here it is!

My partner and I were both celebrating our 50th birthdays this year and held a party at the Queen’s Stand, Epsom to mark the occasion. Rob came along to entertain our guests and he was, quite simply, outstanding. Despite the fact that he was under scrutiny from at least six guests at any one time, no-one spotted a thing and we were all completely mystified as to how rings, glasses and money could disappear and end up in the most unlikely of places.

Rob was a huge success and everyone was talking about his magic long after he had left on the evening. Not only was Rob an accomplished magician but he was pleasant with it and mixed easily with our guests. He comes highly recommended!!

And by four figures, what I actually mean is four. I found out last week that I have one more regular reader than I thought. This is quite interesting as I didn’t really expect anyone to keep checking back just to see what kind of close up magic bookings I have been doing but apparently I was wrong! I am not sure the fact that I know most (or all) of my readership by name is a good thing. For one thing it means that if I speak to them on the phone I have less to tell them as they already know what I’ve been up to.
So, I just spent a couple of days in the North East - Newcastle and Sedgfield to be precise. I did a wedding at a huge building called The Sage which is in Gateshead, Newcastle. See the picture above. I am not sure if I thought it was an amazing work of architecture or just a bit fugly. Anyway, the wedding was great. I didn’t ask but I don’t think the bridge and groom were from Newcastle as about half the people there were from Scotland and the other half had southern English accents so perhaps they chose there to get married as it was about half way between.
The next day I drove down to Sedgfield for a pretty big company event. I was working alongside my friend Alan and also Matthew “The Party Animal” Dowden. There were about 300 people there I think and it was a fun job to do. It’s always good being booked with other table magicians as it makes the job a bit more social.