BLOG ARCHIVE

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Close up Magician Croydon

The majority of my work, about 70% comes through recommendations and repeat bookings. The remainder comes through either this website or bookings from a number of agents who have me on their books. This booking was through an agent. At first I was a little dubious if my style of psychological magic would be suitable as the booking was for a party after a child’s baptism. I frequently get asked if I perform for children and the simple answer is no. The type of magic I perform is really not suitable for children, anywhere over about 12 is fine. It’s not that it may upset or offend anyone it’s more down to the fact it is designed for adults and younger children really will not understand what is going on. Personally I do not believe any entertainer is entirely suitable for adults and young children. If you want both entertained then you really need two performers. Anyhow, it turned out they didn’t want an entertainer for the children. I’d be there purely for the adults.
I started my performance as the guests arrive, performing close up magic and mind reading whilst mingling with the guests as they partook in drinks and nibbles. It’s always a good idea to start about 30 minutes after everyone has arrived to give everyone a chance to get in the door, greet one another and get drinks in hand. I performed for about an hour during the drinks reception after which the guests had a formal sit down meal. Between courses I performed at the tables giving each of the guests a close up, intimate display  – reading minds and revealing impossible to know details. 
It was a really fun evening, a big thank you to everyone for the booking and I look forward to seeing them all again in the future.
If you want to book a magician in Croydon please email me at  info@www.edwardcrawford.co.uk or telephone 07814 135569 to discuss the most suitable performance for your event.

Corporate Magician Croydon

On Thursday night I was hired By Citybond Suretravel to perform my parlour show at their annual staff New Year dinner (yes, this was in March so a little late!). The event took place at The Chateau in Croydon, a venue I’ve performed at a number of times over the years and a pleasure to perform at due to the super friendly and helpful staff. The event was a drinks reception followed by a sit down meal for about 50 people. I was hired to perform my parlour show for an hour after the main course. More details regarding this show can be found on my dinner magic show page but basically the show is a smaller version of my stage show designed to be performed anywhere. It required minimum space and set up and therefore can be performed in the smallest of venues therefore it is ideal for dinner parties where space is left at one end of the room for me to perform. 

The show itself is fully interactive and throughout a typical performance about 20 audience members would be included in the show. I was asked when booked that the nature of my show and style isn’t to embarrass audience members or assistants. As anyone who has seen my perform will know this is very much not my style, I prefer a far more low key performance in which the audience members who assist me leave feeling like the stars of the show.

The show itself involved mind reading, predictions, suggestion, influence and ended with a routine designed entirely for the company that used their name and logo, this final routine earned me a standing ovation which was a huge compliment.

It was a fantastic night and I had a great time performing for everyone. Here’s a few comments I received by email the following day;

“What a Great Show!!! Everybody is talking about it today… Many Thanks…”

“Thanks again for a great show, our staff really enjoyed your act. You were fantastic”

A massive thank you to everyone at Citybond for the booking and to the staff at The Chateau for their help, hope to see you all again soon.

Parlour show Magician Croydon

The hottest day of the year and of course I had an outdoor show at midday! This was a hot one. The event in question was a family birthday party with about 70 guests in their large back garden. They wanted  a formal show as opposed to close up which I would most commonly perform at events of this nature. My parlour show is ideal for this, it’s basically my stage show on a smaller scale designed to be performed anywhere without the same level of staging and far less set up. I arrived an hour in advance to set up and by the designated time to start everyone was seated in front of me , the audience seemed really up for the show. There was a real mixture of people, young and old. Whilst primarily I am an adult performer this show is suitable for children, although a few comments have to be cut! As ever with a show of this nature I start with a routine that involves the entire audience, it’s always good to get everyone involved at the beginning. After this I proceeded to read minds make impossible predictions and end the show with my favourite routine which involved the birthday boy which always results in a standing ovation. I received a fantastic reception afterwards and ended up staying an extra hour as I had crowds of people around me asking to see more. This is always my favourite form of compliment. It was a really fun show and someone from the audience has booked me for another event later in the year so I look forward to seeing them all again. If you’re after a Croydon magician please get in touch to discuss your event.

Table Magician Croydon

Summer is here and I find myself in the middle of corporate summer party season. On Thursday afternoon I was at the Croydon Park Hotel performing at an event for Sainsburys, entertaining staff members who had worked for the company for over 40 years. The event was a tea party for 60 people. Time was really tight here as they wanted both a table performance and an end routine for everyone to watch, taken from my cabaret show. There were 8 tables and normally I like to perform for about 10 minutes at each table but had to cut that in half as I only had an hour for both the table and cabaret performance. When working at a table I like to get everyone involved from the start, opening with a routine that uses all the guests. This will often be a psychological routine that tells me how everyone thinks so when I move onto the mind reading I know the best people to work with. Under normal circumstances I might perform 3 or 4 individual pieces at each table but due to time restraint had to cut it to 2. I went straight onto a mind reading routine next, using a couple of my favourites, either asking someone to draw a picture which I would then attempt to reproduce or asking someone to think of an old friend who I would then describe and tell them the name! Very pleased to say I had a 100% success rate. I manged to get around all the tables in 45 minutes and then it was straight into the cabaret routine. For this I used a couple of the senior managers. I could take a little more time here and performed a few of my favourite routines, demonstrating the empathy between them, reading their minds, and ending with a climax which demonstrates how it’s possible to predict peoples behaviour. Was very pleased to get another booking on the back of this performance at the Sainsburys Christmas party later in the year. If you’re after a table magician in Croydon please get in touch.