BLOG ARCHIVE

Corporate Event Magician, Northamptonshire

Last night I had the pleasure to be booked by Redrow Homes Ltd to perform at their end of year celebration. This is a yearly (obviously) event to thank their staff for their hard work and to celebrate the companies achievements. This year the event took place at The Church Restaurant in Northampton. There was roughly one hundred guests, employees of Redrow homes. They required a close up performance during the drinks reception as the guests arrived and at tables throughout the meal. I was on a bit of a tight schedule as they had speeches followed by Karaoke at 9.30pm so I had to be finished by that point, no opportunity to run over if I felt I had missed anyone out. I started as soon as the guests arrived, performing for small groups as they ate nibbles and drank champagne. At 7.30 they were called into the restaurant to eat and I continued to perform at their tables. When performing throughout a meal I will generally perform between courses so I am not disturbing people as they ate. As time was quite tight for this event and I had a lot of tables to get round I did perform duing the starters and dessert course to ensure I got around everyone. Each table received a private show for about 10 minutes. When I finished a lot of tables asked for a further performance, as I didn’t have time to give everyone another show I grouped people together on one of the tables and ended with a finale that one person descibed as the most awesome thing they had ever seen, someone else thought it was terrifying and told me to get out of their mind! 
It was a fantastic evening and I wish I had longer with everyone as they were such a receptive group. A big thank you to Redrow Homes for the booking and thanks to everyone at the Church Restaurant for all their help. Here’s a message I received this morning from the client:

“Thank you for attending our event on Friday, I know I speak for everyone when I say we were all blown away and a few people lost for words, we would 100% recommend you”
 

Close up Magician, Northamptonshire

On Sunday I was booked by Elevations Exhibitions and Design Ltd to perform at an event to celebrate their 30th year trading. This took place at Hunsbury Hill Centre, Harksome Hill, Northampton. After a particularly bad summer it was a rare treat to have the sun out and to be able to perform outside. The event was a vaery casual affair, attended by employees and their families. They also had a band and separate entertainment for the children. I  mingled with the guests as they ate their picnics in the grounds performing close up magic for small groups and individuals. At events like this I always like to keep things light and relaxed so kept things quite simple, a favourite routine under these circumstances is to ask someone to draw a picture whilst I and everyone else look away. I then attempted to duplicate their drawing, very pleased that I had an almost 100% success rate. I also performed some metal bending with coins and old keys the audience had with them, always a challenge but very satisfying to see metal bend in a persons hand. At the end of the day a small group gathered around me as I was leaving and asked for more so I performed a special routine for the director and his wife to the amazement of the audience. No hints here as to what I performed as I like to keep this secret for special occasions but if you ever see me perform ask me for the empathy routine…
Thank you to Christine and everyone at Elevations Exhibitions and design Ltd for a fantastic day.
IFor more details on booking a magician in Northamptonshire contact Edward on 07814 135569 or info@www.edwardcrawford.co.uk.

Wedding Magician Northamptonshire

On Saturday night I was hired to perform close up magic, also known as mix and mingle magic, during the evening reception at a wedding at the Barton Hall hotel, Kettering. I was hired to perform for an hour and a half, although ended up staying for 2 hours. Whilst it is most common to perform during the wedding breakfast or the earlier drinks reception at weddings the bride and groom wanted me to perform directly after the meal whilst the main room was being prepared for the band to play later in the evening.

Throughout the evening I mixed with the guests performing close up magic and mind reading for small groups of people, usually about 5 people. Generally each group would see a ten minute routine, although a fair few asked to see more which is why I stayed an extra 30 minutes to perform a few extra bits for those people. Towards the end of the evening I performed a special routine for the bride and groom. I gathered all the guests around us to watch as this was something I can only perform the once. I then performed what is probably my favourite routine which demonstrates the empathy and love between two people and resulted in gasps of amazement from the audience.

Here’s an email I received from the bride today:

“Stuart and I would just like to say a massive thank you for Saturday.  You were absolutely magically and our guests were raving about you all night. We absolutely loved the couple trick at the end …. good to know that we have empathy for one another.  Would definitely recommend you to friends and family in the future.  Madeline and Stuart ”

It was a fantastic evening and I look forward to returning to this venue again. If you’re after a Northamptonshire magician for your wedding then please get in touch to discuss your event.

​Table Magician Northamptonshire

On Saturday night I was hired by Rational, UK to perform at their annual awards ceremony for staff members. The event took place at Whittlebury Hall Hotel near Towcester. They were after a close up table magician to go around tables during a three course meal.

As ever with an event of this nature I arrived an hour early to check out the venue, meet the staff and get a general lay of the land. I always find it useful in advance to meet the serving staff at a dinner so I know how quickly the tables will be served, which table they will start with, how many courses etc. In this case there were 12 tables which meant I would be able to perform at one end of the room whilst the other end was being served, by the time they were serving at my end those served first would have finished eating and I’d be able to perform for them. This means I can get around as many tables as possible whilst ensuring I’m not performing whilst people are eating. For this particular event there was the added element of the awards which were being handed out between courses, this is the usual time for me to perform. So it meant a fair bit of stopping and starting. Ultimately I got around every table even though it meant staying an extra hour. Afterwards I headed out to the bar area where I performed for another hour with a crowd of people gathered around me, performing some of my parlour and close up routines.

The main thing to take from this particular event is that nothing is set in stone in regards to schedules and ultimately my main interest is in everyone getting to see a performance, a performance that they will never forget. It was a fantastic evening and I had a great time performing for everyone. If your’re after a table magician in Northamptonshire please get in touch to discuss in more details.

Party Magician Northamptonshire

On Saturday night I found myself performing at a 30th birthday party at The Marriott hotel in Northampton. This was my second booking of the day. As luck would have it the wedding I performed at earlier in the day was only 10 miles away so I had a nice leisurely drive over, as opposed to the more frequent 100 miles between gigs and the knowledge that an accident on the roads ahead could cause me to be late!

The event was a fairly formal sit down meal, things were to get a little rowdier later but I’d be on my way home by this point. The vast majority of the guests were Nigerian which created some interesting problems for me. The first was, if I asked someone to think of a name and they thought of  a Nigerian name I’d never heard of, would I still be able to work it out? The answer was, almost. My spellings were generally off but the phonetics were close. I always find reading facial expressions of people from different cultures fascinating. 99% of the time we are all identical but there are some inherent idiosyncrasies that differ depending upon country of origin and age group. Ultimately though, no matter where you’re from, as long as we can speak the same language, I can read your mind! Even when we can’t speak the same language I can get you to draw a picture and will be able to tell you what you’re thinking that way.

It was a really fun evening with a super responsive audience. I stayed about an hour late chatting to people about what I do and how it’s possible. Very pleased to have an email from someone this morning who saw me last night booking me for another event. If you’re after a Northamptonshire magician for your event please get in touch.

Corporate Magician Northamptonshire

June is always one of my busiest months of the year and this year is my best yet, this week alone I had 5 shows in 3 days! The majority of events at this time of year are corporate summer parties. On Friday evening i was in Kettering at the Kettering Park Hotel performing at the summer party for Total computers. The evening started with a short award ceremony for the employees followed by a BBQ and drinks party with me performing close up magic and mind reading. After a horrible rainy day the sun finally came out so the party could take place outside. As soon as the guests got out of the conference they were ready to party. I always give everyone ten minutes to get drinks in hand before I get started. At events of this nature I always like to keep things casual and relaxed. Mingling and mixing with the guests performing for small groups at a time. After about 30 minutes people were aware I was there and I started being invited over to join groups and before long I had a large group around me so I stayed in one place as people came over to me. Each group would see a 10 minute routine, performing something different for each group so everyone would see something completely unique. Reading minds and predicting peoples behaviour, giving the impression I can read the future! If I could do that I would of course be winning the lottery every week. I performed for about 3 hours (I’d been booked for 2) until the band started playing, at which point it got a bit loud for anyone to hear me so I headed off. This was a really fun evening with a group of people really keen to see something extraordinary, a really warm generous audience and I look forward to seeing them all again next year. If you’re after a magician for a corporate event in Northamptonshire please get in touch.