Blog Entry

The following is taken from the blog on my previous website. Over the forthcoming months I will attempt to transfer all the entries onto this site but for the time being hopefully this will give some idea of past bookings.

Wedding Magician Portsmouth

On Saturday afternoon I was hired to perform close up table magic at a wedding reception at HMS Nelson Wardroom in Portsmouth. The people who booked me for this event had seen me perform my parlour show at an an event earlier in the year and had contacted me a few weeks later to book me for this event.

The wedding reception was a very informal, intimate affair – an afternoon tea with about 50 guests. I was hired to perform for 2 hours. The reception was a very relaxed, informal affair which is always one of my favourite type of events to perform close up. I arrived at the venue half an hour early to prepare and after saying hello to the people who had booked me I spent some time observing the guests, trying to work out who would be the best people to use in various routines. It always helps me out to get an idea of my audience before I perform, I’m looking for people who are shy and retiring and those who are the complete opposite, the outgoing, life of the party type. I will use both types in a number of routines but certain things work better with certain people. When I was ready to go I started to mix and mingle with the guests at their tables. My favourite thing about working close up for smaller groups is that I get a real opportunity to get to know people. I could spend 10 to 15 minutes with each table giving them a really in depth performance and including everyone at the tables in the various routines. Due to the psychological nature of my mind magic I would generally start off with a warm up which would include everyone at the table, this would give me an indication as to who would be the best people for the more in depth routines. My favourite warm up involves a prediction, a typical example is that I would write something down in a piece of paper. I would then ask the table to decide amongst themselves the name of a playing card. Which ever card they decide upon would be found to have been written down on the piece of paper! With the warm up out of the way I would move into the mind reading, at this point I will try to read the minds of the 3 or 4 people at a time. I might ask them to think of names of old friends, dates of important events and draw pictures which I will attempt to reproduce. Very pleased to say I had an almost 100% hit rate throughout the afternoon. Once I’d been round everyone once I went back to tables and performed a few additional routines, these are some of my absolute favourites which I rarely get the chance to perform when working close up due to time restraints. If you ever see me perform do ask to see my empathy routine. It’s one that always results in gasps of astonishment.

I had a fabulous time performing for everyone and was very pleased to receive another booking for later in the year from one of the guests. If you’re after a Portsmouth magician for your event please get in touch to discuss details.

Hire Magician Portsmouth.

Stage Show Magician Portsmouth

Most of my work these days are private and corporate events so it always makes a nice change to perform for the public. On Thursday night I performed a show a The Coastguard Studio in Portsmouth. This was my favourite type of show, a small intimate room with a small stage where I’d be nice and close to my my audience, giving me the chance to really interact with all the audience members. My typical stage show is for a corporate audience so this show was slightly different with two acts of about 45 minutes each. My aim in a show of this nature is to include the entire audience as mush as possible throughout a performance so i have a number of routines designed that the whole audience will be able to participate in. At other points in the show I will be calling people onto stage with me. I totally appreciate what a nerve wracking experience this can be for people so I will always make this as painless as possible for those who join me. Nothing I hate more than a magician who finds it funny to humiliate their audience. My stage is centred around the concept of mind reading and throughout I endeavour to delve into peoples thoughts. At one point during the show I went completely off script to try something new out that I’ve had in mind for a few years but never had the opportunity to perform, one of the audience members seemed ideal and got her up on stage to see if I could teach her how to read minds. I was as astonished as my audience when it worked! The whole evening was a huge success and I hung around for an hour after to chat to the audience about the show. If you’re looking for Portsmouth Magicians please get in touch for more details.