
Gala dinner · London · June 2026 · 400 guests
Four hundred guests, a running order that slipped by forty minutes, and a set that had to be cut live.
- The brief
- A charity gala with an auction of unpredictable length, and a twenty-minute stage slot immediately after it. The buyer had been let down the previous year by an act that ran to time regardless of the room.
- What we recommended, and why
- We recommended a performer with a demonstrated ability to cut a set live without it showing, over two technically stronger options who had never had to. The brief's real risk was the running order, not the material.
- What happened
- The auction overran by forty minutes. The set was cut to thirteen minutes on the night and finished on schedule. Recorded as observed in person; no incidents.
“He asked what time the auction was likely to actually finish, which nobody had ever asked us before.”







