Format
Close-up magic
Performed at arm's length, for small groups at a time. The format with the highest ceiling and the narrowest margin for error.
A performer moves between groups of six to twelve guests, working at conversational distance for eight to fifteen minutes at a time.
Over a two-hour reception a strong close-up performer reaches most of a two-hundred-guest room without the room ever stopping.
The three failures we see most
The performer is booked for a room that is too loud or too spread out, and spends the evening competing with a band rather than working with it.
Nobody agrees who introduces them, so the first twenty minutes are spent being mistaken for a guest.
The set is identical for every group, and the twelve people who watch it twice notice.
We ask what the room is doing during the performance — seated, standing, eating, listening to something else — before we look at anyone's material.
For rooms above about 150 guests we will usually recommend two performers over one, and say so even though it costs you more.
Typically €2,000–6,000 for two hours, depending on the performer and the market. Above that you are paying for reputation and reliability rather than more performance.
Our fee is separate, flat, set by the brief, and quoted before we build a shortlist — so it does not move with which performer you choose. How it works.
Drinks receptions · Dinner tables between courses · Trade stands · Private parties
Describe the event. We will recommend two or three performers who fit it, with the reasoning written down — and tell you plainly when the answer is none of them.
- Cocktail hour entertainmentThe hour nobody plans for: guests standing, holding a drink, not yet talking to each other. The highest-value hour to get right.
- Walkaround performanceContinuous roaming performance across a long event, where the entertainment is texture rather than a moment.
- Stage showA single held moment for the whole room. The format most often booked for the wrong reason, and the one with the most to lose.