It feels far too early to be talking about Christmas. The nights are still light and nobody is thinking about mince pies yet. But if you are the person responsible for the office party this December, now is exactly the right time to be reading this, and here is why.
Every year I take the same bookings in the same order, and every year I have the same conversations in November with people who left it a few weeks too late. The best December dates, especially the Thursdays and Fridays in the run-up to Christmas, go first. If you want entertainment for your party, the single biggest thing standing between you and a good one is simply time.
Why December books up faster than any other month
Christmas is the one time of year when nearly every company in London wants to celebrate, and they all want to do it in the same three or four weeks. That creates a crush of demand on a very small number of prime dates. Add in that a magician can only be in one place on any given evening, and you can see why the popular slots vanish early.
The organisers who get exactly what they want are the ones who plan ahead. The ones who ring round in late November are choosing from whatever is left. Booking early is not about pressure. It is simply how you give yourself the pick of dates rather than the pick of leftovers.
If your party is likely to land on a Thursday or Friday in the first three weeks of December, it is worth locking entertainment in around September or October.
Why close-up magic beats most of the obvious options
The tricky part of an office Christmas party is never the venue or the food. It is getting people to talk to each other instead of standing in the same small groups they sit near all year.
A DJ needs a dance floor and a critical mass of people willing to use it, which usually means an hour of nothing happening first. A comedian or a speaker needs everyone seated and quiet at the same time. Both work, but both need the room to already be going.
Close-up magic does not. I move between groups performing magic that happens in your guests’ hands: a deck of cards that visibly turns to solid glass, or somebody’s own shuffled Rubik’s Cube solved in the time it takes to look away. Within a minute a quiet table is laughing and calling other people over. It breaks the ice without anyone having to volunteer, take a microphone, or stand up in front of colleagues.
There is no stage, no sound system and nothing to set up. It works around the meal, the drinks and the dancing rather than interrupting any of them.
What it looks like in practice
Most of my December work is corporate, and it tends to fall into one of three shapes. Working the room during drinks and canapes, before people have settled. Table to table through a seated dinner, filling the gaps between courses. Or a drinks reception before an awards presentation, warming the room up before the formal part starts.
Over the years I have performed at Christmas parties at The Brewery in the City and Grosvenor House on Park Lane, at City Central at the HAC and The Caledonian Club in Belgravia, at The Ivy in Soho and The Crown Inn at Burnham Beeches, and in the grandstands at Kempton Park and Epsom Downs racecourses. Every one of those was booked by the company or planner running the event rather than by the venue.
The material stays clean and suits any office crowd, from a team of fifteen to a room of three hundred. Above roughly 150 guests it is worth a conversation about either a longer booking or a second performer, because one magician can only reach so many groups in an evening.
The January option nobody thinks of
Here is something worth knowing if your date has any flexibility at all.
Plenty of Christmas parties happen in January. Hotels, venues and hospitality teams work straight through December and celebrate afterwards, and a lot of companies have quietly worked out that a January party is cheaper, easier to book and better attended, because nobody is competing with three other invitations on the same night.
January dates are far easier to get, for venues and for entertainment. If moving the date is an option, it is the single easiest saving available to you.
What it costs
My bookings run from £450 to £1,200. A 45-minute to one-hour set is £450 to £600, a two-hour booking is £500 to £900, and four hours across an evening is £800 to £1,200.
Those bands overlap deliberately. How long you book me for sets the floor, but it does not set the price. December is the busiest month in the calendar and prices accordingly, which is the other reason a January date or a midweek evening works out better. There is a fuller breakdown of what moves a quote on the wedding magician cost page, and the same logic applies to corporate bookings.
There is no travel charge anywhere in London.
One piece of advice for whoever is organising
Sort the entertainment early, ideally as soon as the date and venue are confirmed. It is the part people leave until last and it is the part with the least availability. Getting it booked takes one thing off your list and means you get the performer you wanted rather than the one who happened to be free.
Check your date
If you are planning a Christmas party this year and want close-up magic that gets the room talking, do not wait for the calendar to fill. There is more detail on how December bookings work on the Christmas party magician London page, or send me your date and I will tell you straight away whether it is still open.