International Magician

Magic That Works in a Room Where Nobody Shares a First Language

Most entertainment does not travel. A comedian’s timing depends on idiom, a speaker needs everyone to follow the argument, and a band is a logistical operation before it is a booking. Put any of them in front of an audience from fifteen countries and you find out quickly how much of the act was being carried by language.

Close-up magic is one of the few things that survives the journey intact. I perform almost entirely without speech, using gesture, eye contact and magic that happens visibly in someone’s own hands. A guest who speaks no English gets the same experience as the person next to them, at the same moment, and the two of them turn to each other afterwards with the same expression. That shared reaction is worth more at an international event than anything I could say.

Why fly someone in from London

The Magic Circle means something. It is Britain’s magic society, founded in London in 1905, and it is not a membership you can buy. Every applicant sits a formal examination, or submits a thesis, in front of a panel of existing members. I have been a Member since 2016. Flying in a Magic Circle magician from London is a different proposition from booking whoever happens to be locally available, and your guests understand that without it needing to be explained.

London is well connected. I am an hour from Heathrow, Gatwick and City, which puts most of Europe within a two to three hour direct flight and the Gulf within seven.

There is nothing to ship. No staging, no sound, no lighting, no rigging, no freight, no customs carnet, no equipment insurance and nothing sitting in a bonded warehouse the morning of your event. Everything I perform with fits in hand luggage. If you have ever had an act’s equipment held at customs the day before a trade show, you already know why that matters more than it sounds.

You get a UK supplier. A proper contract, public liability insurance, invoicing in sterling or euros, and someone who answers email inside your working day.

Where I have worked

I have performed at trade show events in Frankfurt and at events in Dubai, alongside regular work across London and the UK at venues including ExCeL, the NEC and Grosvenor House.

The work translates. A trade show stand in Frankfurt runs on the same principles as one at ExCeL, and a corporate audience in the UAE responds to visual magic much as a London one does. I take bookings worldwide, so if your event is somewhere new to me, that is a conversation about logistics rather than a problem.

Trade shows and exhibitions abroad

This is where international magic works hardest.

On a stand at a major international show your problem is footfall. Thousands of people walking past, most of them tired, and a few seconds to stop each one. Magic stops them, holds them long enough for your team to start a real conversation, and gives them something to describe to a colleague later, which is how a stand gets remembered from a hall of four hundred.

The language point matters more here than anywhere. At an international show your visitors are not one nationality, and an act that only works in English is working a fraction of the floor.

Conferences, galas and client events

The same thinking applies to a conference drinks reception, an international sales kick-off, an awards dinner or a client hospitality evening. Wherever guests have been flown in from several countries and are standing in a room not knowing each other, visual magic does the introducing. For larger events there is more on team sizes and coverage on my magicians for large events page.

How the travel and the costs work

I would rather be plain about this than have you ask.

My fee is quoted separately from travel. Flights, hotel and airport transfers are booked and paid for by you, which nearly always works out cheaper than me booking them and passing the cost on with a margin on top. You book what suits your budget and your own travel policy.

Book as early as you can. This is the single biggest lever on what an international booking costs you. Flights six months out and flights three weeks out are not the same number, and neither are hotels in a city that is hosting the trade show you are exhibiting at. The date is usually the first thing you know and the last thing people tell me.

For anything outside the UK I plan to arrive the day before. A delayed flight should never be your problem on the morning of your event.

What I need from you

The date, the city and the venue. The running order once you have it. An idea of how many guests, and how many nationalities are in the room.

That is most of it. I do not need a stage, a sound system, a green room or a space on your floor plan, and I arrive in black tie or a suit unless you tell me otherwise.

For events in the UK, see corporate entertainment.