Wanted: Magician for Corporate Event

The number of times an event planner actively looks to hire a magician for a corporate event must be very small indeed. (At least that’s the case here in Colorado, where magic — as entertainment for grown-ups — tends to fly under the radar.)

But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a need, it simply means that, as magicians, we have to spend a lot of our time explaining how magic can help.

To begin with, magic can be used as a theme for many different events or products. For fund-raisers we can demonstrate “The Magic of Giving.” For a product launch, “The Magic of the New XTR2000.” For a sales kick-off, “Make the Magic Happen.”

And if we’re skilled at developing new bits of magic, we can even provide magic that illustrates the features of the XTR2000, or we can assist the CEO in performing a bit of magic to rev up his or her audience, or use magic to demonstrate the impact of the donor’s gift. If you can find a way to entertain people while informing them about your client’s product, you’ll always find people who are interested in booking you.

Using magic in this way, to help convey a message, is one of the most overlooked ways that we can help. Even if the client does not want to commission a customize piece of magic, we can still convey a message. If I’m working a client appreciation event, I will say to all the guests, “On behalf of Company X, thanks for being a client; we appreciate your business.” If it’s an event for employees and their families, I will tell the employees, “Ms. CEO has asked me to thanks each of you for your hard work on Project X.” I do this whether I’m working from the stage or doing mix & mingle magic at a reception.

The truth is that very few people need someone who can do card tricks, but there are people who need help hosting their event. There are people who need you to make their guests feel welcome. There are people who need you to thank their guests for attending. And there are people who need you to make their guests feel special.

An all together different way that magic can help a corporate meeting planner is to entertain the guests during the slow spots to keep the energy up and to keep the momentum going. Often, after the last business session, guests decide to skip the reception and go back to their rooms before dinner. As magicians we can provide incentive for people to attend the reception and can kick-start the festivities.

Also, as restaurateurs have long known, magicians can entertain guests while they wait for their food. At a banquet, people take their seats and the waitstaff begins serving the first course, but it may take 30 minutes to get the salads out to the last table. Then another 30 minutes go by before the entrée arrives. For events where the chef and the front captain are slammed and can’t get the food out any faster (or where tables must wait their turn to go to the excruciatingly slow buffet line), a couple of magicians, offering table-side entertainment, can help make the time pass more agreeably.

One final idea that we can bring to the table when meeting with an event planner. Very often business events can become content heavy. Throughout the day, the attendees are loaded-down with a ton of information. So much so, that they reach their saturation point. And before they can learn one more fact or figure, they need a break. They need to relax and have some fun.

Magic (either from the stage or up-close) can help people decompress, can help people relax and refresh. Magic gets people laughing and having fun, it allows them to blow-off some steam, and prepares them to learn more. And magic is safer than alcohol.

So while most corporate event planners won’t think of magic as a solution to their problems, there are a great many ways that magicians can help make an event better.