Tag archives for magic

Six things to consider when hiring a magician – part two

By Harry Published 29-06-2012

This is the third in a number of posts I am writing about hiring magicians for events. The other posts are available here, and here.

Last week I discussed the importance of whether you want a close-up or a stand-up magician, how long you should hire a magician for and whether or not you need to hire a specialised children’s entertainer. This week I’ve got three more things you should consider if you want to get the best out of your magician.

This list, as with last weeks, is as applicable to weddings, corporate events, Christmas parties, birthday parties or any event you’re considering hiring a magician for. There’ll even be some relevance if you’re booking any other kind of wedding entertainment.

What Else is Going On

Before you book a magician you need to consider when you want them to perform; at the drinks reception or the meal? After the meal? Or at any other stage throughout the event. It’s  important to think about what else will be going on at the same time. If you want the magician to perform during the meal then it’s important to know that most magicians don’t actually perform when people are eating – the audience is just too distracted by the food and the waiters aren’t impressed at the added obstacle! Instead, they tend to perform for a table or two between the courses. This dramatically reduces the number of guests the magician can get round in the time given. What I’ve found is that I tend to be able to perform to two tables after the guests sit but before the starter is served, one table between the starter and main course, one table between the main and the dessert and any remaining tables after that.

Another big thing to consider is whether there will be a band or DJ on at the same time. While some magicians just perform magic silently, the best have well scripted routines that include lots of humour and byplay with the audience. If there’s loud music or a band encouraging people to get up and dance then it becomes difficult for people to properly engage with the magician. Also, if the tables are large then it becomes nearly impossible for the magician to entertain the whole table at once without resorting to shouting – doubling the time it takes to get around all the guests. It might be worth considering having the magician earlier in the event – that way you’ll get the best out of the magician and the guests will appreciate the entertainment more.

Price VS Quality

With magic you often get what you pay for. If you get a price quoted for an event from five different magicians you could well get five different prices! Often, one or two will be far far lower than the rest. While you might luck out and get an excellent magician, you are more likely to be unsatisfied with the quality of the service. That’s not to say you should instantly hire the most expensive magician, you will get a variety of good magicians for different prices – for example, I’m far from the priciest magician you can hire but I have always left my clients happy. My advice is to hire the magician that fits your budget best. If you are looking for a top tier entertainer with decades of experience you will have to pay for it, but if you are just looking for a magician to add something special to your event there’s no need to go overboard and spend several grand! Just be wary of those who offer their services at suspiciously low prices.

Enjoy the Performance

You’ve booked a magician, great move! You’re guests are going to see something totally different. Make sure you see it too. If you’ve gone to the effort of hiring someone, take the time to see them in action. So many event organisers get caught up with making sure everything runs perfectly on the day that they forget to sit back, enjoy the food and wine, and see all their hard work pay off.

Most magicians also have special “top table” tricks that require a lot more effort to perform that they reserve for the person who’s hired them and the group they are with – don’t miss out on it!

Well that concludes the second set of things to consider when hiring a magician. If you feel I’ve missed anything please add it to the comments! Another post on hiring magicians will be up in the near future. To know as soon as the it’s up you, follow me on facebook or twitter.

Harry Guinness is a professional magician based in Dublin, to hire him, or for more information, go to www.HarryTheMagician.ie.

All links to amazon in this blog are affiliate links, I have to pay webhosting somehow! However, that in no way changes my opinion of the product. If I wanted to make money off affiliate links, I wouldn't write really long review of €5.00 books.
Posted in Business, Magic Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Six things to consider when hiring a magician – part one

By Harry Published 22-06-2012

This is the second in a number of posts I am writing about hiring magicians for events. The other posts are available here, and here.

You’re thinking about hiring a magician for your event; good move! But there’s a few things you should consider before booking one, here’s three, if you see anything you feel I’ve missed, say so in the comments. I’ll be posting a second set next week.

This list is as applicable to weddings, corporate events, Christmas parties, birthday parties or any event you’re considering hiring a magician for. There’ll even be some relevance if you’re booking any other kind of wedding entertainment.

Close-Up or Stand-Up

As I mentioned in the previous post, when you hire a magician to perform at an event, they’re likely to either be performing close-up, wandering around between groups of guests or else be standing up on stage performing to all the guests at once. I mainly perform close-up so this post is going to be a little biased towards that but if you have your heart set on a stand-up magician you should still find a few helpful hints. The big difference between close-up and stand-up, other than the obvious, is the attention required to watch it. Close-up magicians tend to spend less than ten minutes with each group of guests while stand-up magicians often perform for thirty or forty-five minutes. Especially if the event is a wedding where groups of people haven’t seen each other for a while and want to catch up, watching a magician for forty-five minutes is a big ask! In general, unless other things are happening on a stage – prize ceremonies, speeches, that sort of thing – your guests will probably appreciate a close-up magician more. Close-up is usually a bit cheaper too!

The Number of Guests

The number of people you’re having to your event is a huge factor in hiring a magician; if you’re hiring a stand-up magician the number of guests is much less important – as long as the microphone and stage are up to scratch you should be okay – but if you’re hiring a close-up magician and there’s too many people for them to get to everyone some guests will be a bit put out. Any good magician will do their absolute best to get around to everyone – however, we’re only human (despite pretending, and sometimes looking, otherwise); if you’re having a thousand guests, booking a single magician for an hour isn’t going to cut it – likewise, hiring three magicians for four hours when you only have sixty guests isn’t exactly right either.

When I’m performing I try to spend six to eight minutes with each group I entertain. With the time to walk around between groups, reset things or being asked to do “just one more”, I find I end up entertaining between eight and ten groups an hour. Now how big are groups? Anything from three to twenty plus people; but about five or six is average. That means that approximately sixty people see me each hour that I’m performing – or roughly a person a minute. If the guests are seated in tables of eight or ten then I’ll entertain slightly more people – ninety or so at the high end. While I can speed up my performance and often stay a little later at gigs just so I can get around to the last few people it’s not an ideal situation for anyone – if you’re booking a magician and want them to get around everyone, hire them for a minute per guest and you won’t be disappointed.

The Big Guests or the Little Guests

While not so much a feature at corporate events, children are often very important guests at weddings. If you want someone to distract the children for an hour or two, your best bet is to hire a professional children’s entertainer, I’d recommend Kaboom. However if you mainly want the magician to entertain the adult guests, face-painting and balloon animals probably require an unacceptable bar tab. Most magicians are more than happy to spend a few minutes performing to the children – my personal preference is to actually teach the kids a simple magic trick that they can then perform for their parents, it always goes down a treat! Basically, if you want the children entertained for longer than ten or fifteen minutes, a specialist is the way to go, but if you just want them to get in on the magical action for a short while, most magicians are more than capable.

The second set of things to consider when hiring a magician will be up on the blog next week, be sure to check back then. To know as soon as the post’s up you can follow me on facebook or twitter. And if you feel I’ve missed anything please add it to the comments.

The second part of this post is now online here.

Harry Guinness is a professional magician based in Dublin, to hire him, or for more information, go to www.HarryTheMagician.ie.

All links to amazon in this blog are affiliate links, I have to pay webhosting somehow! However, that in no way changes my opinion of the product. If I wanted to make money off affiliate links, I wouldn't write really long review of €5.00 books.
Posted in Business, Magic Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

American Gods by Neil Gaiman – Review

By Harry Published 16-06-2012

American Gods CoverAmerican Gods by Neil Gaiman is firstly an excellent book, and secondly, a bloody hard book to describe – the latter especially, making this a difficult review to write. The version I read, or rather listened to, was the Tenth Anniversary Edition with the author’s preferred text.

American Gods tells the story of Shadow, a man recently released from prison for a crime he did commit, and his journey across America in the employ of an old hustler, Mr. Wednesday. On his release, Shadow soon discovers that all the gods and other mythological figures that had ever been believed in are real; and that there are new gods rising – gods of TV, highways and the internet – who seek to replace the gods of old. Throughout his journey Shadow encounters a vast cast of mythical characters; from Thoth and Anubis to Suibhne and Anasi as well as the new g. Trying to identify the mythical figures, and the foreshadowing that comes with knowing who they are, that Mr. Wednesday, Nancy, Ibis, Jacquel and all the others represent is a huge part of reading American Gods.

For all that it features a cast that includes gods, leprechauns and djinn, assigning a genre to American Gods is almost impossible. Even Gaiman seems unsure as to what shelf the book belongs on in a library – in his introduction to the Tenth Anniversary edition he points out that American Gods has won awards for best fantasy, science-fiction and horror novel. (A literary critic would raise their bespectacled nose and say that given the construction of the prose, depth of the allusion and Gaiman’s raw talent, American Gods “transcends” mere genre fiction and should be considered literature; in response to the hypothetical literary critic I’d say, bollocks, and point them to Lev Grossman’s article on the divide – or lack there-of – between genre and literary fiction). Regardless, American Gods does not suffer much from it’s identity crisis – anyone and everyone will likely enjoy it.

Plot wise, American Gods once again defies easy description. The main plot draws as much inspiration from Hollywood as it does from literature; it has elements of old-school heist and road trip movies as well as nods to the amateur detective novels of the 1920′s and 30′s. Various sub-plots weave romantic and horror elements in to the book. The main thing that can be said for American Gods’ plot is that it is excellent. The disparate elements drive the plot forward and the book, despite being over 600 pages, never begins to drag. Even when there is very little overt action occurring, Gaiman’s subtlety and fascinating characters keep the reader engaged. As with many multi-plot books, American Gods has multiple revelations built into the last 200 hundred pages which make it even harder to put down.

Gaiman has taken some flack for both the perceived dryness of his prose and his characterisation of Shadow. On the first point, I found Gaiman’s writing to be excellent, I can see how someone might find it dry but thing that if they do, it isn’t the book for them. Despite my distaste for the concept of literary fiction being superior to genre fiction, Gaiman’s prose has more in common with Martin Amis than J.K. Rowling. Also, Gaiman’s style relies heavily on allusion and so, if someone misses the references, a lot of the writing may seem odd or redundant. On the second point, I also found Gaiman’s characterisation of Shadow to be excellent. While Shadow’s reaction to events in the novel may appear to some to be unrealistic, given that he has just spent three years in jail as well as the constant barrage of life-shattering revelations on his release, I thought he acted fittingly. Also revelations later in the novel further explain any oddness in Shadow’s personality.

Interestingly, American Gods features plot points that appeal to me both as a magician and as an atheist. Shadow’s coin tricks are an important part of his character and a number of plots in the book. Initially a method for killing time in prison, they become a catalyst for several important scenes. Gaiman’s behind the scenes descriptions are both accurate and extremely well written. The skill required to describe a series of technical moves in a way that doesn’t alienate a large portion of the readers as well as to actually engage them is immense – however, Gaiman nails it. If more magicians could write even a tenth as well magic books might be bearable.

Gaiman’s underlying premise – that gods exist because people believe in them, the more people who believe the more powerful they become and when no one believes they become powerless – is a fascinating idea. In a sense, it’s true in the real world. Whether or not a god actually exists is immaterial to whether it not it has power, that people believe they exist is really all that matters. The more people who believe in the concept of a particular god, the more powerful that concept becomes. And when nobody believes in the concept, it loses all it’s power. Zeus, once all powerful, has now been reduced to a character in bad Hollywood films while if someone dares to so much as draw Muhammad, they will receive death threats – and sometimes, just death. The actual existence of a god is in no way required for the concept to have power. This is blindingly obvious in the world today. The Abrahamic concept of god wields immense power over all manner of public and private discourse, both here in Ireland, and around the world. Debates that should be focussed on the scientific and humanitarian facts around issues such as stem cell research, abortion and gay rights are stymied at every turn by the continuing focus on the “morals” dictated by the concept of a Christian god. Regardless of whether this god is real or not, the power the concept has is undeniable. To me, Gaiman has simply taken this concept to its logical conclusion, and characterised the concepts.

American Gods probably isn’t for everyone. It’s a dark, long and sometimes difficult read. However, if you can give the book the attention it deserves it is a very rewarding experience. I can honestly say it is one of the best books I have ever read. In particular, atheists should get a kick out of the portrayal of gods. I had put off reading American Gods for quite a long time because I didn’t really know what I would be getting into. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Do yourself a favour and go to amazon and order it now!

As a final aside, one line in the book really stuck with me and I thought I’d include it here:

“It’s easy, there’s a trick to it, you do it or you die.”

Harry Guinness is a professional magician based in Dublin, to hire him, or for more information, go to www.HarryTheMagician.ie.

All links to amazon in this blog are affiliate links, I have to pay webhosting somehow! However, that in no way changes my opinion of the product. If I wanted to make money off affiliate links, I wouldn't write really long review of €5.00 books.
Posted in Atheism, Review Tagged: , , , , , , ,

What does a magician do at gigs?

By Harry Published 12-06-2012

When people look to hire a magician, like me, as party entertainment, they are sometimes unsure as to what they are actually getting. Now obviously I’m drawing on my experience as a magician in Dublin, so other magicians may do things slightly differently or hold different opinions. Also, I preform predominantly to adults and will focus on gigs for adults in this post.

In general when someone books a magician, they will perform in one of two contexts: either stand-up or close-up. If a magician is doing a stand-up gig then they are on a stage in front of the entire audience for anywhere between15 minutes and an hour, performing. For a close-up gig, the magician performs from about an hour to three or four hours, going around small groups of guests, when they are either standing or at tables. A stand-up gig requires the attention of the whole crowd for an extended period of time and so is sometimes not suitable for events – especially when there is a drinking audience. However, a close-up performance is rarely unsuitable for an event; in fact, unless the magician is awful, they can only add to the guests enjoyment. I specialise in close-up magic, where as other magicians have spent years honing a professional stand-up act.

So let’s look at a typical gig. Imagine I’ve been hired to entertain at an event such as a Christmas party. I’ve been booked to perform from 8 until 10 going around the tables after the meal. I arrive before 7.30, usually earlier but never later, and introduce myself to the person who hired me, often this is the first time I will have met them in person unless this is a repeat booking. I check out the venue I’ll be performing in and then I get set up, put all the right tricks in the right pockets and make sure I don’t have any toilet roll stuck to the bottom of my, immaculately polished, shoes.

At 8 or whenever the person who hired me wants, I start to work the room. I approach the first group of people, introduce myself and then perform my opening trick; it’s normally one that gets everyone laughing and having a good time. After that, I keep entertaining the group for a few minutes and then say my goodbyes before moving on to the next group. Normally, I try to spend five to seven minutes with each group; however, depending on how long I’m booked for and how many guests there are, I might spend more or less time, as I have to get around everyone in the time I’ve been booked. While moving between groups I reset anything that needs to be reset and take the occasional swig of water so that I don’t lose my voice – no one wants a silent magician!

After I’ve finished performing I let the person who hired me know I’m done and then try to hang around near the bar for 10 or 15 minutes so anyone who wants a word can find me. After that I pack up, hop back in the car and head home leaving behind another satisfied client!

Close-up magic is a perfect way for someone to add some entertainment to a party or wedding or any event that doesn’t get in the way, require loads of set up or cause any hassle. When I’m booked I show up, do my thing, make people laugh and gasp, and then leave. Unlike a band or a stand-up comic, a close-up magician doesn’t need a stage or the entire rooms undivided attention; they give everyone, up-close, personal entertainment. If you’re interested in booking me for a gig, whether it’s a Christmas party, a wedding or anything else, my contact information is on my website.

Harry Guinness is a professional magician based in Dublin, to hire him, or for more information, go to www.HarryTheMagician.ie.

All links to amazon in this blog are affiliate links, I have to pay webhosting somehow! However, that in no way changes my opinion of the product. If I wanted to make money off affiliate links, I wouldn't write really long review of €5.00 books.
Posted in Business, Magic Tagged: , , , , , , ,

A first post

By Harry Published 10-06-2012

My FaceThis is a vanity project. Not much more, not much less. It’s insanely egotistical for me to assume that anyone is going to read this; luckily for me (though maybe not for you), I am just about egotistical enough.

What can you expect on this site? Anything and everything that takes my fancy. I’m a magician, psychology student, amateur photographer, writer, publisher, atheist, TV advisor and exercise junkie with a love of books, Apple products, cocktails, awful music and doing the least amount of work necessary. Any of those things could pop up; maybe together, maybe separately. I suppose a big part of it all will be reviews and opinions as well as stuff about products and projects I am working on. The odd bit or personal stuff may creep in too – everyone needs a therapist and the internet can be mine.

What else will there be? Photos almost certainly – but only my best ones. I’m taking at least one a day for the entirety of 2012 but they won’t make it here individually. If you’re interested in that, facebook is the best place to follow me. In the next day or ten I’ll post a collection of the photos I’m proudest of so far. I’ll likely have a number of big (for me at least!) announcements in the next few weeks, they’ll all make it on here. Hell, some of these “big” announcements may even make people read this blog! We’ll see how things go.

Other than that, I’m gonna very much play it as it goes. As Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke said “No blog plan survives contact with the internet.”

Harry Guinness is a professional magician based in Dublin, to hire him, or for more information, go to www.HarryTheMagician.ie.

All links to amazon in this blog are affiliate links, I have to pay webhosting somehow! However, that in no way changes my opinion of the product. If I wanted to make money off affiliate links, I wouldn't write really long review of €5.00 books.
Posted in Personal Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,