No one brings a sense of magic and wonder to an event quite like a magician. If it’s entertainment you’re after, then you won’t find a better performer! The secret is learning how to hire a good magician for your special event. You need to know what type of magician suits your event best, and how to know if they’re up to scratch.

Lucky for you, this article will discuss all the key points when searching for a magician for hire. Whether you’re looking for a “magician near me” or someone nationally, read on, and you’ll soon know how to book one for your upcoming event…

What types of magic performers are available?

Traditionally, there are three main types of magic performers to hire for your event:

• Close-up
• Comedy parlour
• Stage illusions

A close-up magician is someone who strolls around the crowd and performs a series of interactive magic tricks right up close to audience members. The magician often goes from table to table or group to group performing close up magic, and they’re best suited to events with wide-open settings. For example, a corporate dinner or a cocktail reception. Basically, any event where the guests sit or stand around tables, rather than one where they sit in an auditorium or theater.   This is great for mixers and the pre dinner cocktail hour.

A comedy parlour magician is very laid back and blends comedy with magic and most often is performed on a small to medium size stage. They perform some close up tricks and smaller illusions, but the main routine is built around the comedy element. Think stand-up comedy with a twist. These magicians are excellent if you want to lighten the mood and get everyone laughing.   Great for mid size crowds like at a corporate event where you still desire after dinner entertainment but a smaller scale than a theater setting. There will often be some audience participation.

Lastly, stage illusionists are magicians that love to put on a show. They’re best suited to big events with higher budgets where they have a large stage to perform on. Here, they conduct a series of mind-boggling illusions to wow the crowd. They sometimes get audience members up to take part, and they’re perfect for all kinds of large scale events.

How do you distinguish the best magicians from the rest?

I feel like magicians sometimes get unfair criticism from a lot of people. Some individuals hire a magician for their event, and they’re not pleased with the results. This is because being a magic performer requires a lot of skill and dedication. There are many excellent magicians out there, but there are equally as many poor ones who only do it as a hobby.  The ones who do it as a hobby are harder to distinguish with new online agencies like Gigmasters, GigSalad, Thumbtack, and Bark because anyone can create a profile and advertise without being fully qualified or fully vetted.

So, you have to find the best ones to ensure that your event is a hit. With that in mind, here are the top things to consider before hiring your magic performer:

Experience

Ideally, you should look to find a magician for hire with years of experience. Like everything else in this world, performing magic tricks and illusions is easier when you’ve been at it for a long time. Experienced performers are less likely to make mistakes, and they’re more likely to have a plethora of exciting tricks up their sleeves. So, make sure your magician has at least a couple of years experience – the more, the better.   Preferably 10 plus years experience performing.

Professional Website

An easy way to separate a professional magician from an amateur is to see if they have a website. All serious magicians should have a professional site set up that showcases their services. Ideally, you should be able to book through this website. At the very least, it needs to provide contact information to inquire about bookings.

A website does two things. Firstly, it shows that the magician takes their work seriously and wants to appear professional. Secondly, it gives you more information on the performer, so you can have a detailed look at what they offer, how much they charge, and so on.

Be sure to cross reference any entertainers you find on the above listed online agency websites to the entertainers official website.  Also try to cross reference them to online google searches for that area’s magicians for hire. If you can’t find an official website or are not seeing them in the search results with a link to their official website for that area when doing a google search for “Minnesota magician for hire” as an example that is red flag to their professionalism and experience if they have no online footprint.

Reviews

Why have some people hired bad magicians in the past? Most of the time, it’s because you can’t tell what’s good or bad.

So, how do you have a hope in hell of determining if a magician is up to high standards? It’s simple, look for reviews! Any performer worth their salt will proudly boast reviews online. This can be through Google Reviews or on their website. Either way, look to see what other people have said about the magic performers that you’re considering. This is the best way of telling if someone is worth hiring or not. If the reviews are all positive, then you know you’re on to a winner!

Videos

Ideally, a magician should provide videos of previous events. When consulted along with reviews, you get a better idea of what this individual is capable of. If you think about it, there’s no reason a magician shouldn’t provide videos. A video showcases their talents and can help them find work. So, you should see an absence of videos as very suspicious. It shows they clearly have something to hide – a lack of talent, experience, or dedication to their craft.

Social Media Presence

Lastly, it helps if a magician is active on social media. Why? Well, it does an excellent job of showing you if they’re popular or not. Well-known magicians will have large followings, so you know they’re a big deal. Also, social media is the best place to post videos or clips from shows. As such, you can learn a lot about a performer by stalking their Instagram feed.

Magicians with an active following on social media are easier to generate hype around. If you tell people that you’ve hired this incredible performer with over a hundred thousand followers, then it reflects well on you – and everyone will be super excited. If you hire someone with one follower, then it’s a bit lame.   Especially if you are looking for an influencer to come in and help promote your products or business.

Is there anything else to consider?

If you want to hire the best magic performer, then think about all of the things mentioned above. However, there are still a few other things to consider before you finalize anything.

Liability Insurance

All performers should have some kind of liability insurance. This offers protection if someone gets injured during their set, or if their equipment gets damaged. As the event organizer, it gives you peace of mind knowing that you won’t have to deal with any financial repercussions if any of these things happen. If they don’t have insurance, then it’s not wise to take the risk of hiring them.

Venue & Stage Requirements

Also, take the venue into account. Some magicians can only perform for crowds of a certain size. This is usually due to the style of magic they perform. For example, there’s no use hiring a close-up magician to play for a stadium of thousands – it just wouldn’t work. Look at your venue, then think about what type of magician will suit it best.

Similarly, some magicians have stage requirements for their set. It’s always best to talk to the magician, so they tell you how big a stage needs to be. If one already exists, then it could be fine. If you need to bring one in, then factor this into your overall costs.

Equipment Requirements

Following on from that point, some performers have certain equipment requirements. Realistically, a magician should provide their own equipment. This includes the microphone and AV system. But, it’s worth double-checking so you don’t hire someone and then end up in a sticky situation when they ask where all the AV equipment is!

Actually, while we’re on this point, some magicians have issues if your event is far away from them. If they need to catch a flight to perform, then they may have to leave some items at home. Again, liaise with them to ensure you know what you have to provide.

Also a magician that does a pre show consultation and confirmation close to the event date will help you feel at ease and know you are in good hands.

And that’s all there is to it. Now, you know how to hire a magician for your next event. Pick a type of magic performer, then consider all of the things we’ve discussed above. This will help you find the best man or woman for the job!