Hiring a Magician for your Wedding

Some people think that the hard part is knowing what to hire for your wedding in the south west! Many go for music – it’s a party staple after all and hiring a band always goes down well – but if it’s a magician you’re going for, it’s important to know there are two distinct types for you to choose from.

That intro paragraph isn’t entirely true. There are many more than just two distinct types of magician to choose from across Devon and Cornwall, but for the purposes of this blog, we’ll focus on whether you should book a stage or strolling magician for your big day. The two offer completely different things and although magic is brilliant when performed close-up, it can be just as entertaining when viewed live on stage. Just ask anybody who has been to Las Vegas in the past year or so – they love them over there!

Hiring a stage magician for your wedding will probably set you back more than if you hired a strolling magician. The production needed to put on a stage show varies but a performance certainly requires more than a magician walking around your event venue, performing magic tricks for the guests. A stage show is perfect for events where a sit down dinner has been organised – like at your wedding - and will last no longer than half an hour (unless specified by the client). The magic tricks will be larger and often performed by a magician you recognise such as Jamie Raven, who came 2nd on Britain’s Got Talent last year. It should be added here as a caveat that a children’s magician will generally perform a stage show with little need for production, before often teaching the attendees a trick or two! Perfect if you want the little ones to be kept occupied during the wedding speeches.

A strolling magician is completely different to a stage magician in that he or she will walk the room and perform magic for small groups of people if they so desire. These tend to be card tricks but again, it depends on the wedding magician you book. Most are adept with a pack of cards, but some are much more at home performing coin magic or feats with miscellaneous items (indeed, as we covered in a previous blog, no matter what type of magician you choose, they’ll only ever be able to perform a variation of 7 types of magic trick). Strolling magicians are much more common to find at weddings; believe it or not some people are not interested in magic and this ensures that everybody who wants to see a trick will get the chance to see one whilst others can steer clear. A strolling magician will usually perform for 3 x 45 minutes (a 15 minute break per hour) and will ordinarily be cheaper than a stage performance (those you’ve seen on TV may be a tad more expensive).

In our honest opinion, most weddings will flourish with a strolling magician because many enjoy talking and don’t like the idea of ‘forced fun’. That being said, if magic is your thing and you want to see something that’ll make your guests jaws drop, which doesn’t involve a pack of cards then the stage magic show is a must! All in all, you won’t go wrong hiring a magician for your south west wedding as they get superb reactions every time.

To see just a few of the magicians on our books, please click here. For more information on hiring any of these acts or if you’re looking for a magician you can’t see on our pages, please get in touch with the TG Weddings office using the links below and we’ll make sure we hire a wedding magician that is perfect for you.