Magician & mentalist

As I have recently had a birthday (feels good to be 21, again!), I thought I would mention a few birthdays I have performed at:

Let’s start with a 50th birthday bash, organised for her hubby, Gina Cotterill held a fab party in Earley near Reading. Gina emailed the following week saying, ‘Ian, we had a fantastic time, your magic was superb and everyone thoroughly enjoyed your entertainment. Many thanks again and look forward to hiring you again’.

Two 60th birthday parties I performed magic at stand out. First was Anne Browne who held her part at The Bourne Club in Farnham, Surry. She had a super band called The Whirlwinds in which her husband performed. Anne later mentioned in an email to me, ‘Thank you so much – your contribution was great and helped to make my party a great success. We have had some excellant feedback from our guests’.

The second one was in a the beautiful Roussillon French restaurant in Chelsea, London. The charming Kim Sorkin booked me for her mother’s 60th to do close up around the tables and then a final stand up effect for everyone. They were so much fun, a really good night was had by all. The next day Kim quoted, ‘Thank you so much for last night, you are a real star! I thought all your tricks were amazing and I loved being your assistant. Everyone really enjoyed your show’. Thank you Kim, if I ever needed an assistant full time, you would be my first choice!

As I am going to be at a wedding Fayre at Danesfield House in Marlow this Sunday, I thought I would blog a few weddings I have performed at:

Torie Westell booked me to perform at her wedding at the Warbrook House and Grange in Hook.

Warbrook House in Hook

Tori mentioned the guests ‘were highly impressed with the magic’, but I was really impressed with the cakes, made by Brian Taylor from Alexander Taylor Cakes!

Last year at Neil Barlow’s wedding held at the Lane End Conference Centre. They had a DJ, Ian Baxter from Bass-FX Djs and cracking good weather!

Remember the sunny days!

 Sue and Neil kindly sent this email later: ‘Thanks you so much for your magic and mind games at our wedding. The look on people’s faces as you baffled and entertained them was priceless. You provided the link between the wedding breakfast and the evening very well. I think you managed to interact with everyone there. Thank you again.’

The Gherkin

Sara, from Wagerlogic Malta, hired me to perform at their Xmas party at the very top of the remarakable building fondly called, The Gherkin in London.

It must be an absolute pleasure to have an office there because it is surrounded by glass and at the very top, you can see for many miles. Due to the disruption caused by the weather, many people couldn’t make the event , however Sara had organised a great party for those who could make it, including sumptious snacks, myself performing magic and a casino, run by Casino party hire.

Sara wrote in an email the next day saying, ‘It was an absolute pleasure to have you perform for our event. The guests and staff really enjoyed the magic!’.

Its been a while since I blogged but that’s because it’s the busy season for all us entertainers. I Thought I would pop a quick blog here, and a fun one at that. Last week I was hired as a mind reading Obi Wan kenobi! Due to the fact I do mentalism, it worked really well.

 After reading peoples minds, being chased by storm troopers and showing a few tricks to R2DT (see pic below), further entertainment was provided in the form of hula hoop dancer Bee Varga – a treat that went down well.

The force is strong with this one....

Thought I’d share a few Mentalism shows I have performed recently.

Since my amazing adventure performing my show at the Edinburgh Fringe, I have been busy at various venues.

Intuit, the accounting and finance firm in Maidenhead had a special day for their staff so I did a quick half hour performance for them. My show can be any amount of time really although the full show is an hour.

I also performed at the Chequers Hotel in Newbury for the Kennet Valley Probus Club. The Chair Person, Rosemary Lockyer, wrote in a card sent to me, ‘Thank you so much for such fascinating entertainment, absolutely magic!’.

Phyllis Court

 I performed for the Freemasons not so long ago at the stunning Phyllis Court in Henley. It’s right on the river and the Ballroom was quite maginificent for the show. 

One of my favourite venues was the RAF in High Wycombe. They were a fantastic crowd there and Flight Sergeant Steve Marshall who booked me sent me this message the next day, ‘Your show was a massive hit last night – everybody has spent most of the morning discusiing what went on and how good you were – so thank you for performing for us’.

The Swan at Streatley

I mentioned in an earlier post I would blog an 8oth birthday party. Here it finally is. The lovely Melissa Dockett, for whom I performed at her Wedding several years back, booked me to perform at The Swan at Streatley for her mom’s 80th birthday party. You can see by the picture below that it is an idealic place for any celebration.

Pretty as a picture!

 It was a wonderful day for everyone, especially her charming mom, and Melissa kindly sent me this message the following week, ‘Thank you so much for being so fantastic – everyone who I spoke to absolutely loved you – truly spectacular’.

Miss Daisy Deluxe

Here was a fun evening where I was part of a group of performers. It was held at the Two Brewers in Marlow.The charming Ruth Morgan, who also peforms as burlesque dancer Miss Daisy Deluxe (see pic above) booked me to warm up the crowd with some close up magic (see pic  below) followed by a part of my mentalism show. There were several singers and improvisational comedians as well.

Everyone loves magic!

I love performing magic for birthdays. Everyone is in a good mood. I have been invited to do magic at some great birthday celebrations this year. Here are a few. I’ll get to an eighty year young celebration in the next entry!

Starting with a double celebration was a 50th and 21st birthday party of dad Raj and daughter Amy.

Gardeners paradise

The event was at a private residence in Bicester and held in the gardens. They were absolutely stunning. Amongst the rose bushes and water features were the four piece classical group Divertimento.

Birthday bash in style

The dinner was held in a stunningly designed marquee and here I performed for the guests. After an intriguing piece of mentalism Raj replied, ‘Einstein would have been impressed with that!’ Music was supplied by Freeze Frame who do Rock and Pop.

The whole event was orgainsed expertly by Antoanella from  Ambassador Catering. She contacted me later in the week and said, ‘ Raj and Amy were delighted with your performance and I personally would like to thank you for your professionalism. It is great when everything works as planned, but it becomes ‘magical’ when someone goes the the extra mile like you did, and for that I do thank you.’

Your welcome Antoanella and it was a real pleasure working with you.

Then a friend of mine Yvonne Rogers asked me to entertain at her son Tim’s 40th at  Hicknaham Farm in Burnham.

Hicknaham Farm near Beaconsfield

It’s a very picturesque working farm and a perfect place to have a private party with catering provided. Yvonne said later, ‘everyone I spoke to said how much they enjoyed having you there’. Thanks Yvonne, I thoroughly enjoyed being there and entertaining your family and friends.

The last Blog mentioned events other than weddings at which I do magic for. However, as it is weddings season, here are a few that I have performed at locally.

The first one is the Lane End Conference Centre where I have performed on numerous occasions. It was the wedding of Marcia and Daniel.

Dan and Marcia

Bisham Abbey

This lovely venue is right next to the famous sports venue of the same name

Bisham Abbey. Kerri parkins and her partner Lee chose another beautiful day and had the accompaniment of Affinity harp and flute duo whilst I mixed and mingled amongst the guests. Kerri sent me a card later saying, ‘loads of guests commented on how cool the magic performance was and it made our reception very unique’.

Affinity harp and flute duo

Close to home, and another venue I am familier with is Court Garden House in Marlow. This was the wedding of Katherine Finkle and fiance’ Richard.

The dreaded speech moment

There was photography by Sean O’Dell and Katherine kindly sent me this quote after the wedding:

‘Thank you so much. Everyone has commented on how much they enjoyed the magic and I just heard people bursting into applause at constant intervals.’

Le Manoir Aux Quat

I had know idea when Adam Kemp and his charming Fiance’ Noemi invited me to perform for his guests at 

Manoir Aux Quat ‘Saisons in Great Milton that it belongs to the famous french Chef, 

Raymond Blanc. What a magnificent venue. Half ot the guests were from Spain so the magic had to be visual so lots of fire was used!

Fellow South African, photographer Adrian Stone from The Dream Catchers was there capturing the specail moments. Adam emailed later saying , ‘Many thanks, you did a great job. Everyone really enjoyed it – I was delighted to get my ring back’.

Magicians don’t just do weddings, we provide entertainment for a range of events. A birthday party is always a popular time to have a magician on board. Karran Robb hired me to perform for her hubby Jason’s 40th birthday party in the stunning location of  Benson Waterfront Cafe’ and Bistro in Wallingford, Oxon. I love the water, and maybe it is because I was bought up close to the sea in Durban South Africa.

Guests baffled in Benson

Karran quoted after the party: ‘Thanks you so much for helping in the success of Jason’s party. I have been overwhelmed with text messages from friends thanking me for  lovely evening and many of them have added that the magician was a great touch’.

One  of Karran’s guest, Vicki Quartermain also kindly sent a message: ‘We saw you at Jason’s 50th birthday party last night and just wanted to say we thought you were amazing’.

Kathleen Fraser-Harding hired me for her hubby Tim’s 50th birthday in Caversham, Reading. It was held in a marquee at the home and they had a splendid hogroast by Roasters Catering…mmmm, I love Hogroasts!

Kathleen sent this message the following week: ‘Thanks for doing such a sterling job on Saturday. All who mentioned you thought you were great. Tim’s Mum especially. We will definaitely recommend you if any of our family/friends are ever looking for a magician.’

Sweet Sixteen

Finally, the bubbly and charming Erica  Beetcham asked my to secretly arrive at her daughters Jess’s 16th birthday party (centre of photo above) in Chalfont St. Peter, and pretend to be a ballon modeller. Jess was terrified her mother would hire a Balloon modelist – not so cool at a 16th birthday party!.

Well the acting seemed to work (the things we’re asked to do hey!!) and then I transformed my act into mind reading which was well received. I must say I was a tad anxious before I began, because as I was getting prepared upstairs, I could hear, ‘down..down..down’,  below in the kitchen and many bottles klinking. I shouldn’t have worried, it was a fabulous party and all the teenagers were great fun. They made me feel really youthful, and that is Real magic!