Simon Alexander Blog: Professional Magician

Recently I was working my magic in Middlesex at a wonderfully lavish party organised by my old chums at Peri Peri Event Management.  The event was a phenomenal success, not least because of the fabulous venue that Peri Peri created in the client’s own back garden.

The evening was Chinese-themed and the attention to detail was simply wonderful;  the photo below shows a section of the stunning marquee.   However, a lovely touch that can’t be appreciated is that the cocktails pictured below were rotating in continuous laps around the bar on a mini conveyor belt - very eye catching.

I’ve worked with Peri Peri on numerous occasions and can’t recommend them enough for organising the most stylish parties imaginable.

Last week saw me working at The Association of Colleges annual conference at the Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel in Leicester, working alongside my old buddies from UMAL.  This was the fourth trade show that I’d done for UMAL and probably the most successful yet.  My colleagues, Mark Sangster and Richard Gilham (flanking me top right) took a wealth of great leads throughout the two days.

UMAL provide specialist Indemnity and Risk Management services to the education sector.  Let’s face it, Indemnity and Risk Management aren’t great crowd-pullers, so a little magic is a great way to bring punters to the stand.  Here are a few shots of the day.

A little UMAL humour!	…and the Oscar for “least convincing surprised face” goes to …
Some fun with the punters.	Drawing a crowd.

Here’s a nice thing:  The wedding proposal video that I shot with FX Films for Matt and Jess a few weeks ago got picked up by That’s Life! magazine.  The magazine wrote a lovely article on the couple and the proposal. 

I’ve pasted a copy below:

If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can scroll down to the blog entry entitled, “Magic with a real kicker ending!”

A couple of weeks ago I had great fun working at the wedding of Bernie and Jane Raffe.  The reception was held at the sumptuous Inn at Woburn and Everyone was up for some fun.  (Incidentally, Bernie bought me possibly the nicest glass of red wine that I’ve ever had - I only wish that I could remember what it was!)

Bernie is a professional photographer and he sent me a couple of shots of the day.  The thing that always impresses me about these boys that know what they’re doing is the beautiful colours.

Groom … Bride … Magician.	It really is quicker than the eye!

You can see some more of Bernie’s work at www.raffephotography.co.uk.

Bernie and Jane later wrote to me saying:

“Thank you for the great job you did  on our wedding day in Woburn.  Everybody loved your magic and thought you were great fun.  It made so much difference to the day.”

Thanks you two; it was a real pleasure to be a part of your day.

Last Monday I got together with my ol’ buddy Richard Wakefield from FX Films to film something a little bit special.  The end product speaks for itself but suffice to say, Rich and I had great fun shooting this one.

To enhance your viewing pleasure, (as they say) when the film is playing, click the HD button at the bottom right of the screen.  You’re likely to get a short delay but you should then be able to watch the clip in glorious High Definition.  You don’t need any special equipment, just a normal screen.  Have fun!

Last Tuesday I had the privilege of working my wedding magic at Robert and Gillie Fraser’s celebrations.  The service was held in the Norman Chapel at the beautiful Bailiffscourt Hotel in Climping, and the reception was held in the hotel itself.

It’s always a privilege to be asked to be a part of a couple’s special day but this was a particular treat as the couple had known each other for over thirty years.  Now I won’t be ungallant enough to mention a bride’s age but Gillie’s grandson, Max, did one of the readings at the service … and he’s fifteen.

Robert and Gillie wanted something a little different following the wedding breakfast.  So I worked between the tables performing magic with watches, cards, finger rings, mints, wine bottles and cards. Everyone was up for some fun and, with the ages of the guests ranging from twelve to over ninety, it was great to see the different generations being swept along in the flow of the magic.

Just as an aside, I was given The Card Room  to prepare in prior to the performance.  The picture to the left shows the beautiful ceiling, which was decorated as a celestial scene made up from card suits - very appropriate. It was a pleasure to be involved in the day and I send my best wishes to Robert and Gillie for many happy years together.

Each year the RAC recognises and rewards its top-performing staff at the organisation’s most prestigious event, The Ambassador Awards.  This year’s awards were a glittering affair with over 250 attendees from every corner of the UK.  The venue was held, rather appropriately, at The Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire. 

The entertainment for the evening reception was provided by my old mate, the incredible Buckinghamshire Magician, Ian Souch and yours truly.  It’s always good fun working alongside your “magic mates” but this was a particularly cool gig as Ian and I had the entire run of the museum for the hour or so before the event.  Here’s a couple of shots of us before the show.

	Left: Ian alongside the 350 mph JCB Dieselmax.  Below: Me with some impressive MG land speed record breakers.  (A psychologist might say we were compensating for something!)
Right: “I am the law!” Me, looking somewhat less than threatening with a futuristic car from the movie, Judge Dredd.  (As if being a full-time magician isn’t enough of an excuse not to grow up!)

Regarding the magic, organiser Anya Broughton from The Production Bureau said, “The feedback from the delegates was really great.”  And certainly, from Ian’s and my perspective, everyone was up for a really good evening.

The only complaint that I have is that there wasn’t a single pyramid of Ferrero Rocher to be found.  What sort of Ambassadors are these, anyway?

“That magician is worth his weight in gold.  I wasn’t going to stop at your stand but I’m so glad I did; my customers will just love your stuff.

Katie - The Tuck Box

So how did gourmet food wholesaler, Cotswold Fayre manage to compete with the likes of free vodka, bacon flavoured chocolate and chewing gum that makes your whole body smell like roses?   Enter your friendly neighbourhood Trade Show Magician.

My role was simply to stop people in their tracks and attract them to the stand with some branded magic.  I chose some highly visual card magic themed around “quality products”, and a fun repeating coin-production entitled, “money from nothing,” highlighting benefits the of the Cotswold Fayre customer loyalty program.

The shots below show some visitors enjoying the show.

As I learnt more about the business I was also able to “field” prospects to ensure that the sales-people were spending their time with the most profitable prospects.

So was it a success?  We finished the fare with an abundance of new business leads, a large percentage of which, Managing Director, Paul Hargreaves feels sure will convert into new customers.

Overall it was an exhausting but fun few days for everyone and I’m looking forward to being a part of Cotswold Fayre’s future marketing strategy.

You’d think that being a professional magician would offer fantastic opportunities to shoot really interesting and intriguing studio photographs, wouldn’t you?  The trouble is that it’s actually quite difficult to capture the “essence of magic” without using quite obvious imagery; and if you decide to forego the card fans, doves, rabbits and top hats, you’re often left with just a picture of a bloke!  It can be a real problem if you need interesting shots for promotional material that don’t appear cliché.

My good buddy Simon Kemp is a pretty talented magician who also just happens to be a multi-award winning international photographer.   (Oh well, at least I’m younger than he is.)

Because of his contacts with “the magic fraternity” Simon has shot promotional material for all manner of professional magicians.  On Wednesday afternoon I popped over to his Reading studio and we had some fun shooting a few additional shots for his new specialist web site Photography for Magicians. 

I’ve posted three nice pictures below.  He’s a clever lad, isn’t he?

Okay, so we did take some card pictures.

Afterwards we went to The Magpie and Parrot in Shinfield.  Simon was particularly “thirsty” and subsequently “got done” by his wife for skiving off on a work day!  He, he.