There are two types of corporate Christmas parties…
The first is the one everyone enjoys. Good food, a few drinks, some questionable dancing, and everyone heads home happy.
The second is the one people are still talking about in January.
That’s the kind of Christmas party I like to be part of.
As a professional magician based in Scotland, I spend a lot of my year performing at corporate events, private parties, weddings and celebrations. And when November and December roll around, I get to see first-hand just how much difference the right entertainment can make to a Christmas party.
So, if you're currently organising your company's Christmas event in Edinburgh or Glasgow, here's why booking a professional magician could be one of the best decisions you make.
Why book a magician for your Christmas party?
Christmas parties can be surprisingly difficult to entertain.
You've got colleagues who know each other incredibly well, people from different departments who might barely speak during the year, senior management, new starters, partners and sometimes clients or customers too.
You need entertainment that works for everyone.
That's where close-up magic comes into its own.
Rather than putting everyone in a dark room and asking them to watch a performance from a distance, I can move around the room, performing directly for small groups.
People experience the magic together.
They laugh together.
They try to work out how on earth it happened.
And, usually, someone immediately grabs another colleague and says:
“You've got to see this.”
That's exactly what you want at a Christmas party.
Christmas party entertainment that gets people talking
One of the things I love most about performing at corporate events is that magic creates an incredibly natural ice-breaker.
There's no awkward:
“Right everyone, let's network!”
Instead, I'm giving people something to talk about.
A card appears somewhere impossible.
Someone's thought is somehow revealed.
A borrowed object vanishes.
People who have never met before suddenly have something in common.
And because the entertainment happens among the guests rather than from a stage, it can work brilliantly during drinks receptions, dinner, networking and the gaps between different parts of your evening.
It's entertainment, but it also helps create the atmosphere.
Close-up magician or stage magician?
This is one of the questions I get asked most often.
The answer is: it depends on your event and the space.
For corporate Christmas parties, dinners and drinks receptions, close-up magic is often perfect.
I'll mingle around the room and perform short, highly visual pieces for groups of guests. It works particularly well when people are arriving, having drinks or moving between courses.
However, a stage show can also be a brilliant way to bring everyone together.
After dinner, when you've had the speeches, awards or presentations, putting the focus back onto the entertainment can completely change the energy in the room.
And, of course, there's always the option of doing both.
Close-up magic during the drinks reception + a stage show later in the evening can make for a pretty spectacular Christmas party.
Christmas party entertainment in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a brilliant city for corporate Christmas events.
There are some seriously impressive venues, from historic buildings and private dining rooms to large event spaces and hotels.
I've performed at events throughout Edinburgh, and the city has no shortage of places where magic works brilliantly.
Whether your Christmas party is for 20 people or several hundred, the important thing isn't really the venue.
It's the people.
My job is to walk into the room, read the atmosphere and make sure the magic fits the event.
And that means keeping things fun, professional and appropriate for a corporate audience.
No awkward audience participation.
No cheesy Christmas costumes.
No children's party tricks.
Just proper magic, comedy and mind-reading designed to entertain adults.
Christmas party entertainment in Glasgow
I also regularly perform at corporate events and Christmas parties in Glasgow - having lived there for 8 years (until 2018!).
Glasgow has its own energy, and I love performing there.
Whether it's an intimate company dinner, a big end-of-year celebration or a Christmas party with hundreds of guests, close-up magic is a great way to get people interacting and having fun.
And if your event is somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow, that's absolutely fine too.
I regularly travel throughout central Scotland and beyond for corporate events.
When should you book your Christmas entertainment?
If you're reading this in September, October or November and thinking:
“Oh… we haven't actually sorted the entertainment yet.”
Don't panic.
But also… maybe don't leave it too much longer.
The busiest dates tend to be the obvious ones - particularly Friday and Saturday evenings in December - and I can only be in one place at a time.
That said, I always have a mixture of dates available, and I'm often able to accommodate November events, midweek Christmas parties and earlier December celebrations.
So if you've already got your date and venue sorted, it's worth asking.
You might get lucky.
Looking for a Christmas magician in Edinburgh or Glasgow?
If you're organising your company's Christmas party this year and you're considering entertainment, I'd love to hear what you've got planned.
I perform at corporate Christmas parties, awards dinners, company celebrations, private events and Christmas functions across Edinburgh, Glasgow and throughout Scotland.
You don't need to have everything figured out yet.
Send me your date, venue, approximate number of guests and what you've got planned, and we can have a chat about what might work.
No hard sell.
No complicated process.
Just a conversation about your event and whether I can help make it a little more memorable.
And if the date is available, we'll take it from there. And if it’s not, I have a network of incredible colleagues I can recommend to you instead!
Ready to make this year's Christmas party one people actually remember?
Get in touch to check my availability for November and December.
I have a limited number of corporate Christmas dates available, and I'm already taking bookings for the festive season.
I'd love to be part of your Christmas party.
Cameron 🎩