22 Nov a night at the Grand Hotel
A Night at the Grand Hotel Birmingham
Inside Stiltz's annual event - 300-plus guests, four close-up magicians, the Close-Up Corner, and a silent disco that closed the room.
Stiltz have booked us three times now. The first was their annual event at the Grand Hotel Birmingham - a recently refurbished ballroom, a four-magician team, and 300-plus guests in a room set up to look the part. They've had us back twice since.
This is the gig that started that run. The CEO opened the night with a welcome speech and a line he was particularly keen on: this isn't a Christmas party.
What follows is what that night actually looked like, behind the scenes - from the setup before the doors opened to the closing minutes when the room turned silent. 28 years in, and corporate gigs like this one are still my favourite kind of work.
Bringing in the team
Solo magic doesn't scale. This one didn't need to.
Stiltz didn't go small. The entertainment lineup ran live band, casino and roulette tables, a silent disco, and the Close-Up Corner held back as the late-night reveal. At that scale, even the magic side of that lineup needed more than one set of hands.
I called in Sean, Russ, Christian, and Gavin - four professional roaming magicians I trust on corporate magic in Birmingham of this size. While the band ran sound checks, we made a plan: which tables, which order, how to give every group of guests something to remember from the meal.
The room itself was a statement. Grand in scale, the company name in lights at the top, the organisers' setup absolutely on-point. The kind of corporate room that's been thought through.
Watch the night unfold
Photos catch a moment. Video catches what was happening to the room. Here's a clip from the Stiltz night - the team in motion, the Close-Up Corner running, and the kind of guest reactions that book repeat work.
Want more like this? Hundreds of clips live on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
When the Corner came out
Not everyone loves the dance floor. Stiltz knew it.
While the team worked the meal, I set up the Close-Up Corner in the bar area. By the time the dessert plates were cleared and guests started filtering through for another drink, it had already pulled its first crowd. Plenty of 'oooohs', a few 'arrrrrs', laughter that carried.
Having close-up magic away from the dance floor was a smart move from Stiltz. Not everyone wants to dance. Plenty of guests would rather sit with a drink and watch something baffling close-up. That's what the Corner does. Groups of four to fifteen at a time, rotating through, all night.
By midnight there were no carriages to be found. Instead, a sea of silent dancers wearing headphones and smiling faces filled the floor. It kept going.
"Three more bookings followed this night. At a gig this size, the Corner is what gets remembered the next morning."
Plan a night that gets booked again.
Corporate close-up magic, the way Stiltz booked it - a four-magician team, the Close-Up Corner, and a setup tuned to the room. Drop an enquiry for availability and a pricing PDF, reply back within hours.
