25 Aug Magician at Harborne Golf Club
Magician at Harborne Golf Club
Booked for the drinks reception. What I didn't plan for was one of the brides' aunts going from "no thanks, not for me" to dragging half the room over within about five minutes.
The drinks reception is the slot I get booked for more than any other, and Harborne Golf Club was no exception. Kim and Christina had me in for the gap between the ceremony and everyone sitting down to eat - which is exactly where close-up magic earns its keep.
It's the part of the day nobody really plans for. The couple vanish with the photographer, and everyone else is left holding a drink, making polite conversation with relatives they last saw at a funeral. Somebody checks their watch. That's the hole I'm there to fill.
What I wasn't expecting at this one was the aunt. More on her shortly. Jordan Fox Photography shot the day and sent these over afterwards, so for once there are proper photographs to go with the story instead of my own grainy clips.
The aunt who didn't want a magician
Ruth did not want a magician anywhere near her.
When I first walked over she made that perfectly clear. No thanks, not for me. Fair enough - it happens a few times at every wedding and I've never seen the point in pushing it.
A few minutes later she was in. Properly in. And not long after that she was off across the room collecting other guests and marching them back over for another look.
That's the part people don't expect. The sceptics are almost always the best ones to win over, and once they turn they end up doing half the job for you.
Working the room at Harborne Golf Club
Nobody at a drinks reception is expecting a magician.
That's the advantage. No stage, no microphone, no announcement. I turn up at the edge of a group of four who are halfway through a conversation about parking, and thirty seconds later nobody is thinking about parking.
Kim and Christina had booked me for exactly that window. Ceremony done, photos happening somewhere else, and everyone else at a loose end with a drink in hand. It's the loosest, most sociable hour of the entire day and comfortably the easiest one to improve.
I do a lot of close-up magic across Birmingham and that hour behaves the same way at nearly every venue. Guests arrive in clusters, drift apart, re-form somewhere else. The job is to follow that rhythm rather than fight it.
Ruth happened somewhere in the middle of it.
Photos don't quite do this bit justice
A photograph catches the moment after. Video catches the moment itself - the half-second where somebody's face does something they have absolutely no control over. That's the actual job.
Kim and Christina booked my Cosmopolitan package, which includes a reaction cam video: a short, snappy montage of guests' reactions while I'm performing. This one is theirs.
Never chase the one who says no
Pushing is the fastest way to lose a room.
There's a Ruth at most weddings. Someone who has decided well in advance that magic is either for children or for people who enjoy being made the centre of attention in front of their entire family.
The instinct is to try harder. Win them round. It doesn't work, and it's worse than useless, because everyone else in the group has to stand there and watch you do it.
So I don't. I turn slightly, do something good for the people either side of them, and let them watch from the outside with no obligation whatsoever to join in. Most of the time curiosity handles the rest without any help from me.
"Nobody who says no is really saying no. They're saying don't make me the centre of attention. Do something brilliant for the person stood next to them and let them watch. They'll come to you."
The hour everyone forgets to plan
Couples plan the ceremony to the minute. The food, the speeches, the first dance, the playlist. Then there's a stretch in the middle where the running order just says "drinks".
That gap is where a wedding either builds momentum or quietly loses it. Guests stay in the groups they arrived in. A queue forms at the bar. Someone's dad starts on about the traffic coming over.
I've written properly about what magic actually does to a wedding day elsewhere. The short version: this is the easiest hour of the day to fix, and the one your guests are most likely to still be talking about.
An hour of nothing is still an hour your guests remember.
What Kim and Christina said
We had Chris at our wedding in Birmingham and he was fantastic. His tricks were amazing and he really left us speechless.
That's the only marketing that actually counts. I can tell you I'm good at this until I'm blue in the face - it means considerably more coming from the two people who paid for it and had to live with the result.
All the photographs on this page were taken by Jordan Fox Photography, who shot the whole day at Harborne.
Ruth is the reason I still love the drinks reception. Somebody decides straight away that this isn't for them, and before long they're the one dragging an audience over. That isn't a trick. That's just what happens when people are handed something worth watching.
Got a gap in your day?
That hour between the ceremony and the sit-down is the bit I fill. Send me your date and your venue and I'll come back with availability and a pricing PDF.
